Presto

PRESTO
April 14, 1923
CHRISTMAN
REPRODUCING PIANO
Has no superior, and is Adding
to the Distinction of its Name,
and to the results of the Deal-
ers' Sales. The
Electrically Operated
Reproducing
Grands and Uprights
CALIFORNIA INTEREST IN
NATIONAL CONVENTION
Big Attendance From Far-West Is Now
Assured According to General Opinion
of Prominent Men.
One of the big state delegations to the June con-
ventions of the music trade at the Drake Hotel, Chi-
cago, will be from California. There has been an
expectation to that effect since setting of the dates
but following the recent visit to the Pacific Coast of
Alex McDonald, representing the executive board of
the National Association of Music Merchants the
bare expectation has become an assurance.
From end to end of the Pacific Coast Mr. McDonald
talked convention in the enthusiastic way usual with
him. That he aroused the desire to attend the big
gathering at the Drake in a great number of Cali-
fornia dealers is now one of the pleasant certainties
connected with the conventions. Many music mer-
chants from cities and towns in the interior will at-
tend their first national convention and help to swell
the numbers from San Francisco, Los Angeles, San
Diego and the other California cities.
Among the dealers west of the Rockies who will
join the Pacific Coast crowd in attending the conven-
tion is Eugene Redewill, head of the Redewill Music
Co., Phoenix, Ariz. In a recent business trip to San
Francisco Mr. Redewill signified his intention of
being one of the enthusiastic hosts from the far-west.
He has been busy on plans for remodeling his store,
but he believes he will be free to go east by June 1.
B. P. Sibley, Pacific Coast manager of the Kohler
Industries, with offices in San Francisco returned last
week from Los Angeles, where he had accompanied
Mr. McDonald on his mission to arouse trade interest
in the "1923 Prosperity Convention." According to
Mr. Sibley, Los Angeles will vie with San Francisco
in sending the biggest delegation to the conventions
in Chicago in June. San Diego will also be strongly
represented in the opinion of Mr. Sibley. In this
opinion he is borne out by Frank Anrys of the Wiley
B. Allen Co., San Francisco, who recently visited
the Los Angeles branch of the firm, and by Charles
L. Ilch, Southern California representative of the
Q R S Music Co.
Possess Features of their own
in which are insured the
DEVELOPING SPANISH*
AMERICAN BUSINESS
Best Effects and Most
Satisfactory Results
Brinkerhoff Piano Co., Chicago, Prepares to Take
Care of Big Trade from Southern Countries.
to Dealers and their Customers.
A line of Christman Reproduc-
ing- Pianos will add to Success
of any good house.
Enhance Your Future Prosper-
ity By Investigating
the
Irresistible Appeal of
CHRISTMAN
GRANDS, UPRIGHTS
PLAYERS
and
REPRODUCING PIANOS
"The First Touch Tells"
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
The Brinkerhoff Piano Co., Chicago, is preparing
to do a considerable business in the South and Cen-
tral American countries this season, having prepared
a special Spanish catalog for the convenience of
dealers and salesmen in these countries. The field
in Mexico is now being covered by W. S. Lanz, spe-
cial salesman for the Brinkerhoff Company.
Mr. Lanz is calling on a number of the prominent
piano sellers of Mexico to line them up for a good
business, and to find out what the prospects are for
the next few months. He is expected to return to
the general office in Chicago with a full report and
comprehensive data on the piano trade in Mexico.
The Spanish catalog has been prepared with atten-
tion to the demands of dealers in the southern part
of this hemisphere. It is much similar to a recent
English edition of the Brinkerhoff piano catalog. It
is entirely in Spanish, however, and is so arranged
as to be of especial opportunity to the South and
Central American music retailer.
BACK TO OLD LOCATION
AND PROUD OF MOVE
On Moving Day Last Week W. T. Crane Gives
Interesting Facts of Business History.
The W. T. Crane Piano Co.. Syracuse, N. Y.,
moved last week from 345 Salina street to 352 on the
same street. The new store occupied last week is
really the old store to W. T. Crane, head of the
company. It was there nearly 30 years, moving when
Mr. Crane took over the bankrupt Greenleaf Piano
Company in South Warren street. He always wanted
to get back and moved across the street a few years
ago, he said, "to keep my eye on the place." When it
became available a few weeks ago, he joyfully signed
a new lease.
