Presto
Issue: 1923 1908 - Page 3
Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
flhtaUMMfiaMr THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
i$ t*nt» ***» *r~,
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1923
HY J. EILERS' FLIGHT
TO HIS NATIVE LAND
One-Time Great Piano Merchant of the
Pacific Coast Is Reported Back in Ger-
many, Leaving a Trail of Worthless
Bank Checks and Hopeless Cred-
itors Behind Him.
Henry J. (Hy) Eilers, believed
by Oregon state and local Port-
land authorities to have fled to Ger-
many to escape prosecution on
"bad check" charges, according to
Detective Swennes, who has charge
of Portland's bad check bureau,
once attempted to kill himself when
confronted
with bogus checks
amounting to $500 by the detective.
Swennes said he went to his office
with $500 of bad checks, which he
had obtained when Eilers attempted
to jump from the roof of the build-
HY EILERS
ing. Swennes says he grabbed him and he later made
the checks good.
Employed Shrewd System.
The piano man left Portland about December 16,
after having been indicted for conspiracy in passing
bogus checks in conjunction with his salesmanager,
Gus B. Smith, by the San Francisco grand jury.
Eilers was very shrewd, as he issued all of his
checks for labor, the peculiarity of the Oregon law
being that a man must receive goods or money in
order to come under the provision of the statute.
Eilers wrote his checks for labor, or salesmen's trav-
eling account, and sent them out and had them cash
them at stores, hotels, etc., and telegraph the money
to him. He had a score of bank accounts, extending
as far east as New Hampshire and as far south as
Atlanta, Georgia. Detective Swennes says he had
checking accounts in 28 banks. After the Portland
banks refused his account, he had checking accounts
in small out-of-town banks in Oregon. He opened
an account at Oregon City, later in Forest Grove,
then in New Era and last in Aurora.
Often Evaded Arrest.
The detective says that at one time he took away
$8,000 worth of bogus checks from Eilers before he
had a chance to float them. At the time he had $6
in the Aurora bank.
It is reported that every time someone was ready
to arrest Eilers he would pay up the money and the
"victim" was glad to be rescued from loss and would
decline to prosecute. But he overreached himself
when he sent Gus Smith, his salesmanager, down
through the Willamette valley and Northern Califor-
nia to San Francisco, leaving a string of bad checks
behind him. Then the California law got him into
its net. The known part of this transaction amounted
to about $3,000.
The people who cashed his checks are not the only
ones who suffered from Eilers' peculations, according
to S. J. Bischoff, the trustee of the bankrupt house,
but also the individuals who purchased musical in-
struments from him.
Books In Bad Shape.
According to the trustee, the books of the concern
are in awful shape, and nothing can be made from
them. He said that he found instruments that had
been sold, not to two different persons, but in some
cases to three people. Also, in making contracts,
Eilers would have the purchaser sign two contracts
for the same instrument and he would hypothecate
both instruments. In other cases, said the trustee,
persons who brought instruments to him to be re-
paired did not get them back, but they were sold by
Eilers. Bischoff says he will lay the whole matter
before the Multnomah County grand jury.
The Portland police received word from San Fran-
cisco to arrest Eilers after the finding of the Cali-
fornia grand jury, but he had already left Portland.
He was traced through Chicago to New York, and
was reported as a guest at the Waldorf-Astoria
hotel. From there he is said to have gone to Can-
ada and taken ship to Hamburg, in his native land.
Eilers came from Germany when he was 14 years
old. What will ever be done with the tangled mess
he has left behind him is hard to tell, and just as
hard for the courts as for the ordinary layman to
figure out.
In Chicago Recently.
The last known of Eilers after he left Portland
was four weeks ago yesterday, Friday, when he
phoned Presto from the Republic Building in Chi-
cago to ask for the latest word from Portland. He
said that he had read the item in Presto about his
disappearance, and protested that he, like the Indian
of the story, was not lost, but right here in Chicago.
