Presto

February 26, 1927.
P R E S T O-TI M E S
15
SMALL GOODS, MUSIC ROLLS AND SHEET MUSIC
GOOD SLOT PIANO MUSIC
It Is Good When Timely and an Understand-
ing of Requirements Means More
Coins in Box.
The value of timeliness in automatic piano rolls
and the frequent change of rolls in the electric pianos
in cafes and other public places are necessities to the
continuation of profits from the slot pianos. But
an ambitious dealer, who some time ago bought a
business which controlled a string of electric pianos
in well placed situations, was not satisfied with pre-
serving the normal coin slot receipts. He profited
by his former experience as a newspaperman to stim-
ulate the flow of coins to the coin box.
Certain rolls have appropriate periods of greatest
coin-alluring value. To this variety belong the sea-
sonable rolls, the Christmas rolls for instance, and
the rolls suitable to the days of natural celebration.
Old songs and tunes of the Civil War days are appre-
ciated about Decoration Day and stirring marches of
a patriotic kind are sure extractors of the coins on the
Fourth of July. The dealer uses his newspaper sense
in providing the patrons with the music that agrees
with their line of thought. In one cafe an enthusiastic
Civil War veteran dropped a little over five dollars
in nickels playing a patriotic roll last Decoration Day.
He practically monopolized the piano during the day,
but the music was in line with the thoughts of the
visitors to the place so everybody seemed pleased.
An understanding of the requirements of patrons
is a first necessity on the part of the electric piano
owner. Pianos in cafes and other public places in
sections where there are separate foreign groups are
more easily managed than in sections where the
groups are mixed and sometimes antagonistic to one
another. Occasionally it is a task of great delicacy
to equip the piano with the proper music. Proper
music in this case is music that will displease nobody
while pleasing many. In a cafe on the southwest
side of Chicago recently 'the wrong tune in the elec-
tric piano started a large-sized riot in which the piano
was wrecked before the police arrived.
In many places the young people, native born and
of the melting pot product are the best patrons of
the electric pianos. They have the universal instinct
to dance and they are unanimous in their desire for
the latest hit. These youngsters will not tolerate a
"chestnut" roll and the electric piano owner who does
not realize that fact is going to lose out in the game.
The dance-mad boys and girls must have new music
and it must be peppy and in character with the
dances.
SALES AIDS FOR DEALERS
Trade Everywhere Taking Advantage of Advertising
Scheme Provided by Manufacturers' Association.
Musical merchandise dealers in all parts of the
country are taking.advantage of the advertising aids
provided by the National Association of Musical In-
strument & Accessories Manufacturers. The scheme
to supply the retailers with a series of letters and
other sales helps was part of a program adopted last
fall with the object of effecting a greater distribution
of musical merchandise by dealers which would ulti-
mately benefit the manufacturers.
The main purpose of the scheme was to encourage
the sale and production of instruments of good qual-
ity and it was expressly pointed out that the "unplay-
able" line of goods was detrimental to both dealer
and manufacturer and had a depressing effect on
customers. The bid for cooperation was a plausible
and alluring one and the extent of its adoption by the
dealers is proof of the fact.
An important fact impressed on dealers by the
National Association of Musical Instrument & Acces-
sories Manufacturers is that the dealer's competitor
is not the other music dealer but the merchant in
some other line who is going after the money of the
public by approved modern methods. A continuous
series of newspaper advertisements is provided, mats
of which are available by writing to the offices of the
association, 45 West Forty-fifth street, New York.
NEW CLARK ROLLS
Big List for March Gives Wide Choice of Profit
Makers for Electric Pianos.
The Clark Music Roll Company, De Kalb, 111., has
issued its March bulletin of rolls for Coinola and
Empress Orchestrions; Empress Styles: Y, Yl, B,
BB, AS, C, F, V, R and all orchestrion combinations;
"Coinola" Styles: D, C2, X, AF, AX, CF, CB and K.
The list includes O-2001, a collection of Irish airs
specially suitable for March 17, St. Patrick's Day,
and a sure profit maker everywhere. The other rolls
of a national character include several Mexican, Span-
ish, Hungarian and Hawaiian numbers.
The best hits in songs are provided in the new list
of rolls and songs made familiar on radios are
among the most desirable. "Sunniest Song from
Songland" is the title of a roll combining the fol-
lowing: "Underneath a Sunny Sky," fox trot; "Any
Way the Wind Blows," fox trot; "Swanee River
Rose," waltz; "Eliza," fox trot; "Savannah," fox
trot; "Tea For Two," one step; "My Jamaica," fox
trot; "Bagdad," fox trot; "Charleston Cabin," fox
trot.
And, of course, the dances are provided in the
usual well-selected and pepful manner of the Clark
Orchestra Roll Company. And a roll of jigs, reels
and hornpipes has the following numbers to draw the
nickels from delighted listeners: "Mrs. McCloud's
Reel; "Pop Goes the Weasel," reel; "The Arkansas
Traveler," jig; "Fisher's Hornpipe; "Speed the Plow,"
reel; "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning," jig; "Tur-
key in the Straw," jig; "The Devil's Dream," reel;
"The Girl I Left Behind Me," reel; "Irish Washer-
woman," jig.
