Presto
Issue: 1922 1895 - Page 4
\
PRESTO
November 18, 1922.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1922.
rate of any compilation, by government experts, within our knowl-
edge. And it shows, most of all, that prices were maintained at a bet-
ter ratio in 1921 than before in many years. It proves, also, that there
must be a shortage of instruments in the stores throughout the coun-
try at this time. This is something that has been realized, and the
present-time activities of the manufacturers are justified and will be
rewarded.
A surprising disclosure of the comparative figures for 1919 and
1921, is that in the former year the number of playerpianos in excess
of straight pianos over 1921 was only 2,650, the number of reproduc-
ing pianos, given at 5.209, making a total excess of players over the
straight pianos of 7,059. The figures show, too, a remarkable devel-
opment of the most expensive type of instruments—the reproduc-
ing pianos. But the most significant item is that, whereas both
straight pianos and players show a falling off in numbers in 1921,
as compared with 1919, the grands increased a trifle—just 163 in-
struments, to be exact; Thus, with a drop of 32.5 per cent in straight
pianos in 1921, and of 35.4 per cent in players, the manufacture of
grands showed a slight growth in numbers.
If that means anything, it is, of course, that the grand piano is
to be reckoned with as a very large factor in the retail trade of
next year. And the fact that we now have several exclusive grand
industries, and the experiment of exclusive grand retail stores, is
equally significant.
Altogether the present year will make a much better showing
than the last, and the coming twelve months and beyond promises
to develop an activity not known since the great days before the war.
The pianos that are well promoted, and the dealers who recognise the
situation, and their opportunities, are in for a period of prosperity
in proportion to their activities.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
PIANO PUBLICITY
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PIANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
But for the enthusiasm of the retail dealers and their salesmen,
there would be comparatively few pianos sold at a profit. The piano
is an article the demand for which is very largely forced. It is, like
life insurance, one of the most useful of investments. But also like
life insurance, its need is not realized until possession overcomes
neglect, indifference or lack of understanding.
The piano is one of the most essential of all things in the home
of intelligence. That it is a part of the equipment of refinement is
a statement altogether superfluous. That point is obvious. And yet
the average head of the average family doesn't know that a piano is
wanted until his attention is drawn to the fact by some ambitious
piano dealer or his salesman.
Any active piano merchant will, we believe, indorse what has
been said. And, this being true, notwithstanding, the piano is one
of the most difficult things to advertise to advantage—we mean the
average piano. There are a few r pianos—a very few—whose stand-
ing with the public is such that their mere names suggest just what
the names stand for—music and beauty, and absolute excellence. But
the majority of pianos must be assiduously promoted, locally, by the
dealers and their salesmen. It is this that makes a loyal represen-
tative in any city of great value to the individual manufacturer.
The men who wear out their shoes, and often the seat of their
pants, in the work of impressing the absolute need of pianos by the
people—and of some particular pianos, especially—are the mission-
aries. They are the hard-working men who earn their wages by
doing a real good in their communities.
No printed page of fifty million circulation—if there could be
such a publication—could do the good for the average piano that a
thousand hard-working dealers and their salesmen can do—and often
do for individual makes of pianos. The style of competition which
holds good in the piano trade, can and does kill the best printed ad-
vertising" of "broadcast" kind that the most shrewd word-twister
can produce.
The earnest statement in opposition to the "best, in the world" of
the magazine advertisement, can divert the prospects from the ad-
vertised instrument to the least known and. perhaps, far less repre-
sentative instrument. For the piano is still, after all, an unknown
quantity to the citizens of the town. They buy because the dealer
advises them to buy. And they buy the piano the local dealer strongly
recommends. And in what terms the enthusiastic salesman "com-
mends" his piano is known to all manufacturers who watch their dis-
tributing departments.
If the public could be made to pause and consider that the Bolo
piano recommended by the local dealer as the "greatest on earth"
is not the only "best bet," the case might be different. But, in about
forty cases in every hundred, the retail piano buyer cannot even tell
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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, 1896, at 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 United States possessions, 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 1 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used, If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
Rates for advertising in Presto Tear 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 Dastern and west-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Piano* and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimate!
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are ln-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
THE PIANO CENSUS
Last week's Presto published the latest census figures in the
piano industry. And the tables must have been interesting to all in
the trade. They must, also, have aroused some curiosity as to accu-
racy of statement, contrasted with the understanding of experienced
piano men, concerning statistics in their own line of work.
It is not to be expected that the compilers of data pertaining to
special lines of industry can be wholly accurate. But the latest of-
ficial reports are much nearer correct than has been customary. In
the piano business there are merchants who, either by association or
design, pose as manufacturers, whereas they have never made a piano
or invested in anything short of the completed instrument. In the
reports as published, whatever inaccuracies there may be are due to
the condition alluded to. The census report says: "Of the 185 estab-
lishments reported in 1921, 78 were located in New York; 35 in Illi-
nois ; 14 in Massachusetts; 9 in Ohio; 8 in Wisconsin; 7 each in Indi-
ana, Michigan and Pennsylvania; 6 in New Jersey; 5 in Connecticut;
3 in Maryland; 2 each in Kentucky and Minnesota; one each in Cali-
fornia and Iowa. New York, the leading state in the industry, in 1921
produced 40.7 per cent of the total value of products in that year."
That, of course, has to do with pianos, and not the music indus-
tries generally. It also suggests that there may be a discrepancy in
the final totals as pertains to output and values. There are, to illus-
trate, not eight piano industries in Ohio; we can find but 5. In Wis-
consin there are not eight piano industries; we have a record of six.
