Presto

THE PRESTO BUYERS'
GUIDE CLASSIFIES ALL
PIANOS AND PLAYERS
j
AND THEIR MAKERS
PRESTO
E.taULhed 1884 THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
PASSING GLANCES
IN MANHATTAN
Observations, Not in Line of News so Much
as Personal and Peculiar, Jotted Down in
New York's Music Center by Interested
Observer This Week.
New York piano men do not display the same de-
gree of optimism that marks the makers and sellers
of things musical a little further west. Perhaps they
know why. This writer does not. The New York
piano factories seem to be busy and "the goods" are
moving in the retail stores. Still the men who do
the piano business in the greatest city in all the
world do not express themselves with the whole-
some assurance which belongs to the kind of prog-
ress they are helping to make.
There are exceptions, of course. And there are
the fine old concerns that move right along, giving
no sign that there are doubts or misgivings, ebb or
flow, in the tide of trade. Those are the houses so
thoroughly grounded, so distinguished, and so strong
in the preferences of a large class of piano buyers,
that their business is so good, even when it is com-
paratively slow, that there is never a really
dull time. At Steinway Hall you see this illustrated
to perfection. There may come times when the sup-
ply is inadequate to the demand, but never a time
when there is a lack of demand. And the Steinway
is a type of several others in New York. Generally
things are going well this "presidential year."
* * *
Most of New York's old-time famous thorough-
fares are changing so fast that often splendor has
given place to shabbiness, and the restless tendency
of trade has crowded out the fine shops of years past,
to make place for the more unpleasant, even if use-
ful, activities.
Many of us can remember when some parts of
Sixth and Seventh avenues boasted of a good deal
of class. There were music stores there and big
piano departments added to the attractiveness of de-
partment houses. Today the hide and animal skin
merchants have taken posession, and the famous
thoroughfares within the limits of New York's old
Piano Row have taken on a peculiarly unpleasant as-
pect. And the old-time music stores have either
moved to northern limits or gone out of business.
* * *
At the corner of Seventh avenue and Twenty-sixth
street there is a sign that may seem to sustain the
occult theories of Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver
Lodge. The sign reads: "'Liebling & Mendelssohn."
Perhaps Marc A. Blumenberg's successor in the edi-
torial chair of the Musical Courier has taken on a
"side line," and his partner may be a "stencil." But
the Seventh avenue business is that of buying and
selling hides, and music editors long ago got out of
the skin game, so that it is interesting only as a co-
incidence. "Liebling & Mendelssohn"—what a com-
bination to try on the playerpiano!
* * *
The "Callophone" is a phonograph, with headquar-
ters at Broadway and Fifty-first street. A big sign
declares that it"Talks and Hears, Has Tongue and
Ears." Which callophonic statement suggests a pair
of admonitions sufficiently significant to take down
the sign. One is the familiar, ''Don't talk when
you've nothing to say"; the other is, "You musn't
believe all that you hear."
What those homely old maxims have to do with
the "Callophone" is another matter. Perhaps noth-
ing at all.
* * *
There is a tall, slender building at Forty-fifth street
and Fifth avenue in which there is literally a nest of
pop-song publishers. Nearly every door in the build-
ing bears the name of some more or less unheard-of
song producer. In the entire structure there is but
one music concern that seems to mean anything to
music as an art or to the music loving public. And
that exception, that green oasis in the desert isle of
Hit Alley, is the New York branch of the McKinley
Music Co. And the noises that sweep and swell
through the halls of that tall, slender building sound
more like the shriekings of a mad-house than the
vocal gymnastics of musical genius.
* * *
Any piano man who likes to contemplate the pos-
sibilities of the industry within a brief space of time
THE PRESTO YEAR BOOK
IS THE ONLY ANNUAL
REVIEW OF
THE MUSIC TRADES
19 C«n*.; $2.00 a Year
may find a good object lesson in the Premier Grand
Piano Co., at 510-532 W. Twenty-third street. The
factory is, in the first place, a remarkable one. It is
so well adapted to the work that it seems strange
that pianos have not been made there right along.
And the productiveness of the Premier Grand Piano
Co. is the more remarkable when it is considered
that the industry was launched at a time when the
whole world seemed to be wrong side up and all en-
terprise at a standstill.
Nevertheless the Premier grand pianos have al-
ready made a distinct impression in the trade. They
are coming through in steadily increasing numbers
and they are in demand to such a degree that every
instrument will be spoken for as fast as it can be
released. Walter C. Hepperla, the company's presi-
dent, is one of the most sanguine of New York's
pi?ino manufacturers. Understanding in advance just
what the trade wanted, and knowing by practical
schooling how to fill that need, Mr. Hepperla and his
associates began long ago to prepare for the results
that are now developing. In every way the Premier
Grand Piano Co. is equipped for a large and rapid
advance into the kind of activity that means much
for the retailers who realize the opportunities of the
grands and know how to sell them. The Premier
grands are instruments in which there are large
values, and all the preliminary work having been suc-
cessfully accomplished, the future is doubly assured.
* * *
We all remember the time when D. E. Woolley
was so active in the affairs of the piano associations
that it seemed impossible to have a convention with-
out him. But he managed to find release and has for
for some time past been doing equally good work
in the advertising business. Mr. Woolley is asso-
ciated with the Krill-Burke Co. in New York City.
But it isn't possible for an experienced piano man
to feel perfectly happy divorced from his favorite
line. And so it will seem more than strange if Mr.
