Presto

April 1, 1927.
PRESTO-TIMES
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells
9 9
The CHRISTMAN
Studio Grand
is the "best seller" in the trade. It
easily outsells its nearest competitor.
Dealers who handle the Christman line
are equipped to do business and never
disappoint either their customers or
themselves.
The CHRISTMAN
Reproducing
Grand
two huge, round posts besides the pilasters, and the
description one thinks of first is that it looks like a
cathedral.
Compared with Surroundings.
Consider the contrast—dark, rich, duco-fmished
furniture, daintily carved; deep luxurious floor cover-
and then a piano like that. And to make it
Antique Observed in Modern Dwelling Amidst ings,
worse, in the home of a man who is in daily close
New, Artistic and Tastefully Finished Fur-
contact with the piano business, whose very liveli-
hood depends on the piano business.
niture Is Painfully at Variance with
I daresay that this man has changed his furniture
Pleasant Surroundings.
two or three times since he bought that piano. He'd
feel ashamed to have you enter his home if he had a
heavy-framed, leather-covered living room suite. But
an old piano is considered O. K.!
I suppose there are more than half a dozen articles
Ancient Piano of Obsolete Form and Finish Sup-
in this man's home which cost as much or more than
posed to Possess Questionable Quality
a piano, but not one of which represents as high a
of Perpetuity.
manufacturing cost, as large a dollar's worth, as fine
a value, or is as important to the appearance of the
room, as a piano.
By A. G. GULBRANSEN,
Old Pianos Should Go.
President Gulbransen Company, Chicago.
If pianos were high-priced, if they represented a
Manufacturers and merchants who advertise that poor investment and were out of line with the value
their pianos "last a lifetime" and' "can be handed of other commodities, there might be a reason for
down from generation to generation may be sincere holding on to them. But exactly the reverse is true.
in their belief in the merit of their own instruments. The piano embodies more real quality, more intricate,
But in so doing they invite similar advertising by all costly construction, is a better "buy" than probably
any other commodity of the present day.
I have had a good deal to say about the old pianos,
the claims made for them and their proper disposition
by burning. Merchants, tuners and supply men have
been roused and have commented favorably on the
thought.
Let us all change a story that is doing no one any
good and our business a tremendous harm. Let's
remember that pianos do not remain true musical in-
struments for generations and that, from the stand-
point of appearance, they should be renewed with
the other furnishings of the home.
ARCHAIC PIANO A
JARRING FEATURE
TO LAST A LIFETIME
REICHMANN PLAYS AT
HARVARD CLUB SMOKER
Gives the Clubman an Interesting Demonstra-
tion of the Capabilities of the Welte-Mignon
Licensee Reproducing Piano.
Equipped With the
Is the highest attainment in the ina tru-
ment that reproduces, with absolute
accuracy, the performances of the
World's Master Pianists. It is the
finest creation of Christman artistry,
in which is installed the most famous
of all piano-playing mechanisms.
Write for full particulars and illus-
trated catalogues.
tt
The First
TouiJi
TeUs'
R«r. U. S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
Samuel Reichmann, the noted young American
concert pianist and composer, played a short pro-
gram of piano music at a smoker given on St. Pat-
rick's Day for the Harvard Club, New York.
The artist was greeted with a hearty round of ap-
plause and played the "Leibestraum" of Liszt, and
Chopin's "Waltz in G Flat," which he had recorded
himself for the Welte-Mignon Licensee. He demon-
strated the capabilities of a Welte-Mignon Licensee
A. G
reproducing piano. Auditors were very much sur-
others in the business. They invite all salesmen to prised to see Mr. Reichmann play a rather difficult
make the same claims for the particular instruments passage and then take out his handkerchief and
wipe the moisture from his hands as the piano played
they sell, regardless of quality.
on. Several times during his delightful rendition of
Piano salesmen have hopped onto this supposed the selections, he sat back in his chair and smiled
sales point with all the enthusiasm they possess. while the instrument executed passages which unmis-
They have gone into it as vigorously as the old this- takably were identical with his own playing.
piano-needs-no-tuning statement so many of them
It was interesting to note what a great impres-
used in the past, and which a few of them have not
sion this demonstration made upon the audience.
gotten over yel.
The men present all knew good music and although
Realizing Piano's Needs.
they understood that such demonstrations are not
People have found out, for their own good and the rare, it seemed to them that they, too, had never
good of the piano business, that pianos do need reg- before realized how exactly the Welte-Mignon
ular tuning, and they will and must learn that pianos Licensee reproducing piano duplicates the recording
do not and should not last for generations.
artist's performance. Mr. Reichmann played selections
What our business needs as much as anything else, which he himself had recorded for the Welte-Mignon
is spreading of the thought that there are new, mod- Licensee library of records.
ern pianos, new types, new designs, new finishes;
that the modern American home is incomplete and
HONESTY FIRST REQUISITE.
'way behind the times without an up-to-date piano.
Employers
in Seattle, Wash., value old-fashioned
This is a constructive thought that has not reached
the consciousness of the people. And how can we honesty above all other qualities in the men they
expect it to, when old age in a piano is given stand- hire. A. Carson has sent a questionnaire to fifty of
ing and caste by the manufacturers themselves? the Seattle Y. M. C. A. largest employers asking
When salesmen for even the least pretentious makes what qualifications they believed to be most impor-
of pianos have assured and continue to assure each tant for securing a position. Honesty stands at the
and every customer that "this piano can be handed head of the list. The first six in order of the fre-
down to your grandchildren, Mrs. Jones, so be sure quency mentioned were honesty, cooperation, willing-
ness to learn, stick-to-it-iveness, thoroughness and
and get a good one when you buy," etc., etc.
accuracv.
A Distressing Incident.
The other day 1 happened into the home of a piano
KIMBALL SALE AT EVANSVILLE.
supply man, a fine, four-story residence. He has
The W. P. Geissler Music Co., 124 Main street.
handy-men around the place, housemaids, everything
Evansville, Ind., Kimball factory distributors, started
to keep the place up. Every stick of furniture is new,
tasty; modern floor coverings, lighting fixtures and a special sale last week, which will continue several
all the rest. But when I got a look at the piano 1 days. The company had used a lot of newspaper
got a real shock. It is really the only discordant note space in announcing the event. The company is
offering pianos, phonographs, playerpianos, grand
in the house.
In the first place, it is an "off" make; hasn't been pianos and reproducing pianos at reduced prices.
on the market for years; a dealer's stencil that never Walter P. Geissler, manager of the company, says
had any standing. It's a hideous, light walnut with the sale has been a success.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/