Presto
Issue: 1923 1914 - Page 5
PRESTO
March 31, 1923
the hour of payment to pass, and then find that they might, have been
saved their credit by stating the facts to the banker, or still earlier
making arrangements with the manufacturer for a renewal. A frank
explanation made in season would have saved the manufacturer the
discounting privilege of the same customer's paper who, by his lack
of business energy, has also spoiled his own credit at home.
The Baldwin advice is good. The local dealer should build up
his credit so that the banker will be glad to take his paper, without
question. The maker of the paper, for purposes of buying a piano,
may be good; so much the better. Or it may be the promise-to-pay
of a citizen whose credit is not fixed at the bank ; in which case the
dealer's indorsement is sufficient. Again, so much the better. In
either case the banker knows that his profit is earned safely, and
that there is no question about the paper being paid at maturity.
That is the kind of "paper" to which the Baldwin Piano Co. re-
fers. And without that kind of paper to buy, the local banker could
not prosper very well. It is true that he is also, in a sense, a mer-
chant. He has money to sell. His customers are the other merchants,
his neighbors and friends, and he must be made to value the piano
merchant more highly, as a customer, than most others. For the
piano merchant must sell his goods on time, taking "paper" instead
If you are not already "strong" with your banker, get acquainted
with him, learn something about banking and the rules of credit. You
will then be able to sell more pianos, keep your manufacturers satis-
fied, contribute to the profit of your banker, and make more money
for yourself.
AUTOS AND PIANOS
Piano men who, a few years ago, were turning envious eyes
toward the automobile business are now keeping more contented gaze
upon their own affairs. They have discovered that the motor bus
business is not all that fiction has painted it, or even what it was in
the earlier days of its speedy career.
Competition is at once the life and death of business. It may
stimulate a larger volume of sales but it usually serves also to strangle
profits. And what's the use of working hard to convince people they
want a thing only to find that some competitor is carrying off the
results? Or, just as bad, what's the good of doing a large business
if the net result of it is a deficit in the profit and loss account?
Today the automobile business presents about the hottest field
of competition. It requires more capital to start in the car-selling
game in a small way than it does to open a well equipped piano house.
And the proposition of profit is smaller than in the piano business,
while the competition has become so intense that the salesman who
succeeds must be a genius as well as a marvel of persistency. A good
share of the active young men you meet in the city streets nursing
the "document" or "brief" case, are automobile salesmen. They may
be seen running around in the big office buildings early and late. The
phones tinkle steadily and the voice from the wire asks if you have
a car, or if you are really satisfied with it? That's real competition.
It is customary with the motor manufacturers to exact that the
agency for any good car carry with it an initial order which runs
SPECIAL ROLL HOLDER
IN F. RADLE PLAYERPIANOS
Patented Device Adds Strong Argument to Dealer's
Plea for Handsome and Durable Line.
The tone of course is the paramount feature of the
F. Radle piano and playerpiano. It is the delight of
the musician. But F. Radle dealers speak for the
actual owners when they say the durability of the
instruments is a great cause of delight. In selling
the Radle playerpiano the dealers are strengthened in
their arguments when they point to the Uneek Music
Roll Holder which is a valuable patented device of
the F. Radle, Inc.
The advantages of the Uneek Music Roll Holder
makes the F. Radle playerpiano doubly desirable.
They are so obvious that the salesman does not need
to voice its claims. The F. Radle Players de Luxe,
equipped with the Uneek Music Roll Holder, is one
of the biggest sellers in a fine line of instruments
from the factory at 609-611 West 36th street, New
York. The entire range of F. Radle playerpianos
have assumed their conspicuous place in the estima-
tion of dealers and customers by reason of their un-
challenged merits. They are made upon the most
approved principles and possess improvements of
well up into the dollars, with stipulation of a fixed volume of sales
during the year. When a similar provision was suggested in the
piano business, a howl arose that killed the proposition almost before
it had been started.
