Presto
Issue: 1923 1931 - Page 3
Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
t% cm., $u- . r—
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1923
WESTERN PIANOS IN
NEW YORK TRADE
The Several Sections of Manhattan's Piano
Row Display the Names of No Fewer than
Sixteen Industries Which Are Pecu-
liarly Familiar to Chicago.
The full extent of the influence of the western
piano in the East is probably not generally under-
stood. A few years ago there were two or three
piano industries of the West possessed of the con-
fidence necessary to open branch stores in New
York.
Perhaps the first to do it on a large scale was the
Everett, at the time when Frank A. Lee was pro-
moting that instrument with lavish hand. But it
may be said that the Everett was at that time a Bos-
ton product. And so it was, although its sponsor,
the John Church Co., was in Cincinnati, just as now.
And the Everett is still in the New York trade.
Today a stroller among the piano sections of New
York may almost feel that he's on South Wabash
avenue, Chicago. But it requires a long walk, and
perhaps a long stretch of the imagination.
New York's Piano Row.
For New York's "piano row" is divided, and its
sections are far apart. Still, if one notes the names
over the doors, the grafting of Chicago pianos upon
the retail trade of Manhattan seems to have pro-
ceeded until it amounts to not a small proportion of
the whole. And the names are those of some of the
most energetic and ambitious music industries in the
world.
"
There are sixteen of them at this time, and how
many years have gone since Chicago could claim, all
told, as many as sixteen piano industries. Not many,
surely.
Perhaps it must be said that several of the sixteen
are not actually Chicago products, but, in the matter
of retail warerooms, all of them present a larger im-
portance in Chicago than anywhere else—even in
their own home towns. To name the New York-
Chicago piano houses alphabetically would help to
make clear how great is this western influence in the
retail trade of New York.
An Old Familiar Name.
And in one or two instances the names may create
surprise, as in the case of the Geo. J 3 . Bent Company,
for the the Middle West that familiar name is gener-
ally supposed to have dropped from the list. And
another feature of it is that some of the names are
those of comparatively youthful industries, the policy
of which has been to oppose any trumpet-blowing, so
that their far-reaching influence has not been
known by the trade at large.
Of course Fifth avenue is the heart of New York's
piano row. On that one-time exclusive thoroughfare,
now thoroughly "commercialized," only one of the
prominent western pianos has its warerooms. It is
the Baldwin, at 665 Fifth avenue. Two of Chicago's
great automatic or electrically operated piano indus-
tries have branches on Broadway. They are the
Operators' Piano Co., at 253, and the J. P. Seeburg
Piano Co., at 1600. About twenty-five years ago the
first electric piano in this country was made a few
blocks west of the latter number, in New York. The
Broadway house of Smith, Barnes, & Strohber Co is
at 253.
West in Evidence.
But the majority of piano names, long at home in
Chicago, are on signs over big doors on the fast-
filling east and west thoroughfares. The Cable-Nel-
son Piano Co. is at 117 E. 34th street; Everett Piano
Co., at 39 W. 32nd street; Haddorft Piano Co., at
132 W. 42nd street; Starr Piano Co., at 9 East 37th
street, and the Story & Clark Piano Co., at 12 W.
32nd street. The last named now has a second store
at 30 W. 125th street also.
The tall Wurlitzer building, at 120 W. 42nd street,
is one of New York's real skyscrapers. Almost next
door to it is the new wareroom of the P. A. Starck
Piano Co., which, as much as any, gives to New
York's piano trade the Chicago flavor. The same
independent and aggressive atmosphere surrounds the
New York store of Starck as in the home store on
Wabash avenue.
And then the other piano names which, for so
many years, have been a part of Chicago—Geo. P.
Bent Co., Boston Piano Co., De Luxe Piano Co.,
Meister Piano Co.—all transplanted to the oldest
piano center of the nation, and all doing their share
to stimulate the best business on earth, and all seem-
ingly meeting with success.
And the piano trade in New York just now is
good, with the promise of making a record the
coming fall.
VERY BUSY IN FACTORIES
OF C. KURTZMANN COMPANY
With Great Facilities of Three Plants Dealers' Or-
ders Are Quickly Shipped.
