Presto
Issue: 1923 1917 - Page 5
April 21, 1923
PRESTO
senting the more or less indifferent compositions, without special per-
mission. And the rage of the radio has served to complicate the sit-
uation not a little.
The "Society for the Publication of American Music" has a
name which at first seems to meet the demands of Mr. T. Rogers
Lyons, of "Musical Times," who has been slashing the Association of
American Publishers and Composers. But this new society is "high
brow" rather than popular. It will not try to develop "hits." Mr.
Lyons has stirred up national interest in his proposed Independent
Composers and Publishers Alliance, designed to combat the "strangle-
hold" of the Hit Alley organization.
* * *
An annoying error crept into an item concerning the H. C. Bay
Company's products, in last week's Presto. Where it was intended
to say that the big factories at Bluffton, lnd.. are now producing
Grands and Reproducing pianos, as well as playerpianos, the item
had it that "straight" pianos had been added to the line. The H. C.
Bay Company is making more upright pianos than ever and has
added a line of Reproducing pianos also.
* * *
A manufacturer this week told a Presto representative that the
best part of his establishment's work was adjusting player actions
to square pianos—squares, mind you, not modern uprights. He said
that in a single Ohio city he had business enough in changing old
squares into playerpianos, to keep his good-sized factory going all
the year 'round. So now "what becomes of all the old pianos?"
* * *
The "Blue Law" scare is again cavorting over the country. Again
there comes the threat to close the movies on Sunday. What of
it ? The movies have a tendency to interfere with home music. The
film doesn't sell any pianos. We can go to the show any other night
just as well, don't you think? Let's stay home Sunday evening and
sing songs !
The Chicago Tribune is having fits at the thought of so far
lifting the immigration lines as to let in a few expert workers in
SUGGEST A TITLE FOR THE
BUSH CONVENTION MARCH
New Stirring Military March for Bands by William L.
Bush Still Lacks a Name.
The latest news from Dallas, Tex., is really music
trade convention news, and the facts are naturally a
source of pride to Texans as well as a cause for keen
anticipation to music trade folk everywhere. From
Dallas comes the announcement that William L.
Bush, president of the Bush & Gerts Piano Co., has
written a new military march which is being arranged
for bands. The band parts will be ready this week.
Members of the music trades and the public gen-
erally will be made familiar with the new Bush
march during the week of the convention at the
Drake Hotel. It will be heard in perfection from
many band organizations during that joyous period,
but it is not quite perfect today. It is lacking a name.
Mr. Bush has produced a spirited march and one
suited to impart a note of triumph and energy to the
convention proceedings, but he faltered when it came
to giving the march a name.
That is where his confreres in the music trades
can co-operate to provide a distinctive title for an
unusual piece of music. In aural fancy hear some-
thing rousing and expressive of animation and energy
in the march rhythm and then suggest an appropriate
name. In this way become a collaborator in making
Mr. Bush's march distinctively a convention compo-
sition.
ANNUAL MEETING OF NEW
ENGLAND TRADE ASS'N
Five States Represented in Enjoyable Event at Hotel
Somerset Boston This Week.
The New England Music Trade Association held
its twenty-seventh annual meeting on Tuesday of this
week (April 17) at the Hotel Somerset, Boston, and
the event proved the most successful in point of at-
tendance and events in the history of the association.
The wide influence of the organization was shown in
the representative membership from Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island.
All the states were well represented at the Hotel
Somerset meeting.
A program designed to have
great bearing on the further growth of the associa-
special industries. There are intelligences to which there is no
distinction between coolies and concert meisters; all workers are
laborers in identical meaning. The piano manufacturers need arti-
sans. It takes years to train them.
* * *
The Frankenstein theory of mechanically made men has been
worked into a play called "R. U. R." It is laid in the year 1975.
Perhaps when understanding reaches that point pianos made by the
machine-made Robots will be much more mechanical in tone than
the worst of them are today.
* * *
The cost of a display at the Drake during convention week isn't
much. Good exhibition rooms have been taken at from $50 to $100.
Adding a full page in Presto's Pre-Convention Number, the invest-
ment may be less than $200—exclusive of expense of installation
and attendance.
* * *
The new currency designs may omit the $2 bills. That will enable
some of us to make a better showing anyway. It will afford two
crisp bills where sometimes a single note now appears. It will also
make the first payment seem larger.
* * *
Only two convention display rooms remained unspoken for at
the Drake Hotel, Chicago, on Tuesday of this week—six weeks be-
fore the opening day. Looks like a big detached musical industry
exposition, doesn't it?
