Presto
Issue: 1928 2178 - Page 5
MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1928
10 Cents a Copy
THE NEW KNABE BUILDING
Purposes of the American Piano Company Admirably Served in Architecture,
Decorations, Furnishings, Exhibition and Sales Facilities
of Knabe Hall, New York
The trade paper men were given a rare treat on
Thursday evening, April 19, by George Urquhart,
president of the American Piano Company, New
York. They met at 6 p. m. in the Knabe Tower
Building, Fifth avenue and 47th street, and were es-
corted through the different departments of this beau-
tiful new 43-story building.
The start-off lecturer was the mural decorator and
designer of the artistic rooms, the ceiling of one of
which is in Italian Renaissance. The Travertine walls
are of a harmonious creamish grey.
The Knabe Floor.
The Knabe floor is on the second story with Chi-
nese lacquer work and Chippendale cabinets along the
side walls. There are four of these that originally
were bought by Pierpont Morgan for $1,000,000. The
trade paper men showed amazement at this, but the
guide assured them that these were merely copies.
Individual separate sound-proof rooms have been
built along the sides of the main display room. There
are nine different customers' rooms of this kind in
the building, five of them on the Knabe floor and four
on another floor.
To Chickering Hall.
From the Knabe Tower Building the trade paper
men were taken in taxis to the new Chickering Hall
Building on West 57th street, where the entertain-
ment started with the reproduced playing of Mme.
Sturkow-Ryder. After the visit to the Chickering
Building the party were guests of President Urqu-
hart at a dinner and other refreshments in the New
York Athletic Club on West 59th street.
Ampico Inventor Talks.
C. F. Stoddard, the inventor of the Ampico, gave
interesting scientific data about the instrument. Mr.
Stoddard's technicalities were made plain and he
showed how in his laboratory for scientific musical
research, they get at an exact record of the emotion
felt by the artist at the time he is producing a record.
He showed an invention, an instrument for touch,
which is so fine that the note the ear can hear is
coarse as compared with it. "Our instrument will
measure to one one hundredths of the minute differ-
ence between the ten points that divide ear recogni-
tion. In other words, the ear does not detect every
tone, the way we divide tones, but detects points ten
of our spaces apart. We have actually learned what
caused the emotional element in the artist's playing.
Our records do show these feelings."
Mr. Stoddard showed the process of cutting the
rolls and said that over 100,000 operations additional
had to be performed by the girls on the floor below.
"We could get out a short .record probably in forty-
eight hours, but there is no necessity for that kind
of hurry. We have an instrument that measures
little short intervals of time. We take one-fifth of
DETAIL OF ARTISTIC ARRANGEMENTS FOR
SHOWING KNABE.
a second and measure it into 20,000 parts. We can
stick our invention through an augur hole in a post
beside the railroad and measure the speed of an
express train passing more accurately in that short
space than you could with a stop watch in a mile."
Mr. Stoddard had the reproducing piano do some
demonstrating for itself. One very amusing selection
was a composition by Allen Copeland, a New York
boy, expressing the emotions of a cat catching a
mouse.
The artist of the evening was Josef Lhevinne,
world-renowned artist and Ampico recorder.
He
$2 The Year
was very generous in playing everything that was
called for.
Those present from the American Piano Company
were George Urquhart, the president; and Messrs.
R. K. Paynter, Quattlander, Dudley, Stoddard, vice-
president of Wm. Knabe & Co., Berthold Neuer, and
F. 11. P. Byrne, director of publicity. The trade
press representatives were Edward Lyman Bill, Ed-
ward Wilson, Mr. McCleary, all of the Music Trade
Review; Mr. Doherty of Music Trades, Messrs. C. D.
Franz and Richardson of the Musical Courier; Mr.
Steele of the Music Trade Indicator, and H. Mac-
Mullan of Presto-Times; Mr. Smith and Mr. Boykin
of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce; Mr.
Vallient, the decorator of the Knabe Store, and Josef
Lhevinne, the pianist.
Mr. Urquhart Talks.
Saying that the American Piano Co.'s work was
open and above-board, that they had nothing to con-
ceal, George Urquhart, president of the company,
proceeded to give his guests an informative and en-
lightening talk at the close of the evening's entertain-
ment.
He said that when he took hold as president that
there were certain important matters of policy in the
different departments of the business to be thrashed
out. There was the matter of changing the three
agencies in some of the cities into one agency. But
these changes had eliminated only about 10 per cent
of the agents.
An important question then arose as to the rating of
the pianos of the company. "We were producing
these as the piano leaders in the country," said Mr.
Urquhart.
''After due consideration it was decided to place
the Mason & Hamlin as the leader permanently; it
had long been made and sold as a very high grade
instrument. The Knabe, also high grade, comes in
next, and they had decided that with their great man-
ufacturing facilities in the new Chickering factory,
into which they had just moved, that they could cut
down on its price while still keeping it at its former
stardards of excellence.
For fourth classification the leader in the Roches-
ter-made group, the Fischer, is chosen. These and the
American Piano Company's other makes, give the
dealer a complete line.
The number of styles of the Chickering are to be
reduced.
He spoke of their relations with dealers; of co-
operation with them and of the dealers' chances for
success. He asked pardon in advance as a late-
comer in the piano business for a criticism he was
about to make on the causes of slow piano business
in some quarters of the piano industry. He attrib-
uted it to dealers' and salesmen's inactivity.
All of the company's retail houses in New York
city had shown gains he said, and so might have
almost every other city in the United States have
shown similar gains had the dealers gone vigorously
after business and kept a strict check-up at all times
on what they were doing.
1
•
•
. . •
^
'
-
•
. , :
*
-
-
WHERE KNABE PIANOS ARE DISPLAY EX) ON SECOND FLOOR.