But he was lost to his creditors even then, for he
left for New York that night after giving assurance
that he would be in Presto office on the following
morning.
Mr. Eilers leaves a good many creditors of his
Pacific Coast piano enterprises. He has lived a
precarious life during the past six years, since the
failure of his great business, which created a greater
scramble among the manufacturers' agents than any-
thing of the kind in a half-century. For he had built
up a great piano business, and his credit had been
so good that almost any of the larger industries
stood ready to ship promptly and to almost any
extent. In one case, a Chicago manufacturer had
shipped a carload of playerpianos a few days before
word of the Eilers failure came. It was saved by
quick work by wire to Kansas City, where the car
was halted.
But, with all the sensational after-effects of the
Eilers failure, it is probable that the situation, as
explained this week, has not been fully understood
even by the creditors. The methods which were
apparently resorted to by the once-popular piano
man seem to have covered every device known to the
trickiest chapter in the entire history of the trade.
Personally, there has never been a more popular
member of the piano trade than Hy J. Eilers, who
came to this country a poor boy, clerked in a music
store, started for himself in a small way and quickly
reached the top in the trade of the Great West, only
•to fall suddenly and steadily to descend to the depths
of a disgraceful flight back to the land from which he
COL. BRINKERHOFF'S NEW LINE.
Col. W. B. Brinkerhoff is doing fine work for the
Standard Piano Bench Mfg. Co., of Chicago. He
had taken a few week's rest before deciding what he
would next put his experience into, but the piano
trade is the only one that could have much attraction
for him, and so he is now sales manager for western
and southern states. The factory is at 1223-25 West
Lake street, but for a time Col. Brinkerhoff has his
office in the Republic muilding, on State street. He
is securing orders for Standard benches with the
same alacrity that he for so many years did for
pianos.
FINE NEW SHOWROOMS
FOR W. P. HA1NES & CO.
Bradbury, Webster and W. P. Haines & Co.
Lines of Pianos, Players and Reproducing
Pianos in Noteworthy Display in New York.
W. P. Haines & Co., New York, has fitted up spa-
cious and splendidly equipped showrooms at the fac-
tory, 138th street and Walton avenue, and the great
extent and meritorious character of the line is made
immediately plain to visitors. The W. P. Haines &
Co.; the Bradbury and the Webster, in the various
models in uprights, grands, players and reproducing
pianos, certainly make a showing to be proud of.
The instruments are displayed in admirable order,
making an exhibit potent with enthusiastic sugges-
tion to the visiting retailer.
F. G. Smith, Jr., has become permanently asso-
ciated with the business of W. P. Haines & Co., as
director of sales of the F. G. Smith, Bradbury and
Webster pianos and players. Mr. Smith will have
headquarters at the W. P. Haines & Co.'s factory,
New York, but will put in considerable time each
month at the factory in Leominster, Mass.
But an important slice of Mr. Smith's time will be
spent in traveling, calling on his old friends in the
trade, and making new acquaintances to whom it will
be his pleasure to recite the selling qualities of the
entire line of W. P. Haines & Co. His following in
the trade is large and an excellent list of old Brad-
bury customers now continue loyal to the old Brad-
bury piano under its present ownership.
C. B. Norris, the Boston dealer, was one of the
visitors last week to the factory and warerooms of
W. P. Haines & Co. On Saturday he sailed from the
port of New York for a trip around the world. He
sailed for Cairo direct. F. G. Smith, of the W. P.
Haines Co., wished him godspeed at the dock.
SELLING GEO. B. NORRIS
PIANOS BRINGS RESULTS
Firm Composed of Experts Find the Instruments of
Holland Piano Co. Winners.
Medford, Wis., February 12, 1923.
Editor Presto: Just a few lines to let you know
that we are still in the game and doing fine. Also
that we are making a change in our building so we
will have more room and also putting m new display
windows. Business was fine so far this winter. We
expect a good spring trade from all indications.
At the present time we are selling a large number
of Geo. B. Norris pianos made in our own state. We
are proud of this line and at the price cannot be
beaten. At present we are able to give the buyer
anything in the piano line or anything in music.