* * *
Just five weeks from next Monday the big June convention will
open in Chicago. Close as many sales as possible before that time
and come on and enjoy the four days at the Drake. You will have
plenty of company.
* * *
The Chickering Centenary had a full page in last Sunday's New
York Times Magazine Section. It was descriptive of "Chickering's
Folly," which became "Chickering's Wisdom."
tion was arranged by President William L. Nutting
and Secretary-Treasurer William F. Merrill.
The incidents of the enjoyable banquet following
the meeting proved the ability of the officials to plan
and carry out an undertaking of that kind. Dancing
and entertainment varied the courses at the dinner.
Miss Edith Woodman, soprano soloist, sang. Miss
Lucille Rice gave interpretations of Oriental dances,
and several vaudeville headliners performed their
acts.
Among the notables at the dinner were Governor
Channing Fox and Mrs. Fox, Gen. Clarence R. Ed-
wards and Dr. Tehyi Hsieh. Dr. Hsieh, who has
been doing special work in this country for China for
several years, spoke on the topic, "East Is West—
Power Behind Music and What It Means to the
World."
NEW YORK ASSOCIATION MEETS.
At the annual meeting of the New York Piano Mer-
chants' Association held in the Cafe Boulevard, last
week, C. T. Purdy was elected president, E. J. Win-
terroth, vice-president; V. J. Faeth, treasurer; and
Albert Behning, secretary.
The following were
elected as the executive committee: John J. Glynn,
Milton Weil, E. Leins, A. H. Mangold and G. E.
Arthur. Richard W. Lawrence, president of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, spoke of
the work of the organization; C. Lechner made an
address on "Advertising"; Miss Isabel Lowden told
of Music Week activities, and W. L. Nutting, presi-
dent of the New England Music Trade Association,
conveyed the greetings of his associates to the New
York Association.
PIANO MAN'S TRAGIC DEATH.
William Fontein, brother of Maurice H. Fontein,
the Columbus, Nebraska, music dealer, met with
tragic death on Monday, April 9, when his boat caught
fire and went down, when sixty-seven miles off the
Florida coast. There is no hope of recovering his
body. The only survivor was picked up by a British
steamer on its way to France, from whom Mr. Fon-
tein is anxiously waiting for details.
VISITS NEPONSET FACTORIES.
J. L. Meisse, accompanied by E. J. Berube, both of
the J. L. Meisse Music Co., Northampton, Mass.,
recently attended a business conference at the Hallet
& Davis Piano Co.'s home office in Boston. Mr.
Berube and Mr. Meisse visited the Hallet & Davis
Piano Company's new factories at Neponset.
FAVOR FOR MIESSNER PIANO
IN FAR=WEST AND SOUTH
E. J. Jordan, Vice-President of Miessner Piano Co.,
Returns from Successful Trip.
E. J. Jordan, vice-president of the Miessner Piano
Company, Milwaukee, has just returned from a six
weeks' trip to the Pacific Coast, coming back through
the south. The trip was extremely successful, not
only from a business-getting standpoint, but from
learning at first-hand the attitude of the dealers
towards the Miessner piano and the advertising that
the company is doing in the school field.
While in San Francisco Mr. Jordan closed a large
contract with Kohler & Chase, covering over 150
pianos, to be shipped them within the next few
months. In Los Angeles the Fitzgerald Music Co.
is getting started with the Miessner in a large way,
and is most enthusiastic over its possibilities. The
same applies to the Thearle Music Co. at San Diego.
The outlook in California for the Miessner piano is
most encouraging, and the company feels very proud
of its connections there. The type of houses general
in that state are very well suited to a small piano, and.
as W. O. Miessner is so well known in the school
field there, dealers have been able to secure a wonder-
ful amount of business. Kohler & Chase sold about
forty-:two pianos to the Berkeley schools only a
short time ago.
On his way back from California Mr. Jordan spent
a few days with the Will A. Watkins Company,
Dallas, Texas, one of the enthusiastic Miessner
dealers. He opened up two new accounts, which as-
sure excellent representation. They are the O. K.
Houck Piano Co., of Memphis, Tenn., and the Aeolian
Company, at St. Louis.
"The business outlook is most encouraging, and
we are very optimistic over the future. We have a
great number of orders on our books, extending well
into the summer," said Mr. Jordan.
A. L, SMITH IN CHICAGO.
Alfred L. Smith, general manager of the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce, was in Chicago
this week. Mr. Smith was a guest at the Piano Club
luncheon on Monday. He attended the Monday night
meeting of the Convention Promotion Committee at
the Drake Hotel and was an interested listener at
the Wednesday noon meeting of the Chicago Piano
& Organ Association at the Palmer House.
