Presto
Issue: 1923 1931 - Page 6
July 28, 1923
PRESTO
NO IMPOSSIBLE
PIANO PROSPECTS
And the Correctness of the Statement Is
Borne Out by the Story Told This Week
by W. R. Oswald, the Spokane
Dealer.
There are some piano men so naturally courteous
and polite they hardly deserve credit for presenting
the suave and peaceful front on occasions which test
their serenity. On the other hand, are the unfor-
tunates who are so temperamentally equipped that
every hour of their lives has its moments when the
desire to flare up must be suppressed. To these spir-
ited, hair-trigger chaps belong the whitest wings and
brightest halos, for theirs is the eternal struggle to
keep the peace amid the vexations of the piano ware-
room or the strenuous stunts of the sales on the out-
side.
He Was Reminded.
W. R. Oswald, the Spokane, Wash., dealer was
thinking of the latter kind when talking with a
Presto man in Chicago this week, and the thought
suggested a story about an old friend of his named
Joe Avery, when Joe was a piano salesman in a New
England town. Joe got a keen salesman's ability
from his Yankee father and a red head and a dyna-
mite temper from the suffragette side of the house.
Joe's mother was Scotch-Irish and in Joe the Irish
combustibility far outweighed the Scotch canniness,
according to Mr. Oswald, who said:
Subduing His Wrath.
"As a matter of fact, the poor chap's life up to
manhood was one tireless struggle to acquire suav-
ity; to govern his ready and truthful tongue and to
master his features, which naturally strove to reflect
his emotions. But he had his reward at last and got
himself so well in hand that only his nearest friends
could tell what sleeping volcanoes of wrath lay lulled
within him.
'"He proved it, too, when he tackled old Archibald
Goddard, taking him up as a piano prospect when
all the other piano folks had passed him up as im-
possible. Archibald was the local rich man and was
so crusty he repelled all advances to conversation
that didn't concern his bank, paint works or tile
factory.
"That was the kind of a piano prospect Joe Avery
took up when all the others retired, baffled and
defeated at old Goddard's crabbedness and unwill-
ingness to hear even the preambles to the eloquent
piano pleas.
"Goddard and his meek little wife had lived their
lives in the grim brick house on Elm street; had
raised their one girl there until they sent her to a
fashionable finishing school in Boston. The unlovely
old square house Goddard continued to consider good
enough for him. The wife agreed with him through
habit; but the daughter, a dashing, spirited girl,
stormed the old Croesus into building a new, modern
house after a plan .of her own selection.
Then Daughter Returned.
"You see, at the end of her school days she re-
fused to return home until the house of her choice
was built. The old man sent her a sulphurous nega-
tive by telegraph. The old home was good enough
for him and she could stay away and be blankety-
blanked for all he cared. She repeated her ulti-
matum and took a job as secretary or something in
Boston.
"Meanwhile the mother fretted and pined for the
daughter and old Goddard fumed and invented new
cuss words directed at daughter by his private wire-
less. But the girl was firm. No new home accord-
ing to plans supplied; no beautiful twenty-year-old
daughter to grace the domestic hearth. Daughter
won. Goddard had the house built and Marie re-
turned.
Marie's Ultimatum.
"Then came the question of decorations and furni-
ture. Marie had appropriate plans in these matters,
too, and every painter's job and every set of furni-
ture was the subject of a battle royal. The girl got
everything until it came to the furnishing of the
music room. There she insisted on a harp and
grand piano at prices that threw old crusty into fits.
The old parlor organ, good enough for mother, was
good enough for her. Daughter laughed scornfully
and put on the screws of the 1900 flapper. She in-
stigated persistent attacks on papa by every piano
house in the town, but in vain. Not a salesman could
get a hearing. It was then Joe Avery essayed to
win where others failed.
Siege Begins.
"Time and again Joe tried for an interview, but
to no purpose. He was tireless in his efforts though.
In his calm, firm way Joe had anticipated success
for his purpose if he succeeded in getting his victim
cornered. But Goddard hedged himself around with
watchful employes, who panted to bounce piano
salesmen. Joe, however, eluded their vigilance one
day and cornered the old man in his office.
"Then came the tornado of wrath from the penned
prospect, all of which Joe calmly heard. He sat un-
moved until the storm sunk to mere sputtering gusts
and eddies of profanity. Then he began to state
his proposition. Goddard got his second wind and
interrupted with sulpherous refusals to listen. 'Get
out, d'ye hear, get out!' he bellowed with a threaten-
ing movement towards the placid piano salesman.
'Don't you see I'm busy?'
Goaded Him.
" 'Well, since you're so busy today,' said the ur-
bane Joe, 'will you kindly tell me where and when
we can talk over these pianos and things you want
to buy?'
"'Go to hell!' shouted Goddard on the verge of
apoplexy.
