Presto

PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
C. A. DANIELL 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.
represent a large value in their names. If
not, there must be something wrong with the
instrument and something still less creditable
in the methods of its maker.
There are very few manufactured things the
trade marks of which are so valuable as the
name of a good piano. The name is the sign
of quality, character, and even price. There
are very few piano dealers who can not tell a
piano's approximate price by the name it
bears. There are still fewer piano dealers who
do not recognize the names upon nearly all
pianos. And, of course, they know a stencil
piano because they fail to recognize the name
it bears. The piano's trade mark, which is its
name, has great value or it has none at all.
It is right here that the stencil, or no-name
piano is an anomaly. It suggests that its
manufacturer is after but one result. That is
the profit that may rest between the actual
cost and the selling price. And the selling
price of pianos of that kind is necessarily
small, because the trade mark value is not
there.
It is a good plan for any manufacturer of
things that carry the character of their mak-
ers into the people's homes to make his trade
mark secure. Pianos upon which are certain
names are worth more after years have passed
than the newest piano of the kind that can
have no trade mark values. That is what kills
the stencil piano before it is put into the box
for shipment.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923.
PROFITABLE
AN IMPORTANT MOVE
There are names associated with the piano
world so firmly fixed, and so absolutely sug-
gestive of quality, that they stand as assur-
ance of successful progress. When a name
of that kind which has already made its place
immovably in its particular sphere, reaches
out into newer relationships, the interest is
unbounded. A name of the kind is that of
Strauch Bros., which is as much a part of
American piano traditions as any name in any
other great industry in its special field.
It is this that makes the announcement of
this week, that Strauch Bros, have added the
manufacture of pneumatic player actions to
their activities, of special concern to the trade.
As associated with piano actions the name is
always recognized as a symbol of excellence
in production, and stability in a commercial
sense. No one will doubt that the new player
actions from the same source as the Strauch
piano actions will be equally dependable and
attractive.
The output of player-pianos steadily in-
creases, and the immediate outlook is for a
larger business than before in years. The
demand for actions of the kind to give added
strength to the player piano itself, is propor-
tionately promising. Any player piano manu-
facturer with a good name for his products,
will have greatly augmented argument when
he can say, also, that his actions—perhaps
both piano and player—come from the famous
industry of Strauch Bros., of New York.
TRADE=MARK VALUES
Do you place a correct value upon the trade
name which appears upon the fall-board of
the pianos you sell, or don't you think that
it has sufficient value to suggest the sort of
protection that always implies values ?
Most pianos of established character must
One of the characteristically trade-produc-
ing announcements of The Cable Company
spreads over two pages in this issue of Presto.
It is characteristic because Cable advertise-
ments are,, almost without exception, of a kind
unique in their forceful newness. Perhaps
"original" would be a word better understood,
but the publicity department of the big indus-
try never seems to struggle for novelty so
much as to present something in which dealers
may find practical usefulness—an added op-
portunity of suggestion, by which to help
along their business.
The point of the Cable announcement this
week is, plainly, that there may be a disposi-
tion in the retail trade to overlook the fact
that "straight" pianos are still an active ele-
ment in the trade. That the beautiful upright
piano that demands the skill of head and hand,
without the ease of the pneumatic action, is
still to be considered because it is profitable,
because a large proportion of the people want
it; because it may often be sold when the
playerpiano is out of reasonable reach of the
family resources.
No dealer who understands his business will
neglect the opportunities of the upright piano
which will never be a "silent" piano if it is sold
to understanding people with a full apprecia-
tion of its possibilities. The playerpiano is,
of course, both a piano and a player. But
how often is it used as a hand-played instru-
ment ?
The straight piano must be the special ob-
ject of the music student always,' and for all
time. It may be sold, in many instances, when
a playerpiano is impossible, and to discourage
the sale of straight pianos is never good bus-
iness. The Cable Company announcement is
a particularly good one just now. For the
straight piano will make a fine holiday pres-
ent in places where even a player might not
be so warmlv welcomed.
November 17, 1923
BENJAMIN=TURNER MUSIC CO.
INCORPORATED IN WICHITA
J. J. Benjamin, President of New Company Taking
Over Assets of Turner Music Company.
The Benjamin-Turner Music Company, 412 East
Douglas street, Wichita, Kans., has been incorporated
for $100,000, and will take over the assets of the
Turner Music Company, in operation there since
1912.
J. J. Benjamin, formerly a banker of Cambridge,
Kans., and a director of the Union National Bank,
will be president and manager of the new corpora-
tion. W. Dell Turner, who has been more than
twenty years in the music business, will handle the
sales management. Charles Stigall of Salina, Kans.,
is a director, as also are Dr. A. J. Neill, 839 South
Topeka, and A. T. Lane, real estate dealer of Wichita.
The company has taken on the agencies for the
following pianos: Jesse French & Sons, Henry F.
Miller, Hazelton Brothers, Behr Brothers, Haddorft
and Clarendon and the Autopiano. The concern also
has the agency for the new Columbia Grafonola and
records.'
The store has been remodeled and new demonstra-
tion parlors provided. Mr. Turner said this week
the company will later install a wholesale depart-
ment for small musical merchandise. A building
leased by the company at 810 North Main street will
be used for rebuilding and refinishing pianos. Ma-
chinery costing more than $3,500 will be installed
there.
PRESTOLAFS AND PARAGRAFS
Export Literature.
Poor translations often make things advertised
ridiculous. A manufacturer of monkey wrenches en-
gaged an all-languages expert to translate his export
circular. When mailed to Spanish-speaking coun-
tries the articles highly recommended were "wrenches
for monkeys." A playerpiano was described as hav-
ing "lovely pedals for to lit every lady's pretty feet."
* * *
A piano traveler tells of a little girl out West who
defined her mamma's new Player as a "piano with
brains in it." Not so bad.
* * *
Tempora Mutandum.
In other days the hands and head
When exercised made music sweet;
Today we exercise, instead,
Expression stops and pumping feet.
* * *
Andy Gump to His Salesmen.
In regard to expenses, if there are any fiction
writers among you remember you are sending your
expense accounts to a human adding machine who
has no time to waste reading fairy stories. Bear in
mind that a salesman is a man who sells things. If
you can't send in orders send in your resignations.
You're working for a fellow who doesn't want any
deadwood in his lumber yard.—Sid. Smith, in Chi.
Trib.
* * *
Putting Her Wise.
Fair Prospect: "Why, that piano's broke! Two
of the keys won't play at all!"
Salesman: "Oh, no! That's one of our very best
patents. You see, when a note is out of tune the key
won't sound at all.
It's a sign that a tuner is
needed."
Prospect: "A great idea! I'll take it, of course."
Salesman: ''Thanks! And whenever a note doesn't
sound, remember that all it needs is a tuner!"'
* * *
Lady Prospect: Does this lovely piano have every-
thing to make it perfect?
Salesman: Everything but a place in your beau-
tiful parlor.
* * *
Judge to Long-Haired Wretch Charged with
Speeding: Well, are you a musician, or a poet, or
what?
Culprit: Neither, your Honor. I'm a song-writer.
*
*
*
J. L. R., Danville, 111., writes to the Chi. Trib.'s
"Wake o' the News" to ask if you remember when
Pat Rooney, comedian, sang at Hooley's in the 80s:
I owe ten dollars to O'Grady,
And you'd think he had a mortgage on my life;
In the morning he calls to collect it,
In the evening he sends his wife,
And if he don't want to wait
He can wipe it off his slate,
And a divil of a cent he'll get at all.
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