Presto

PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
• Editor*
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
merclal 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, f4.
Payable in advance i. No extra charge in United States
possesaions, 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.
Frrm? 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., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
ing pianos knows little of the small annoy- start up again full tilt and more ambitious!
ances that beset some other lines of merchan- than ever. Another development of the nearl
dising. The troubles to prevent loss by time's future will be the establishment of a n?\\ in-
spoliation, and the seasonable changes of taste dustry th^ output of which will be principally]
and fashion, have no place in the music trade. "straight" pianos. And the instruments will
The computings of petty profit percentages present no departure from the familiar instru-
upon the little things of over-the-counter ment, with no special "improvements" or in-1
sales, is not a part of the piano trade. The novations. It will be but one of several piano I
end is always worth while, and only the folly industries to join the ranks when the affiirs|
of the merchant himself may tear down the of the nation settle back again to conditions
results of his own planning and doing.
more normal, and assume the kind of stability
Isn't this all true? Do you know of any and certainty to which this country has been
other trade where the environment is more accustomed and knows well how to take ad-
pleasing or refined? Can you name any other vantage cf.
line of business that presents so small a loss
The piano business is all right. And it will
by reason of the abrasions of lime, or any reward enterprise and industry in the future
temporary lull in its activities. Is there an- even more largely than in the past.
other in which even the dull days and hours
may be so profitably employed by methods
LOSCALZO NOW RECORDING
of winning trade by personal effort of a kind
FOR WELTE=MIGNON (LICENSEE)
almost social in its character?
Think over the piano dealers who have be-
come really wealthy in the business. Are Player of Popular Music Engaged to Record Broad-
way Hits that Have Become Favorites.
they any fewer, in proportion to the numbers
Variety of choice in music appealing to all tastes is
engaged in the business, than the successful
the principle that governs the making of De Luxe
ones in other lines of trade?
Welte-Mignon (Licensee) Music Rolls. Among the
NEW FACTORIES
How do the despondent members of the
piano trade account for the fact that there
are more new piano factories going up, or of
WEALTHY PIANO MEN
recent completion, than at any time before
Whenever a sensation, whether social, crim- in a quarter-century? If the Melancholy
inal or fatalistic, is chronicled by the news- Blues of the trade are right in their attitude
papers, the man in the case is almost certain toward the best business on earth, how does
to be classified as "wealthy" or a "million- it happen that so much more producing space
aire." Suppose the principal in the case hap- and energy is required to keep pace with in-
pened to be a member of the music trade. creasing demands?
The truth is that the piano industry and
Would the complimentary or material char-
trade are in better shape right now than al-
acterization fit ?
For a good many years it was the custom most any other stabilized business. It is pos-
of a late prominent music trade editor to ridi- sible that some of the experimental activities
cule the idea that piano men could become or the seasonable enterprises may be moving
rich. He had a habit of asking in sarcastic faster and more profitably to investors, but
or cynical vein, how many millionaires there it would be difficult for the most rational
were in the piano business. But he did not fault-finder to name another line that hasn't
stop to count them, and so he gave no evi- felt the industrial depression of the times
dence that he knew what he was talking more deeply than the piano business has. And
this is not said without a careful survey of
about.
As a matter of fact, the successful men in the entire field.
At the present time there are giant piano
the several branches of the music industry
factories
about to be erected in both New
and trade measure up well with their neigh-
York
and
Chicago. In the latter city two
bors in other leading lines of business. The
splendid
new
structures have just been com-
proportion of progressive men in the making
pleted
and
taken
possession of by piano in-
and selling of pianos is as large as in almost
dustries
which
make
the automatic type of
any other line, and better than many of them.
instruments
their
specialty.
But both of the
And the number of the successful ones who
industries
produce
the
pianos
completely. The
have retired, and are living upon the results
industries
alluded
to
are
the
Operators
Piano
of their energies, is as great proportionately
Co.,
and
the
Nelson-Wiggin
Piano
Co.,
re-
as those in any other branch of industry. We
spectively.
could present a list to prove this. And in the
One of the largest manufacturers of play-
list, while there would be none to compare in
erpianos
in the world—the Gulbransen Com-
wealth with a Rockefeller or Ford, nearly all
pany—is
adding a great building to its al-
of them have enjoyed their way to independ-'
ready
mammoth
plant, for the production of
ence fully as much, if not more, than any
small
grand
pianos.
modern Croesus.
