Presto
Issue: 1922 1896 - Page 4
PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
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, 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 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 Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will De 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 ana 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 fnelr value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are In-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
November 25, 1922.
the illustrated section printed in sepia ink and upon very finely cal-
endered paper. Of late the Times colored section has had a full page
adv. of the Steinway piano. It is, probably, the most artistic com-
mingling of the artistic and commercial in connection with pianos.
Every page has carried a remarkable portrait of one of the immortals
in music—perhaps a copy of some great painting, as of Liszt at the
piano, or some more modern artist. And what the Steinway has been
doing in the New York Times other piano manufacturers have also
done elsewhere.
Naturally the advertising of most direct interest to the piano
dealers is that which appears in their trade papers. They all see the
trade paper advertising and study it. And among the really artistic
pages of the manufacturers it would be impossible not to comment
favorably upon the printed promotion of the instruments of the
American Piano Co.. (especially the Ampico), the Cable Company,
Steger & Sons Piano Co., Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Baldwin Com-
pany, Sohmer & Co., Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Starr Piano Co,,
Lyon & Healy, and some others. Last Sunday's Chicago Tribune
also, by the way. had an unusually artistic display of the Adam
Schaaf, Inc.
But we are not trying to name all of the contributors to artistic
modern advertising. Our purpose is, most of all, to commend the
enterprise of the piano manufacturers who display the progressive-
ness by which investment in special talent for artistic advertising is
giving to the piano a forward movement quite in keeping with mod-
ern enterprise in other great lines of industry.
CHOOSING A JOB
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1922.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
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.
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.
ARTISTIC PIANO ADS
Of late the piano manufacturers have given evidence that they
believe that things of art are deserving of artistic presentation to the
reading public. In some instances the piano manufacturers have
adopted a style of printed display in which there is the feeling, even
at times .the sentiment, which cannot be inseparable from music.
And in this the trade papers have taken on a new aspect, so far as
the special promotion of certain instruments are concerned.
There can be no doubt that the retail piano merchants and their
salesmen find the artistic printed page in the trade paper a substan-
tial help in their business. It has, from time immemorial,
been customary to discuss the degree of sentiment that should go
into any business. Many who do not think much have said that there
is no room at all for sentiment in business. But the world at large
knows better. And people who love music, and devote some share of
their time to its expression, know that sentiment has a place in
everything—even in the most material concerns of life.
There would have been no such universal response to the player-
piano were there no sentiment in business. There could be no such
exploitation of great pianos as exercises the concert goers, without
the sentimental side of it. And artistic things always are seasoned
with sentiment. So with the modern-time artistic piano advertise-
ments, which frequently appear in Presto and other music trade
papers.
Perhaps the greatest daily newspaper in the world is -the New
York Times. The Sunday edition of that paper makes a feature of
There is going to be a demand for pianos exceeding the possi-
bilities of supply, as the industries are equipped at this time. It is
generally understood that there is a shortage of skilled workers in
some departments of the industry. Few of the piano makers now in
the factories have come from abroad, of late years, and immigration
restrictions will not permit of recruits from foreign countries in any
considerable numbers.
The logical procedure is for the piano manufacturers to train
native ability. It is being done in some of the western factories.
Several piano factories of considerable size are manned almost en-
tirely by local workers, AVIIO have gained their full understanding and
skill in the home plants. And the products of their home-made ex-
pertness is all that any industry could want.
But, if there is a lack of factory skill in the piano business, there
is no less a shortage in piano selling ability. Piano salesmanship is
also needed if all the demands, or possibilities, of the trade are to be
filled, or nearly filled, during the next three years.
And this is something for the bright-witted young men to con-
sider. The army of future business men who possess the kind of am-
bition that prompts an aversion to desks and counters, may find an
independent and boundless field for the exercise of their energies in
the sale of musical instruments.
It is true that not all young men are adapted to the business of
selling pianos. The genius of salesmanship is almost as rare as that
of authorship or the bringing forth of poetry. But in no line of work
are the strivers equally matched. There are always a few that over-
top the crowd. But the average is always productive, and even the
second-rate piano salesman is useful and capable of earning more
than the best of the plodding clerks in the conventional stores.
The piano is one of the articles of commerce which can never be
over-sold. It will always be a live item of trade, and it will always
be kept alive by the activities of the salesmen. The demand can never
be the same as with the things of mere ability. The fine discrimina-
tions by which pianos differ one from another will always render
salesmanship necessary. Even should the public ever become so
versed in piano construction, and so sensitive to the gradations of
quality and tone, as to make piano buying perfectly simple, there
would still be the need of salesmanship.
And this because, were it possible to have all pianos equally
good, evenly reliable, and uniformly valuable, in a money sense, it
would still be necessary to awaken the piano -desire, and to stimulate
the demand. In this the piano is unlike many other things and, as
the world fills up with the things that divert the mind from the
thoughts of intellectual and spiritual beauty, to those of excitement
and bodily delights, salesmanship in things of the higher senses
will be the more needed. This is something that suggests nothing at
all discouraging. It merely emphasizes the opportunities for piano
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/
The American Music Trade Weekly
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, 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 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 Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will De 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 ana 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 fnelr value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are In-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
November 25, 1922.
the illustrated section printed in sepia ink and upon very finely cal-
endered paper. Of late the Times colored section has had a full page
adv. of the Steinway piano. It is, probably, the most artistic com-
mingling of the artistic and commercial in connection with pianos.
