Presto
Issue: 1920 1778 - Page 4
PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 189fi. a t the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
BETTER ALL THE TIME
Doesn't it seem almost impossible that there was a time when the
dignified men of the piano industry deemed it necessary to publish a
book telling of the lack of ethics in the trade, and urging their fellow
manufacturers to employ better methods in their business? If we
take out that book today and read the serious, almost alarming ar-
raignment of the industry, as well as of the retail trade, we seem to
be linking the musical instrument business with the things of the
dark ages.
The chapter on stencils and stenciling reads very much as if the
piano industry was, at that remote time, in control of a lot of trick-
sters and scamps without conscience. The custom of appropriating
other men's good names seemed common, and the habit of selling
cheap instruments under names suggestive of artistic pianos seemed
the regular thing. And a glance at the chapter concerning the retail
trade suggests that in those days it was regarded as a sign of intense
energy and shrewdness to drag a competitor's employee away from
his work and into the service of his rival. No consideration was, ap-
parently, given to the rights of contemporaries, and every man was
seemingly plugging along with no regard for the well being of his
neighbor. Even patrolling the sidewalks in front of competitors'
stores, in watch for chance customers, was not regarded as con-
temptible. The methods of what was once termed the Baxter street
cheap clothes business were applied to the sale of pianos, and the only
thought seems to have been to capture the sale, much as the bolshe-
viki overrun their victims in Russia.
Those were gay old times in the piano business. The book put
forth by the piano association at that time deals in such minutiae as
today would not be possible. And nothing could more graphically
picture the change that has come over the industry and trade. Some
of the piano men who compiled the literature of the associations in
the day to which we have been looking back, are still engaged in the
industry, as energetically as ever. To their minds the betterment
must be as clear as it is satisfactory. They must recognize that the
August 21, 1920.
seed they planted, more than a quarter century ago, has sprouted and
taken root. And they realize that the industry and trade are getting
better and better every year. It is no longer a matter of trickery to
sell pianos. It is no longer a business in which jealousy, suspicion and
bad feeling exist. It is as nearly a business of brotherhood and good
will today as any other line of manufacture and merchandising.
And what has brought about the difference? Without doubt the
progress of the music trade associations has been keeping the develop-
ment of the industry and trade within the limits of the kind of better-
ment which the very name of music suggests, but which music, as a
business, for many years did not present. And the manufacturer and
retailer in the business who may still persist in any of the old time
semi-disreputable methods is not, as upon investigation you will find,
a member of any of the trade associations.
EVERY WEEK
Everything and anything that stimulates interest in the things
we are interested in is a good thing. The Player Week, to which a
good many piano manufacturers are contributing liberally, is one of
the good things, of course. It will become contagious in the retail
trade, and the enthusiasm of the men who make player-pianos will
stimulate the men who sell them at retail. And so a good deal of
special business will be done. It is along the line that Mr. Tremaine's
music bureau works, through artistic inspiration, to cause the more
material things in music to bound ahead.
Every week is, of course, player week. Individual industries have
set aside special weeks for the special promotion of their instruments,
by the dealers who represent them throughout the country. And the
result has been good. One of the big concerns which has tried the
plan thoroughly, is. the Gulbransen-Dickinson Company of Chicago.
Perhaps that ambitious industry called it the Gulbransen Week. Of
that we don't just now recall. But it seems to us a good idea for the
player-piano manufacturers to apply their special player week ener-
gies to their own individual names. That is, after the present general
player week push of the association has set the pace and started the
idea in a general way.
A player week devoted to any individual instrument might easily
be made a powerful advertising influence. Every dealer and his sales-
men who push the player would put special effort into the work. The
industry would supply the printed ammunition. The descriptive cir-
culars, catalogues, flyers and other material would be liberally dis-
tributed. And the individual industry would employ all of its trade
paper space, and a lot of extra space, also, for purposes of its
player week. It would certainly be an enterprise productive of large
results.
The only possible detriment to the success of the individual in-
dustry player week, would be the conflict in the dates which sev-
eral manufacturers might select for their special enterprise. But that
could easily be obviated, for it is no longer customary, in the piano
industry, for one concern to deliberately try to block the way of
another. By an understanding, the weeks of the different industries
might be so arranged as to have no conflict. .Even were two, or even
three industries, to select the same week, the results would not be
hurtful; in fact, in a sense the same results would be obtained as the
player week now planned for October next. The suggestion is well
worth consideration, and perhaps after the week in October the indi-
vidual manufacturers will be enabled to judge pretty accurately as to
what is the better way to work it, and what the probable results
may be.
Every week is player week. But so is every week "go-to-meet-
in' " week, and picnic week, and golf week, and all-other-things week.
Nevertheless, we like to fix upon some special week for our parties,
our tournaments, and our social celebrations. So with business in
general, and with player-piano weeks in particular. Anything that
stimulates business is worth while. And player week may easily be
made a particularly worth while event, just as the week in October
will be.
GENERIC
NAMES
It seems strange that the public—the intelligent public that buys
pianos—can't learn that certain widely advertised names in the music
trade are not generic in their application. There are several names
of individual industries, and their instruments, which have so grown
in upon the misunderstanding of the world as to pass as the generic
names of everything associated with the species to which those spe-
cial products belong. Of such names perhaps the most conspicuous,
in the sense to which we refer, are "'Pianola" and "Victrola."