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
senting the more or less indifferent compositions, without special per-
mission. And the rage of the radio has served to complicate the sit-
uation not a little.
The "Society for the Publication of American Music" has a
name which at first seems to meet the demands of Mr. T. Rogers
Lyons, of "Musical Times," who has been slashing the Association of
American Publishers and Composers. But this new society is "high
brow" rather than popular. It will not try to develop "hits." Mr.
Lyons has stirred up national interest in his proposed Independent
Composers and Publishers Alliance, designed to combat the "strangle-
hold" of the Hit Alley organization.
* * *
An annoying error crept into an item concerning the H. C. Bay
Company's products, in last week's Presto. Where it was intended
to say that the big factories at Bluffton, lnd.. are now producing
Grands and Reproducing pianos, as well as playerpianos, the item
had it that "straight" pianos had been added to the line. The H. C.
Bay Company is making more upright pianos than ever and has
added a line of Reproducing pianos also.
* * *
A manufacturer this week told a Presto representative that the
best part of his establishment's work was adjusting player actions
to square pianos—squares, mind you, not modern uprights. He said
that in a single Ohio city he had business enough in changing old
squares into playerpianos, to keep his good-sized factory going all
the year 'round. So now "what becomes of all the old pianos?"
* * *
The "Blue Law" scare is again cavorting over the country. Again
there comes the threat to close the movies on Sunday. What of
it ? The movies have a tendency to interfere with home music. The
film doesn't sell any pianos. We can go to the show any other night
just as well, don't you think? Let's stay home Sunday evening and
sing songs !
The Chicago Tribune is having fits at the thought of so far
lifting the immigration lines as to let in a few expert workers in
SUGGEST A TITLE FOR THE
BUSH CONVENTION MARCH
New Stirring Military March for Bands by William L.
Bush Still Lacks a Name.
The latest news from Dallas, Tex., is really music
trade convention news, and the facts are naturally a
source of pride to Texans as well as a cause for keen
anticipation to music trade folk everywhere. From
Dallas comes the announcement that William L.
Bush, president of the Bush & Gerts Piano Co., has
written a new military march which is being arranged
for bands. The band parts will be ready this week.
Members of the music trades and the public gen-
erally will be made familiar with the new Bush
march during the week of the convention at the
Drake Hotel. It will be heard in perfection from
many band organizations during that joyous period,
but it is not quite perfect today. It is lacking a name.
Mr. Bush has produced a spirited march and one
suited to impart a note of triumph and energy to the
convention proceedings, but he faltered when it came
to giving the march a name.
That is where his confreres in the music trades
can co-operate to provide a distinctive title for an
unusual piece of music. In aural fancy hear some-
thing rousing and expressive of animation and energy
in the march rhythm and then suggest an appropriate
name. In this way become a collaborator in making
Mr. Bush's march distinctively a convention compo-
sition.
ANNUAL MEETING OF NEW
ENGLAND TRADE ASS'N
Five States Represented in Enjoyable Event at Hotel
Somerset Boston This Week.
The New England Music Trade Association held
its twenty-seventh annual meeting on Tuesday of this
week (April 17) at the Hotel Somerset, Boston, and
the event proved the most successful in point of at-
tendance and events in the history of the association.
The wide influence of the organization was shown in
the representative membership from Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island.
All the states were well represented at the Hotel
Somerset meeting.
A program designed to have
great bearing on the further growth of the associa-
special industries. There are intelligences to which there is no
distinction between coolies and concert meisters; all workers are
laborers in identical meaning. The piano manufacturers need arti-
sans. It takes years to train them.
* * *
The Frankenstein theory of mechanically made men has been
worked into a play called "R. U. R." It is laid in the year 1975.
Perhaps when understanding reaches that point pianos made by the
machine-made Robots will be much more mechanical in tone than
the worst of them are today.
* * *
The cost of a display at the Drake during convention week isn't
much. Good exhibition rooms have been taken at from $50 to $100.
Adding a full page in Presto's Pre-Convention Number, the invest-
ment may be less than $200—exclusive of expense of installation
and attendance.
* * *
The new currency designs may omit the $2 bills. That will enable
some of us to make a better showing anyway. It will afford two
crisp bills where sometimes a single note now appears. It will also
make the first payment seem larger.
* * *
Only two convention display rooms remained unspoken for at
the Drake Hotel, Chicago, on Tuesday of this week—six weeks be-
fore the opening day. Looks like a big detached musical industry
exposition, doesn't it?
* * *
Just five weeks from next Monday the big June convention will
open in Chicago. Close as many sales as possible before that time
and come on and enjoy the four days at the Drake. You will have
plenty of company.
