Presto

Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
Ail American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
Fheir Makers.
PRESTO
E.tabu.hed 1884. THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Year Book
The Only Complete
Annual Review of the
American Music In-
dustries and Trades.
to c cnt . ; v.oo « r««.
CHICAGO. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1925
PIANO TRADE CONDITIONS JUDGED BY PERSONAL
OBSERVATION
Tour of the Industries by Presto Representative Affords Opportunity to Forecast Business, Analyze Causes of
Discontent and Offer Possible Means of a Quick Return to Activities in Some Places
Now is the best time possible to put the pedal
down hard—the "loud" pedal—and tell the world, in
unmistakable tones, that you know the piano business
is better—much better and going to be a great deal
better still. It is time to stifle the talk about
"slumps" and all other terms that mean depression of
spirit or decrease in energy.
A two weeks' trip among the piano factories of the
country—a tour taken with no other purpose than to
"feel out" the men who arc responsible for the prog-
ress of the industry and trade—sustains what has been
said. Business will be good. Only habitual growlers
and constitutionally wobbly and dejected individuals
will deny it if they stop their lamentations long
enough to observe and pull themselves together in
keeping with real conditions. It needs but a little
extra push, and if all will push together the retailers
will jump out of their calm, in many sections, and
wake up to opportunities such as have not existed for
years gone by.
The Unwise Traveler.
One incident may help to show just why the fiction
of a "slump" in the piano business has been broad-
cast. The incident came to this writer's attention
one day last week. It was in the office of a very live
piano industry in a middle west city.
The trade paper representative had been announced
and the president of the piano company had invited
him into the inner office, across the hall from the
business departments. In the hall there passed a
gentleman who had been discussing things with the
piano manufacturer. He went out and into the wait-
ing cab bound for the next train.
"Didn't you recognize him?" asked the piano manu-
facturer. "He's the traveling representative of one of
the large New York supply houses. And what do
you think he said by way of introducing his mission,
which was naturally to secure an order?"
Conundrums similar are put to every trade paper
representative everywhere, probably. So it was a
case of "give it up."
"Well," continued the manufacturer, "he declared
positively that there wouldn't be more than 125,000
pianos produced this year, including players and
small grands. I told him that I expected this factory
alone would turn out more than one-tenth of the
number. And I added that it seemed to me mighty
poor policy for a supply salesman to open up with
pessimistic estimates of how small, instead of how
large, the piano business might be in a year that was
not yet half over. So far as I am concerned we are
making all the pianos our plant will permit of, and
intend to make many more and to do it we are en-
larging the factory, as you will see."
The Manufacturers' Confidence.
The piano maker in that case is so certain of a
great advance in the business that his talk alone
would be an inspiration to others almost everywhere.
But he is not alone in his confidence. He represents
a type of the kind of piano manufacturers by whose
energy and grit the business has sustained itself
through periods when other lines have suffered and,
in some instances, become almost extinct.
Music is as much an essential to the human family
as bread and potatoes. It appeals to the more
spiritual side, but it appeals just as certain, and just
as undeniably. The business of making the instru-
ments by which desire for something more than the
physical being requires is one that may lag at times,
but it never loses its power, and nothing more is re-
quired than to out a little effort into it to create the
same life that belongs to the physically vital things.
Music, in its means of expression, is like fire. If it
seems to slumber or slacken the fanning of the breeze
will revive it, and the flame will rise as certainly as
the smoke of its smouldering had risen upward.
A Rare Business.
promotion of piano-playing, as almost never before.
No business in the world so largely depends upon Leaders in the piano industry and trade are exerting
the individual energy of the men engaged in it as the their influence in the encouragement of piano class
selling of pianos. No other kind of selling brings so teaching as never before.
The piano has "come back" if it ever dropped at
;good a reward or a more certain return for the effort
expended. No other permits of so wide possibilities all, and will be stronger in the educational scheme
with so comparatively small an investment. Talk and in home life than it has been in many years. The
about millionaire merchants! There may not be things of wonderment and curiosity have expended
many millionaire piano dealers. But there are very their first great force and will drop into the scheme
many who have prospered proportionately in that, be- of living, the same as other things which have" stirred
ginning with almost nothing, they have sustained the world and then taken their place in the humdrum
themselves while they have built comfortable for- stolidity of everyday life.
tunes, and established substantial connections, finan-
Up to the Retailer.
cial and commercial. It's a good business this of
All of that goes to prove that the piano—all musi-
selling pianos. And it's a refined and pleasant busi- cal instruments—are essential to the happiness of the
ness anywhere. The successful piano men are work- people. The so-called "indoor life" is the intimate
ers, and the workers are, almost without exception, life. The outdoor life is equally necessary to good
successful.
living. It requires both to make a well rounded
It was equally gratifying to talk with some of the life. And the piano is, and will always be, the center
piano manufacturers in New York City. With few of the best part of the home life of intelligent people.
exceptions they expressed the certainty that trade is It is a matter, just now, of the amount of energy and
destined to be more than merely good. Only one determination to do and to sell. It is a question of
exception came to notice—and he didn't mean it.
stimulation as to how large the piano business will
be from this time forward, until some new upheaval
Father and Son.