" 'Thanks. I'll consider that an appointment,' was
the smiling response.
"The magnate sank back in his chair gasping, his
face working with contradictory emotions.
The
rigid mouth at last relaxed into something like a
smile.
" 'You win,' he said resignedly. 'What fool music
fixin's does that girl want?'
" 'She wants a grand piano and harp. These are
the styles and the makes are the best in the market.
And she also wants a pipe organ,' added Joe, driving
while the driving was good. 'Something to cost
about—'
" 'Oh, go the limit. Get out. Don't you see I'm
busy,' was the final bark."
RENEWS ATLANTA LEASE.
The lease of the Cable Piano Co. on the Cable
Piano Co. building, Atlanta, Ga., has just been re-
newed for ten years. The building is owned by Mrs.
Junius Oglesby and Mrs. W. S. Witham, who re-
ceive $25,000 yearly from three tenants, the others
being the Atlanta Conservatory of Music and the
Pictorial Review.
OFFICIAL RECORD OF
TRAVELERS' COMMITTEES
Various Lists of New Appointments by Presi-
dent W .C. Heaton Sent Out
by Secretary.
The new committees of the National Piano Travel-
ers' Association for 1923-1924 appointed by Presi-
dent W. C. Heaton are printed on the new letter-
head prepared by Secretary Albert Behning. The
complete list of officers is also officially set forth on
the stationery. The complete names and addresses
of the officers are:
President—W. C. Heaton, Auto Pneumatic Co.,
653 West 51st street, N. Y.; first vice-president, Chas.
J. Cunningham, Foster-Armstrong Co., Rochester,
N. Y.; second vice-president, George E. Mansfield,
C. Kurtzmann & Co., Buffalo, N. Y.; third vice-presi-
dent, James T. Bristol, 25 East Jackson Blvd., Chi-
cago, 111.; treasurer, W. B. Williams, 130 West 42nd
street, N. Y.; secretary, Albert Behning, 105 West
40th street, N. Y.
The following are the various committees for the
new term:
i
Advisory committee: former Presidents W. S. Rich,
W. M. Plaisted, A. Dalrymple, J. H. Shale, W. J.
Keeley, C. T. Purdy, G. W. Allen, W. E. Hall, O. W.
Williams, F. E. Edgar, D. E. Fabyan, J. A. Krumme,
A. A. Mahan, A. S. Shoninger, G. H. Bliss.
Executive Committee: The President, Chairman;
ex-officio, first vice-president, second vice-president,
third vice-president, treasurer, secretary; M. J. Ken-
nedy, 532 Republic Bldg., Chicago, 111.; Gordon
Laughead, Apollo Piano Co., DeKalb, 111.
Grievance Committee: Roger S. Brown, chairman,
Henry F. Miller Piano Co., Boston, Mass.; Ralph H.
Day, Ivers & Pond, 114 Boylston street, Boston,
Mass.; Paul Fink, Aeolian Co., 29 West 42nd street,
New York City.
Hotel Committee: Geo. E. McNally, chairman,
Estey Piano Co., 297 East 133rd street, New York
City; A. B. Furlong, Vocalstyle Co., Cincinnati, Ohio;
Alexander McDonald, Sohmer Co., 31 West 57th
street, New York City.
Railroad and Water Ways Committee: Gust.
Adolph Anderson, chairman, Van Wert, Ohio;
Thomas J. Mercer, Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Chi-
cago, 111.; B. P. Sibley, Kohler Industries, San Fran-
cisco, Cal.; Roy S. Dunn, Straube Piano Co., Ham-
mond, Ind.
Delegates to National Council of Traveling Sales-
men's Ass'n: W. C. Heaton, Geo. W. Allen, W. B.
Williams, Albert Behning, Chas. McConville.
Alternates: D. D. Luxton, Kenneth W. Curtis,
Raymond E. Briggs, F. E. Edgar.
Delegates to Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce: W. C. Heaton, F. E. Edgar, G. H. Bliss, M.
J. Kennedy, W. B. Williams.
STARR IN LOUISIANA.
Albert T. Thompson, representative in New Or-
leans for the Starr Piano Co., Richmond, recently
established three new out-of-town agencies, all in the
interior of Louisiana, and is fairly positive that grati-
fying results will be obtained from them as soon as
they get well under way. The first of these is the
Stewart Drug Co., at Amite, La.; the second the
Port Allen Music Co., Port Allen, La., and E. J.
Thoman, at Hammond, La. They will also handle
Starr phonographs and Gennett records.
LOGIC vs. ADVICE
If a Ford Roadster equipped with a Loader enables one man to do the work of two, enables the
salesman to sell at least 50 per cent more pianos than he can any other way, at a small expense,
then, isn't it Logical that it would pay you to have, one, or more, in your business? May we have
your answer?