* * *
The Chickering Centenary had a full page in last Sunday's New
York Times Magazine Section. It was descriptive of "Chickering's
Folly," which became "Chickering's Wisdom."
tion was arranged by President William L. Nutting
and Secretary-Treasurer William F. Merrill.
The incidents of the enjoyable banquet following
the meeting proved the ability of the officials to plan
and carry out an undertaking of that kind. Dancing
and entertainment varied the courses at the dinner.
Miss Edith Woodman, soprano soloist, sang. Miss
Lucille Rice gave interpretations of Oriental dances,
and several vaudeville headliners performed their
acts.
Among the notables at the dinner were Governor
Channing Fox and Mrs. Fox, Gen. Clarence R. Ed-
wards and Dr. Tehyi Hsieh. Dr. Hsieh, who has
been doing special work in this country for China for
several years, spoke on the topic, "East Is West—
Power Behind Music and What It Means to the
World."
NEW YORK ASSOCIATION MEETS.
At the annual meeting of the New York Piano Mer-
chants' Association held in the Cafe Boulevard, last
week, C. T. Purdy was elected president, E. J. Win-
terroth, vice-president; V. J. Faeth, treasurer; and
Albert Behning, secretary.
The following were
elected as the executive committee: John J. Glynn,
Milton Weil, E. Leins, A. H. Mangold and G. E.
Arthur. Richard W. Lawrence, president of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, spoke of
the work of the organization; C. Lechner made an
address on "Advertising"; Miss Isabel Lowden told
of Music Week activities, and W. L. Nutting, presi-
dent of the New England Music Trade Association,
conveyed the greetings of his associates to the New
York Association.
PIANO MAN'S TRAGIC DEATH.
William Fontein, brother of Maurice H. Fontein,
the Columbus, Nebraska, music dealer, met with
tragic death on Monday, April 9, when his boat caught
fire and went down, when sixty-seven miles off the
Florida coast. There is no hope of recovering his
body. The only survivor was picked up by a British
steamer on its way to France, from whom Mr. Fon-
tein is anxiously waiting for details.
VISITS NEPONSET FACTORIES.
J. L. Meisse, accompanied by E. J. Berube, both of
the J. L. Meisse Music Co., Northampton, Mass.,
recently attended a business conference at the Hallet
& Davis Piano Co.'s home office in Boston. Mr.
Berube and Mr. Meisse visited the Hallet & Davis
Piano Company's new factories at Neponset.
FAVOR FOR MIESSNER PIANO
IN FAR=WEST AND SOUTH
E. J. Jordan, Vice-President of Miessner Piano Co.,
Returns from Successful Trip.
E. J. Jordan, vice-president of the Miessner Piano
Company, Milwaukee, has just returned from a six
weeks' trip to the Pacific Coast, coming back through
the south. The trip was extremely successful, not
only from a business-getting standpoint, but from
learning at first-hand the attitude of the dealers
towards the Miessner piano and the advertising that
the company is doing in the school field.
While in San Francisco Mr. Jordan closed a large
contract with Kohler & Chase, covering over 150
pianos, to be shipped them within the next few
months. In Los Angeles the Fitzgerald Music Co.
is getting started with the Miessner in a large way,
and is most enthusiastic over its possibilities. The
same applies to the Thearle Music Co. at San Diego.
The outlook in California for the Miessner piano is
most encouraging, and the company feels very proud
of its connections there. The type of houses general
in that state are very well suited to a small piano, and.
as W. O. Miessner is so well known in the school
field there, dealers have been able to secure a wonder-
ful amount of business. Kohler & Chase sold about
forty-:two pianos to the Berkeley schools only a
short time ago.
On his way back from California Mr. Jordan spent
a few days with the Will A. Watkins Company,
Dallas, Texas, one of the enthusiastic Miessner
dealers. He opened up two new accounts, which as-
sure excellent representation. They are the O. K.
Houck Piano Co., of Memphis, Tenn., and the Aeolian
Company, at St. Louis.
"The business outlook is most encouraging, and
we are very optimistic over the future. We have a
great number of orders on our books, extending well
into the summer," said Mr. Jordan.
A. L, SMITH IN CHICAGO.
Alfred L. Smith, general manager of the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce, was in Chicago
this week. Mr. Smith was a guest at the Piano Club
luncheon on Monday. He attended the Monday night
meeting of the Convention Promotion Committee at
the Drake Hotel and was an interested listener at
the Wednesday noon meeting of the Chicago Piano
& Organ Association at the Palmer House.
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).