Presto

Presto Buyers 9 Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
M M W i«M
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Boole-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Mm
Industries.
n c™«« turn . i w
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1923
WHERE DOUBTS ARE DISPELLED
Under This Head Presto Will Answer Any Question Pertaining to Pianos, or
Other Subjects of Direct Interest to the Trade and Musical Public
Inquiries must bear the signature and address of
writer in order to receive attention. Answers thought
to be of general trade interest will be published. If an
answer is not of general interest it will be mailed pro-
vided stamp is inclosed.
SOLID EBONY CASE.
Gastonia, N. C, July 3, 1923.
Editor Presto: Will you please advise us if you
have ever known of a piano case having been made
either in a square, grand or upright out of a genuine
solid ebony?
S. W. GARDNER MUSIC CO.
We have never heard of a piano case of solid
ebony. We do not believe such a thing ever existed.
There were, in years gone, of course, a very large
variety of ebonized cases, mostly uprights, though
there were also a good many grands. The ebonized
cases in dull finish were, to all outer appearances,
identical with ebony itself, and perhaps those were
the pianos which you have in mind.
We may be wrong in this, but if any reader of
Presto 1 knows of a solid ebony piano case having
been produced we will be glad to know it.
* * *
HAS NEW WOOD TREATMENT.
July 2, 1923.
Editor Presto: Kindly forward to us one of your
Presto Buyers' Guide books for 1923. Your book
was recommended to us by Egbert C. Coon, of the
Pacific Coast Piano Co., of Los Angeles, Calif.
We are about to engage in the manufacture of
musical instruments, having discovered a process of
treating spruce wood that gives to all instruments
that it is used in for sounding boards the finest and
sweetest tone of anything on the market.
Our violins have been pronounced the wonder of
the twentieth century by musical experts.
I am anxious to get in touch with some violin
manufacturers who can turn out these violins under
my name in large quantities, as the principal part
GREAT GROWTH IN THE
PIANO BUSINESS IN IOWA
Sioux City House of Schmoller & Mueller Present
Some Interesting Facts and Figures.
A volume of "business which has doubled in the
last three years and one that has shown an increase
of 1012 per cent for the first five months of 1923 as
compared to the corresponding period last year, is
the record set by the Schmoller & Mueller Piano
Company, 415 Nebraska street, Sioux City, Iowa,
according to E. T. Hammon, manager of the local
store.
This increase is ascribed by Mr. Hammon both to
the aggressive policy of the Schmoller & Mueller
organization and to the fertile field offered by the
great trade territory adjacent to Sioux City.
The Schmoller & Mueller Piano Company is said
to be the oldest piano concern in the state of Iowa,
having started business two years before the civil
war. During the period since, it has watched the
piano industry grow and change, and has kept pace
with developments in the world of music.
The price tendency in pianos and other musical
goods is upward, according to Mr. Hammon, due
to the sharply increased cost of production at the
factories. In 1914, the wages paid by piano manu-
facturers to skilled labor was $35 a week; today
the same workmen are paid an average of $49.
Highly skilled labor, which in 1914 received $45 a
week, now gets $75. These increases are, of course,
exclusively of higher material costs of everything
that enters into the construction of a high grade
that I take in the manufacture of these instruments
is the processing of the wood that enters into it.
JAMES K. HIRST.
About violin manufacturers, the following are well-
established industries:
The Harmony Co., 1744 North Lawndale avenue,
Chicago; Mills Novelty Co., Jackson boulevard and
Green street, Chicago; Georgi & Vitak Music Co.,
769 Milwaukee avenue, Chicago; Aug. Gemunder &
Sons, 141 W. 42nd street, New York, and also John
Friedrich & Bro., 279 Fifth avenue, New York. A
commercial violin industry is that of Jackson-Guldan
Co., 185 W. Main street, Columbus, Ohio. •
* * *
ORGAN INDUSTRIES.
Medford, Wisconsin, July 3, 1923.
Editor Presto: Send us names of all the organ
companies you can, as we will use same in our busi-
ness. We thank you.
DROST BROTHERS.
We have published a list of organ manufacturers
in this department several times of late. There are,
as you know, very few reed organ industries left, but
there are a great many pipe organ manufacturers. A
very good list of organ industries appears on page
No. 31 of Part 2 in Presto Trade Lists No. 3, the
price of which is 25c.
* * *
ELTING PHONOGRAPH PARTS.
Munday, Tex., July 2, 1923.
Editor Presto: Will you please tell me where I
can get Elting phonograph parts, I have a great,
big, fine-looking phonograph not worth a cent to
me the shape it is in.
J. D. CONLEY.
The Elting Co. is out of business and we have
been unable to locate any successor to that concern.
