Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
• Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
merclal Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chloago.
Entered as Second-cla«8 matter Jan. 29, 1896, at tlie
Post Office, Chicago, TflTnols, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign. $4.
Payable, In advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions. 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.
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the
editorial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of pro-
duction will be charged if of commercial character,
or other than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is
requested tbat their subjects and senders be carefully
indicated.
Forms 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, ill.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1927.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later
than Wednesday noon of each week.
PIANO BEAUTY PRESERVED
A glance through one of the French or Ger-
man music trade papers makes clear .i.lie fact
that standardization, if the piano manufactur-
ers strive for that end, does not apply to the
outward appearance of the instruments. Va-
riety, even oddity, seems to be the aim of the
French '"'piano manufacturers particularly.
Some of the original models are admirable
and others are not so good.
Looking at the novel styles in the French
lines naturally suggests a reference for pur-
poses of comparison to the pictures of the
newer American models. It is a matter of
pride to note what has been done and is still
being done to improve the artistic character
of the cases here. The Period and art styles
in the presentations of American piano manu-
facturers prove the artistic ability and clever-
ness at adaptation of the designers as well as
the judgment of the manufacturers themselves
to keep in advance of the modern artistic de-
mands.
Standardization has been applied sensibly
in the foremost factories but the beauties of
the cases have not been endangered by the
economical processes. it is certain that—
largely because of the enterprise of some of
the great piano industries—the demand tor ar-
tistic designs has been stimulated. The notion
that pianos cost so little has in a measure been
dissipated. The number of fine case designs,
with artistic details, is increasing'. And they
are meeting with the kind of reception that
proves that the piano buying public is not all
August 6, 1927.
looking' for the cheapest, but often the finest improve your personal appearance; the cut of
— for pianos that fit the purposes for which clothes and other suggestions. Your hook-
they should be made. Xot necessarily many worm will be removed by mail and energy
case designs by any manufacturer, but more installed, and if your head be of the pin va-
variety in the industry as a whole, and some- riety, it will be intellectually enlarged and
thing- fine from everv ambitious factory.
equipped with logic.
Provided even that the schools made good
and
transformed raw material into efficient
HAIL, THE PIANO TUNER!
salesmen,
they might lack a certain important
The annual convention of the National As-
requirement;
something not to be acquired by
sociation of Piano Tuners, Inc., at the Com-
mail
or
by
personal
attendance at school. That
modore Hotel, New York, next week is signifi-
is
the
natural
ability
to make friends easily
cant of things for which the tuners feel proud
and
hold
them
fast.
and at which the piano trade is to be congratu-
Someone may arise to remark that the old
lated. The tuners' association is a triumph in
days
when the successful drummer's progress
organizing that reflects the energy of able
through
his territory was a frolicsome one has
ollicials. It created a new morale among the
departed,
and that high art has given place to
tuners when it made efficiency a rigid test for
highballs
and all that sort of thing. Very
membership. It replaced the obscurity of
true,
but
the
quality with which some of the
scattered individuals with a national organ-
men
won
in
the
old days is an essential re-
ization which commands the respect of the
quirement
today.
Processes are less lush to-
piano trade and industry.
day
than
in
the
old
days and more laudable on
Hut the tuners' organization did not stop at
that
account.
Hut
the
ability to make friends
attaining these desirable things. The mem-
and
keep
them
is
just
as necessary in these
bers collectively and individually set out to
later
matter-of-fact
days
as in the old ones.
impress the piano owning public with the im-
True
friendship
between
roadman and cus-
portance of the tuner in the scheme of music.
tomer
helps
the
growth
of
business without
In that way they were of great service to the
irrigation.
piano trade and the piano owners. In every
community the piano tuner commands the re-
;• pect of his neighbors and the feeling may be
RADIO AMATEUR PASSES
attributed to his own self-respecting attitude.
One indication that the radio industry is
That attitude is accountable for a character- passing from a transitory to a settled ^tate is
istic poise, which in itself is due to self-control. the elimination of the amateur radio builder.
Tuners by the high-tensioned nature of their Fverybody has met him and his presence in
work, are more or less nervous. Many factors any house where you may be invited for a
contribute to evoking irritability, notably listening-in party is productive of continuous
tedious work and finicky women piano owners. static. He is the chap who wants to run the
The aspirations involved in membership in parlor show and delights in playing on the
the tuners' national bod)- evoke certain rules index board like a church chimes operator,
of behavior which govern the tuner's deport- yanking the auditors from a Muscatine, Iowa,
ment. To be true to himself, clean, neat and fiddle solo to capture an ether lost shriek from
well-mannered; to know his work and what Timbuctoo.
it is worth; to be courteous, cheerful, calm,
In his own home he is the supreme nuisance,
ambitious and progressive.
making so many wire entanglements that the
term "wireless" applied to radio seems a joke.
He delights in new ways of doing things be-
THE TRAVELER'S FRIENDS
Somebody has said that genius is but the cause of the experimental thrill they give him.
ability for work ; the taste for untiring indus- He supports the littered radio supply shops,
try, or words to that effect. It might also be where nothing can be found the day you ask
said that the genius of the piano traveler lies for it. Such a place is a paradise for the ama-
in his ability to make and keep friends. One teur radio builder, and his greatest regret is
doesn't have to mention names to prove the that their dav is passing.
The radio dealer of the future will deal in
point. Readers of Presto-Times can do their
sets
and see no profit in keeping track of obso-
own naming and selecting of the drumming-
lete
parts. Occasional renewals of batteries,
geniuses who have bound their friends to them
as
easily
effected as changes of records on the
by bands of steel.
phonograph,
will be about the extent of de-
"The goods simply sell themselves" is a trite
mands
upon
his
technical knowledge. He will
and joyful phrase often heard in the trade and
be
simply
the
retailer
of a fascinating and
occasional!}- seen in print. It is more or less
quite
fool-proof
instrument
of music.
a poetic license of the gentlemen of the adver-
tising departments. True, there are pianos so
worthy that they possess the self-selling char-
The true significance of standardization is
acter. But the salesman is a necessary factor often overlooked, according to its enthusiastic
in the case of a lot of pianos that possess un- exponents, and efforts toward an extension of
doubted worthiness. Under present conditions its principles are attacked. Those who be-
the trade is not ready to bounce the road mis- lieve it menaces artistic expression, and by
sionaries en masse.
those who see in its extension a complete sub-
Anyone, too, can be a salesman, according mergence of the individual. To those who
to the prospectus of a widely advertised school understand more fully the far-reaching effects
of salesmanship. "No experience necessary" of sane standardization not onlv is it clear that
is the way they coyly put it in the alluring such fears are groundless, but, without a high
come-on. You can even be a piano traveler, degree of standardization, modern standards
for instance, with more ease than you can be of living would be impossible.
* * *
an automobile washer if you will take a course
by mail. A minimum of study in your spare
Some pianos had greatness thrust upon
time and the schools will show you how to them; others reached out and took it.
apply a conversational anesthetic to a wide-
awake piano merchant and get an order away
The piano customer's viewpoint is of the
from him. The course will teach you how to salesman's making.
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