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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
NO IMPOSSIBLE
PIANO PROSPECTS
And the Correctness of the Statement Is
Borne Out by the Story Told This Week
by W. R. Oswald, the Spokane
Dealer.
There are some piano men so naturally courteous
and polite they hardly deserve credit for presenting
the suave and peaceful front on occasions which test
their serenity. On the other hand, are the unfor-
tunates who are so temperamentally equipped that
every hour of their lives has its moments when the
desire to flare up must be suppressed. To these spir-
ited, hair-trigger chaps belong the whitest wings and
brightest halos, for theirs is the eternal struggle to
keep the peace amid the vexations of the piano ware-
room or the strenuous stunts of the sales on the out-
side.
He Was Reminded.
W. R. Oswald, the Spokane, Wash., dealer was
thinking of the latter kind when talking with a
Presto man in Chicago this week, and the thought
suggested a story about an old friend of his named
Joe Avery, when Joe was a piano salesman in a New
England town. Joe got a keen salesman's ability
from his Yankee father and a red head and a dyna-
mite temper from the suffragette side of the house.
Joe's mother was Scotch-Irish and in Joe the Irish
combustibility far outweighed the Scotch canniness,
according to Mr. Oswald, who said:
Subduing His Wrath.
"As a matter of fact, the poor chap's life up to
manhood was one tireless struggle to acquire suav-
ity; to govern his ready and truthful tongue and to
master his features, which naturally strove to reflect
his emotions. But he had his reward at last and got
himself so well in hand that only his nearest friends
could tell what sleeping volcanoes of wrath lay lulled
within him.
'"He proved it, too, when he tackled old Archibald
Goddard, taking him up as a piano prospect when
all the other piano folks had passed him up as im-
possible. Archibald was the local rich man and was
so crusty he repelled all advances to conversation
that didn't concern his bank, paint works or tile
factory.
"That was the kind of a piano prospect Joe Avery
took up when all the others retired, baffled and
defeated at old Goddard's crabbedness and unwill-
ingness to hear even the preambles to the eloquent
piano pleas.
"Goddard and his meek little wife had lived their
lives in the grim brick house on Elm street; had
raised their one girl there until they sent her to a
fashionable finishing school in Boston. The unlovely
old square house Goddard continued to consider good
enough for him. The wife agreed with him through
habit; but the daughter, a dashing, spirited girl,
stormed the old Croesus into building a new, modern
house after a plan .of her own selection.
Then Daughter Returned.
"You see, at the end of her school days she re-
fused to return home until the house of her choice
was built. The old man sent her a sulphurous nega-
tive by telegraph. The old home was good enough
for him and she could stay away and be blankety-
blanked for all he cared. She repeated her ulti-
matum and took a job as secretary or something in
Boston.
"Meanwhile the mother fretted and pined for the
daughter and old Goddard fumed and invented new
cuss words directed at daughter by his private wire-
less. But the girl was firm. No new home accord-
ing to plans supplied; no beautiful twenty-year-old
daughter to grace the domestic hearth. Daughter
won. Goddard had the house built and Marie re-
turned.
Marie's Ultimatum.
"Then came the question of decorations and furni-
ture. Marie had appropriate plans in these matters,
too, and every painter's job and every set of furni-
ture was the subject of a battle royal. The girl got
everything until it came to the furnishing of the
music room. There she insisted on a harp and
grand piano at prices that threw old crusty into fits.
The old parlor organ, good enough for mother, was
good enough for her. Daughter laughed scornfully
and put on the screws of the 1900 flapper. She in-
stigated persistent attacks on papa by every piano
house in the town, but in vain. Not a salesman could
get a hearing. It was then Joe Avery essayed to
win where others failed.
Siege Begins.
"Time and again Joe tried for an interview, but
to no purpose. He was tireless in his efforts though.
In his calm, firm way Joe had anticipated success
for his purpose if he succeeded in getting his victim
cornered. But Goddard hedged himself around with
watchful employes, who panted to bounce piano
salesmen. Joe, however, eluded their vigilance one
day and cornered the old man in his office.
"Then came the tornado of wrath from the penned
prospect, all of which Joe calmly heard. He sat un-
moved until the storm sunk to mere sputtering gusts
and eddies of profanity. Then he began to state
his proposition. Goddard got his second wind and
interrupted with sulpherous refusals to listen. 'Get
out, d'ye hear, get out!' he bellowed with a threaten-
ing movement towards the placid piano salesman.
'Don't you see I'm busy?'
Goaded Him.
" 'Well, since you're so busy today,' said the ur-
bane Joe, 'will you kindly tell me where and when
we can talk over these pianos and things you want
to buy?'
"'Go to hell!' shouted Goddard on the verge of
apoplexy.