No, it's an easy business, this of selling pianos. No other line of
manufacturers is so considerate or more ready to help customers to
success. About all that is really necessary to enter the piano trade
and to win success, is an upright character. Honesty is here the
prime capital. A very small cash investment, and plenty of energy
and willingness to win, will do the rest. Active young men, pos-
sessed of initiative and persistency can meet with every requirement
anywhere. And in net results the piano dealer can outrun the motor
car seller in everything that is worth considering.
Within a week two automobile representatives have called at the
offices of this trade paper to discuss the qualifications of certain piano
salesmen who had been considering a change of pasture. And it was
an education in comparative possibilities to hear the motor car men
tell of the advantages and disadvantages of their business. The re-
sult was that there could be no wonderment in the fact that a number
of piano men who had gone into the car-selling trade returned again
to the good old "piano game," after a comparatively brief experience
in "automobile row."
If you're in the piano trade, stick. If you're not and, having ca-
pacity as a salesman and enough grit to do things, want to change, it
may pay you to consider seriously coming into it.
There is still a good demand for reed organs—in Calcutta. The
regular, old-fashioned "parlor top" organs, with lamp stands and the
rest, sell in the Indian market for about what they used to bring in
the U. S. back in the '80's. And the little folding organs sell for from
$40 to $65. The A. L. White Mfg. Co., of Chicago, ships a good many
of the little portable organs to distant countries.
* * *
The Straube is the latest ambitious piano to broaden into national
advertising. One-half of the attention-compelling page in this issue
of Presto is a reproduction of the liberal space which appears in this
week's Saturday Evening Post. Straube enterprise is of the kind
that keeps the American piano industry at the very forefront of the
world's things of music.
* * *
The large number of piano manufacturers who are preparing to
have special displays of their instruments during the Chicago conven-
tion, seems to negative the notion that "commercialism" is not wanted
at the annual gatherings. It will be a scattered exhibition, but a
big one.
* * *
There seems to be promise of a change in the immigration laws,
by which a greater number of expert piano makers will be permitted
to come across. It is what a good many piano manufacturers have
been asking for.
* * *
It's now only just two months to the big conventions at the Drake
Hotel, in Chicago. The promise is for one of the biggest meetings in
trade history. Don't fail to get ready to be there.
peculiar power to please the public and the trade.
The player cases equipped with the patent roll holder
are new and original and the special work of Mr.
Radle.
VISITOR FROM PHILADELPHIA.
M. Tuteur, manager of the piano department of
Snellenberg & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., was a cheery
visitor in the Chicago piano wholesale market during
the past week. Mr. Tuteur gave a pleasant report
of activity in the Quaker City, saying that the music
trade is on firm legs and shows no indication of
quivering. "The piano department of Snellenberg &
Co. is one of the strongest parts of the business,
and one of the most active," said Mr. Tuteur. "We
are continually building it up, and expect great re-
sults this year." Mr. Tuteur made a number of selec-
tions and purchases of pianos for his department.
MANY M. SCHULZ'S SHIPPED.
Quite a considerable percent of the production of
the M. Schulz Co., Chicago, is now going to the Pa-
cific coast, due to the heavy ordering from that re-
gion of the country. However, the Schulz business
is good in all parts of the country, according to Fred
Bassett, vice-president. The coast has been a heavy
buyer of the Schulz pianos for some time.
STRANGE GUY WHO NEVER
HEARD OF JESSE FRENCH
If You Received the Souvenir From New Castle You
Have Read This Quip.
Did you ever possess a key-charm pocket knife?
Some of the representatives of the Jesse French &
Sons Piano Co. have them. And when the souvenir
arrived it had a story attached. It was headed,
"Never Heard of Jesse French," and read as follows:
'There was a guy just left here who said he never
heard of Jesse French.
"I asked him, 'Where do you live?'
"He said, 'On the Canary Islands.'
"I said, 'Jesse French don't sell Canary Birds. He
sells pianos.' "
It would be necessary to travel much further than
the Canary Isles to find people who haven't heard of
the Jesse French pianos. They're as well known as
the famed "King of the Canary Isles," which re-
minds of the linguist who, when asked if he knew
French, answered: "Sure, I know French! He makes
pianos in the town they carry coals to!" The Jesse
French & Sons pocket souvenir is a beauty.
A radio department has been added by the United
Music Stores, Inc., Philadelphia.