Drost Brothers will nay you a visit some time in the
near future.
Very truly yours,
DROST BROTHERS.
SMITH & NIXON IN DEMAND.
STARS PRAISE HARDMAN.
The head of one of the largest piano houses in the
Southwest was in Chicago last week for the purpose
of making arrangements, if possible, for the represen-
tation of the Smith & Nixon piano line in his state.
The old Smith & Nixon pianos are having a good
demand since it came into the control of President
A. Goldsmith of the Chicago industry which bears
his name. The Smith & Nixon is destined to be
more popular in the trade than ever before in its
long career.
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Paul Bender and Gustav
Schultzendorf, all of the Metropolitan Opera Co.,
have contributed testimonials to the merits of the
Hardman piano, made by Hardman, Peck & Co.,
New York. Mr. Schultzendorf writes: "It is my
belief that the Hardman far surpasses in tonal quality
a n y other piano." Mr. Lauri-Volpi said: "Its full,
round, singing tone is pure delight and the action is
most satisfying." And Mr. Bender's letter said: "It
gives me pleasure to know that I shall have so per-
fect an instrument for my use."
WILL TUNE IN MISSOURI.
EXHIBITING NEW GRAND.
Wood L. Bailey, of Shelbina, Mo., was in Chicago
late last week enjoying a brief respite from his studies
at Polk's School of Piano Tuning, at Valparaiso, Ind.
Mr. Bailey's uncle is in the piano business at Shelbina
and is doing a good trade in his territory. When
the nephew graduates at Polk's School of Piano Tun-
ing he will return to his home in Missouri to engage
in his profession.
The new small grand now manufactured by the
Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Muskcgon, Mich., is prov-
ing one of the most prominent models, according to
H. D. Bradley, vice-president and manager of the
Chicago branch of the company. One of the new in-
struments, of the four feet eleven inch type, is now
being shown in the Chicago office, and is attracting
much attention by its delightful tone and finish.
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/
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
flhtaUMMfiaMr THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
i$ t*nt» ***» *r~,
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1923
HY J. EILERS' FLIGHT
TO HIS NATIVE LAND
One-Time Great Piano Merchant of the
Pacific Coast Is Reported Back in Ger-
many, Leaving a Trail of Worthless
Bank Checks and Hopeless Cred-
itors Behind Him.
Henry J. (Hy) Eilers, believed
by Oregon state and local Port-
land authorities to have fled to Ger-
many to escape prosecution on
"bad check" charges, according to
Detective Swennes, who has charge
of Portland's bad check bureau,
once attempted to kill himself when
confronted
with bogus checks
amounting to $500 by the detective.
Swennes said he went to his office
with $500 of bad checks, which he
had obtained when Eilers attempted
to jump from the roof of the build-
HY EILERS
ing. Swennes says he grabbed him and he later made
the checks good.
Employed Shrewd System.
The piano man left Portland about December 16,
after having been indicted for conspiracy in passing
bogus checks in conjunction with his salesmanager,
Gus B. Smith, by the San Francisco grand jury.
Eilers was very shrewd, as he issued all of his
checks for labor, the peculiarity of the Oregon law
being that a man must receive goods or money in
order to come under the provision of the statute.
Eilers wrote his checks for labor, or salesmen's trav-
eling account, and sent them out and had them cash
them at stores, hotels, etc., and telegraph the money
to him. He had a score of bank accounts, extending
as far east as New Hampshire and as far south as
Atlanta, Georgia. Detective Swennes says he had
checking accounts in 28 banks. After the Portland
banks refused his account, he had checking accounts
in small out-of-town banks in Oregon. He opened
an account at Oregon City, later in Forest Grove,
then in New Era and last in Aurora.
Often Evaded Arrest.
The detective says that at one time he took away
$8,000 worth of bogus checks from Eilers before he
had a chance to float them. At the time he had $6
in the Aurora bank.
