Presto

PRESTO
December 8, 1923.
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells
9 9
EXHAUSTING PIANO
BUYING EMOTION
Veteran Traveler Calls Special Sale an Emo-
tional Appeal and Warns Dealers to
Assure Quality of Timeliness in
Sales.
CITES WARNING EXAMPLE
Thurston Dingman's Failure to Estimate Limitations
of the Seasonable Excuse for Public Appeal Pro-
vides Excellent Moral.
The Christman
Electrically Operated
Reproducing
Grands and Uprights
Meet the Most Exacting Require-
ments of the Most Critical. To be
Satisfactory the Reproducing Piano
must be the best representation of the
Piano Maker's Skill.
The Christman is recognized as the
very highest type of the most ad-
vanced development of the Reproduc-
ing Piano. It has no superior and it
is representative of the
Entire Christman Line
There is no other line that surpasses
this one, and none in which high qual-
ity and popular characteristics blend
in a like degree, to the profit of the
dealer in fine instruments.
CHRISTMAN
Studio Grand
Only 5 Feet Long
It was the CHRISTMAN GRAND that
first demonstrated the truth that size has
nothing to do with the depth and resonance
of a Grand Piano's tone.
Built with a careful eye to the exacting
requirements of the space at the command
of city dwellers and owners of small houses,
the CHRISTMAN GRAND combines every
essential that wins for the grand piano first
consideration in the mind of the artist.
t(
The First Touch
Tells"
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
The special sale is most effective when the reasons
for it are plainly apparent to the prospective cus-
tomers. The thought is not original. It has been
voiced and printed many times. But it is a good
thing to repeat, as the- words are in the nature of a
warning. The fire sale following the blaze in the
next block has only the ghost of an excuse. A great
many of the remodeling sales in music stores are
the thinnest kind of excuses and the sources of many
a laugh with the travelers.
But the joke sales of any kind do not excite the
risibilities of all the piano travelers. Quite a few of
them are jealous of the recognition of the ethical
observances by the dealers. A sale by a music store
for which there is no obvious reason seems to the
experienced and businesslike piano traveler as the
most futile of gestures.
The Untimely Sale.
The special sale at the proper time is the evidence
of energy directed with a purpose. The false alarm
special sale of pianos is an unflattering estimate of
the intelligence of the public. A special sale of rub-
bers in July is not more inopportune than some of the
special sales launched by piano dealers.
If you will notice, the special sale events of the
progressive music houses do not make prominent any
thought of prices. Inserting the marked down price
inducement in the pre-holiday period is an unneces-
sary proceeding. It is against the laws of merchan-
dising. When there is the Christmas buying stimula-
tion to spontaneously bring the prospects to the
store, advertising slashed prices is a fatal distrac-
tion.
The Nature of the Appeal.
Every special sale is an appeal to the emotions in
one form or another. And the fact is not changed
if the special sale event is a dignified approach of a
conservative house or the "was-and-now" ballyhoo
of the fly-by-night dealer. And sometimes the dealer
ignores the fact that the emotions of the public may
be exhausted by a previous appeal of a competitor.
A real fire sale following a well ballyhooed fake fire
sale in the same town fails to excite profitable inter-
est. Even a genuine earthquake sale would not
have its legitimate pulling power if announced to fol-
low immediately after one of the common forms of
'"repair sales."
This is as good a place as any to interpolate the
usual yarn to point the moral and adorn the sub-
ject, especially as it reminds me of a story which
shows how easy it is to exhaust the popular emo-
tions.
The Yarn.
In my early days on the road for a piano house, an
interesting acquaintance was Homer Tate, a salesman
for Thurston Dingman, music dealer in a picturesque
little town on the west branch of the Susquehanna
river. Indeed I might name both men as interesting
friends of mine. Homer was fussy and could talk like
an encyclopedia; Thurston was silent and placid,
seemingly more interested in the proper kind of trout
bait to use than in the potent kind of advertising ar-
gument to print in the Clarion.
Stage Center for Homer.
In time sales of pianos in the store became so few
and far between and Homer's salary so intermittent
that he decided to be up and going. He selected Oil
City as his future field of operation and when he
made his destination known he became a hero.