Woolley doesn't return to the fold and make happy
the retail end of some big piano business.
* * *
Another piano man who is active in another line
in New York is Jas. S. Holmes, long with the Everett
piano and now respsonsible for the success of the
Remington phonograph. Mr. Holmes is established
in handsome offices at 1662 Broadway, where he has
also ample wareroom space for the display of the
handsome instruments which bear a distinguished
name.
It is certain that the methods of piano promo-
tion now being applied by Mr. Holmes to the phono-
graph has brought almost phenomenally rapid re-
sults. There are not many industries in the same
Hne that give evidence of more activity and progress
than the Remington Phonograph Co. And the in-
struments themselves present some exceptionally
fine features which it will pay any piano house to in-
vestigate.
* * *
In the window of a little music shop on Thirty-
third street a popular playerpiano is displayed. On
the music rack is a Gulbransen baby—the familiar
trade mark—though the instrument is not one of
the famous ones from Chicago. And stuck to the
card are the following lines:
"Step on it easy for soft effect,
Push on it hard for pep;
Play as you may, there is no defect—
No need to 'watch your step.' "
SHORTAGE OF GRANDS.
Alexander McDonald, director of publicity of
Sohmer & Co., New York, was in Chicago on Mon-
day of this week on a social trip. To a representa-
tive of Presto he said that he foresaw a great short-
age of grands for the coming autumn and winter
trade. Those who expect to get any should order
right awav, was the thought suggested by Mr. Mc-
Donald. The shortage will be in both grand play-
ers and grand pianos, Mr. McDonald said. In cheap
instruments he thinks the shortage will be negligi-
ble. He left for New York Monday.
OUT FOR NEW MEMBERS.
The Texas Music Merchants' Association has be-
gun an active campaign to increase the membership
of that lively organization. It is the aim of the offi-
cials to make the association a more effective means
for the furtherance of music in the state and to im-
prove the methods of the music trades generally.
Henry P. Meyer of Paris is the president and Robert
N. Watkin, Dallas, secretary-treasurer.
PAUL F. NETZOW'S
PLAN FOR MILWAUKEE
Precedent of Music Industries' Association in
Wisconsin City Has Comprehensive
Scheme for Player Week.
The regular monthly meeting of the Milwaukee
Association of Music Industries was held Thurs-
day evening, Aug. 26, at the headquarters of the Mil-
waukee Association of Commerce in the Athletic
Club building. It turned out to be one of the most
important meetings of the year, for at that time
President Paul F. Netzow presented a comprehen-
sive plan for local participation in National Player-
piano Week in October. This will be a part of the
annual fall campaign conducted by the association
for the last three years to stimulate fall and holiday
business.
President Netzow's call for the meeting said, in
part: "Your opinion will be of vital importance in
discussing plans which the various newspapers of
Milwaukee have submitted, covering our fall music
campaign to keep up the demand and make new
business. A few new thoughts have been developed
which cannot help but impress upon the public the
fact that music is essential. Your attendance would be
highly appreciated in this most important discussion,
the purpose of whfch is to build up a greater local de-
mand for music, thereby making it possible for us all
to profitably increase our business."
At this meeting the Milwaukee association also
determined final arrangements for its activities
at the Wisconsin State Fair, to be he'd at Milwau-
kee, Aug. 30 to Sept. 4, and its participation in the
annual Wisconsin music trades conference, to be held
in the middle of State Fair week under the auspices
of the state association at Milwaukee, Wednesday,
September 1.
Ordinarily the regular monthly meetings of the Mil-
waukee association are held in the form of a noon
luncheon or. the third Thursday of the month, but
because of the importance of matters now before it,
President Neczow made the August session an eve-
ning meeting, which had been delayed a week in
order that details might be properly correlated and
a campaign enterprise lie placed before the members
for fina] action.
SCHMOLLER & MUELLER TAKE
ON BEHR BROS. & CO. LINE
A Good Connection Has Just Been Made With the
Omaha Concern.
Mr. Schmoller, of the Schmoller & Mueller Piano
Company, of Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., and Council
Bluffs and Sioux City, Iowa, was in Chicago on
Monday of this week. While in the city he made
arrangements to handle, beginning right away, the
Behr Bros. & Co. line of instruments, manufactured
in New York. It is an excellent line of instruments,
and both the manufacturing and the selling com-
panies are to be congratulated on account of the
connection.
The Omaha merchant said that while Schmoller
& Mueller are still in the temporary quarters in that
city, where the firm located after the fire, they ex-
pect the company to move into * new store in Octo-
ber. The new place is commodious and will be fitted
or.t with special reference to carrying on a large
piano business.
JOHN A. KRUMME RESIGNS.
John A. K rum me, who has resigned his position
as general manager of the Standard Music Roll Co..
Orange. N. J., has not yet announced his future
plans. Few men are so widely known in the piano
trade as Mr. Krumme, whose ability in the who'e-
sale end of the business is a matter of repute. In
that field he has made a splendid reputation for sales
and his manner of gaining and ho'ding good custom-
ers. He has always he'd positions of responsibility
in the piano industry.
EASTON, PA., DEALER DIES.
Malcolm Marsh McDowell, head of the McDowell
Piano Co., Easton, Pa., died last week in that city,
following an operation for appendicitis. Mr. Mc-
Dowell was 29 years of age and leaves a widow.
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