"I hope I'll be here at least 20 years more," he said.
"It feels like home."
Sitting again in the old office at 352 South Salina
street, which he left nine years ago for another across
the street, Mr. Crane watched workmen moving his
immense stock of pianos, talking machines, musical
merchandise and accessories across the street from
the store at 345.
"It makes me laugh to think today of the first
office I moved into," he said. "It was in 1892 when I
rented a room on the top floor of the old Kirk Block
and started business with exactly $179.75. By the
time I had paid a month's rent, bought a desk and
paid a mighty slim installment on my first two pianos,
I had just 75 cents left.
"I took 35 cents of it and paid for a want-ad ia
The Herald—you could get a good one for that
price in those days. That left me only 40 cents for
running expenses, but it was enough. The Herald
ad. produced a customer and then more customers.
It probably saved me from starvation and it's been
doing that right along ever since.
It is a long way in years from that office in the
Kirk Block, with two partly-paid for pianos, to the
new store at 352 South Salina street, with 100 or
more instruments always on hand. The new store is
really "the old store" to the W. T. Crane Piano Co.
RECENT EASTERN VISIT OF
STRAUBE SUPERINTENDENT
Inventor of the Artronome Player Action and Other
Improvements Renewed Old Friendships.
W. G. Betz, general superintendent of the Straube
Piano Company, Hammond, Indiana, has just re-
turned from a week's trip to Buffalo and points East.
Mr. Betz, who is well known to the trade for his
many inventions, saw many of his former friends and
associates while away, as his early days in the indus-
try were spent in the East.
Mr. Betz has gone through the mill, from the' bot-
tom up. He is credited with being one of the first
to see the tremendous possibilities of the playerpiano,
and, in his famous invention, the Artronome player
action, which is an outstanding feature of Straube-
built players, has given to the industry one of its
most remarkable contributions of recent years.
SOME VERY LATE OPENINGS
IN THE RETAIL MUSIC TRADE
A Few of the New Ventures in the Best Business in
the World.
The Snyder & Snyder Music Co., is a new firm
at 2238 East Fourth street, Long Beach, Cal.
Isaac Doner, music dealer, Rye, N. Y., has pur-
chased the interest of Fred H. Ponty in a music
store at 17 North Main street, Port Chester, N. Y.
The Hardy Music Co., recently moved to a new
store in the Elk's Building, Bay City, Mich.
Pianos, phonographs, musical merchandise and
radio supplies are handled by J. T. Guerette in a
store recently opened in the Reeves Building, Chan-
dler, Okla.
Miss Bessie O'Callaghan is proprietor of a new
music store at 122 W. Main street, Staunton, Va.
The piano department of the Shuck Music Co.,
Glendale, Cal., was recently enlarged to accommo-
date an increase in the piano and playerpiano stock.
Lord & Co., Lawrence, Mass., are in new quar-
ters at 440 Essex street.
J. A. Abrams, Biloxi, Miss., has opened a branch
store in Gulfport, Miss.
The Steiner Music Co., Dayton, O., has moved
from Fifth and Stone streets to 120 East Fifth street.
THE BOSTON BANQUET.
April 17 is the day set for the banquet and meeting
of the New England Music Trade Association at the
Hotel Somerset, Boston. William F. Merrill sent
out a final reminder last week to all members of the
association. The banquet is going to be in the big
ballroom of the hotel, and ladies are cordially invited.
One of Boston's best orchestras will play and there
will be dancing. Noted speakers are to be present
and Mr. Merrill says in his announcement: "In a
host of ways this affair will surpass in interest any-
thing the association has ever done." The manu-
facturers have sent letters out to all their dealers in
New England urging them to come.
MOVES IN BINGHAMPTON.
Sullivan Brothers, which has conducted a music
store at 122 Chenango street, Binghamton, N. Y., for
the last two years, has moved to its new store at 178
Washington street. The new store extends through
to State sreet, with an entrance at 129 State street.
There the firm will carry a larger stock than ever
before of pianos, playerpianos and phonographs.
ON BUSINESS TRIPS.
Several Chicago wholesalers had occasion this
week to make trips to call on their dealers out of
town. Among them were C. E. Jackson, sales-
manager of The Cable Co., Secretary E. M. Love of
the Story & Clark Piano Co., and Frank Hood, of
the Chicago branch of the Schiller Piano Co., Ore-
gon, 111.
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