Presto
Issue: 1923 1912 - Page 5
March 17, 1923
PRESTO
ment in which suggestion is the central force. Of late the dailv news-
papers in some of the large cities have been carrying advertisements
of that kind in connection with the piano trade.
One day last week a New York piano house ran a two-column
display of which the leading line was an invitation to attend an after-
noon concert. In small letters, the suggestion was added that "the
recital will consume less than an hour, leaving ample time for you to
inspect a complete line of the instruments used by the great artists
who will participate."
There wasn't a word about special pianos, nor any suggestion of
selling, prices or terms. It was just an invitation to a fine concert.
And there are other piano advertisements of suggestion in which
similarly high-toned methods are employed. Last Sunday's Chicago
Tribune had a,.well-displayed Cable Company advertisement in which
the artistic outline of a Grand piano was shown, with the following-
short suggestion beneath it:
"Did it ever occur to you that, owing to its long life and trifling
upkeep, a fine piano in your home costs only a few pennies a day?"
In very inobscure letters the line "Home of the Celebrated Mason
& Hamlin" appeared. Not a word about "bargains" nor any talk
about the "best in the world" was anywhere to be seen. To piano
lovers who follow the Sunday advertisements and are tired of the
commonplace type of advertising, that Cable announcement must
have been a relief. And we are inclined to think that it stirred more
"prospects" with a desire to go to the Cable building on Monday, for
the purpose of buying fine pianos, than could possibly have been in-
fluenced by the other kind of advertising.
Suggestion is a very subtle influence. It often starts people
thinking and awakens the desire of possession when the ballyhoo
style of advertising may turn the reader away in something like dis-
gust. Nor does this mean that the "big bargain" style of advertising
is always lost. It may be the most resultful of all publicity for the
department store, or in special cases where cheap things' are sought.
Cheap things call for the assurance of cheap prices. But are pianos
ever cheap things? Can they be without spoiling the pianos business?
When the advertising expert of the Chase-Hackley Piano Co.
adopted the line "Known since the days of Barbara Fritchie," histori-
cal critics exclaimed that the grey-haired heroine of Frederick was
a myth. An interesting story in this issue of Presto sets the dis-
cussion at rest. The Quaker poet, Whittier, years ago affirmed his
faith in the patriot who defied the hosts of Stonewall Jackson, and
S. ERNEST PHILPITT AND
WIFE IN AUTO ACCIDENT
Prominent Florida Dealer Suffers in Collision With
Wrecked Automobile Near Orlando, Fla.
S. Ernest Philpitt, head of the S. Ernest Philpitt
Music Co., Miami, Ela., and president of the Sheet
Music Dealers Association, was, with Mrs. Philpitt,
painfuly injured in an accident near Orlando, Fla.,
last week when their car collided with a wrecked car
on the highway. Mr. Philpitt, who has music stores
in Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville, is well known
throughout Florida, where his stores sell goods of
high character and are conducted on policies that
make for progress.
But music dealers in all parts of the country, es-
pecially those associated with the sheet music phase
of the business, will be particularly interested in the
nature of Mr. Philpitt's injuries and those of his wife.
While said to be painful, the injuries of the pair are
not considered dangerous.
BALDWIN ARTISTS' SERIES
OF ADS FOR DEALERS
Uniform Set with Portraits and Testimonials of
Great Singers Appreciated by Trade.
A series of fourteen advertisements prepared by the
Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, provide a splendid
succession of displays for Baldwin dealers. They are
double-column newspaper size and convey the fact
in a convincing way that the Baldwin is the choice of
very clever and prominent artists who have chosen
the piano. The ads are similar in layout, show a
portrait of the artist, a cut of the Baldwin grand,
the artist's name in prominent type and his testi-
monial, including a facsimile of his or her signature.
The Baldwin ads feature the following artists:
Georgio Polacco, Feodor Chaliapin, Rosa Raisa, For-
rest Lamont, Georges Baklanoff, Edith Mason,
Claudia Muzio, Cesare Formichi, tna Bourskaya,
even at this late day he has the corroboration of one who has per-
sonal knowledge. As usual, the advertising man was right.
* * *
A well conducted trade paper, reaching active piano dealers, read
by energetic salesmen, and devoted to the systems of selling and in-
spiring the real piano workers, is worth more as an advertising me-
dium than the most widely circulated sketch and picture paper in the
world. In this age of concentration and specialization, the secret of
success lies in the direct aim. Hap-hazzard, scattering effort is waste
of energy and a loss in the expense account.
* * *
The railroads oppose the order of the Interstate Commission that
mileage books for traveling salesmen be issued at reduced rates. But
the commercial tourists have their fighting togs on and will not give
up without a lively tussle. The piano travelers' association consti-
tutes a brigade which will go over the top with the loud pedal on, and
with a louder slogan than "Give a little thought to music." And
they'll win.