The problem of getting out the orders on time to
satisfy the urgent demands of the dealers confronts
the C. Kurtzmann Co., Buffalo, N. Y., and, although
the stream of orders is continuous and of generous
kind that brings joy to the sales department, the
problem is being solved. The fact adds to the fame
for efficiency in the three large factories required to
produce Kurtzmann pianos enough to satisfy the de-
mand. The business of the Kurtzmann Piano Co., is
a growing one and that the facilities stand the hard-
est test in production is a tribute to the foresight
of the heads of the house.
"The best efforts in every department are exerted
to get out the orders," said J. Hackenheimer,
president of the company this week, "and we are sat-
isfied none of our dealers will be embarrassed by de-
lays in forwarding his orders."
NEW STORE OPENS ON
BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON
Walter J. Gillis, Well Known in Music Trade of
Hub, Is Owner.
Boston has a new music store at 429A Boylston
street, and the owner and manager is a man well
known in the music trade of the Hub, Walter J.
Gillis, for a great many years associated with the
Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Co. and manager of
the talking machine department there for the past
five years.
The new store has an admirable situation on Boyls-
ton near the intersection of Berkeley street, and has
the added advantage of a large window space for
displays to attract the crowds that continually move
along both thoroughfares.
Mr. Gillis will carry a line of pianos and players,
and preparations for the goods are now being made
in the store. He has not yet announced his lines of
pianos and players. His talking machine line is the
Victor, and in the new store he is admirably equipped
to present this.
The store is spacious and well
lighted and the decorators have produced excellent
effects for the showing of the instruments.
NEW CELCO STUDIOS.
The entire lines of the United Piano Corporation,
New York, are carried by M. S. McMahon in his
Celco Studios recently opened at 41 East avenue,
Rochester, N. Y. "I shall conduct my store along
high-class lines and feature the Celco reproducing
medium," said Mr. McMahon this week. "I believe
there is a field here for a store in which reproducing
pianos are featured. I am confident that the Celco
will find many ardent admirers in this city. In my
store it will be available in the A. B. Chase, the
Emerson and Lindeman & Sons' pianos."
ACTIVE PITTSFIELD FIRM.
W r ood Bros., Pittsfield, Mass., had a formal opening
of a new suite of piano warerooms in the company's
own building at 421 North street recently. The new
warerooms are fitted in a most complete fashion and
every facility for pleasant buying of music goods is
provided. The business of this energetic firm has
increased greatly in the last year.
N. P. M- A. COMMITTEES
APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT
New List Named by Mark P. Campbell to
Serve in Various Capacities for
New Term.
A complete list of the new committees of the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association recently ap-
pointed by President Mark P. Campbell follows:
The Executive Committee consists of the officers
and the following:
Eastern States—E. S. Payson, chairman; Ava W.
Poole, D. D. Luxton.
Middle States—Carle C. Conway, chairman; C. D.
Bond, J. W. Stevens.
Western States—C. C. Chickering, chairman; H. B.
Morenus, W. B. Price.
Finance—Wm. B. Armstrong, chairman; James F.
Bowers, Ashley B. Cone, George J. Dowling, Richard
W. Lawrence, George Miller, Otto Schulz, Herbert
Simpson, Charles H. Smith, C. G. Steger, A. M.
Wright.
Nominating—Stanwood Miller, chairman; Hobart
M. Cable, E. B. Bogart.
Membership—George B. Norris, chairman; J. J.
Clark, Columbus Healy, Walter C. Hepperla, G. L.
Miller.
Advancement of Music—H. Paul Mehlin, chair-
man; C. M. Tremaine, director; W. H. Alfring, Louis
P. Bach, A. S. Bond, W. L. Bush, J. A. Coffin, B. H.
Janssen, C. Alfred Wagner, Warren C. Whitney.
Credit Bureau—James T. Bristol, chairman; Web-
ster E. Janssen, L. D. Perry, L. W. Peterson, C. J.
Mulvey.
i \
National Legislation—J. Harry Shale, chairman;
E. B. Bartlett, Paul B. Klugh.
Conservation of Natural Resources—G. Ad. Ander-
son, chairman; T. L. Floyd-Jones, Emil W. Wolff.