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/
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1928
10 Cents a Copy
THE NEW KNABE BUILDING
Purposes of the American Piano Company Admirably Served in Architecture,
Decorations, Furnishings, Exhibition and Sales Facilities
of Knabe Hall, New York
The trade paper men were given a rare treat on
Thursday evening, April 19, by George Urquhart,
president of the American Piano Company, New
York. They met at 6 p. m. in the Knabe Tower
Building, Fifth avenue and 47th street, and were es-
corted through the different departments of this beau-
tiful new 43-story building.
The start-off lecturer was the mural decorator and
designer of the artistic rooms, the ceiling of one of
which is in Italian Renaissance. The Travertine walls
are of a harmonious creamish grey.
The Knabe Floor.
The Knabe floor is on the second story with Chi-
nese lacquer work and Chippendale cabinets along the
side walls. There are four of these that originally
were bought by Pierpont Morgan for $1,000,000. The
trade paper men showed amazement at this, but the
guide assured them that these were merely copies.
Individual separate sound-proof rooms have been
built along the sides of the main display room. There
are nine different customers' rooms of this kind in
the building, five of them on the Knabe floor and four
on another floor.
To Chickering Hall.
From the Knabe Tower Building the trade paper
men were taken in taxis to the new Chickering Hall
Building on West 57th street, where the entertain-
ment started with the reproduced playing of Mme.
Sturkow-Ryder. After the visit to the Chickering
Building the party were guests of President Urqu-
hart at a dinner and other refreshments in the New
York Athletic Club on West 59th street.
Ampico Inventor Talks.
C. F. Stoddard, the inventor of the Ampico, gave
interesting scientific data about the instrument. Mr.
Stoddard's technicalities were made plain and he
showed how in his laboratory for scientific musical
research, they get at an exact record of the emotion
felt by the artist at the time he is producing a record.
He showed an invention, an instrument for touch,
which is so fine that the note the ear can hear is
coarse as compared with it. "Our instrument will
measure to one one hundredths of the minute differ-
ence between the ten points that divide ear recogni-
tion. In other words, the ear does not detect every
tone, the way we divide tones, but detects points ten
of our spaces apart. We have actually learned what
caused the emotional element in the artist's playing.
Our records do show these feelings."
Mr. Stoddard showed the process of cutting the
rolls and said that over 100,000 operations additional
had to be performed by the girls on the floor below.
"We could get out a short .record probably in forty-
eight hours, but there is no necessity for that kind
of hurry. We have an instrument that measures
little short intervals of time. We take one-fifth of
DETAIL OF ARTISTIC ARRANGEMENTS FOR
SHOWING KNABE.
a second and measure it into 20,000 parts. We can
stick our invention through an augur hole in a post
beside the railroad and measure the speed of an
express train passing more accurately in that short
space than you could with a stop watch in a mile."
Mr. Stoddard had the reproducing piano do some
demonstrating for itself. One very amusing selection
was a composition by Allen Copeland, a New York
boy, expressing the emotions of a cat catching a
mouse.
The artist of the evening was Josef Lhevinne,
world-renowned artist and Ampico recorder.
He
$2 The Year
was very generous in playing everything that was
called for.
Those present from the American Piano Company
were George Urquhart, the president; and Messrs.
R. K. Paynter, Quattlander, Dudley, Stoddard, vice-
president of Wm. Knabe & Co., Berthold Neuer, and
F. 11. P. Byrne, director of publicity. The trade
press representatives were Edward Lyman Bill, Ed-
ward Wilson, Mr. McCleary, all of the Music Trade
Review; Mr. Doherty of Music Trades, Messrs. C. D.
Franz and Richardson of the Musical Courier; Mr.
Steele of the Music Trade Indicator, and H. Mac-
Mullan of Presto-Times; Mr. Smith and Mr. Boykin
of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce; Mr.
Vallient, the decorator of the Knabe Store, and Josef
Lhevinne, the pianist.
Mr. Urquhart Talks.
Saying that the American Piano Co.'s work was
open and above-board, that they had nothing to con-
ceal, George Urquhart, president of the company,
proceeded to give his guests an informative and en-
lightening talk at the close of the evening's entertain-
ment.
He said that when he took hold as president that
there were certain important matters of policy in the
different departments of the business to be thrashed
out. There was the matter of changing the three
agencies in some of the cities into one agency. But
these changes had eliminated only about 10 per cent
of the agents.
An important question then arose as to the rating of
the pianos of the company. "We were producing
these as the piano leaders in the country," said Mr.
Urquhart.
''After due consideration it was decided to place
the Mason & Hamlin as the leader permanently; it
had long been made and sold as a very high grade
instrument. The Knabe, also high grade, comes in
next, and they had decided that with their great man-
ufacturing facilities in the new Chickering factory,
into which they had just moved, that they could cut
down on its price while still keeping it at its former
stardards of excellence.
For fourth classification the leader in the Roches-
ter-made group, the Fischer, is chosen. These and the
American Piano Company's other makes, give the
dealer a complete line.
The number of styles of the Chickering are to be
reduced.
He spoke of their relations with dealers; of co-
operation with them and of the dealers' chances for
success. He asked pardon in advance as a late-
comer in the piano business for a criticism he was
about to make on the causes of slow piano business
in some quarters of the piano industry. He attrib-
uted it to dealers' and salesmen's inactivity.
All of the company's retail houses in New York
city had shown gains he said, and so might have
almost every other city in the United States have
shown similar gains had the dealers gone vigorously
after business and kept a strict check-up at all times
on what they were doing.
1
•
•
. . •
^
'
-
•
. , :
*
-
-
WHERE KNABE PIANOS ARE DISPLAY EX) ON SECOND FLOOR.
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/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).