A very high compliment was paid to Presto when Mr. Carlos
Doggenweiler, of Santiago, Chile, said that this paper is the best in its
field "because it helps the salesmen to close sales." That's just what
this paper has tried to do for nearly forty years, and 'tis a great satis-
faction to know Jhat its aims are effective. The political papers may
look after politics and the handsome portraits of the politicians.
* * *
The New York Times of last Sunday contained a leading editorial
on "New York's Music Week," telling of the newly incorporated
Music Week Association and its splendid plans. The column editorial
concluded with: "If only the people can be got to sing, it will, as
the Spanish proverb has it, drive away their troubles. A week of
singing ought, at any rate, to cheer up the world a bit."
*r
"fc
-r
One more small Grand piano industry is organizing in the Mid-
West. It will be a large one. The demand for little Grands must
be satisfied, and the enterprise of the industry will see that it is sat-
isfied fully.
=H
*
*
The call for consigned pianos grows every week. This paper has
received more than twenty requests for addresses of manufacturers
who consign within less than three weeks. Have "them days gone
forever ?"
Giacomo Rimini, Ettore Panizza, Guilio Crimi, Pietro
Cimini and Grace Hoist.
Here is what Feodor Chaliapin, the famous Rus-
sian bass, says: "I have chosen the Baldwin piano
in preference to others because 1 find it the most ad-
mirably suited to my accompaniments."
Polacco, of the Chicago Grand Opera Company,
says: "I cannot speak too highly of the Baldwin
piano. In tone and in brilliancy it fulfills the great-
est demands of an artist. It gives me, therefore,
great pleasure to recommend the Baldwin."
They are samples of what the great artists say
about the Baldwin piano.
SHOWS STAUNCH CHARACTER
OF KOHLER & CAMPBELL PIANO
Letter From Florida Customer Gives Valuable Tes-
timentory Evidence of Piano's Durability.
The following letter recently received by Kohler &
Campbell, Inc., New York, from a woman who had
purchased one of its pianos over thirteen years ago
is an eloquent tribute to the durability and tonal
qualities of the Kohler & Campbell piano:
"Thirteen years ago we bought one of your pianos
from your agent, Mr. Lansford, of Ocala, Fla. Nine
years ago we were moving and loaded the piano on a
wagon, just as the team moved the piano fell out of
the wagon bottom side up, and about three weeks ago
we had a piano tuner to stop and look it over. He
said it was not out of tune at all, it just needed
cleaning and a few new felts put in. I am sure well
pleased with it and can recommend your make to
any one wishing to buy one."'
WHY FRATERNAL ORDERS
NEED AUTOMATIC PIANOS
Most Men Are Music Lovers, But Poor Players,
Opines Manager of Operators' Co.
Dealers who handle automatic instruments may
well take a tip from the Operators' Piano Co., Chi-
cago, and develop the prospects they have in the
fraternal orders such as lodges in their communities.
In writing to a lodge committee recently, Manager
A. C. Stadler, of the Operators' Co., outlined several
reasons why a lodge needs an automatic piano, and
how it will profit the order.
. We are all susceptible to music, especially good
music, began Mr. Stadler. Most men, he said, join
an organization for the social amusements and pleas-
ure he can derive from it, and these are usually found
in a lodge or club of a fraternal nature. In this
social intercourse music is one of the necessities to
keep up interest. Now most men are poor players at
best, and the majority do not even know how to
play. An automatic placed in a lodge room provides
music at all occasions, either for the diversion of a
small group of early comers or for a dance, or any
other entertainment.
"I have seen lodges put in an automatic piano and
then watched the attendance grow steadily to fifty
or seventy-five per cent higher," Mr. Stadler told a
Presto representative. ''There is always the chance
to amuse oneself by the automatic while waiting for
the meeting to start. It takes away the dull mo-
ments, and leaves the members the feeling of refresh-
ing entertainment that they want from the club."
A. B. CHASE FOR HIGH SCHOOL.
SIOUX CITY HALL APPRECIATED.
The Recital Hall of the Pierce Piano Co., Sioux
City, la., is equipped with a Baldwin grand piano
which is used in accompaniments for solo and or-
chestra uses at the frequent concerts in the hall. At
the conclusion of a concert by the pupils of Miss
Mary Wall Dow, one of the city's foremost vocalists,
Miss Dow said: "It was a joy to sing with the
Baldwin."
The W. P. Van W'ickle Piano Co., Washington,
D. C, recently placed an A. B. Chase grand piano
in the music room of the new Eastern High School
just completed at a cost of $3,000,000 in the Capitol
Hill section of the city. It is another evidence of the
success of piano merit presented by the energetic
music company. It is an addition to a long list of
A. B. Chase pianos placed in prominent institutions
by the W. P. Van Wickle Piano Co.
