Presto

fRESTO
Q. P. BENT GIVES
AU REVOIR DINNER
Sixty-six Guests Assemble at Illinois Athletic
Club in Response to Invitation and
Wish Him Godspeed and Pleasant
Trip Around World.
George P. Bent's latest dinner to friends "to remi-
nisce and prognosticate" was a great success. This
was a dinner given by George P. Bent on Monday
of this week at 6:30 p. m. in the private dining room
of the Illinois Athletic Club, 112 South Michigan
avenue, Chicago. Sixty-six guests responded to the
invitation; all the rest of the invited ones sent re-
grets, giving various good reasons why they could
not be present. The trade has observed that it is an
urgent reason that will keep a man away from a
Bent banquet. The affair was informal.
The reason for the assembling of Mr. Bent's
friends was given as follows: "Your host is to sail
at 10 a. m., November 19, 1920, from Seattle, Wash.,
on the steamship Katori Maru for his second trip
around the world. Say 'au revoir' but not 'good
bye' to speed him on his way and he will much ap-
preciate it."
Guests Present.
Those in attendance included M. H. Adams,
Charles M. Bent, Jesse B. Blank, James F. Bowers,
Will T. Brinkerhoff, Jas. T. Bristol, Dr. John H.
Cadmus, R. Bourke Corcoran, Charles F. Crane, K.
W. Curtis, R. E. Davis, H. C. Dickinson, George S.
Eddy, D. E. Elick, John G. Elliott, William D. Gates,
W. E. Guylee, Platt P. Gibbs, Louis H. Granzow,
S. R. Harcourt, E. P. Hawkins, Wallace Heckman,
E. R. Jacobson, W. S. Jenkins, P. R. Kimberly, Wil-
liam F; Knoch, A. M. Koch, Theo. Koch, Oscar J.
Kloer, E. F. Lapham, Harry M. Lay, W. W. Luf-
kin, Fred A. Luhnow, Louis A. Mangold, A. L. Mac-
Nab, Harry Michaelson, R. K. Maynard, W. S. Mil-
ler, F. S. Moore, Fred A. Nichols, R. C. O'Connor,
A. H. Parker, W. B. Price, John T. Richards, Harry
Schaaf, J. P. Seeburg, Adam Schneider, Otto Schulz,
Charles H. Smith, F. S. Spofford, Frank P. Stamer,
W. N. Van Matre, George P. Turner, William H.
Wade, Robert Waud, Charles C. Warner, T. F.
Weber, Frank J. Weiser, James H. Wibly, H. B.
Williams, Dr. J. R. Wolfenden and Eugene Whelan.
The dinner consisted of good things to eat and
drink, in season and out of season, and old songs,
and new jokes enlivened the pauses between courses.
Telegram from Will Bush.
Among telegrams of regret was the following:
"Dallas, Texas, Oct. 24.—Geo. P. Bent, care Illi-
nois Athletic Club. Sincere regrets at having been
deprived of the pleasure of participating in your ex-
perience meeting. Extend a message of good cheer
and fond memories from me to assembly. I have
fully recovered my voice, and my broken bones are
rapidly mending, but my bitterest experience is to
miss this glorious reunion of musical friends and
harmonious spirits.
"W. L. BUSH."
John Philip Sousa, the famous bandmaster, sent
a letter of regret, which, with several others, was
read at the banquet.
Mr. Bowers Toastmaster.
James F. Bowers, president of Lyon & Healy, was
toastmaster, Oscar J. Kloer was song leader and
Frank P. Stamer was at the Bent piano. Adam
Schneider was general manager of the affair.
Mr. Bent will be accompanied on the trip as far
as Manila by Mrs. Bent and their daughter, Miss
Barbara Bent. The women will not go around the
world with Mr. Bent. He says his wife gets enough
seasickness to satisfy her on the Pacific, which is
so rough that she thinks it is misnamed. But she
declares the Indian Ocean is rightly named, for it
certainly is an Indian in its roughness.
Mr. Bent intends to sell Price & Teeple pianos
and Symphonola playerpianos at the cities where he
makes calls on his trip around the world.
SCHMOLLER & MUELLER TAKE
ON BEHR BROTHERS LINE
Will Handle New York Instruments in
Lincoln and Sioux City.
Omaha,
HAVE FAITH IN YOUR
MANUFACTURER IS ADVICE
In Timely Article A. W. Johnston, Vice-Presi-
dent of the Standard Pneumatic Action
Company, Reviews Situation.
In the following communication to the trade, A.
W. Johnston, vice-president of the Standard Pneu-
matic Action Company, New York, points to the
part the manufacturer plays in building sound busi-
ness and the necessity of trust in him on-the part of
the dealer:
History says that once, when Napoleon was re-
ceiving an unusually large number of letters from
the public protesting against the way in which he
was making history, or something of the sort, he
told his secretary to take a month off, and let the
Schmoller & Mueller, of Omaha, Neb., have taken
on a full line of Behr Bros, pianos and playerpianos
for the city of Omaha, Sioux City, Iowa, and Lin-
coln. Neb.