Traffic—Eugene J. Whelan, chairman; E. E. Con-
way, A. E. Johnson, Walter Lane, Adam Schneider.
Vocational Training—E. S. Rauworth, chairman;
George W. Allen, Henry Christman, Jerome T. Mur-
phy, T. L. Powell.
Internal Waterways—J. P. Seeburg, chairman;
Paul F. Netzow, Harry Schaaf.
Merchant Marine and Export—George W. Gittins,
chairman; Wm. L. Bjur, S. P. Walker.
Resolutions—W. E. Guylee, chairman; I. E. Bretz-
felder, Clarence H. Pond.
The officers of the association are: President,
Mark P. Campbell, 641 West 49th street, New York;
first vice-president, E. R. Jacobson, Hammond, Ind.;
second vice-president, M. J. DeRochemont, 134th
street and Southern boulevard, New York; secretary,
A. G. Gulbransen, 3232 W. Chicago avenue, Chicago;
treasurer, Charles Jacob, 539 West 3t9h street, New
York.
The general offices are at 105 West 40th street,
New York. Herbert W. Hill, assistant secretary.
SAMUEL BITTEL RESIGNS
FROM 0WENSB0R0 FIRM
But His Name Continues in the Title of Samuels-
Bittel Music Co.
The Samuels-Bittel Music Co., Owensboro, Ky., is
now composed of W. S. Samuels and Lee Atherton
and the old firm title will be continued, although
Joseph Bittel has resigned from the partnership.
The following notice appeared last week in the
Owensboro newspapers:
"Notice is hereby given that Joseph Bittel, a part-
ner, in the Samuels-Bittel Music Company, of Owens-
boro, Kentucky, a partnership composed of W. S.
Samuels, Joseph Bittel and Lee Atherton, has sold his
entire interest in said partnership to W. S. Samuels,
of Owensboro. Kentucky, and that he will not be
responsible for any debt or obligation contracted or
created after this date. W. S. Samuels and Lee
Atherton will continue the partnership under the
iirm name of the Samuels-Bittel Music Company.
"This the 21st day of June, 1923.
"JOSEPH BITTEL."
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/
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
t% cm., $u- . r—
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1923
WESTERN PIANOS IN
NEW YORK TRADE
The Several Sections of Manhattan's Piano
Row Display the Names of No Fewer than
Sixteen Industries Which Are Pecu-
liarly Familiar to Chicago.
The full extent of the influence of the western
piano in the East is probably not generally under-
stood. A few years ago there were two or three
piano industries of the West possessed of the con-
fidence necessary to open branch stores in New
York.
Perhaps the first to do it on a large scale was the
Everett, at the time when Frank A. Lee was pro-
moting that instrument with lavish hand. But it
may be said that the Everett was at that time a Bos-
ton product. And so it was, although its sponsor,
the John Church Co., was in Cincinnati, just as now.
And the Everett is still in the New York trade.
Today a stroller among the piano sections of New
York may almost feel that he's on South Wabash
avenue, Chicago. But it requires a long walk, and
perhaps a long stretch of the imagination.
New York's Piano Row.
For New York's "piano row" is divided, and its
sections are far apart. Still, if one notes the names
over the doors, the grafting of Chicago pianos upon
the retail trade of Manhattan seems to have pro-
ceeded until it amounts to not a small proportion of
the whole. And the names are those of some of the
most energetic and ambitious music industries in the
world.
"
There are sixteen of them at this time, and how
many years have gone since Chicago could claim, all
told, as many as sixteen piano industries. Not many,
surely.
Perhaps it must be said that several of the sixteen
are not actually Chicago products, but, in the matter
of retail warerooms, all of them present a larger im-
portance in Chicago than anywhere else—even in
their own home towns. To name the New York-
Chicago piano houses alphabetically would help to
make clear how great is this western influence in the
retail trade of New York.
An Old Familiar Name.
And in one or two instances the names may create
surprise, as in the case of the Geo. J 3 . Bent Company,
for the the Middle West that familiar name is gener-
ally supposed to have dropped from the list. And
another feature of it is that some of the names are
those of comparatively youthful industries, the policy
of which has been to oppose any trumpet-blowing, so
that their far-reaching influence has not been
known by the trade at large.