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/
March 31, 1923
the hour of payment to pass, and then find that they might, have been
saved their credit by stating the facts to the banker, or still earlier
making arrangements with the manufacturer for a renewal. A frank
explanation made in season would have saved the manufacturer the
discounting privilege of the same customer's paper who, by his lack
of business energy, has also spoiled his own credit at home.
The Baldwin advice is good. The local dealer should build up
his credit so that the banker will be glad to take his paper, without
question. The maker of the paper, for purposes of buying a piano,
may be good; so much the better. Or it may be the promise-to-pay
of a citizen whose credit is not fixed at the bank ; in which case the
dealer's indorsement is sufficient. Again, so much the better. In
either case the banker knows that his profit is earned safely, and
that there is no question about the paper being paid at maturity.
That is the kind of "paper" to which the Baldwin Piano Co. re-
fers. And without that kind of paper to buy, the local banker could
not prosper very well. It is true that he is also, in a sense, a mer-
chant. He has money to sell. His customers are the other merchants,
his neighbors and friends, and he must be made to value the piano
merchant more highly, as a customer, than most others. For the
piano merchant must sell his goods on time, taking "paper" instead
If you are not already "strong" with your banker, get acquainted
with him, learn something about banking and the rules of credit. You
will then be able to sell more pianos, keep your manufacturers satis-
fied, contribute to the profit of your banker, and make more money
for yourself.
AUTOS AND PIANOS
Piano men who, a few years ago, were turning envious eyes
toward the automobile business are now keeping more contented gaze
upon their own affairs. They have discovered that the motor bus
business is not all that fiction has painted it, or even what it was in
the earlier days of its speedy career.
Competition is at once the life and death of business. It may
stimulate a larger volume of sales but it usually serves also to strangle
profits. And what's the use of working hard to convince people they
want a thing only to find that some competitor is carrying off the
results? Or, just as bad, what's the good of doing a large business
if the net result of it is a deficit in the profit and loss account?
Today the automobile business presents about the hottest field
of competition. It requires more capital to start in the car-selling
game in a small way than it does to open a well equipped piano house.
And the proposition of profit is smaller than in the piano business,
while the competition has become so intense that the salesman who
succeeds must be a genius as well as a marvel of persistency. A good
share of the active young men you meet in the city streets nursing
the "document" or "brief" case, are automobile salesmen. They may
be seen running around in the big office buildings early and late. The
phones tinkle steadily and the voice from the wire asks if you have
a car, or if you are really satisfied with it? That's real competition.
It is customary with the motor manufacturers to exact that the
agency for any good car carry with it an initial order which runs
SPECIAL ROLL HOLDER
IN F. RADLE PLAYERPIANOS
Patented Device Adds Strong Argument to Dealer's
Plea for Handsome and Durable Line.
The tone of course is the paramount feature of the
F. Radle piano and playerpiano. It is the delight of
the musician. But F. Radle dealers speak for the
actual owners when they say the durability of the
instruments is a great cause of delight. In selling
the Radle playerpiano the dealers are strengthened in
their arguments when they point to the Uneek Music
Roll Holder which is a valuable patented device of
the F. Radle, Inc.
The advantages of the Uneek Music Roll Holder
makes the F. Radle playerpiano doubly desirable.
They are so obvious that the salesman does not need
to voice its claims. The F. Radle Players de Luxe,
equipped with the Uneek Music Roll Holder, is one
of the biggest sellers in a fine line of instruments
from the factory at 609-611 West 36th street, New
York. The entire range of F. Radle playerpianos
have assumed their conspicuous place in the estima-
tion of dealers and customers by reason of their un-
challenged merits. They are made upon the most
approved principles and possess improvements of
well up into the dollars, with stipulation of a fixed volume of sales
during the year. When a similar provision was suggested in the
piano business, a howl arose that killed the proposition almost before
it had been started.
No, it's an easy business, this of selling pianos. No other line of
manufacturers is so considerate or more ready to help customers to
success. About all that is really necessary to enter the piano trade
and to win success, is an upright character. Honesty is here the
prime capital. A very small cash investment, and plenty of energy
and willingness to win, will do the rest. Active young men, pos-
sessed of initiative and persistency can meet with every requirement
anywhere. And in net results the piano dealer can outrun the motor
car seller in everything that is worth considering.
