Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
12
April 21, 1928
York, this week. The Welte-Mignon and multi-con-
trul mechanism will be used in the reproducing grand
and pipe organ. We are building three varieties—for
church, home, and theater. The home organ can be
plnyed either manually or with a music record.
"This company shipped fifty pipe organs last year.
We have kept the old crew of workmen at the fac- The Third Annual Event Makes Enthusiastic
General Opinion of Trade Betterment Sup- tory intact. In fact the pipe organ department has
Start with Assurances that Result Will
never been closed; it kept right on.
ported by Statements of Observant Men of
Excel All Previous Tournaments.
' I n our pianos the styles will be Florentine, Geor-
the Music Trade and the Best Kind of
gian, Louis XV and Colonial; as I said before, all
The Third Annual Detroit Piano Playing Contest
Evidence—More Sales.
very high grade.
has started off in an enthusiastic manner and is a
"James B. Burkhardt, the superintendent of our model of efficiency and organization. The first year
Uy HENRY MACMULLAN.
factory, has been with the company about fifteen there were 285 schools represented, last year 420,
'"We had a very good trade in March," said Walter years. He is a very fine builder of pianos, a splendid but already more than 500 different schools are en-
C. Hepperla, head of the Premier Grand Piano Com-
rolled promising more than 20,000 entries.
technician, and an accomplished musician."
pany, 6 East 39th street, on Saturday, to Presto-Times
Ludwig & Co. Plant Busy.
The school systems have taken over the respon-
correspondent.
"We are going along strong," said W. T. Brinkei- sibility of running the contest and each principal and
"This trade has been in our Florentine, Louis XVI,
hoflf, general manager of Ludwig & Co. "In fact we mother superior is held responsible for the success
Louis XV and Spanish Period designs, and these are lucky, for we are told that we are the busiest in her school even to securing the judges. Detailed
later acquisitions to the line are making quite a way
factory in the industry in New York. Anyway, we instruction have has gone out from the Board of
for themselves.
Education office and the Catholic chancery.
are getting a good deal of business right now."
"The Hallet & Davis Piano Company will have a
Sohmer Activities.
Much is being made of the argument that the piano
number of new and original treatments on grand
One of the active piano manufacturing companies is the greatest factor in the conservation of the
pianos to show during convention time, and they will
r
American home, one that is making a strong appeal.
be on display at our warerooms. We will be able to of New York at this time is Sohmer & Co., with fac- Superintendent Frank Cody of the Detroit public
tories
at
Astoria,
N.
Y.,
and
offices
and
showroom
surprise the trade by showing originality of treatments
in the Sohmer Building, 31 West 57th street. The schools, states that he wishes the piano playing con-
in our tine instruments. 1 '
factories are running full time and the extent of the test to be an annual activity in the Detroit schools,
MacArthur Busy
orders assure a continuation of that desirable fact to be planned and talked up from the stare of the
school year, and has been assured the backing of the
A call was made upon C. W. MacArthur, eleventh
for some time ahead.
Detroit music trade.
floor of No. 1 Pershing Square, whose business is the
Kurtzmann President Travels.
regulation of the Conway interests in relation to their
Much of the startling success of the Detroit 1928
Howard C. Rice, president of C. Kurtzmann & Co.,
transference to the purchasers of the Hallett & Davis
contest is due to the indefatigable work, personality,
Buffalo,
N.
Y.,
left
last
week
on
a
trip
which
will
Piano Company. Mr. MacArthur is a well-known
?
acquaintance and tact of Director Tom Boston, who
piano man, having formerly been for several years extend as far w est as the Pacific Coast. Mr. Rice is being highly complimented by his coadjutors—
will
call
on
the
trade
in
all
the
important
cities
be-
with the Hallet & Davis Piano Company, the Sim- tween Buffalo and California.
Frank J. Bayley, George W. Bourke, Walter S. Jen-
plex Action Company and the National Piano Manu-
kins, Jay Grinnell and Arthur H. Howes.
Employment Conditions Brighter.
facturing Company.
As a result the publicity given by the Detroit
According to a report made this week by the Na- Times is much stronger than either former year.
P. A. Starck Activity
The P. A. Starck Piano Company, 112 West 42nd tional Industrial Conference Board, 247 Park avenue,
street, New York City, is just closing out one of the New York, the decline of employment for the last two
most successful removal sales that that company has years in manufacturing industries was less severe in
ever conducted in any of the numerous cities in which its effects than the post-war period of labor depression
The Packard Piano Company, Fort Wayne, Ind.,
it has retail stores. The announcement of the sale in 1920 and 1921.
recently gave a number of recitals under its new
is carried in all the daily papers in New York at the
Tonk Enterprise
music lesson plan. On March 29 it put on a recital of
present time, and they are removing from the place
An
effective
retail
sales organization has been per- twenty-six children at Waterloo, Ind., in which five
mentioned to 24 West 125th street, New York City,
which at one time was the home of the Biddle Piano fected by William Tonk & Bro., according to Edwin Packard uprights, Style A-l, and an XX Packard
Company. The workmen just started decorating on G. Tonk of this enterprising company, who said: grand piano were used.