Selected jazz gems, ballads, and stirring marches
make up a list of rolls that assure big profit for own-
ers of electric pianos and orchestrions.
Assistance of Law Invoked by Numerous Municipali-
ties in Illinois at Spring Elections.
Information reaching the Conn National School of
Music indicates that in the neighborhood of fifty Illi-
nois municipalities are to vote on this proposition
at the coming April elections.
Among the cities and villages—large and small—
that have indicated to the Conn school their inten-
tion of submitting the band question to their citizens
in the spring are Elmwood Park, Tinley Park, River
Forest, Mt. Prospect, St. Charles, Waukegan, Crete,
Coal City, Evanston, Lockport, Morris, Homewood,
South Holland, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Harvey, Lyons,
Glencoe, Barrington, La Grange, Winnetka, Wil-
mette, Palatine, Western Springs, Park Ridge, Mon-
kena, Downer's Grove and Lawrenceville.
The present exceptional band interest is traceable
directly to the Illinois band tax law passed in 1925.
This law, known as House Bill No. 100, gives every
incorporated village, town and city in the state the
right to levy a 'tax not to exceed two mills for band
purposes. To take advantage of this law, each com-
munity is required to put the question up for a vote
of its citizens on the petition of 5 per cent of the
voters of the last regular municipal election.
"The important virtue of a band tax law is that it
distributes the expense evenly and impartially—
everyone enjoys the music and everyone pays his
share," says a statement by the Conn School. "The
large number of contributors makes the cost of each
one exceedingly small. In Long Beach, Calif., for
instance, they have band concerts every day
but Monday except for a two weeks' vaca-
tion in the spring, and it costs the citizens, even
with the unusual large number of performers, only
about 85 cents per year. In Clarinda, Iowa, the cost
is about 35 cents per capita, which expenditure pays
for about fifty public concerts presented during the
year."
The Hopper-Kelly Co., Seattle, Wash., is actively
fostering the movement to establish bands and or-
chestras in schools, colleges and industrial plants.
PHONOGRAPH GAINS
Sing and Dance Real Music
Value of $3,280,000 Recorded Last Year in Shipments
to Foreign Markets.
A million dollars' worth more phonographs were
sold abroad last year than in 1925, according to fig-
ures compiled in the Department of Commerce and
made public February 16. The full text of the an-
nouncement follows:
The total value of foreign shipments of phono-
graphs from this country in 1926 was $3,280,000, as
compared with $2,270,000 in 1925. Mexico was our
largest market in 1926, taking machines valued at
$4ib,000—just double the value of 1925 shipments.
Australia bought American phonographs in 1926
to the value of $330,000. Cuba's purchases amounted
to $263,682. Argentina bought $243,000 worth. Co-
lombia bought more American phonographs, valued
at more than $290,000.
Last year foreign sales of American records
reached a total of 5,538.000 units, valued at $2,222,000,
as compared with 4,091,000, valued at $1,720,000 in
1925.
That Red-Headed Girl of Mine,
That Dixie Band from Cotton Land,
Let's Go, Roll Along,
It's Great to Be a Rooster—Cock a
Doodle Doo,
Meet Me Tonight in the Park Waltz.
At a meeting of the Springfield, 111., Musicians'
Association last week the workings of the law under
which a two-mill band tax may be voted were
explained. Springfield is one of seventy-five cities
which will vote on the tax law proposition, in the list
of which are Alton and Edwardsville.
C. G. CONN, Ltd., Elkhart, Ind.
C. D. GREENLEAF, Pres.
J. F. BOYER, Sec'y
World's largest manufacturers of High Grade Band and Orchestra Instruments. Employs 1.00P
expert workmen.
All of the moit celebrated Artists use and endorse Conn Instruments.
Famous Bandmasters and Orchestra Directors highly endorse and recommend the use of the
Conn Instruments in their organizations.
Conn Instruments are noted for their sase of playing, light and reliable v*'y« or key action;
quick response, rich tonal quality, perfect intonation, tone carrying quality, artisticness of design,
beautiful finish and reliable construction.
Conn Instruments are cent to any point in th U. S. subject to ten days free trial. Branch store
or agencies will be found in all large cities. Write for catalogues, prices, etc.
[
C. G. CONN, Ltd.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BAND TAX
DEPT. MS.
ELKHART, IND. |
Piano Song copy 25c each
Orchestrations 25c each
Order Direct or of Local Dealer
ENGLEWOOD MUSIC HOUSE
516 Englewood Ave.
Chicago, III.
THE FAMOUS
CLARK
ORCHESTRA ROLLS
of De Kalb, Illinois
LLS
CLA
The Best for Automatic Playing Pianos
Organs and Orchestrions
Whether you sell automatic playing in-
struments or not, it will pay you to
handle and be able to furnish
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLLS
Monthly bulletins of new records. Write
for lists, folders and FULL PARTICU-
LARS.
Clark Orchestra Roll Company
Manufacturers — Originators — Patentees
De Kalb, Illinois
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