Presto

8
PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
F R A N K D. ABBOTT
- - - - - - - - -
Editor
(C. A. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _ Managing Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
1'ost Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Kales for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter aTe solicited and if of
genei'al 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 correspondents, and
their assistance is invited.
Payment i* not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where halC-tones are made the actual cost of produc-
tion will be charged if of commercial character or other
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is r e -
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
cated.
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
was going along pretty well, he said, and
pianos could be sold even if no one in the
family was able to play. They were a desir-
able parlor decoration. Talking machines
were a novelty and furnished amusement and
pleasure in the home, and the demand for many
years easily kept pace with the constantly
growing production. As long as this condition
of affairs continued, what was the use of both-
ering?
"But, unfortunately, a halt came," said Mr.
Irion. "A great many other industries poured
their wares upon the market and diverted the
consumers' attention from our lines and we
came face to face with the realization that we
would have to bestir ourselves or be content
with what the other fellow was pleased to
leave us. It was about at this juncture when
our chamber, sensing this condition, organized
its Bureau for the Advancement of Music un-
der the guidance of Mr. C. M. Tremaine, and
our industry has since then, and through that
means alone, assumed a definite and leading
part in the development of musical study and
r
culture in our country."
.
NEW YORK STATE ASS'N
The annual convention of the New York
State Music Merchants' Association was held
in Syracuse this week with an attendance
SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1928.
greater than that expected by even the most
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press enthusiastic official, but the high degree of
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring enthusiasm evoked was an equally pleasant
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- realization.
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
The excellent publicity provided by Mr.
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they Charles P. Morse and his committee which
concern the interests of manufacturers or made known the attractions and impressed the
dealers such items will appear the week follow- duties of attendance on dealers, was account-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later able for a great proportion of the attendance
and much of the spirit of the event was due
fhan Wednesday noon of each week.
to Mr. Morse's part in providing the choral
and singing features. He is a song leader of
FELICITATING MR. GULBRANSEN national reputation.
A tribute to Mr. A. G. Gulbransen's part in
Of course, the activities of Mr. S. H. More-
improving the selling- aspects in the music croft and Mr. John J. Glynn, who filled the
trade was paid by several speakers at the offices of president and vice-president respec-
dinner given in his honor at the Midwest Club, tively during the term which closed this week,
Chicago, this week.
were powerful in arousing the enthusiasm that
There were eloquent felicitations from culminated in the splendid meeting at the Ho-
friends present and absent, in and outside of tel Syracuse. That their efforts to make the
the music business, at the marks of Mr. Gul- association worthy of the great state have
bransen's' genius in the perfection of the Gul- been realized was convincingly shown in every
bransen pianos and his great foresight and phase of the big and pleasant gathering.
energy is creating a powerful commercial in-
stitution for marketing it.
But those close to him know that his great-
est pleasures are in the success of his efforts
to effect more dignified and more fundament-
ally sound processes in presenting the piano.
"People I'r o p e r 1 v Approached Will Buy
Pianos" is a Gulbran.;en Co. phrase which
arouses the desire in the dealer and salesman
to understand the proper method of approach.
That, Mr. Gulbranscn is assured, is something
that everybody representing his pianos under-
stands.
C. M. TREMAINE'S PART
In h s notable address to the IT-w York
State Music Merchants' Association this week.
Mr. Hermann Irion, president of the Music-
Industries Chamber of Commerce, paid a de-
served tribute to Mr. C. M. Tremaine. He
reminded his hearers that until comparatively
recent years the music industry, as such, did
practically nothing to foster the development
of musical culture in the country. Business
CABLE PIANOS ABROAD
You cannot circumscribe the selling territory
for a good piano. Commerce sets no limits
to the instrument with the tonal worth appre-
ciated by musical people. The universal ap-
peal is the irrefutable evidence of piano supe-
riority. An incident in a tour in Spain now
being enjoyed by an American stamped the
pianos of The Cable Company. Chicago, as
instruments of world-wide favor. It is told
in ?.n excerpt from a letter of a friend to Mr.
C. E. Jackson, sales manager for the Cable
Compan \ Chicago, in which the traveler's pa-
tr'otism and civic pride are expressed. There
is human as well as trade interest in the k'tter
from Seville, reproduced on another page of
this paper.
The Cable Company is a financially and in-
dustrially powerful concern whose distribution
activities are of a far-reaching kind. It has
a wonderfully-developed selling organization
which covers all parts of the United States as
well as many countries abroad. Its pianos are
May 5, 1928
familiar objects abroad, but seeing it under the
circumstances described was naturally pride-
arousing to Mr. Jackson's friend.
DUTY CALLS
The various committees in charge of the
plans for the annual convention of the music
trades are performing valiant services in mak-
ing the event an irresistible attraction for peo-
ple in all phases of the music trade and indus-
try. Unique features are to be provided for
social and business events and men of remark-
able personality have been secured as speak-
ers for important occasions. The exhibits
alone should be of great drawing power as
they will represent the latest developments in
the instruments and show the tendencies of
taste in the buyers.
Every man with perception in the music
trade is convinced that grave reasons exist for
a scheme of cooperation in the trade, anel that
the attitude of the trade and industry should
express the cooperative spirit. No better way
of showing unity of purpose and the spirit to
improve conditions could be found than by the
declaration of purposes and making of plans
possible in a great annual convention. Every
earnest man in any phase of the activities
should consider it his plain duty to attend the
convention which opens June 4 at the Com-
modore Hotel, New York.
DEALERS SHOULD NOTE
The significance of the action of the super-
visors at their recent conference in Chicago
was pointed out by Mr. Delbert L. Loomis in
his address to the New York State Music Mer-
chants' Association at Syracuse this week. Mr.
Loomis said it lies in that this body of edu-
cators numbering over five thousand is now
definitely on record as favoring piano-class
instruction in the public schools and it is be-
lieved that more has already been accomplished
for the promotion of the piano in the success-
ful carrying out thus far of this activity than
has been done through any other channel. It
will require money to carry on this particular
work. "Every music merchant who contributes
to the promotion work of the National Associ-
ation through payment for the Promotion
Stamp shoulel feel that he is doing his part in
furthering class instruction on the piano in the
public schools," said Mr. Loomis.
The necessity for the largest possible mem-
bership in the National Association of Music
Merchants was advocated this week by Presi-
dent Roberts in an address at the annual din-
ner of the New York State Music Merchants
Association in Syracuse. Everv executive in
the piano field should be a member and it
means something worth while to belong to
.stu'h an association, he said.
* * *
The open forum is to be one of the foremost
features of the convention at the Commodore
Hotel and the announcement of the fact will
arouse pleasurable anticipation for Thursdav
morning of convention week, the time set in
the schedule. The open forum has always
proved a most desirable opportunity for the
interested dealers to inaugurate discussions of
problems that may not be includeel in the pro-
grams.
* * *
The community store is growing in numbers
in the larger cities and is pointed out as a re-
sult of conditions. The community music
store is known in residential districts in New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco,
Los Angeles and Detroit.
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/