It is reported that every time someone was ready
to arrest Eilers he would pay up the money and the
"victim" was glad to be rescued from loss and would
decline to prosecute. But he overreached himself
when he sent Gus Smith, his salesmanager, down
through the Willamette valley and Northern Califor-
nia to San Francisco, leaving a string of bad checks
behind him. Then the California law got him into
its net. The known part of this transaction amounted
to about $3,000.
The people who cashed his checks are not the only
ones who suffered from Eilers' peculations, according
to S. J. Bischoff, the trustee of the bankrupt house,
but also the individuals who purchased musical in-
struments from him.
Books In Bad Shape.
According to the trustee, the books of the concern
are in awful shape, and nothing can be made from
them. He said that he found instruments that had
been sold, not to two different persons, but in some
cases to three people. Also, in making contracts,
Eilers would have the purchaser sign two contracts
for the same instrument and he would hypothecate
both instruments. In other cases, said the trustee,
persons who brought instruments to him to be re-
paired did not get them back, but they were sold by
Eilers. Bischoff says he will lay the whole matter
before the Multnomah County grand jury.
The Portland police received word from San Fran-
cisco to arrest Eilers after the finding of the Cali-
fornia grand jury, but he had already left Portland.
He was traced through Chicago to New York, and
was reported as a guest at the Waldorf-Astoria
hotel. From there he is said to have gone to Can-
ada and taken ship to Hamburg, in his native land.
Eilers came from Germany when he was 14 years
old. What will ever be done with the tangled mess
he has left behind him is hard to tell, and just as
hard for the courts as for the ordinary layman to
figure out.
In Chicago Recently.
The last known of Eilers after he left Portland
was four weeks ago yesterday, Friday, when he
phoned Presto from the Republic Building in Chi-
cago to ask for the latest word from Portland. He
said that he had read the item in Presto about his
disappearance, and protested that he, like the Indian
of the story, was not lost, but right here in Chicago.
But he was lost to his creditors even then, for he
left for New York that night after giving assurance
that he would be in Presto office on the following
morning.
Mr. Eilers leaves a good many creditors of his
Pacific Coast piano enterprises. He has lived a
precarious life during the past six years, since the
failure of his great business, which created a greater
scramble among the manufacturers' agents than any-
thing of the kind in a half-century. For he had built
up a great piano business, and his credit had been
so good that almost any of the larger industries
stood ready to ship promptly and to almost any
extent. In one case, a Chicago manufacturer had
shipped a carload of playerpianos a few days before
word of the Eilers failure came. It was saved by
quick work by wire to Kansas City, where the car
was halted.
But, with all the sensational after-effects of the
Eilers failure, it is probable that the situation, as
explained this week, has not been fully understood
even by the creditors. The methods which were
apparently resorted to by the once-popular piano
man seem to have covered every device known to the
trickiest chapter in the entire history of the trade.
Personally, there has never been a more popular
member of the piano trade than Hy J. Eilers, who
came to this country a poor boy, clerked in a music
store, started for himself in a small way and quickly
reached the top in the trade of the Great West, only
•to fall suddenly and steadily to descend to the depths
of a disgraceful flight back to the land from which he
COL. BRINKERHOFF'S NEW LINE.
Col. W. B. Brinkerhoff is doing fine work for the
Standard Piano Bench Mfg. Co., of Chicago. He
had taken a few week's rest before deciding what he
would next put his experience into, but the piano
trade is the only one that could have much attraction
for him, and so he is now sales manager for western
and southern states. The factory is at 1223-25 West
Lake street, but for a time Col. Brinkerhoff has his
office in the Republic muilding, on State street. He
is securing orders for Standard benches with the
same alacrity that he for so many years did for
pianos.
FINE NEW SHOWROOMS
FOR W. P. HA1NES & CO.
Bradbury, Webster and W. P. Haines & Co.
Lines of Pianos, Players and Reproducing
Pianos in Noteworthy Display in New York.