" 'Thanks. I'll consider that an appointment,' was
the smiling response.
"The magnate sank back in his chair gasping, his
face working with contradictory emotions.
The
rigid mouth at last relaxed into something like a
smile.
" 'You win,' he said resignedly. 'What fool music
fixin's does that girl want?'
" 'She wants a grand piano and harp. These are
the styles and the makes are the best in the market.
And she also wants a pipe organ,' added Joe, driving
while the driving was good. 'Something to cost
about—'
" 'Oh, go the limit. Get out. Don't you see I'm
busy,' was the final bark."
RENEWS ATLANTA LEASE.
The lease of the Cable Piano Co. on the Cable
Piano Co. building, Atlanta, Ga., has just been re-
newed for ten years. The building is owned by Mrs.
Junius Oglesby and Mrs. W. S. Witham, who re-
ceive $25,000 yearly from three tenants, the others
being the Atlanta Conservatory of Music and the
Pictorial Review.
OFFICIAL RECORD OF
TRAVELERS' COMMITTEES
Various Lists of New Appointments by Presi-
dent W .C. Heaton Sent Out
by Secretary.
The new committees of the National Piano Travel-
ers' Association for 1923-1924 appointed by Presi-
dent W. C. Heaton are printed on the new letter-
head prepared by Secretary Albert Behning. The
complete list of officers is also officially set forth on
the stationery. The complete names and addresses
of the officers are:
President—W. C. Heaton, Auto Pneumatic Co.,
653 West 51st street, N. Y.; first vice-president, Chas.
J. Cunningham, Foster-Armstrong Co., Rochester,
N. Y.; second vice-president, George E. Mansfield,
C. Kurtzmann & Co., Buffalo, N. Y.; third vice-presi-
dent, James T. Bristol, 25 East Jackson Blvd., Chi-
cago, 111.; treasurer, W. B. Williams, 130 West 42nd
street, N. Y.; secretary, Albert Behning, 105 West
40th street, N. Y.
The following are the various committees for the
new term:
i
Advisory committee: former Presidents W. S. Rich,
W. M. Plaisted, A. Dalrymple, J. H. Shale, W. J.
Keeley, C. T. Purdy, G. W. Allen, W. E. Hall, O. W.
Williams, F. E. Edgar, D. E. Fabyan, J. A. Krumme,
A. A. Mahan, A. S. Shoninger, G. H. Bliss.
Executive Committee: The President, Chairman;
ex-officio, first vice-president, second vice-president,
third vice-president, treasurer, secretary; M. J. Ken-
nedy, 532 Republic Bldg., Chicago, 111.; Gordon
Laughead, Apollo Piano Co., DeKalb, 111.
Grievance Committee: Roger S. Brown, chairman,
Henry F. Miller Piano Co., Boston, Mass.; Ralph H.
Day, Ivers & Pond, 114 Boylston street, Boston,
Mass.; Paul Fink, Aeolian Co., 29 West 42nd street,
New York City.
Hotel Committee: Geo. E. McNally, chairman,
Estey Piano Co., 297 East 133rd street, New York
City; A. B. Furlong, Vocalstyle Co., Cincinnati, Ohio;
Alexander McDonald, Sohmer Co., 31 West 57th
street, New York City.
Railroad and Water Ways Committee: Gust.
Adolph Anderson, chairman, Van Wert, Ohio;
Thomas J. Mercer, Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Chi-
cago, 111.; B. P. Sibley, Kohler Industries, San Fran-
cisco, Cal.; Roy S. Dunn, Straube Piano Co., Ham-
mond, Ind.
Delegates to National Council of Traveling Sales-
men's Ass'n: W. C. Heaton, Geo. W. Allen, W. B.
Williams, Albert Behning, Chas. McConville.
Alternates: D. D. Luxton, Kenneth W. Curtis,
Raymond E. Briggs, F. E. Edgar.
Delegates to Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce: W. C. Heaton, F. E. Edgar, G. H. Bliss, M.
J. Kennedy, W. B. Williams.
STARR IN LOUISIANA.
Albert T. Thompson, representative in New Or-
leans for the Starr Piano Co., Richmond, recently
established three new out-of-town agencies, all in the
interior of Louisiana, and is fairly positive that grati-
fying results will be obtained from them as soon as
they get well under way. The first of these is the
Stewart Drug Co., at Amite, La.; the second the
Port Allen Music Co., Port Allen, La., and E. J.
Thoman, at Hammond, La. They will also handle
Starr phonographs and Gennett records.
LOGIC vs. ADVICE
If a Ford Roadster equipped with a Loader enables one man to do the work of two, enables the
salesman to sell at least 50 per cent more pianos than he can any other way, at a small expense,
then, isn't it Logical that it would pay you to have, one, or more, in your business? May we have
your answer?
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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).