It was up in the Bronx district. There, the son of in the affairs of men comes along to disturb the
a father who passed out after establishing a flourish- equilibrium also of the home.
If every retailer in the piano business will take
ing piano industry from almost nothing, accosted the
hold of his affairs with the right spirit, the coming
writer thus:
"Well, what's matter with the piano? We're in a fall and winter season will be a good one—more than
an average season. It is only necessary to settle
bad business, ain't we?"
"Why a bad business? I knew your dad well and upon a basis for the work of promoting the instru-
I never heard him say anything like that. He was ments you represent, and then of "pitching in" and
up on his toes, whistling and making pianos and more cleaning up the old prospects while looking out for
pianos! He always wanted to know just where he new ones. The piano business will not move without
could sell more pianos than he was making so that the salesmen's efforts. It never did and never will.
he might get busy and produce them still faster. It is a live business, for pianos must be SOLD, and
the sales are always about fifty per cent of the
What's the matter with YOU?"
"Well," he said, "father was an enthusiast. But I "made" kind. Get out and get after. And then,
having sold, look well to your collections.
suppose I shouldn't kick. I have done very well."
And he had said it. "Father was an enthusiast."
Nothing worth while is done without enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is the steam that proves the boiler is
well filled and the engine running full speed. The
smoke that floats from the chimney-top is the proof
of enthusiasm. The steam whistle that starts the Wolfe Music Co. One of the Foreward-Looking
work tells of enthusiasm. It fairly screeches its mes-
Piano Concerns in Ohio Metropolis.
sage of enthusiasm to the assembling workers. It is
a sign of life and the proof of ambition.
"We are anticipating improved trade conditions in
It may be that some of the younger generation of the fall, as is usual," said N. D. Bell, manager of the
piano manufacturers lack some of the more primitive, Wolfe Music Co., 641 Prospect avenue, Cleveland,
ever-bubbling enthusiasm of their dads. But they Ohio, on Monday of this week, to a Presto represen-
must recapture it. Most of the younger piano manu- tative. Mr. Bell, like every optimistic dealer, is right.
facturers—and we know them all—are of the do-it-
Cleveland is very lively just now in fitting out auto
well-and-do-it-now order of men. They know what tourists, in rebuilding its stores, and in recapitaliza-
is needed. And by that they draw to them the live tion and checking up for much active fall trade. It's
class of retailers. You can tell of the piano manufac- still the metropolis of a mighty state, and. when it
turers' enthusiasms by the kind of representatives and begins to feel its fall oats, it will again paw and
customers he has. And, as a rule, the successful snort to begin another year's battle.
pianos have the successful dealers.
And then not the least of Cleveland's stores will be
A Look Ahead.
th,e Wolfe Music Company. This establishment,
The approaching fall and winter will be good to which occupies two floors (workmen were decorat-
ing the upper floor this week) is handling the
the piano industry and trade. In financial circles
there is an expression of confidence which reflects the Kranich & Bach, the Story & Clark and the Cable-
feeling of the industrial and commercial world. The Nelson pianos. Their sign also says they represent
habit of discontent and uncertainty—and it is very the Kohler & Campbell instruments. They carry no
largely a habit—is disappearing. Labor finds employ- small goods, but they deal in Victrolas and Victor
ment. More building is in process than before since records and Q R S player rolls.
the great war. Collections are easier.
NEW GREENSBORO BRANCH.
So far as concerns the piano, the wavering as to
The Corley Company, Richmond, Va. ; recently
what form of instrument would be uppermost, has
settled into the conviction that, for some time to opened a new branch store at Greensboro, N. C. In
come, the small grand will lead and that the straight addition to the Mason & Hamlin pianos, the store
upright is to have a revival. Music, as a branch of will have an entire line of instruments manufactured
education—not merely as a means for pleasing the by The Cable Company, of Chicago. This new store
ear, will have its place. The school boards are giving is well located on one of the principle streets, and
it more notice, and even the piano dealers are paying will give Greensboro a very attractive general music
attention to the encouragement of teachers, and the store.
LIVE CLEVELAND HOUSE SEES
BIG IMPROVEMENT IN FALL
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