Every page has carried a remarkable portrait of one of the immortals
in music—perhaps a copy of some great painting, as of Liszt at the
piano, or some more modern artist. And what the Steinway has been
doing in the New York Times other piano manufacturers have also
done elsewhere.
Naturally the advertising of most direct interest to the piano
dealers is that which appears in their trade papers. They all see the
trade paper advertising and study it. And among the really artistic
pages of the manufacturers it would be impossible not to comment
favorably upon the printed promotion of the instruments of the
American Piano Co.. (especially the Ampico), the Cable Company,
Steger & Sons Piano Co., Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Baldwin Com-
pany, Sohmer & Co., Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Starr Piano Co,,
Lyon & Healy, and some others. Last Sunday's Chicago Tribune
also, by the way. had an unusually artistic display of the Adam
Schaaf, Inc.
But we are not trying to name all of the contributors to artistic
modern advertising. Our purpose is, most of all, to commend the
enterprise of the piano manufacturers who display the progressive-
ness by which investment in special talent for artistic advertising is
giving to the piano a forward movement quite in keeping with mod-
ern enterprise in other great lines of industry.
CHOOSING A JOB
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1922.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
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.
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.
ARTISTIC PIANO ADS
Of late the piano manufacturers have given evidence that they
believe that things of art are deserving of artistic presentation to the
reading public. In some instances the piano manufacturers have
adopted a style of printed display in which there is the feeling, even
at times .the sentiment, which cannot be inseparable from music.
And in this the trade papers have taken on a new aspect, so far as
the special promotion of certain instruments are concerned.
There can be no doubt that the retail piano merchants and their
salesmen find the artistic printed page in the trade paper a substan-
tial help in their business. It has, from time immemorial,
been customary to discuss the degree of sentiment that should go
into any business. Many who do not think much have said that there
is no room at all for sentiment in business. But the world at large
knows better. And people who love music, and devote some share of
their time to its expression, know that sentiment has a place in
everything—even in the most material concerns of life.
There would have been no such universal response to the player-
piano were there no sentiment in business. There could be no such
exploitation of great pianos as exercises the concert goers, without
the sentimental side of it. And artistic things always are seasoned
with sentiment. So with the modern-time artistic piano advertise-
ments, which frequently appear in Presto and other music trade
papers.
Perhaps the greatest daily newspaper in the world is -the New
York Times. The Sunday edition of that paper makes a feature of
There is going to be a demand for pianos exceeding the possi-
bilities of supply, as the industries are equipped at this time. It is
generally understood that there is a shortage of skilled workers in
some departments of the industry. Few of the piano makers now in
the factories have come from abroad, of late years, and immigration
restrictions will not permit of recruits from foreign countries in any
considerable numbers.
The logical procedure is for the piano manufacturers to train
native ability. It is being done in some of the western factories.
Several piano factories of considerable size are manned almost en-
tirely by local workers, AVIIO have gained their full understanding and
skill in the home plants. And the products of their home-made ex-
pertness is all that any industry could want.
But, if there is a lack of factory skill in the piano business, there
is no less a shortage in piano selling ability. Piano salesmanship is
also needed if all the demands, or possibilities, of the trade are to be
filled, or nearly filled, during the next three years.
And this is something for the bright-witted young men to con-
sider. The army of future business men who possess the kind of am-
bition that prompts an aversion to desks and counters, may find an
independent and boundless field for the exercise of their energies in
the sale of musical instruments.
It is true that not all young men are adapted to the business of
selling pianos. The genius of salesmanship is almost as rare as that
of authorship or the bringing forth of poetry. But in no line of work
are the strivers equally matched. There are always a few that over-
top the crowd. But the average is always productive, and even the
second-rate piano salesman is useful and capable of earning more
than the best of the plodding clerks in the conventional stores.
The piano is one of the articles of commerce which can never be
over-sold. It will always be a live item of trade, and it will always
be kept alive by the activities of the salesmen. The demand can never
be the same as with the things of mere ability. The fine discrimina-
tions by which pianos differ one from another will always render
salesmanship necessary. Even should the public ever become so
versed in piano construction, and so sensitive to the gradations of
quality and tone, as to make piano buying perfectly simple, there
would still be the need of salesmanship.
And this because, were it possible to have all pianos equally
good, evenly reliable, and uniformly valuable, in a money sense, it
would still be necessary to awaken the piano -desire, and to stimulate
the demand. In this the piano is unlike many other things and, as
the world fills up with the things that divert the mind from the
thoughts of intellectual and spiritual beauty, to those of excitement
and bodily delights, salesmanship in things of the higher senses
will be the more needed. This is something that suggests nothing at
all discouraging. It merely emphasizes the opportunities for piano
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).