Of course Fifth avenue is the heart of New York's
piano row. On that one-time exclusive thoroughfare,
now thoroughly "commercialized," only one of the
prominent western pianos has its warerooms. It is
the Baldwin, at 665 Fifth avenue. Two of Chicago's
great automatic or electrically operated piano indus-
tries have branches on Broadway. They are the
Operators' Piano Co., at 253, and the J. P. Seeburg
Piano Co., at 1600. About twenty-five years ago the
first electric piano in this country was made a few
blocks west of the latter number, in New York. The
Broadway house of Smith, Barnes, & Strohber Co is
at 253.
West in Evidence.
But the majority of piano names, long at home in
Chicago, are on signs over big doors on the fast-
filling east and west thoroughfares. The Cable-Nel-
son Piano Co. is at 117 E. 34th street; Everett Piano
Co., at 39 W. 32nd street; Haddorft Piano Co., at
132 W. 42nd street; Starr Piano Co., at 9 East 37th
street, and the Story & Clark Piano Co., at 12 W.
32nd street. The last named now has a second store
at 30 W. 125th street also.
The tall Wurlitzer building, at 120 W. 42nd street,
is one of New York's real skyscrapers. Almost next
door to it is the new wareroom of the P. A. Starck
Piano Co., which, as much as any, gives to New
York's piano trade the Chicago flavor. The same
independent and aggressive atmosphere surrounds the
New York store of Starck as in the home store on
Wabash avenue.
And then the other piano names which, for so
many years, have been a part of Chicago—Geo. P.
Bent Co., Boston Piano Co., De Luxe Piano Co.,
Meister Piano Co.—all transplanted to the oldest
piano center of the nation, and all doing their share
to stimulate the best business on earth, and all seem-
ingly meeting with success.
And the piano trade in New York just now is
good, with the promise of making a record the
coming fall.
VERY BUSY IN FACTORIES
OF C. KURTZMANN COMPANY
With Great Facilities of Three Plants Dealers' Or-
ders Are Quickly Shipped.
The problem of getting out the orders on time to
satisfy the urgent demands of the dealers confronts
the C. Kurtzmann Co., Buffalo, N. Y., and, although
the stream of orders is continuous and of generous
kind that brings joy to the sales department, the
problem is being solved. The fact adds to the fame
for efficiency in the three large factories required to
produce Kurtzmann pianos enough to satisfy the de-
mand. The business of the Kurtzmann Piano Co., is
a growing one and that the facilities stand the hard-
est test in production is a tribute to the foresight
of the heads of the house.
"The best efforts in every department are exerted
to get out the orders," said J. Hackenheimer,
president of the company this week, "and we are sat-
isfied none of our dealers will be embarrassed by de-
lays in forwarding his orders."
NEW STORE OPENS ON
BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON
Walter J. Gillis, Well Known in Music Trade of
Hub, Is Owner.
Boston has a new music store at 429A Boylston
street, and the owner and manager is a man well
known in the music trade of the Hub, Walter J.
Gillis, for a great many years associated with the
Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Co. and manager of
the talking machine department there for the past
five years.
The new store has an admirable situation on Boyls-
ton near the intersection of Berkeley street, and has
the added advantage of a large window space for
displays to attract the crowds that continually move
along both thoroughfares.
Mr. Gillis will carry a line of pianos and players,
and preparations for the goods are now being made
in the store. He has not yet announced his lines of
pianos and players. His talking machine line is the
Victor, and in the new store he is admirably equipped
to present this.
The store is spacious and well
lighted and the decorators have produced excellent
effects for the showing of the instruments.
NEW CELCO STUDIOS.
The entire lines of the United Piano Corporation,
New York, are carried by M. S. McMahon in his
Celco Studios recently opened at 41 East avenue,
Rochester, N. Y. "I shall conduct my store along
high-class lines and feature the Celco reproducing
medium," said Mr. McMahon this week. "I believe
there is a field here for a store in which reproducing
pianos are featured. I am confident that the Celco
will find many ardent admirers in this city. In my
store it will be available in the A. B. Chase, the
Emerson and Lindeman & Sons' pianos."
ACTIVE PITTSFIELD FIRM.