When The Aeolian Company adopted the trade name "Pianola,"
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 189fi. a t the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
BETTER ALL THE TIME
Doesn't it seem almost impossible that there was a time when the
dignified men of the piano industry deemed it necessary to publish a
book telling of the lack of ethics in the trade, and urging their fellow
manufacturers to employ better methods in their business? If we
take out that book today and read the serious, almost alarming ar-
raignment of the industry, as well as of the retail trade, we seem to
be linking the musical instrument business with the things of the
dark ages.
The chapter on stencils and stenciling reads very much as if the
piano industry was, at that remote time, in control of a lot of trick-
sters and scamps without conscience. The custom of appropriating
other men's good names seemed common, and the habit of selling
cheap instruments under names suggestive of artistic pianos seemed
the regular thing. And a glance at the chapter concerning the retail
trade suggests that in those days it was regarded as a sign of intense
energy and shrewdness to drag a competitor's employee away from
his work and into the service of his rival. No consideration was, ap-
parently, given to the rights of contemporaries, and every man was
seemingly plugging along with no regard for the well being of his
neighbor. Even patrolling the sidewalks in front of competitors'
stores, in watch for chance customers, was not regarded as con-
temptible. The methods of what was once termed the Baxter street
cheap clothes business were applied to the sale of pianos, and the only
thought seems to have been to capture the sale, much as the bolshe-
viki overrun their victims in Russia.
Those were gay old times in the piano business. The book put
forth by the piano association at that time deals in such minutiae as
today would not be possible. And nothing could more graphically
picture the change that has come over the industry and trade. Some
of the piano men who compiled the literature of the associations in
the day to which we have been looking back, are still engaged in the
industry, as energetically as ever. To their minds the betterment
must be as clear as it is satisfactory. They must recognize that the
August 21, 1920.
seed they planted, more than a quarter century ago, has sprouted and
taken root. And they realize that the industry and trade are getting
better and better every year. It is no longer a matter of trickery to
sell pianos. It is no longer a business in which jealousy, suspicion and
bad feeling exist. It is as nearly a business of brotherhood and good
will today as any other line of manufacture and merchandising.
And what has brought about the difference? Without doubt the
progress of the music trade associations has been keeping the develop-
ment of the industry and trade within the limits of the kind of better-
ment which the very name of music suggests, but which music, as a
business, for many years did not present. And the manufacturer and
retailer in the business who may still persist in any of the old time
semi-disreputable methods is not, as upon investigation you will find,
a member of any of the trade associations.
EVERY WEEK
Everything and anything that stimulates interest in the things
we are interested in is a good thing. The Player Week, to which a
good many piano manufacturers are contributing liberally, is one of
the good things, of course. It will become contagious in the retail
trade, and the enthusiasm of the men who make player-pianos will
stimulate the men who sell them at retail. And so a good deal of
special business will be done. It is along the line that Mr. Tremaine's
music bureau works, through artistic inspiration, to cause the more
material things in music to bound ahead.
Every week is, of course, player week. Individual industries have
set aside special weeks for the special promotion of their instruments,
by the dealers who represent them throughout the country. And the
result has been good. One of the big concerns which has tried the
plan thoroughly, is. the Gulbransen-Dickinson Company of Chicago.
Perhaps that ambitious industry called it the Gulbransen Week. Of
that we don't just now recall. But it seems to us a good idea for the
player-piano manufacturers to apply their special player week ener-
gies to their own individual names. That is, after the present general
player week push of the association has set the pace and started the
idea in a general way.
A player week devoted to any individual instrument might easily
be made a powerful advertising influence. Every dealer and his sales-
men who push the player would put special effort into the work. The
industry would supply the printed ammunition. The descriptive cir-
culars, catalogues, flyers and other material would be liberally dis-
tributed. And the individual industry would employ all of its trade
paper space, and a lot of extra space, also, for purposes of its
player week. It would certainly be an enterprise productive of large
results.
The only possible detriment to the success of the individual in-
dustry player week, would be the conflict in the dates which sev-
eral manufacturers might select for their special enterprise. But that
could easily be obviated, for it is no longer customary, in the piano
industry, for one concern to deliberately try to block the way of
another. By an understanding, the weeks of the different industries
might be so arranged as to have no conflict. .Even were two, or even
three industries, to select the same week, the results would not be
hurtful; in fact, in a sense the same results would be obtained as the
player week now planned for October next. The suggestion is well
worth consideration, and perhaps after the week in October the indi-
vidual manufacturers will be enabled to judge pretty accurately as to
what is the better way to work it, and what the probable results
may be.
Every week is player week. But so is every week "go-to-meet-
in' " week, and picnic week, and golf week, and all-other-things week.
Nevertheless, we like to fix upon some special week for our parties,
our tournaments, and our social celebrations. So with business in
general, and with player-piano weeks in particular. Anything that
stimulates business is worth while. And player week may easily be
made a particularly worth while event, just as the week in October
will be.
GENERIC
NAMES
It seems strange that the public—the intelligent public that buys
pianos—can't learn that certain widely advertised names in the music
trade are not generic in their application. There are several names
of individual industries, and their instruments, which have so grown
in upon the misunderstanding of the world as to pass as the generic
names of everything associated with the species to which those spe-
cial products belong. Of such names perhaps the most conspicuous,
in the sense to which we refer, are "'Pianola" and "Victrola."
When The Aeolian Company adopted the trade name "Pianola,"
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).