Presto
Issue: 1923 1919 - Page 20
PRESTO
20
AMERICAN
PIANO SUPPLY
COMPANY
Felts, Cloths, Hammers,Punchings,
Music Wire, Tuning Pins, Player
Parts, Hinges, Casters
A FULL LINE OF MATERIALS for PIANOS and ORGAN
When in Need of
SUPPLIES
Communicate with Us
American Piano Supply Co.
110-112 E. 13th St.
New York
SCHAFF
Piano String Co.
Manufacturers of
Piano Bass Strings
2009-2021 CLYBOURN AVENUE
Corner Lewis Street
CHICAGO
May 5, 1923
PHASE OF CITY SELLING
How the Corps of Cosmopolitan Salesmen
Make the Best of Music Goods
Sales Opportunities.
In L'VITV big American city the yet unmeltcd units
in the melting pot are prospective buyers of phono-
graphs and musical merchandise of one kind or an-
other. And all the time the active salesmen are talk-
ing up the goods and closing the deals with these
unabsorbed materials for citizenship. Do the sales-
•inen who operate in the foreign sections of the big
cities consider their selling proposition a "problem"?
They do not.
A problem to the salesmen in the foreign sections is
something impossible; something insoluble like the
bottom of the melting pot. They have a job of pros-
pect chasing, but no problem. But finding customers
in the polyglot colonies remains a problem to the big
retail houses downtown. Daily newspapers do not
get the foreigner's eye, nor does the hopeful salesman
of the average kind get his ear.
The salesmen who sell the talking machines, ac-
cordions, and stringed instruments in the foreign
sections of the big cities are not of the average kind.
They know the way and the persuasive means to ef-
fectively interest the thrifty foreigners who are build-
ing homes, raising families and educating them in fine
schools provided by the municipalities. And that
way is on the social side of Hans, Antonio, Ole, Se-
bastian, Jaroslav, Nicolaus, Wladislaw, Abraham and
the rest.
Certain sections of the big cities are found inhabited
by people of one race almost to the exclusion of all
other nationalities. They preserve a good many of
their national customs and the general use of the
native language in social and business conversations
gave the enterprising salesmen from the downtown
stores, who addressed them in Piano Row English,
the chilly feeling of exclusion. When they got a
negative shake of the head or shrug of the shoulders
in reply to a polite inquiry at one door it was hard
to come up smiling at the next one. So Mr. Average
Salesman from the downtown stores quit what he
morosely calls the shrug sections.
But the opportunities were too good to be neg-
lected. There was a way to the ear of the foreigner
and a way to his pocketbook. And the means the
big houses downtown and the smaller houses in the
outskirts employed was the organization of a polyglot
corps of salesmen; a band of cosmopolitan mixers
who now get the business where Mr. Average Sales-
man got the shrug.
They understand the various meanings of the shrug,
which is more eloquent than words.
Equipped with a knowledge of the language and
customs they are a part of the social life of the sec-
tions. In church, club, singing society, civic and social
function they are in evidence. In canvassing, the
shrug is not considered a final rebuff. It has shades
of meaning that the salesmen understand. At one
time it may mean disbelief and at another acquiescence
to the selling plea. They can interpret the motion of
hands and bodies, the lift of the eyebrow, the ex-
pression of the face. They understand these signs of
the feelings of the people as well as the language in
main stem, dialect and patios. On the, abilities of the
cosmopolitan corps of salesmen in the foreign sections
depend the sales of music goods.
WEST WANTS EDUCATOR ROLLS
Demand for Series by Trade and Player Owners
Amazes Q R S Western Manager.
The Educator Rolls of the Q R S Music Co., Chi-
cago have won California as the}' have won every
state in the Union. But the testimony of A. L.
Quinn, western manager for the company, with head-
quarters in San Francisco, is the result of first-hand
information from progressive dealers who ''find the
Educator Rolls undeniable business makers."
Of course it is only natural for a good roll state
like California to see the merits of the Educator
series. On his return recently from a trip to southern
California points, Mr. Quinn said the favor for the
Educator Rolls was growing bigger every day. In
fact, the eager manner in which they are being sought
by player owners and stocked by dealers is an amaz-
ing feature of the trade.
IN FIDDLE TOWN.
Visitors to Markneukirchen who remember Ger-
many in the days before the great war of course arc
able to make comparisons. But the man who sees it
today for the first time sees an interesting place and
interesting people, says the Kansas City Star. Most
of the eight or ten thousand inhabitants are still
engaged in making fiddles or stringed instruments of
one kind or another. But the fiddle makers comprise
by far the biggest group. In every house is a musi-
cal instrument maker and in some there are many.