W. P. Haines & Co., New York, has fitted up spa-
cious and splendidly equipped showrooms at the fac-
tory, 138th street and Walton avenue, and the great
extent and meritorious character of the line is made
immediately plain to visitors. The W. P. Haines &
Co.; the Bradbury and the Webster, in the various
models in uprights, grands, players and reproducing
pianos, certainly make a showing to be proud of.
The instruments are displayed in admirable order,
making an exhibit potent with enthusiastic sugges-
tion to the visiting retailer.
F. G. Smith, Jr., has become permanently asso-
ciated with the business of W. P. Haines & Co., as
director of sales of the F. G. Smith, Bradbury and
Webster pianos and players. Mr. Smith will have
headquarters at the W. P. Haines & Co.'s factory,
New York, but will put in considerable time each
month at the factory in Leominster, Mass.
But an important slice of Mr. Smith's time will be
spent in traveling, calling on his old friends in the
trade, and making new acquaintances to whom it will
be his pleasure to recite the selling qualities of the
entire line of W. P. Haines & Co. His following in
the trade is large and an excellent list of old Brad-
bury customers now continue loyal to the old Brad-
bury piano under its present ownership.
C. B. Norris, the Boston dealer, was one of the
visitors last week to the factory and warerooms of
W. P. Haines & Co. On Saturday he sailed from the
port of New York for a trip around the world. He
sailed for Cairo direct. F. G. Smith, of the W. P.
Haines Co., wished him godspeed at the dock.
SELLING GEO. B. NORRIS
PIANOS BRINGS RESULTS
Firm Composed of Experts Find the Instruments of
Holland Piano Co. Winners.
Medford, Wis., February 12, 1923.
Editor Presto: Just a few lines to let you know
that we are still in the game and doing fine. Also
that we are making a change in our building so we
will have more room and also putting m new display
windows. Business was fine so far this winter. We
expect a good spring trade from all indications.
At the present time we are selling a large number
of Geo. B. Norris pianos made in our own state. We
are proud of this line and at the price cannot be
beaten. At present we are able to give the buyer
anything in the piano line or anything in music.
Drost Brothers will nay you a visit some time in the
near future.
Very truly yours,
DROST BROTHERS.
SMITH & NIXON IN DEMAND.
STARS PRAISE HARDMAN.
The head of one of the largest piano houses in the
Southwest was in Chicago last week for the purpose
of making arrangements, if possible, for the represen-
tation of the Smith & Nixon piano line in his state.
The old Smith & Nixon pianos are having a good
demand since it came into the control of President
A. Goldsmith of the Chicago industry which bears
his name. The Smith & Nixon is destined to be
more popular in the trade than ever before in its
long career.
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Paul Bender and Gustav
Schultzendorf, all of the Metropolitan Opera Co.,
have contributed testimonials to the merits of the
Hardman piano, made by Hardman, Peck & Co.,
New York. Mr. Schultzendorf writes: "It is my
belief that the Hardman far surpasses in tonal quality
a n y other piano." Mr. Lauri-Volpi said: "Its full,
round, singing tone is pure delight and the action is
most satisfying." And Mr. Bender's letter said: "It
gives me pleasure to know that I shall have so per-
fect an instrument for my use."
WILL TUNE IN MISSOURI.
EXHIBITING NEW GRAND.
Wood L. Bailey, of Shelbina, Mo., was in Chicago
late last week enjoying a brief respite from his studies
at Polk's School of Piano Tuning, at Valparaiso, Ind.
Mr. Bailey's uncle is in the piano business at Shelbina
and is doing a good trade in his territory. When
the nephew graduates at Polk's School of Piano Tun-
ing he will return to his home in Missouri to engage
in his profession.
The new small grand now manufactured by the
Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Muskcgon, Mich., is prov-
ing one of the most prominent models, according to
H. D. Bradley, vice-president and manager of the
Chicago branch of the company. One of the new in-
struments, of the four feet eleven inch type, is now
being shown in the Chicago office, and is attracting
much attention by its delightful tone and finish.
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).