In Boston the new factory of the Vose &
If money-getting is the sole end of busi-
Sons
Piano Co. is a model of industrial com-
ness, then perhaps there are more alluring
pleteness
and structural comeliness. It is a
fields than that of the piano or general music
monument
to the progressive character of
business. If the center of effort is to be
one
of
the
oldest and most substantial of
found in the get-rich-quick idea, then there
America's
musical
institutions. And in an-
may be more direct roads to the results de-
other
sense
the
piano
industry displays the
sired. But if there is any business in which
kind
of
energy
that
puts
to shame any talk
the road to success is more liberally bordered
of
"slipping,"
or
retrogression.
by the flowers of delight and the green pas-
tures of intellectual and spiritual satisfaction,
It has come to Presto's knowledge that one
we do not know what it is.
of the western industries which for some time
The man who has made a fortune by sell- has been in a rather quiescent state, wiU soon
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1924.
July 12, 1924.1
recent additions to the list of Welte-Mignon (Licen-
see) pianists who specialize in popular music is M. J.
Loscalzo. He is a young man of Italian birth who
was taught his first steps in piano playing in sunny
Italy, where music is a national trait, and where
everyone seems born with a talent for it.
Loscalze was only six years old when he received
his first formal instruction. This was under Pro-
fessor Scheritti, of St. Peter's College in Naples.
Finishing there after a few years of intensive work,
he was sent to Venice, where, under the tutelage of
F. Carri, a master well known in Europe, he devel-
oped into a pianist of considerable accomplishment.
There are many musicians today with an excellent
background of training in classical music who are de-
voting their talent to the interpretation of modern
syncopated music. Loscalzo is one of them. Syn-
copated rhythms are among the oldest forms of music.
It has gone hand and hand with the dance, the old-
est of human arts, and has influenced nearly all musi-
cal compositions. Nearly all the works of the famous
composers are full of syncopated measures.
For the past two seasons Loscalzo has been play-
ing at the Club Royale in New York. His recording
has been in demand by several of the well-known
makers of phonograph records. He is under con-
tract to produce not less than two recordings a
month for the De Luxe Welte-Mignon (Licensee)
Reproducing Roll Corporation. This will add much
to the importance of the popular music section of the
Welte-Mignon Library from the standpoint of sales
appeal.
Advance records by Loscalzo now available include
a catchy and favorite selection from Chariot's Revue
of 1924, that most original and successful of revues
which has won the hearts of blase New York thea-
tergoers. The title of the selection is "The Lime
House Blues" (No. Y.6769), and is played by Los-
calzo in a whimsical and winsome style. Another in-
teresting record is a most seductive tango, "La
Violetera" (No. Y.6770). Two others worthy of spe-
cial mention here because of their unique manner of
rendition are the lilting, whistling favorite, "There's
Yes, Yes in Your Eyes" (No. Y.6742), and "In the
Evening," a very tuneful little composition (No.
Y.6741).
STRAUBE SALES IN CHICAGO STORE.
One of the finest furniture firms that carry pianos
is the Bridgeport Furniture Co., 3224 South Halsted
street, Chicago. The house displays a big line of
instruments, including the Straube Artronome, which
was the very first piano to appear in this house. The
management reports that featuring of this piano has
made record sales, and many of these instruments
have been placed in the fine homes of foreigners who
largely populate this district of Chicago's Southwest
Side. The store recently added Zenith radio sets.
CHASE-HACKLEY PRESIDENT.
W. H. Mann, of Pasadena, Cal., president of the
Chase-Hackley Piano Co., of Muskegon, Michigan,
has been in Chicago this week, leaving this Saturday
for the factory, to remain two weeks. While in Chi-
cago Mr. Mann has been in consultation with Lem
Kline, sales director of Muskegon industry. Busi-
ness with the fine old Muskegon company is surpris-
ingly good considering the general complaint to the
contrary.
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