The workers are of all ages and the female fiddle
makers are as deft as the males. Saturday is the
day of greatest interest and picturesqueness, for on
that day the instruments made in the homes are
brought to the dealers and the people make it a holi-
day event.
T. L. Bumpass, formerly manager of the Fort
Smith, Ark., branch of J. W. Jenkins Sons' Music
Co., is now associated with the R. C. Bollinger Music
Co., Fort Smith.
Established 1867
Strauch Bros.
All Well-posted Piano Dealers, Sales-
men, and the Piano Buying Public
recognize the value of this name on a
Piano Action,
For more than 55 years it has been associ-
ated with the best products of the Piano
industry- It has always represented
PERFECT PUNCHINGS
A QUARTER CENTURY OF
Quality and Merit
AT
TUNING PIN MANUFACTURING MEANS
Quality, Service and Value
When a Piano Action bears the name of
Strauch Bros, it is an additional guarantee
of the quality of the instrument containing it.
Used in the World's Finest Pianos
STRAUCH BROS.,Inc.
GF.GOEPEUCO.
T
137 E A S T I3 -* ST.
NE.W YORK
AMERICAN MUSICAL SUPPLY CO.
451 Communipaw Ave.
Comstock, Cheney & Co.
Ivory Cutters and Manufacturers
Piano Keys, Actions and Hammers
IVORY AND COMPOSITION-COVERED ORGAN KEYS
The only Company Furnishing the Keys, Actions, Hammers and Brackets Complete
Telegraph and R. R. Station: Essex, Conn.
Office and Factories: Ivoryton, Conn.
JERSEY CITY, N. J.
Piano Actions, Hammers and Repairs
327 t o 347 Walnut Ave., a t 141*t Street
NEW YORK
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
Manufacturers of
PIANO ACTIONS
HIGHEST GRADE
ONE GRADE ONLY
The Wessell, Nickel & Gross action is a
guarantee of the grade of the instrument
in which it is found*
FACTORIES:
M r / 1 1 7 V T l P kT
45th St., 10th Ave. & W 46th. H I-« • •
1 V / I \ I\.
OFFICE:
457 W . 45th
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/
^ wi
20
AMERICAN
PIANO SUPPLY
COMPANY
Felts, Cloths, Hammers,Punchings,
Music Wire, Tuning Pins, Player
Parts, Hinges, Casters
A FULL LINE OF MATERIALS for PIANOS and ORGAN
When in Need of
SUPPLIES
Communicate with Us
American Piano Supply Co.
110-112 E. 13th St.
New York
SCHAFF
Piano String Co.
Manufacturers of
Piano Bass Strings
2009-2021 CLYBOURN AVENUE
Corner Lewis Street
CHICAGO
May 5, 1923
PHASE OF CITY SELLING
How the Corps of Cosmopolitan Salesmen
Make the Best of Music Goods
Sales Opportunities.
In L'VITV big American city the yet unmeltcd units
in the melting pot are prospective buyers of phono-
graphs and musical merchandise of one kind or an-
other. And all the time the active salesmen are talk-
ing up the goods and closing the deals with these
unabsorbed materials for citizenship. Do the sales-
•inen who operate in the foreign sections of the big
cities consider their selling proposition a "problem"?
They do not.
A problem to the salesmen in the foreign sections is
something impossible; something insoluble like the
bottom of the melting pot. They have a job of pros-
pect chasing, but no problem. But finding customers
in the polyglot colonies remains a problem to the big
retail houses downtown. Daily newspapers do not
get the foreigner's eye, nor does the hopeful salesman
of the average kind get his ear.
The salesmen who sell the talking machines, ac-
cordions, and stringed instruments in the foreign
sections of the big cities are not of the average kind.
They know the way and the persuasive means to ef-
fectively interest the thrifty foreigners who are build-
ing homes, raising families and educating them in fine
schools provided by the municipalities. And that
way is on the social side of Hans, Antonio, Ole, Se-
bastian, Jaroslav, Nicolaus, Wladislaw, Abraham and
the rest.
Certain sections of the big cities are found inhabited
by people of one race almost to the exclusion of all
other nationalities. They preserve a good many of
their national customs and the general use of the
native language in social and business conversations
gave the enterprising salesmen from the downtown
stores, who addressed them in Piano Row English,
the chilly feeling of exclusion. When they got a
negative shake of the head or shrug of the shoulders
in reply to a polite inquiry at one door it was hard
to come up smiling at the next one. So Mr. Average
Salesman from the downtown stores quit what he
morosely calls the shrug sections.
