Presto

Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
rheir Makers.
PRESTO
E,tabu.hed i8u.
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Year Book
The Only Complete
Annual Review of the
American Music In-
dustries and Trades.
to cent,,- $2.00 a r.a,
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1925
instruct the new owner. If a salesman is unable to
demonstrate the merits that he talks about he is use-
less in carrying out the proper methods of player-
piano presentation. Too many playerpianos have
been improperly sold.
Too many people have
acquired instruments while failing to acquire that en-
thusiasm that perpetuates love for the instrument.
Dan C. Thomas, of Barberton, Caught When
Return to Original Methods of Presenting the The blame is on the dealer and his salesmen.
His Car Took Fire and, Leaping Into
The
old
belief
of
the
playerpiano
advertisers
who
Playerpiano as an Instrument Inviting the
won
the
tired
business
men
and
others
not
so
tired
Stream, Met Death by Drowning
Personal Touch of the Performer, a
was that the American people are not satisfied to just
in Shallow Water.
Pleasant Fact in Advertising.
listen to music but have the healthy desire to make
music themselves. The growth of golf, a foreign
game, was caused by the fact that you play yourself
instead of sitting on a grandstand watching others
play. And your golfing is what you make it. You
Late Items from Cleveland, Ohio, Give Signs of
Instrument's Merits Not Price Allurements Consid- put your personality into your game.
Activity and Promise a Lively Fall and
What
Users
Think.
ered Most Potent Means for Augmenting
Winter Trade.
The home in which the playerpiano is the great
Favor for Instrument.
and continuous source of personal pleasure is where
Dan C. Thomas, a well-known piano and music
A noticeable thing in the advertising of the player- everybody knows how to play correctly and puts goods dealer of Barberton, Ohio, met death late
piano today is that it is a return to first principles; his or her personality into the playing. The player- Friday afternoon. August 28, by fire and drowning.
to the methods which depended upon the intrinsic piano is the simplest and most direct means offered Mr. Thomas hired a car from a local taxi company
musical worth of the instrument following its ap- for that purpose. The dealer's customers are to be and, when about five miles from Barberton, the
pearance as a regular and valued number in the piano found among the millions of people who love music car took fire from an unknown cause, enveloping
dealer's stock. The playerpiano publicity at this but can't play the piano. Where they have the Mr. Thomas in flames. He rushed to the Tuscara-
time is in reality reform and the necessity for the natural feeling for music the dealer or his salesmen was River, about thirty feet from the car, and
reform is shown in its beneficial effects. To the can make them enthusiastic playerpiano players. The jumped in.
trade paper editor who looks through the piano deal- playerpiano should be sold to them not as a clever
The river has but a few feet of water in it and
ers' ads in the exchanges reaching his desk, it is and ingenious piece of mechanism but as a means Mr. Thomas, who weighed about 225 pounds, sank
plain that the merchants using the playerpiano as a for expressing their own emotional reactions. The into the mud and, in his weakened condition, could
basis of bargain advertising are comparatively few dealer can increase interest and make more sales not extricate himself and drowned. His body was
in number, whereas those who present the instrument by denying that anyone can play the playerpiano discovered by some farmers who notified police.
on its quality and intrinsic musical value are in a by merely pumping. The spirit of a new appeal is
Later the remains of the car were discovered,
pleasing majority.
plain.
still smoking, about thirty feet away on the Barber-
ton-Clifton road. The body, which was almost im-
The Good Old Plea.
mersed in the mud, was taken to a local undertaker's.
A good line of appeal much used by advertising
Mr. Thomas had been in business for the past fifteen
piano merchants at one time was the opportunity for
years and was highly respected. He is survived by
self expression afforded by the playerpiano. It was
his widow and one son.
directed to father, mother, son and daughter and
Starr Pianos For Schools.
in a special way to the "tired business man." It was Decatur Firm, in Strong Newspaper Advertising,
shown that resting is really the exercise of certain
The Lakewood Board of Education—suburb of
Speaks Highly of Instrument Made in Buffalo.
muscles of the body and cells of the brain not ordi-
Cleveland, Ohio—has just purchased three Starr up-
"Kurtzmann, the Piano That Endures," is the way right pianos for the Lakewood schools. The Starr
narily employed. In addition to showing the recre-
ational value of the playerpiano. the advertisers the Decatur Music Shop, Inc., Decatur, 111., charac- has proven very satisfactory in Cleveland schools
showed how the playerpiano could be made a means terizes the product of C. Kurtzmann & Co., Buffalo, and in Lakewood and other suburbs, and it was due
to artistic expression and also of cultural develop- N. Y. The firm, which handles "Everything in to this excellent record to a great extent that the
ment. That the playerpiano was not a mere auto- Music" and widely advertises that fact, speaks thus order was placed.
matic machine but a delightful instrument needing of the piano named in a handsome newspaper dis-
Nose Diving Cure-All.
the co-operation of an enthusiastic player got the play this week:
The fame of Ernest S. Hall, piano dealer of War-
"When
you
bring
a
Kurtzmann
into
your
home
you
kind of people who wish to stamp their personality
acquire an artistic as well as a musical masterpiece. ren, O , continues to grow and it begins to look as
on work or play.
