Presto

PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
C. A. DAN I ELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT •
• Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So.
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1923.
MADE PIANO HISTORY
Last week and this Chicago has been cele-
brating a great event of thirty years ago
which, more than anything else in the city's
history, gave it a name among the artistic
triumphs of the world. It was in October,
1893, that the Columbian Exposition closed its
doors and became a chapter in the eternal book
of progress. And the share of the music
industries in the six months of wonderment
was very considerable. The famous Section
I of the Manufacturers' Building was the cen-
ter of interest with the millions of visitors
who took part in an art which, more than any
other, spreads delight and helps to make life
worth while.
The Marshall Field stores in Chicago, pre-
sented a miniature reproduction of the expo-
sition all Jast week. Tt gave, of course, but a
vague idea of the splendors of the White
City, but the pictures called back again to
older visitors, many of the glories which made
Jackson Park famous and fastened the eyes
of the world upon the city which, but twenty
years before, had been almost literally a pile
of smoking ruins.
Eighteen months after the close of the
great Fair, Presto put forth the "Awards
Souvenir," giving the only complete history
of section I, in permanent form. The book
contained the separate stories of the triumphs
of the music industries, and gave illustrations
not only of the various booths in the piano de-
partment of the Manufacturers' Building, but
also copies of the awards won by the piano
manufacturers. There were a dozen success-
ful bidders for fame among the piano indus-
tries in the marvelous Section I. Even to-
day some of these award-getters are using
their victories with which to strengthen their
advertisements in current newspapers and
magazines.
On another page this week a short story of
Section I appears. It will interest younger
members of the trade as well as reawaken
pleasant memories in the older ones—the
piano men who shared in the inspiring days
of 1893.
THE TICKER SELLS
The stock market tickers tell a tale of
values. A few years ago almost any investor
would have smiled were he told that the ticker
had marked up a musical instrument stock far
above par—had indicated that the things oi
art, "non-essentials," perhaps—had registered
points above most of the other things of more
commonplace interest. But that day has
passed, and now it is quite customary to read
in the market reports of the rapid rise in the
stock of great musical instrument corpora-
tions.
Last week the financial news reports showed
the values placed by shrewd traders in "big
business" upon the stock of the American
Piano Company. The figures rose to $135.
When the New York amalgamation of several
great piano industries was first completed,
there were men in the music trade who shook
their heads. The piano wasn't ready for it, or
the capital must be too great and the divi-
dends of slow growth. A few years have
proved how wrong was such reasoning.
Today there are very few stocks in better
call than that of the American Piano Co. The
confidence of the public in the management
has become a positive factor. The solid char-
acter of the piano industry has been thor-
oughly demonstrated. And the fact that the
stock of the big combination of famous pianos
has touched a point which indicated great
profits for its fortunate, owners is one of the
best of indications of the same stability of
other piano industries, both individually
owned and incorporated. The active, hard
working piano dealer has reason to be proud
of his business, however small, or if large in
some great commercial center.
A GREAT "SPREAD"
It isn't too late to refer to the new proof,
which appeared in last week's Presto, of the
accuracy of the judges in the recent adver-
tising contest who awarded the prize to Mr.
E. L. Hadley, of the publicity department of
The Cable Company. If you have last week's
Presto handy, turn again to the "center
spread"—the two middle pages of the paper—
and study it closely.
Every man who has tried to produce good
"copy" will agree that the two pages possess
the chief points for which all advertisers
strive. The display is good. The choice of
expression is good. The placing (of every
word is just right, and there are not too matiy
of them. And the result of statement of facts
and display leaves the very impression of
strength and conviction by which desire to
know more, and inspiration to sell more, are
produced.
Add the convincing features of the practical
pianists and singers who have commended
the Cable line—especially the Cable Midget
piano—and the result of the copy-maker's
work becomes really fine and to the perfect
liking of any one who knows what it means
to prepare that kind of typographic display.
It is the rare ability to pick something from
space, apply it to real things, find means for
giving expression to quality of the artisans'
skill and to fit the diction, appeal of word and
picture to the intelligence of the casual reader
October 13, 1923
as well as the critical expert. And that is
ability of a high order.
The Cable Midget spread of last week is so
good that it should find a frame and a place
upon the walls of many a piano ware-room.
TRADE VOLSTEAD ISM
It would be strange if the itch to reform
something which has taken hold of the law-
makers did not spread to the lesser industries
and trade in similar fashion. There are signs
of its breaking out in the matter of price-
marking on sheet music. A "trade practice
submittal"—ominous term—has been held to
start the investigation of figures placed upon
the innocent pieces of sheet music. And where
it is expected to end nobody can speculate.
There has never been a time when the ex-
act price indicated on the title pages has been
collected by the publishers any more than in
the book business. There have been times
when the retailers charged the full prices upon
single sales. The discounts to dealers have
always been based upon the retail prices, and
for many years they were pretty strictly ad-
hered to. If the figure 3 appeared in the star
upon the title page, thirty cents was the price,
and if a 6 was there the wholesale price was
just sixty cents less 10% with 5% extra on
small quantities.
To mark any figure upon the sheet of music
can have little to do with the selling price at
retail, further than to suggest what the pub-
lisher thinks he wants after the customary
discounts have been taken off. Put a price of
ten cents on the sheet and it will place an em-
bargo upon the sale, or will tempt retailers
to erase the figure as soon as the piece be-
comes popular. There has never been any
fixed price, some publishers marking in the
figure 4, 5, or 6, whereas another publisher
may put the figure 3 in the little star.
It doesn't seem a very large thing for any
trade commission to become deeply concerned
in. The sheet music business is not a vast
one, and there is no danger of financial panic
in it. But the sheet music business is a little
better than it has been, and perhaps it is able
to sustain a share of the lawmakers' tinkering,
even if it doesn't need it. '
TWENTY=THREE YEAR OLD
"TONK" HAS "SWEETEST TONE"
Pianist in Florida Writes Enthusiastically of Instru-
ment Which Has Had "Hard Treatment."
Clermont, Florida.
William Tonk & Bro., Inc.
Gentlemen: Please send me your present catalog,
price list, terms, etc.
Twenty-three years ago I
bought a second-hand Tonk piano and have given it
hard treatment, and today it is the sweetest piano in
our community.
Yours truly,
MRS. J. B. JONES.
MOVES TO BURLINGTON, N. C.
The Moore Music Co., which was established a
year ago in Burlington, N. C, recently moved to new
and more commodious quarters in the Cohn-Mazur
building. J. C. Moore, head of the firm, is well
known in the music trade of the South. He estab-
lished a vigorous sales policy at the start and the
business has grown with the passing of every month.
FRED LEHMAN'S PLANS.
Fred Lehman, for the past 35 years in the music
business in East St. Louis, 111., has returned from his
vacation spent in California, and, according to a local
newspaper, Mr. Lehman will soon embark in the
musical business in Los Angeles. He does not deny
the rumor and says it is possible he may do so.
The Baldwin line of pianos is now carried in Shel-
byville, Ind., by R. H. Wisker.
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