But the opportunities were too good to be neg-
lected. There was a way to the ear of the foreigner
and a way to his pocketbook. And the means the
big houses downtown and the smaller houses in the
outskirts employed was the organization of a polyglot
corps of salesmen; a band of cosmopolitan mixers
who now get the business where Mr. Average Sales-
man got the shrug.
They understand the various meanings of the shrug,
which is more eloquent than words.
Equipped with a knowledge of the language and
customs they are a part of the social life of the sec-
tions. In church, club, singing society, civic and social
function they are in evidence. In canvassing, the
shrug is not considered a final rebuff. It has shades
of meaning that the salesmen understand. At one
time it may mean disbelief and at another acquiescence
to the selling plea. They can interpret the motion of
hands and bodies, the lift of the eyebrow, the ex-
pression of the face. They understand these signs of
the feelings of the people as well as the language in
main stem, dialect and patios. On the, abilities of the
cosmopolitan corps of salesmen in the foreign sections
depend the sales of music goods.
WEST WANTS EDUCATOR ROLLS
Demand for Series by Trade and Player Owners
Amazes Q R S Western Manager.
The Educator Rolls of the Q R S Music Co., Chi-
cago have won California as the}' have won every
state in the Union. But the testimony of A. L.
Quinn, western manager for the company, with head-
quarters in San Francisco, is the result of first-hand
information from progressive dealers who ''find the
Educator Rolls undeniable business makers."
Of course it is only natural for a good roll state
like California to see the merits of the Educator
series. On his return recently from a trip to southern
California points, Mr. Quinn said the favor for the
Educator Rolls was growing bigger every day. In
fact, the eager manner in which they are being sought
by player owners and stocked by dealers is an amaz-
ing feature of the trade.
IN FIDDLE TOWN.
Visitors to Markneukirchen who remember Ger-
many in the days before the great war of course arc
able to make comparisons. But the man who sees it
today for the first time sees an interesting place and
interesting people, says the Kansas City Star. Most
of the eight or ten thousand inhabitants are still
engaged in making fiddles or stringed instruments of
one kind or another. But the fiddle makers comprise
by far the biggest group. In every house is a musi-
cal instrument maker and in some there are many.
The workers are of all ages and the female fiddle
makers are as deft as the males. Saturday is the
day of greatest interest and picturesqueness, for on
that day the instruments made in the homes are
brought to the dealers and the people make it a holi-
day event.
T. L. Bumpass, formerly manager of the Fort
Smith, Ark., branch of J. W. Jenkins Sons' Music
Co., is now associated with the R. C. Bollinger Music
Co., Fort Smith.
Established 1867
Strauch Bros.
All Well-posted Piano Dealers, Sales-
men, and the Piano Buying Public
recognize the value of this name on a
Piano Action,
For more than 55 years it has been associ-
ated with the best products of the Piano
industry- It has always represented
PERFECT PUNCHINGS
A QUARTER CENTURY OF
Quality and Merit
AT
TUNING PIN MANUFACTURING MEANS
Quality, Service and Value
When a Piano Action bears the name of
Strauch Bros, it is an additional guarantee
of the quality of the instrument containing it.
Used in the World's Finest Pianos
STRAUCH BROS.,Inc.
GF.GOEPEUCO.
T
137 E A S T I3 -* ST.
NE.W YORK
AMERICAN MUSICAL SUPPLY CO.
451 Communipaw Ave.
Comstock, Cheney & Co.
Ivory Cutters and Manufacturers
Piano Keys, Actions and Hammers
IVORY AND COMPOSITION-COVERED ORGAN KEYS
The only Company Furnishing the Keys, Actions, Hammers and Brackets Complete
Telegraph and R. R. Station: Essex, Conn.
Office and Factories: Ivoryton, Conn.
JERSEY CITY, N. J.
Piano Actions, Hammers and Repairs
327 t o 347 Walnut Ave., a t 141*t Street
NEW YORK
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
Manufacturers of
PIANO ACTIONS
HIGHEST GRADE
ONE GRADE ONLY
The Wessell, Nickel & Gross action is a
guarantee of the grade of the instrument
in which it is found*
FACTORIES:
M r / 1 1 7 V T l P kT
45th St., 10th Ave. & W 46th. H I-« • •
1 V / I \ I\.
OFFICE:
457 W . 45th
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/
^ wi
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).