Presto

PREST0-T I M E S
July 7, 1928
MINNEAPOLIS PIANO MEN
WELCOME ROTARIANS
William H. Collins and Paul A. Schmitt
Active in Entertaining Visitors to Rotary
International Convention.
Several well known piano men of Minneapolis,
Minn., aided in welcoming the $15,000 delegates to
the Rotary International Convention held there re-
cently. Among those of the Rotary Club of Min-
neapolis who helped entertain the visitors were
William H. Collins, president of the Cable Piano
Company's branch, and one of the directors of the
local organization, and Paul A. Schmitt, president of
the Schmitt Music Co. Forty-four nations were rep-
resented at the convention and the various music
stores had their windows decorated with the Rotary
emblem.
Foster & Waldo, Inc., local piano and musical
company, has an attractive display in one of its win-
dows picturing a bit of the countryside about Min-
neapolis with miniature buildings, lakes, trees, etc.,
together with miniature billboards, all of which carry
the name of the Foster & Waldo company and adver-
tising their musical instruments and radios. The
display is very cleverly done and at night is lighted
up so that it has been attracting considerable atten-
tion. Foster & W r aldo, Inc., are located on 820 Nic-
ollette avenue.
INDUSTRIAL ARTS SHOW OF
EASTERN STATES DIVISION
Musical Instruments to Have Place in Display of
American Made Goods.
Musical instruments will be featured prominently
in the Industrial Arts Show of the Eastern States
Exposition, to be held in Springfield, Mass., from
September 16 to 22 inclusive, the display being one
of the major divisions of this national exhibition which
reaches annually approximately 300,000 people.
Included in the list of lines that will be shown at
the 1928 exposition are ceramics, furniture and home
furnishings, house furnishings, musical instruments,
including pianos and player pianos, radio, draperies,
heating, plumbing and supply systems, refrigeration,
office equipment and talking machines and phono-
graphs. In each of these general sections there will
be individual displays of trade marked goods in in-
finite variety. In fact, there are more nationally
advertised products displayed at this show than at
any similar exhibition in America.
One of the outstanding characteristics of the East-
ern States Exposition Industrial Arts show is that it
presents an actual picture of American industrial life.
From small beginnings twelve years ago, it has grown
to such an extent that last year it occupied 25 acres of
exhibit space, five acres of which was under roof in
permanent buildings. Three general classes of ex-
hibits comprise the Eastern States Industrial Arts
show. Merchandising exhibits provide for direct
sales, deliveries or laying the foundation for future
selling. Good will exhibits, shown chiefly by public
utilities, financial and insurance companies and large
manufacturers whose displays are in the form of
dealer helps, and concerns desiring to keep their name
and trade mark before the public and educational
exhibits designed to be informative, to develop good
will and increase the prestige of the organization.
The exposition plant covers a tract of 172 acres
in West Springfield, five minutes from the business
center of Springfield, has eleven permanent brick,
steel and concrete buildings, including a coliseum with
seating capacity of 5,600.
PRAISE FOR BUSH & LANE
A letter written by Chester L. Beach, of the Bush
& Lane Piano Co., Holland, Mich., has a quotation
from a letter from Fred Steller, dealer, Ottumwa,
Iowa, on the Bush & Lane upright grand, which
reads as follows: "I just wanted to write you this
letter to tell you that I consider your little upright
grand the most outstanding piano value I know of
in pianodom. It was the writer's pleasure to test
this instrument in every manner, and as I play a
piano some and feel that I am in some small way
able to judge an instrument as to its qualities, I
consider this little upright grand a wonderful piano."
A KRANICH & BACH DISPLAY.
During this week Kranich & Bach, New York, had
an unique and novel display of all materials and
processes used in the making of a Kranich & Bach
grand piano. This exhibition was held in the factory,
offering visitors an opportunity to visualize the mak-
ing of all the constituent parts of a strictly high-
grade grand piano. Exhibition hours were from 10
a. m. to 4 p. m.
STRAUBE IS WINDOW FEATURE
MUNICIPAL MUSIC IN
CITY OF BALTIMORE
Progressive Maryland City's Achievements in
Providing Music for Its Population Are
Told by Its Municipal Music Director.
"No branch of art in Baltimore has progressed so
rapidly as that of music, and this progress is undoubt-
edly due to its sponsorship by the city," said Fred-
erick R. Huber, municipal director of music of the
city of Baltimore, Md., this week. "Ten years ago
the municipality became active in its musical prop-
aganda and immediately the tide of good fortune
turned to its advantage.