Within a week two automobile representatives have called at the
offices of this trade paper to discuss the qualifications of certain piano
salesmen who had been considering a change of pasture. And it was
an education in comparative possibilities to hear the motor car men
tell of the advantages and disadvantages of their business. The re-
sult was that there could be no wonderment in the fact that a number
of piano men who had gone into the car-selling trade returned again
to the good old "piano game," after a comparatively brief experience
in "automobile row."
If you're in the piano trade, stick. If you're not and, having ca-
pacity as a salesman and enough grit to do things, want to change, it
may pay you to consider seriously coming into it.
There is still a good demand for reed organs—in Calcutta. The
regular, old-fashioned "parlor top" organs, with lamp stands and the
rest, sell in the Indian market for about what they used to bring in
the U. S. back in the '80's. And the little folding organs sell for from
$40 to $65. The A. L. White Mfg. Co., of Chicago, ships a good many
of the little portable organs to distant countries.
* * *
The Straube is the latest ambitious piano to broaden into national
advertising. One-half of the attention-compelling page in this issue
of Presto is a reproduction of the liberal space which appears in this
week's Saturday Evening Post. Straube enterprise is of the kind
that keeps the American piano industry at the very forefront of the
world's things of music.
* * *
The large number of piano manufacturers who are preparing to
have special displays of their instruments during the Chicago conven-
tion, seems to negative the notion that "commercialism" is not wanted
at the annual gatherings. It will be a scattered exhibition, but a
big one.
* * *
There seems to be promise of a change in the immigration laws,
by which a greater number of expert piano makers will be permitted
to come across. It is what a good many piano manufacturers have
been asking for.
* * *
It's now only just two months to the big conventions at the Drake
Hotel, in Chicago. The promise is for one of the biggest meetings in
trade history. Don't fail to get ready to be there.
peculiar power to please the public and the trade.
The player cases equipped with the patent roll holder
are new and original and the special work of Mr.
Radle.
VISITOR FROM PHILADELPHIA.
M. Tuteur, manager of the piano department of
Snellenberg & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., was a cheery
visitor in the Chicago piano wholesale market during
the past week. Mr. Tuteur gave a pleasant report
of activity in the Quaker City, saying that the music
trade is on firm legs and shows no indication of
quivering. "The piano department of Snellenberg &
Co. is one of the strongest parts of the business,
and one of the most active," said Mr. Tuteur. "We
are continually building it up, and expect great re-
sults this year." Mr. Tuteur made a number of selec-
tions and purchases of pianos for his department.
MANY M. SCHULZ'S SHIPPED.
Quite a considerable percent of the production of
the M. Schulz Co., Chicago, is now going to the Pa-
cific coast, due to the heavy ordering from that re-
gion of the country. However, the Schulz business
is good in all parts of the country, according to Fred
Bassett, vice-president. The coast has been a heavy
buyer of the Schulz pianos for some time.
STRANGE GUY WHO NEVER
HEARD OF JESSE FRENCH
If You Received the Souvenir From New Castle You
Have Read This Quip.
Did you ever possess a key-charm pocket knife?
Some of the representatives of the Jesse French &
Sons Piano Co. have them. And when the souvenir
arrived it had a story attached. It was headed,
"Never Heard of Jesse French," and read as follows:
'There was a guy just left here who said he never
heard of Jesse French.
"I asked him, 'Where do you live?'
"He said, 'On the Canary Islands.'
"I said, 'Jesse French don't sell Canary Birds. He
sells pianos.' "
It would be necessary to travel much further than
the Canary Isles to find people who haven't heard of
the Jesse French pianos. They're as well known as
the famed "King of the Canary Isles," which re-
minds of the linguist who, when asked if he knew
French, answered: "Sure, I know French! He makes
pianos in the town they carry coals to!" The Jesse
French & Sons pocket souvenir is a beauty.
A radio department has been added by the United
Music Stores, Inc., Philadelphia.
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).