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
ment in which suggestion is the central force. Of late the dailv news-
papers in some of the large cities have been carrying advertisements
of that kind in connection with the piano trade.
One day last week a New York piano house ran a two-column
display of which the leading line was an invitation to attend an after-
noon concert. In small letters, the suggestion was added that "the
recital will consume less than an hour, leaving ample time for you to
inspect a complete line of the instruments used by the great artists
who will participate."
There wasn't a word about special pianos, nor any suggestion of
selling, prices or terms. It was just an invitation to a fine concert.
And there are other piano advertisements of suggestion in which
similarly high-toned methods are employed. Last Sunday's Chicago
Tribune had a,.well-displayed Cable Company advertisement in which
the artistic outline of a Grand piano was shown, with the following-
short suggestion beneath it:
"Did it ever occur to you that, owing to its long life and trifling
upkeep, a fine piano in your home costs only a few pennies a day?"
In very inobscure letters the line "Home of the Celebrated Mason
& Hamlin" appeared. Not a word about "bargains" nor any talk
about the "best in the world" was anywhere to be seen. To piano
lovers who follow the Sunday advertisements and are tired of the
commonplace type of advertising, that Cable announcement must
have been a relief. And we are inclined to think that it stirred more
"prospects" with a desire to go to the Cable building on Monday, for
the purpose of buying fine pianos, than could possibly have been in-
fluenced by the other kind of advertising.
Suggestion is a very subtle influence. It often starts people
thinking and awakens the desire of possession when the ballyhoo
style of advertising may turn the reader away in something like dis-
gust. Nor does this mean that the "big bargain" style of advertising
is always lost. It may be the most resultful of all publicity for the
department store, or in special cases where cheap things' are sought.
Cheap things call for the assurance of cheap prices. But are pianos
ever cheap things? Can they be without spoiling the pianos business?
When the advertising expert of the Chase-Hackley Piano Co.
adopted the line "Known since the days of Barbara Fritchie," histori-
cal critics exclaimed that the grey-haired heroine of Frederick was
a myth. An interesting story in this issue of Presto sets the dis-
cussion at rest. The Quaker poet, Whittier, years ago affirmed his
faith in the patriot who defied the hosts of Stonewall Jackson, and
S. ERNEST PHILPITT AND
WIFE IN AUTO ACCIDENT
Prominent Florida Dealer Suffers in Collision With
Wrecked Automobile Near Orlando, Fla.
S. Ernest Philpitt, head of the S. Ernest Philpitt
Music Co., Miami, Ela., and president of the Sheet
Music Dealers Association, was, with Mrs. Philpitt,
painfuly injured in an accident near Orlando, Fla.,
last week when their car collided with a wrecked car
on the highway. Mr. Philpitt, who has music stores
in Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville, is well known
throughout Florida, where his stores sell goods of
high character and are conducted on policies that
make for progress.
But music dealers in all parts of the country, es-
pecially those associated with the sheet music phase
of the business, will be particularly interested in the
nature of Mr. Philpitt's injuries and those of his wife.
While said to be painful, the injuries of the pair are
not considered dangerous.
BALDWIN ARTISTS' SERIES
OF ADS FOR DEALERS
Uniform Set with Portraits and Testimonials of
Great Singers Appreciated by Trade.
A series of fourteen advertisements prepared by the
Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, provide a splendid
succession of displays for Baldwin dealers. They are
double-column newspaper size and convey the fact
in a convincing way that the Baldwin is the choice of
very clever and prominent artists who have chosen
the piano. The ads are similar in layout, show a
portrait of the artist, a cut of the Baldwin grand,
the artist's name in prominent type and his testi-
monial, including a facsimile of his or her signature.
The Baldwin ads feature the following artists:
Georgio Polacco, Feodor Chaliapin, Rosa Raisa, For-
rest Lamont, Georges Baklanoff, Edith Mason,
Claudia Muzio, Cesare Formichi, tna Bourskaya,
even at this late day he has the corroboration of one who has per-
sonal knowledge. As usual, the advertising man was right.
* * *
A well conducted trade paper, reaching active piano dealers, read
by energetic salesmen, and devoted to the systems of selling and in-
spiring the real piano workers, is worth more as an advertising me-
dium than the most widely circulated sketch and picture paper in the
world. In this age of concentration and specialization, the secret of
success lies in the direct aim. Hap-hazzard, scattering effort is waste
of energy and a loss in the expense account.
* * *
The railroads oppose the order of the Interstate Commission that
mileage books for traveling salesmen be issued at reduced rates. But
the commercial tourists have their fighting togs on and will not give
up without a lively tussle. The piano travelers' association consti-
tutes a brigade which will go over the top with the loud pedal on, and
with a louder slogan than "Give a little thought to music." And
they'll win.