W r ood Bros., Pittsfield, Mass., had a formal opening
of a new suite of piano warerooms in the company's
own building at 421 North street recently. The new
warerooms are fitted in a most complete fashion and
every facility for pleasant buying of music goods is
provided. The business of this energetic firm has
increased greatly in the last year.
N. P. M- A. COMMITTEES
APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT
New List Named by Mark P. Campbell to
Serve in Various Capacities for
New Term.
A complete list of the new committees of the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association recently ap-
pointed by President Mark P. Campbell follows:
The Executive Committee consists of the officers
and the following:
Eastern States—E. S. Payson, chairman; Ava W.
Poole, D. D. Luxton.
Middle States—Carle C. Conway, chairman; C. D.
Bond, J. W. Stevens.
Western States—C. C. Chickering, chairman; H. B.
Morenus, W. B. Price.
Finance—Wm. B. Armstrong, chairman; James F.
Bowers, Ashley B. Cone, George J. Dowling, Richard
W. Lawrence, George Miller, Otto Schulz, Herbert
Simpson, Charles H. Smith, C. G. Steger, A. M.
Wright.
Nominating—Stanwood Miller, chairman; Hobart
M. Cable, E. B. Bogart.
Membership—George B. Norris, chairman; J. J.
Clark, Columbus Healy, Walter C. Hepperla, G. L.
Miller.
Advancement of Music—H. Paul Mehlin, chair-
man; C. M. Tremaine, director; W. H. Alfring, Louis
P. Bach, A. S. Bond, W. L. Bush, J. A. Coffin, B. H.
Janssen, C. Alfred Wagner, Warren C. Whitney.
Credit Bureau—James T. Bristol, chairman; Web-
ster E. Janssen, L. D. Perry, L. W. Peterson, C. J.
Mulvey.
i \
National Legislation—J. Harry Shale, chairman;
E. B. Bartlett, Paul B. Klugh.
Conservation of Natural Resources—G. Ad. Ander-
son, chairman; T. L. Floyd-Jones, Emil W. Wolff.
Traffic—Eugene J. Whelan, chairman; E. E. Con-
way, A. E. Johnson, Walter Lane, Adam Schneider.
Vocational Training—E. S. Rauworth, chairman;
George W. Allen, Henry Christman, Jerome T. Mur-
phy, T. L. Powell.
Internal Waterways—J. P. Seeburg, chairman;
Paul F. Netzow, Harry Schaaf.
Merchant Marine and Export—George W. Gittins,
chairman; Wm. L. Bjur, S. P. Walker.
Resolutions—W. E. Guylee, chairman; I. E. Bretz-
felder, Clarence H. Pond.
The officers of the association are: President,
Mark P. Campbell, 641 West 49th street, New York;
first vice-president, E. R. Jacobson, Hammond, Ind.;
second vice-president, M. J. DeRochemont, 134th
street and Southern boulevard, New York; secretary,
A. G. Gulbransen, 3232 W. Chicago avenue, Chicago;
treasurer, Charles Jacob, 539 West 3t9h street, New
York.
The general offices are at 105 West 40th street,
New York. Herbert W. Hill, assistant secretary.
SAMUEL BITTEL RESIGNS
FROM 0WENSB0R0 FIRM
But His Name Continues in the Title of Samuels-
Bittel Music Co.
The Samuels-Bittel Music Co., Owensboro, Ky., is
now composed of W. S. Samuels and Lee Atherton
and the old firm title will be continued, although
Joseph Bittel has resigned from the partnership.
The following notice appeared last week in the
Owensboro newspapers:
"Notice is hereby given that Joseph Bittel, a part-
ner, in the Samuels-Bittel Music Company, of Owens-
boro, Kentucky, a partnership composed of W. S.
Samuels, Joseph Bittel and Lee Atherton, has sold his
entire interest in said partnership to W. S. Samuels,
of Owensboro. Kentucky, and that he will not be
responsible for any debt or obligation contracted or
created after this date. W. S. Samuels and Lee
Atherton will continue the partnership under the
iirm name of the Samuels-Bittel Music Company.
"This the 21st day of June, 1923.
"JOSEPH BITTEL."
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).