But on the whole the 1921 piano census is the nearest to being accu-
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
November 18, 1922.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1922.
rate of any compilation, by government experts, within our knowl-
edge. And it shows, most of all, that prices were maintained at a bet-
ter ratio in 1921 than before in many years. It proves, also, that there
must be a shortage of instruments in the stores throughout the coun-
try at this time. This is something that has been realized, and the
present-time activities of the manufacturers are justified and will be
rewarded.
A surprising disclosure of the comparative figures for 1919 and
1921, is that in the former year the number of playerpianos in excess
of straight pianos over 1921 was only 2,650, the number of reproduc-
ing pianos, given at 5.209, making a total excess of players over the
straight pianos of 7,059. The figures show, too, a remarkable devel-
opment of the most expensive type of instruments—the reproduc-
ing pianos. But the most significant item is that, whereas both
straight pianos and players show a falling off in numbers in 1921,
as compared with 1919, the grands increased a trifle—just 163 in-
struments, to be exact; Thus, with a drop of 32.5 per cent in straight
pianos in 1921, and of 35.4 per cent in players, the manufacture of
grands showed a slight growth in numbers.
If that means anything, it is, of course, that the grand piano is
to be reckoned with as a very large factor in the retail trade of
next year. And the fact that we now have several exclusive grand
industries, and the experiment of exclusive grand retail stores, is
equally significant.
Altogether the present year will make a much better showing
than the last, and the coming twelve months and beyond promises
to develop an activity not known since the great days before the war.
The pianos that are well promoted, and the dealers who recognise the
situation, and their opportunities, are in for a period of prosperity
in proportion to their activities.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
PIANO PUBLICITY
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PIANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
But for the enthusiasm of the retail dealers and their salesmen,
there would be comparatively few pianos sold at a profit. The piano
is an article the demand for which is very largely forced. It is, like
life insurance, one of the most useful of investments. But also like
life insurance, its need is not realized until possession overcomes
neglect, indifference or lack of understanding.
The piano is one of the most essential of all things in the home
of intelligence. That it is a part of the equipment of refinement is
a statement altogether superfluous. That point is obvious. And yet
the average head of the average family doesn't know that a piano is
wanted until his attention is drawn to the fact by some ambitious
piano dealer or his salesman.
Any active piano merchant will, we believe, indorse what has
been said. And, this being true, notwithstanding, the piano is one
of the most difficult things to advertise to advantage—we mean the
average piano. There are a few r pianos—a very few—whose stand-
ing with the public is such that their mere names suggest just what
the names stand for—music and beauty, and absolute excellence. But
the majority of pianos must be assiduously promoted, locally, by the
dealers and their salesmen. It is this that makes a loyal represen-
tative in any city of great value to the individual manufacturer.
The men who wear out their shoes, and often the seat of their
pants, in the work of impressing the absolute need of pianos by the
people—and of some particular pianos, especially—are the mission-
aries. They are the hard-working men who earn their wages by
doing a real good in their communities.
No printed page of fifty million circulation—if there could be
such a publication—could do the good for the average piano that a
thousand hard-working dealers and their salesmen can do—and often
do for individual makes of pianos. The style of competition which
holds good in the piano trade, can and does kill the best printed ad-
vertising" of "broadcast" kind that the most shrewd word-twister
can produce.
The earnest statement in opposition to the "best, in the world" of
the magazine advertisement, can divert the prospects from the ad-
vertised instrument to the least known and. perhaps, far less repre-
sentative instrument. For the piano is still, after all, an unknown
quantity to the citizens of the town. They buy because the dealer
advises them to buy. And they buy the piano the local dealer strongly
recommends. And in what terms the enthusiastic salesman "com-
mends" his piano is known to all manufacturers who watch their dis-
tributing departments.
If the public could be made to pause and consider that the Bolo
piano recommended by the local dealer as the "greatest on earth"
is not the only "best bet," the case might be different. But, in about
forty cases in every hundred, the retail piano buyer cannot even tell
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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, 1896, at 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 United States possessions, 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 1 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used, If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
Rates for advertising in Presto Tear 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 Dastern and west-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Piano* and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimate!
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are ln-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
THE PIANO CENSUS
Last week's Presto published the latest census figures in the
piano industry. And the tables must have been interesting to all in
the trade. They must, also, have aroused some curiosity as to accu-
racy of statement, contrasted with the understanding of experienced
piano men, concerning statistics in their own line of work.
It is not to be expected that the compilers of data pertaining to
special lines of industry can be wholly accurate. But the latest of-
ficial reports are much nearer correct than has been customary. In
the piano business there are merchants who, either by association or
design, pose as manufacturers, whereas they have never made a piano
or invested in anything short of the completed instrument. In the
reports as published, whatever inaccuracies there may be are due to
the condition alluded to. The census report says: "Of the 185 estab-
lishments reported in 1921, 78 were located in New York; 35 in Illi-
nois ; 14 in Massachusetts; 9 in Ohio; 8 in Wisconsin; 7 each in Indi-
ana, Michigan and Pennsylvania; 6 in New Jersey; 5 in Connecticut;
3 in Maryland; 2 each in Kentucky and Minnesota; one each in Cali-
fornia and Iowa. New York, the leading state in the industry, in 1921
produced 40.7 per cent of the total value of products in that year."
That, of course, has to do with pianos, and not the music indus-
tries generally. It also suggests that there may be a discrepancy in
the final totals as pertains to output and values. There are, to illus-
trate, not eight piano industries in Ohio; we can find but 5. In Wis-
consin there are not eight piano industries; we have a record of six.
But on the whole the 1921 piano census is the nearest to being accu-
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).