A very high compliment was paid to Presto when Mr. Carlos
Doggenweiler, of Santiago, Chile, said that this paper is the best in its
field "because it helps the salesmen to close sales." That's just what
this paper has tried to do for nearly forty years, and 'tis a great satis-
faction to know Jhat its aims are effective. The political papers may
look after politics and the handsome portraits of the politicians.
* * *
The New York Times of last Sunday contained a leading editorial
on "New York's Music Week," telling of the newly incorporated
Music Week Association and its splendid plans. The column editorial
concluded with: "If only the people can be got to sing, it will, as
the Spanish proverb has it, drive away their troubles. A week of
singing ought, at any rate, to cheer up the world a bit."
*r
"fc
-r
One more small Grand piano industry is organizing in the Mid-
West. It will be a large one. The demand for little Grands must
be satisfied, and the enterprise of the industry will see that it is sat-
isfied fully.
=H
*
*
The call for consigned pianos grows every week. This paper has
received more than twenty requests for addresses of manufacturers
who consign within less than three weeks. Have "them days gone
forever ?"
Giacomo Rimini, Ettore Panizza, Guilio Crimi, Pietro
Cimini and Grace Hoist.
Here is what Feodor Chaliapin, the famous Rus-
sian bass, says: "I have chosen the Baldwin piano
in preference to others because 1 find it the most ad-
mirably suited to my accompaniments."
Polacco, of the Chicago Grand Opera Company,
says: "I cannot speak too highly of the Baldwin
piano. In tone and in brilliancy it fulfills the great-
est demands of an artist. It gives me, therefore,
great pleasure to recommend the Baldwin."
They are samples of what the great artists say
about the Baldwin piano.
SHOWS STAUNCH CHARACTER
OF KOHLER & CAMPBELL PIANO
Letter From Florida Customer Gives Valuable Tes-
timentory Evidence of Piano's Durability.
The following letter recently received by Kohler &
Campbell, Inc., New York, from a woman who had
purchased one of its pianos over thirteen years ago
is an eloquent tribute to the durability and tonal
qualities of the Kohler & Campbell piano:
"Thirteen years ago we bought one of your pianos
from your agent, Mr. Lansford, of Ocala, Fla. Nine
years ago we were moving and loaded the piano on a
wagon, just as the team moved the piano fell out of
the wagon bottom side up, and about three weeks ago
we had a piano tuner to stop and look it over. He
said it was not out of tune at all, it just needed
cleaning and a few new felts put in. I am sure well
pleased with it and can recommend your make to
any one wishing to buy one."'
WHY FRATERNAL ORDERS
NEED AUTOMATIC PIANOS
Most Men Are Music Lovers, But Poor Players,
Opines Manager of Operators' Co.
Dealers who handle automatic instruments may
well take a tip from the Operators' Piano Co., Chi-
cago, and develop the prospects they have in the
fraternal orders such as lodges in their communities.
In writing to a lodge committee recently, Manager
A. C. Stadler, of the Operators' Co., outlined several
reasons why a lodge needs an automatic piano, and
how it will profit the order.
. We are all susceptible to music, especially good
music, began Mr. Stadler. Most men, he said, join
an organization for the social amusements and pleas-
ure he can derive from it, and these are usually found
in a lodge or club of a fraternal nature. In this
social intercourse music is one of the necessities to
keep up interest. Now most men are poor players at
best, and the majority do not even know how to
play. An automatic placed in a lodge room provides
music at all occasions, either for the diversion of a
small group of early comers or for a dance, or any
other entertainment.
"I have seen lodges put in an automatic piano and
then watched the attendance grow steadily to fifty
or seventy-five per cent higher," Mr. Stadler told a
Presto representative. ''There is always the chance
to amuse oneself by the automatic while waiting for
the meeting to start. It takes away the dull mo-
ments, and leaves the members the feeling of refresh-
ing entertainment that they want from the club."
A. B. CHASE FOR HIGH SCHOOL.
SIOUX CITY HALL APPRECIATED.
The Recital Hall of the Pierce Piano Co., Sioux
City, la., is equipped with a Baldwin grand piano
which is used in accompaniments for solo and or-
chestra uses at the frequent concerts in the hall. At
the conclusion of a concert by the pupils of Miss
Mary Wall Dow, one of the city's foremost vocalists,
Miss Dow said: "It was a joy to sing with the
Baldwin."
The W. P. Van W'ickle Piano Co., Washington,
D. C, recently placed an A. B. Chase grand piano
in the music room of the new Eastern High School
just completed at a cost of $3,000,000 in the Capitol
Hill section of the city. It is another evidence of the
success of piano merit presented by the energetic
music company. It is an addition to a long list of
A. B. Chase pianos placed in prominent institutions
by the W. P. Van Wickle Piano Co.
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).