"Our business has been most excellent for the last
This recital, although advertised as The Curtis
Wednesday of this week.
two weeks. The only way to get business is to go
This sale has been conducted by T. H. Taylor and out and get it." The company mails out to prospects System, was really produced under a system of teach-
W. L. luce, both from the Detroit store of the P. A. in advance of the solicitor's call large photographs ing originated, created and put into operation along
Starck Piano Company, Mr. Taylor having been of piano displays in the Tonk warerooms and studios, lines laid out by F. V. Kelly of the Packard Piano
Company, and Miss Mildred Balow, supervisor of
manager of Detroit for several years past.
thereby creating an interest, which makes the fol-
Mr. Taylor said:
"This sale has been very suc- low-up easier, besides anticipating the call. One of music of the class plan for The Packard Piano
cessful—in fact we are getting so thoroughly cleaned these photographs represents studio A, the other Company. Over four hundred adults at this recital,
out of instruments that we will hardly have anything studio B, and both have been beautifully retouched and it was prominent as the high-light of the music
lesson proposition.
to move."
by an artist.
Mr. Taylor's next great stunt will be to conduct a
Dealers Cause Conditions.
removal sale in Philadelphia for the Starck company;
That dealers are in a large measure responsible
then he will return to New York to conduct a grand
for any slacking of interest in pianos on the part of
opening sale at the new Starck location.
the purchasing public that has been manifest during
Welte-Mignon Co. Plans.
the last six or eight months w r as a basic thought in
"We intend to build as line a reproducing grand
comment made by E. J. Radle, president of the
and straight grand piano as it is possible to build," Racile Piano Co., 609 West 36th street, New York,
The Leading and Most Popular
said William C. Heaton, new sales manager of the in conversing with Presto-Times correspondent on
Welte-Mignon Company, 665 Fifth avenue, New
Pianos and Players
Thursday. He said: "Everybody knows that pianos
are not sold by sitting in a store and waiting for cus-
Grands, Players, Uprights and
tomers to come in. Well, a great many of the dealers
Reproducing Pianos
took on radio and other things as sidelines at first,
and soon they were diverting their attention away
The Results of Over Forty Years'
from the piano line and actually losing custom in it.
of Experience.
So, I consider, that if they have lost out in any de-
Kreiter
Pianos
Cover the Entire Line
gree as piano dealers, they have themselves to blame
and no Piano Dealer who tries these in-
for it."
ttruments would supplant them by any
The thought that Air. Radle wants to bring home
others. A trial will convince.
to every piano dealer in the land is not to relax in
hard work, but go after every possible prospect and
go after him or her with all the power of professional
salesmanship.
310-312 W. Water St., Milwaukee, Wis.
Ralph B. Waite in New York.
Factory: Marinette, Wia.
Presto-Times correspondent had the pleasure of
meeting Ralph B. Waite, head of the W r aite Piano
Co.. Chicago, in the offices of Krakauer Bros, this
week. Mr. Waite favored your correspondent with
first-hand news of Chicago which was cheerfully
optimistic. Mr. Waite is recognized in the trade as
a hustler whose persistency naturally gets results in
good piano sales.
NEW YORK SEES
BUSINESS IMPROVE
PIANO PLAYING CONTEST
IN GREATER DETROIT
PACKARD PIANO CO.
KREITER
THE LATEST JESSE
FRENCH PRODUCTIONS
Kreiter Mfg. Co., Inc.
E. Leins Piano Co.
Jesse j
A /f/ome COQII fro
fi/rce /S/S-
FOLLOW THE TRADITION OF
UNQUESTIONABLE QUALITY
W. A. ELFSTROM RETURNS.
W. A. Elfstrom, who has been connected with the
Cable Piano Company's Detroit house for some time
past, has returned to Chicago, his former home, and
is now a department manager of the company at
the store at Wabash avenue and Jackson boulevard.
Mr. Elfstrom was very active in music trade matters
in Detroit during his four years' residence in that
city. As vice-president of the Detroit Piano Club and
on committees of the piano playing contests which
have helped the fame of Detroit he was an activve and
valued worker.
Makers of Pianos and
Player Pianos That Are
Established L e a d e r s .
Correspondence from Reliable
Dealers Invited
Factory and Offices, 304 W. 42nd Si
NEW YORK
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