Come in today and let us explain why you owe it to though he would have to devote considerable of his
That kind of playerpiano presentation won at first your family to replace the old piano with a Kurtz- time to taking deaf folks up in his plane and nose-
and it is winning again today. It is again the rule mann."
diving with them to cure their infirmity.
for playerpiano advertisers to appeal to the desire for
A Clevelander, John Teli, had Mr. Hall take his
self expression which exists in every human being
son up last Sunday, to a height of nine-thousand
DEALER
MAKES
PIANO
RECORD.
and the results are apparent in every lively piano
Dan J. Sullivan, a piano dealer in the Walker feet, from which the plane nose-dived to five hun-
house. Now, when the playerpiano has been brought
dred feet. Results were reported satisfactory and
to an astonishing perfection the old appeal is more Building, Boston, and well known in the trade as a another flight lias been arranged for.
composer
and
pianist,
recently
made
a
trip
to
New
potent than ever.
The Grossman Bros. Music Co. have launched one
York, during which he was busy at the recording
Should Be Good Seller.
of
the biggest outdoor advertising campaigns ever
studios of the Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc., mak-
The playerpiano from its own merits should be an ing special piano records. He was accompanied on undertaken by any music house in Cleveland. Bill
easy seller, according to every rule of business. the trip by his daughter, Catherine, who is the able boards in all parts of the city are being used and
Where its desirability as a musical instrument has head of the auditing department of the company.
considerable newspaper space as well.
been obscured and the element of price made of
Music Master Meeting.
greatest prominence it has been the fault of the
Many
dealers
from Cleveland and parts of north-
PERCY TONK'S RETURN.
dealer. It is the privilege of every music merchant
ern Ohio attended the business session and informal
Percy
Tonk,
president
of
the
Tonk
Manufactur-
to create the selling policy for this or that instrument.
banquet of the Music Master Corporation, which was
If the playerpiano fails to enjoy a market equal to ing Co., Chicago, who has been in Los Angeles for given at the Hotel Cleveland on September 2. The
its appeal, the responsibility for the condition may several months attending to various matters in con- affair was under the auspices of the Ohio Musical
nection with the Tonk Company's new factory in
be fastened on the music merchant.
that city, is expected home next week. He is booked Sales Co., distributors of the Music Master for this
The playerpiano had been allowed to become re- to arrive on the ninth of this month—next Wednes- territory.
garded as a merely mechanical instrument in the mis- day.
The business session started at 2 p. m. and ended
taken efforts of the trade to create customers on
at 5:30 p. m. Executives of the Music Master Corp.
were present and included Walter Eckhardt, presi-
a price basis. Now that the correct and fundamen-
OTTO WISSNER TO BUILD.
dent; D. W. Williams, general sales manager; H. N.
tal basis of the playerpiano sale is again generally
Otto Wissner, the Brooklyn, N. Y., piano manu- McMeinen, general field manager; C. T. Miller, direc-
recognized conies a return to fundamental principles
in sales. But this involves something many dealers facturer, has completed plans for the erection of a tor of the Cross Advertising Agency; Wm. H. Nolan,
have lost sight of for quite a while—the need of the store and loft building on the east side of Flatbush district manager.
best type of demonstration and faithful instruction avenue, west of Fafayette avenue, at a cost of $60,000.
of the customer. Owners must be constantly im- The building will be five stories in height, the first
PROGRESSIVE IOWA FIRM.
pressed and reminded that the musical expression of to be used for piano warerooms.
The Massey Piano Co , Des Moines, la., will
the instrument is under the direct and personal con-
occupy the first, mezzanine, second and basement
trol of the player.
THE CABLE FACTORIES BUSY.
floors of a new building being constructed by T. I.
Proper Presentation.
"The Cable Company, St. Charles, one of the big Stoner and W. J. Massey at 914 Walnut street, Des
To present the playeriauo on its merits as a musi- industries of this part is working with a full force in Moines, Iowa. This building, to cost from $80,000 to
cal instrument capable of giving continuous joy, an effort to keep up with the orders," says the Elgin, $100,000, will be five stories high, with 22 feet front-
age on Walnut street and 132 feet deep.
the retail salesmen must necessarily be competent to 111., Courier in its news pages this week.
BACK TO OLD WAYS
OF PLAYER SALES
TRAGIC DEATH OF
OHIO PIANO MAN
REFORM IN PROCESSES
SCHOOLS BUY STARRS
ACTIVE ILLINOIS FIRM
FEATURES THE KURTZMANN
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