"Progressive municipal authorities realize that a
city is measured largely by its attitude toward the
arts and that while fine paving, impressive buildings,
and beautiful parks are things to be desired, unless
the administration develops the aesthetic as well as
the physical side of the city and leaves its residents
better citizens with higher ideals of intellectual en-
joyment, it has labored in vain.
"In Baltimore, the Municipal Department of Music
takes charge of the various band concerts, the sym-
phonic performances, and arranges other civic musical
events as the occasion might call for them.
"This department has no duplicate among the city
governments of the country. The concerts given
under its auspices are really an open door to anyone
who has a love for music of the highest type or talent
and ambition in the field of musical literature, for the
programs present music of the finest sort, covering a
vast field of compositions.
"The music world has been watching with much
interest the growth of municipal music in Baltimore,
for it has been the pioneer in many musical move-
ments. It blazed the trail for out-door community
singing under municipal auspices, which is given in
connection with the Municipal Band concerts, and
stepped into the musical limelight when it was able
to gather together as many as 4,000 to 5,000 persons
to sing patriotic songs and old familiar songs of the
hearth.
"While these activities brought Baltimore prom-
inently before the musical fraternity, it was the Sym-
phony Orchestra that made it the cynosure of the
musical world. The establishment and maintenance
of this organization from the tax appropriation of
the city was a distinct municipal activity. Monthly
concerts are given by the Symphony Orchestra with
soloists of national and international reputations, and
for the first time the doors of high-class music were
opened to the music-lover with a slender purse. One
of the most recent and interesting musical innovations
is the inauguration of concerts for children.
"In connection with the Municipal Band and the
City Park Band, it is not generally known that the
Municipal Department conducts a city colored band,
which gives weekly concerts during the summer in
the colored sections of the city. Community singing
plays a large part in the programs of these concerts
and the words of popular and patriotic songs are
thrown on a screen, so that everybody may join in
the singing. In giving these concerts, Baltimore occu-
pies a unique position and again takes the lead in
providing music for its population."
GREENCASTLE, IND., MUSIC
STORE CHANGES HANDS
The Bradshaw Music Company, Fitzgerald, Ga.,
one of the prominent music houses of the south,
reports excellent results in the sale of pianos through
the medium of a Straube piano window display. The
arrangement, as shown in the cut printed herewith,
combines simplicity with unusual attractiveness.
O. L. Bradshaw states that the Straube grand is a
piano possessing many unusual characteristics highly
appropriate for window display. The favorable im-
pression which the Straube makes upon the public
who view the instrument through the window leads
people into the store to make inquiry.
"A good many of our people," stated Mr. Brad-
shaw, "read about the Straube in the Good House-
keeping Magazine, Ladies Home Journal and other
national publications, and placing a Straube in the
window gives even the timid ones an opportunity to
see the piano before they enter the store."
"Both the Straube piano and the Bradshaw Music
Company are very well and favorably known through-
out the south. Recently the Bradshaw Music Com-
pany placed a Straube grand in the Fitzgerald High
School, an institution of considerable note, because
of the thoroughness of its instruction and the high
standing of the faculty. The piano in the photograph
is an Artist Model Straube.
Cartwright Music Shop Sold by John Cartwright to
J. E. Cash, Local Business Man.
In a business transaction completed last week the
Cartwright Music Shop in the Glascock building,
Greencastle, Ind., was sold by John Cartwright to
J. E. Cash, a local real estate man. Mr. Cash, the
new owner, will be in charge of the Music Shop and
also conduct his real estate business in the same loca-
tion. Miss Marjorie Williamson, who has been em-
ployed in the Music Shop, will continue in her pres-
ent position.
Mr. Cartwright said this week that he had not
sold his radio or piano stock to Mr. Cash and would
probably remain in the shop for a month until he
disposes of the radios and pianos on hand. Mr.
Cartwright had been owner of the Music Shop for
the past five years and is a popular business man,
taking an active part in all local civic projects.
STEINWAY PIANO USED.
In Vassar Institute, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., June 21,
Winifred Kenner presented Fred Parker, Jr., in piano
recital, assisted by Frances Halloran, soprano, and
David R. Walsh, accompanist. The Steinway piano
was furnished by the Hickok Music Co., Inc., exclu-
sive Steinway distributors in that city.
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