It was wonderful how people found out his good
qualities and recognized the fine points of his char-
acter at the thought of his departure. The Clarion
had a long piece about him. A party was organized
in his honor. Then a subscription paper was passed
around and a gold-headed umbrella purchased and
presented to him at a social affair. He was the
subject of farewell speeches, and at a rousing stag
affair gushing words were broadcasted and flowing
bowls emptied for auld lang syne. Homer wept real
tears at the not-for-its-intrinsic-value oration that
went with the umbrella. Then he departed for Oil
City.
The Dingman Inspiration.
All this Thurston Dingman noted. Wondering
thereat he had an inspiration. At intervals and vainly
Thurston had tried to arouse the town's enthusiasm
by means of the special sale with little or no excuse
for the event. At one time and another he had a
fire sale or an alteration sale, but without the desired
result. He even had a ballyhoo contest captained by
a vociferous specialist, but his fellow citizens failed
to respond.
Watching the outpouring of public favor for
Homer Tate at his departure, Thurston decided to
try a "departure sale." So he contracted for space in
the Clarion. Lots of it; big ad displays announcing
the "public's gain consequent on the complete clear-
ance sale of Thurston Dingman's mammoth stock of
music goods," and editorial matter, double leaded,
commenting on "our city's great loss of an esteemed
and public-spirited citizen, Thurston Dingman, who
has decided to move to the larger sphere afforded
by Scranton."
Nothing Doing!
Then Thurston awaited the show of tremendous
affection his departure would call forth. Nary a
show. The Clarion, in another edition dripped briny
tears of regret at "our city's commercial loss," but
no effusive crowd expressed a godspeed by buying
any of the marked-down, vstjckers. The display pages
shrieked "departure sale," but that Pennsylvania town
kept on its whittling and never dropped a stitch in its
knitting.
No party, no speeches, no umbrellas, no rush for
bargains. Nothing. Homer Tate had exhausted
the emotional vein.
M. D. S.
STEINWAY PIANO AT THE
WHITE HOUSE JY1USICALES
Famous Artistic Events of Washington Resumed
This Week at Dinner to Cabinet Members.
Henry Junge, of Steinway & Sons, New York, is
taking part in arranging a series of musicales at the
White House, which functions will be a prominent
part of the season's entertaining by President Coolidge
and Mrs. Coolidge.
The first of the series of musicales was given on
Thursday of this week when the President and Mrs.
Coolidge gave a dinner for the members of the
cabinet and their families. The second of the series
will be given December 20 in connection with the
dinner for the diplomatic corps.
A notable feature of the White House musicales is
the use of the Steinway piano, which has been the
official piano for these events during previous admin-
istrations.
During President Harding's term the
musicales were discontinued for a time owing to the
illness of Mrs. Harding.
BUSINESS IS SPORT.
E. H. Eucker, general manager of the retail divi-
sion of the Story & Clark Piano Co., H. H. Eucker,
manager of the Chicago retail store, and R. A. Burke
of the wholesale department, are gentlemen with a
well known character for figuratively "bagging the
game" in business. But last week, in a good sporting
corner of Wisconsin, they proved they could do the
trick literally as well. They made the trip by auto-
mobile and from start to finish had a most enjoyable
time, besides again showing their prowess with the
gun.
BUYS MISSOURI STORE.
S. J. Sloan, who had been in the jewelry and music
business in Cameron, Mo., since 1907, has sold his
store to E. H. Ames of Jamesport. The transfer was
made last week and Mr. Ames is already in charge.
The new proprietor retains the services of W. E.
Goll, optometrist, and of Miss Doris Gean Maxwell.
Mr. Sloan who had built up a good trade and made
a host of friends, will not leave Cameron, but will
remain as an officer in the Citizens State Bank, with
which he has been actively connected for some time.
P. E. MASON, SALES DIRECTOR.
P. E. Mason has been appointed manager of the
sales department of the Apollo Piano Co., De Kalb.
111. Mr. Mason, who resigned as vice-president of
the Cable-Nelson Piano Co., Chicago, when that in-
dustry was acquired by John H. Parnham, has had
valuable experiences in the field of sales.
MORE DOCK FACILITIES.
The Hallet & Davis Piano Co. has acquired new
facilities for receiving supplies for the factory at
Neponset, Mass. The state government has dredged
the Neponset River to the docks of the company so
that lumber vessels were enabled to discharge cargoes
there this week.
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