Schmoller & Mueller are among the largest piano
firms operating in pianos in the Central Western
territory. Their arrangement to handle and sell
the Behr Bros, line is of mutual interest to this
large retail house and to Behr Bros., of New York,
manufacturers of the goods.
AFTER FACTORY SITE.
Mayor Henry Hawkinson of Galesburg, 111., has
received a letter from a promotion concern of Chi-
cago inquiring about a possible site for a company
engaged in the manufacture of pianos. The com-
pany, according to the promoters, wants to get
away from Chicago and locate in some city on the
main line of a railroad. One hundred and fifty thou-
sand square feet of floor space is required for the
needs of this concern. The company, according to
Mayor Hawkinson, makes pipe organs, pianos
and electric pianos for churches, halls and mov-
ing picture theaters. According to the communica-
tion from the Murdock Company, they did $800,000
worth of business last year. One hundred and fifty
men are employed in its factory in Chicago, which
is an old and reliable one.
BANKER'S BUSINESS OUTLOOK.
The October business review compiled by the
First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, the
largest in Wisconsin, gives the following character-
istics of local trade conditions: "Business is slow,
with firms cutting down inventories; fall of prices
is spreading, but will be gradual; strong investment
market with tendency to easier money; prices of
farm crops conform to general price tendency; un-
employment in Milwaukee not serious, with wage
scales maintained; adverse exchange rates slow up
exports to Europe."
SUCCESS WITH Q R S ROLLS.
The Q R S Music Co.'s line of playerpiano music
rolls is ably featured by Kenninger's House of Good
Music, South Brooklyn, O. The progressive retail
music firm was established last March and since
then has built up a splendid business for the Q R S
rolls. South Brooklyn is a suburb of Cleveland and
Henry Kenninger the proprietor of the firm is well
and favorable known there.
OLD STORE WITH NEW NAME
W. C. Babb has sold out his interest in
Wyman, Babb. & Company, phonograph
dealers and Packard retail agents in Chi-
cago. The purchaser is his partner, A. F.
Wyman, who will change the name at the
first of the year to the Wyman Piano Com-
pany. Mr. Babb has joined the staff of the
Packard Piano Company and has gone to
Fond du Lac, Wis , to spend three weeks
assisting the Badger Music Company to
close sales. He will work out of the Chi-
cago office.
R. H. Reid, formerly manager of the
Wyman, Babb store at Harvey, 111., has
been transferred to become manager of the
Hammond, Ind., store, and George Martin
is to be manager of both the Harvey and the
Chicago Heights stores. The . photograph
from which the accompanying cut was made
was taken in the Wyman store in Chicago.
A. F. Wyman, the new owner, is shown in
the oval.
October 30, 1920.
A. W. JOHNSTON.
mail accumulate. When the letters were opened at
the end of the month, it was found that most of
them had been answered by the passage of time,
and required no further attention.
If we could forget all about prices for a few
months, and spend our efforts in an attempt to get
the business that exists, in a few months prices
would have remedied themselves, and there would
be no need of all this agitation which exists^ today.
When I say "we," I mean the manufacturer, as
well as the dealer, for if there is a man who is
more anxious than you are to have prices decline, a
man who worries more, and stays awake longer at
night figuring than you do, a man who would give
anything if the price question could miraculously
become settled at once, that man is your manu-
facturer. And here is the reason why. He is be-
tween two fires—the dealer on one side, and his
own source of supply on the other. The dealer
wants prices down—the supply man says that for
the present they cannot come down.
Aren't we becoming just a little hysterical? Be-
cause some manufacturers have profiteered (cloth-
ing, food, etc.), and there is a general feeling that
some prices are too high, does this necessarily mean
that every manufacturer has profiteered, and that
all prices are too high? Give the price question a
chance. Prices will come down, but not while the
manufacturer has to sell at a loi-s, and buy at an
advance. Sound business is not built on such a
foundation.
Have faith in your manufacturer. His reputa-
tion is worth something. He hasn't built up this
reputation for fair dealing only to cast it aside now
that it has become an asset. Let's forget about
prices, and give them a chance to readjust them-
selves. In the meantime, organize our selling
strength to reap in the ample harvest which exists
today.
PIANO MAN'S DAUGHTER WEDS.
Mjss Olive Netzow, daughter of Charles F. Net-
zow, president of the Waltham Piano Co. and the
Milwaukee Piano Mfg. Co., was married to Er\\qn
J. Dohman, a prominent wholesale druggist of Mil-
waukee, on Friday evening, Oct. 22. Mrs. Dohman
is a sister to Paul F. Netzow, treasurer and general
manager of the Waltham company, and president of
the Milwaukee Association of Music Industries.
;
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/