We suggest that you can get any phonograph parts
or repairs by addressing the Piano Repair Shop, 425
S. Wabash avenue, Chicago. That concern makes a
business of supplying all these articles to members
of the trade.
piano, yet piano prices now are only about 75 per
cent higher than in 1914.
Collections, the bugaboo of the average business
man today, are better than ever before with the
Schmoller & Mueller people, Mr. Hammon said.
DON'T WORRY ABOUT
DISAPPEARING FORESTS
Invention Announced This Week Assures Piano
Manufacturers of Unending Lumber Supply.
"Synthetic lumber," which is fireproof, and su-
perior in many ways to the "real stuff," has been
produced in the Johns-Manville Corporation's re-
search laboratories in Waukegan, according to an
annouicement received in Chicago this week from
W. R. Seigle, vice-president of the company.
The "synthetic lumber" is made of a solution of
cement and asbestos, upon which hydraulic pressure
of 214 tons to the square foot has been applied. It
can be sawed, hammered, nailed and planed by a
carpenter just as can real wood, it is stated.
Its natural color is gray, Mr. Seigle says, but it
can be painted, stained and varnished in good imi-
tation of any wood. The new "synthetic lumber" is
expected to draw considerable interest from forest
conservation interests which of late have been point-
ing out that the nation's timber resources are fast
dwindling.
Beduhn & Goetz, Two Rivers, Wis., has been dis-
solved and a new corporation formed with the title
the Beduhn-Ollie Furniture Co. . The capital is
$40,000.
TRADE IN PACIFIC
NORTHWEST SECTION
Record Breaking Crops in All the States and
Improved Lumber Business Assures
Music Goods Sales.
The improvement in the lumber business is an im-
portant fact in the activities of the Pacific north-
west that completes the assurances for a good busi-
ness in music goods this summer and fall. The
wheat crop as the world has been told almost equals
the war time record in production. This affects piano
prospects in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The
approximate estimate of the fruit crops of the Pacific
northwest is in itself an assurance of unusual piano
and playerpiano sales. The figures add to the cheer-
ing thriftiness of the kind of people who are amen-
able to the approaches of the piano salesman.
The business reported for June by music houses
in that section show that the records for that so-
called quiet month have been broken. June business
with the Bush & Lane Piano Co., Portland, Ore.,
was far in excess of the business of the same month
last year. There were several June days in which
the sales totals far exceeded the totals for any day
since the opening of the branch in Portland.
The annual Rose Festival in Portland held in June
of course added to the total of the music business.
Music was a big feature of the festival, but apart
from the advertising a considerable amount of busi-
ness was transacted. One of the great attractions at
events during the three days of the festival was the
Bush & Lane Saxophone Band of sixty pieces. And
of course the main dependence of the committee of
arrangements in the parades was the fine band of
the McDougall-Conn Music Co.
The Huggins Music Co., Kelso, Wash., which suf-
fered a fire loss on June 18, will resume business this
week. The loss, which was partially covered by in-
surance, amounted to $1,000. The Huggins Music
Co. handles musical instruments and sheet music.
Declaring that he is glad to see Bellingham again
and that he is eager to step on the local golf course
once more, G. Sidney Stark, well known piano deal-
er of Bellingham, Wash., returned to his home from
an extended trip East last week. Mr. Stark went
East over the Oregon Short Line to Denver and vis-
ited Mr. Stark's home town, Macksville, Kan., and
Stillwater, Okla., where they visited his brother,
President W. M. Stark of the American National
Bank. They then continued to Chicago and other
Eastern points.
Mr. Stark says he found the music business pros-
pering in all lines. He visited three Chicago piano
factories, those of the W. W. Kimball Co. and Gul-
bransen Dickinson Co. and Cable-Nelson Piano
Co., the latter at Holland, Mich., and each of them
was rushed with orders. Mr. Stark says the local
piano trade in Bellingham is good and he looks for an
active summer and fall business. While East he
bought considerable stock for his Bellingham store.
General business conditions are good in the East,
but the crop outlook in the Middle West is not en-
couraging because of excessive rainfall. In Canada
there has been a lack of rain, but recently there was
a providential fall.
I. B. Morris is proprietor and manager of a new
music store at 304 Main street, Cottage Grove, Ore.
The Weaks Music Shop, Seattle, Wash., moved to
a new store at 405 Olive street, last week.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORKERS.
There can be no complaint on the part of com-
petent piano workers as to possibilities of keeping
busy. Presto carries many ads in the classified want
columns which should interest any who may be
looking for betterment or change. This week one
of the new wants is for a piano salesman capable of
marketing 2,000 players a year at fair prices. An-
other is for a bellyman for grands in a large and
perfectly equipped factory. It is a good contract for
a competent man. And there are other opportuni-
ties every week.
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