Presto
Issue: 1928 2207 - Page 6
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
ference. The board of control of the Music Mer-
chants' Association at its last meeting adopted a res-
olution covering the situation as follows:
"Whereas, The executives of the radio associations
a short time ago made it known to the executives of
our association that it would be agreeable to them for
the convention of our association and Music Trade
Industries to occur at the time and place that the
next joint radio convention or exhibition is to be
held, and assured us of their assistance and coopera-
tion in making our convention a success, and being
impressed by this demonstration of friendliness on
the part of our friends—the radio manufacturers, job-
bers and broadcasters; be it
Resolved, That it is equally agreeable to us for our
conventions and exhibitions to occur simultaneously
in the same city, and that for this reason we have
decided upon holding our convention and meetings at
the Drake Hotel, Chicago, during the week of June 3,
up to and including Thursday night, and that with a
view to fully cooperating with them in making our
associated convention and exhibition the greatest pos-
sible success, we shall be very glad for a committee
of our association to meet with their representatives
for the purpose of arranging our respective programs
in such a manner as to avoid any possible conflict, and
to increase the interest in the programs of all con-
cerned."
Possibilities of Conventions.
It is believed by those who have closely studied
the possibilities of the associated conventions that
programs can be worked out that will avoid conflict
in the scheduling of business meetings, get-together
meetings, banquets, exhibitions, etc, and will add
tremendously to the interest and benefit of all who
attend both conventions and exhibitions.
MUSIC DEALERS'
INTEREST IN RADIO
An Increasingly Apparent Fact Today Is that
Interests of the Music Trade Now In-
cludes Radio, and Circumstance
Points to Opportunity of Radio
Manufacturer.
By C. J. ROBERTS.
During the past few weeks it has been increasingly
apparent that the interests of music merchants and
different branches of the radio trade have been identical
in many respects and this feeling or knowledge has
been crystallized in the arrangements which have been
made by the two groups to hold their conventions
simultaneously in the same city. It is now also real-
ized that music merchants who sell radios and even
those who do not (and there are now very few of the
latter, and untimately there will be practically none
at all), have interests that are in common with those
of exclusive radio merchants. It is important that
music merchants shall attend radio conventions and
exhibitions. It is equally important for members of
the radio trade to attend conventions of the Music
Industries.
Interests in Common.
Music merchants now handling radios are vitally
interested in keeping up to date in regard to the
progress of the radio trade and as music merchants
distribute such a large percentage of the output of
the radio manufacturers, it is important that the latter
keep informed of the need of music merchants and co-
operate with them in disposing of as many of their
finished units to the public as possible.
The music merchant who does not now sell radio
i> a prospect for the manufacturer.
New Line of Prospects.
Many of the exclusive radio dealers are prospects
for the manufacturers of pianos and other musical
instruments and supplies. Not a few dealers w r ho
began handling radio exclusively have later become
music merchants and now sell pianos, talking ma-
chines and other musical merchandise. Very many
more will ultimately do so. A number of formal
and informal conferences of executives and leaders in
the two industries have occurred, mainly in order
to pave the way for a definite, formal joint con-
Sees Great Convention.
I earnestly believe that the next convention of the
Music Industries will be the greatest in history. The
radio convention and exhibition is certain to be a
great event. We are beginning apparently very early
to form our plans, but this is necessary to insure the
success of the occasion. The splendid committees
that have been appointed are already at work. The
executives of the various organized bodies within the
trade are earnestly and enthusiastically attacking the
problems which confront them. The next convention
will be very much of an experiment, but this is not a
time to "stand pat." Without experiment no prog-
ress is ever made. We must go forward and will go
forward.
The executives of the organized bodies in the trade
need the cooperation of every one in the trade.
Dealers v..
Profiting
by Straube
Difference
HE SUPERIOR construction of the
T
Straube Grand, the difference which can
be seen as well as heard, is helping hundreds
of piano merchants to make more, easier
and quicker sales.
The dramatic way in which dealers can
prove Straube superiority to prospects, the
exclusive features such as laminal construc-
tion of the key bed, the rim and the braces,
afford exceptional opportunity for profit.
With the approach of the holiday season
this opportunity for profit with the Straube
is intensified. It is easier to turn"shoppers"
into purchasers when you can demonstrate
quality in construction and in tone so clearly.
Have the advantage of Straube's exclusive
points in your holiday selling. Get all the
facts now; it will not obligate you in the
least. Let us show you the Straube difference
which means profittomerchants.Write today.
STRAUBE PIANO COMPANY
1107 Manila Ave.,
O N E
Hammond, Ind
traube
O F
T H E
Pictured above is the Straube Florentine Grand, one of
the many period models available in various sizes — in-
cluding the world's smallest full scale grand. The Sonata,
four feet, four inches.
Inset in the circle is the back of a Straube Grand, show*
ing the laminal construction of key bed, rim and braces-
exclusive Straube features.
W O R L D
Rationally
P I A N O S
November 17, 1928
DEALERS RESENT
BUREAU'S SLAPS
Chicago Piano & Organ Association Indig-
nant Over a Signed Advertisement in the
Chicago Evening Post Which Seems
to Impugn Honesty of All Dealers.
At the annual meeting of the Chicago Piano and
Organ Association last week, held in the Great North-
ern Hotel, Chicago, public inspection was sharply
focussed upon the sort, the kind, the variety, the
intent of the propaganda that has recently appeared
in the Chicago Evening Post as advertising matter
about the piano business and signed by the Chicago
Better Business Bureau.
A recent advertisement, so signed, was read at the
meeting, every word of which was followed by tense
interest by the entire audience for evidences of some
hidden dagger pointing insidiously at the very vitals
of the entire trade under the cloak of fighting a few
carelessly worded ads in the daily papers.
A Blow Against Honesty.
The copy of the objectionable advertisement was
then turned over by unanimous vote to the executive
board of the association for further study and for
recommendations for action at the next meeting of
the trade in Chicago. It would seem that in its effort
to cure some small sore spot in the trade the Better
Business Bureau has unwittingly, or witlessly, struck
a body blow at the entire trade, the insinuation being
that no piano man is to be trusted or trustworthy.
And this, in view of the honesty and the progress that
has been made during several years of improving
their advertising and their honorable selling methods,
does not sit well on the stomach of any honest piano
man in Chicago (and from 95 to 99 per cent of them
"are on the square," perfectly reliable and eager to
give a dollar's worth of value for every dollar a cus-
tomer gives them).
Some Sore Spots, Perhaps.
The bureau may have found some sore spots. So
far, so good. But it has overreached in its accusa-
tions, which have hit the entire trade (the better
part of it the hardest) by abominable generalizations.
A rhetorician may indulge in metonymy or synec-
doche by putting a part for the whole, but an entire
piano trade of a great city strenuously objects to
being classed with one or two offending members.
It is positively blighting to permit such misleading
propaganda to go before a public which has a right
to have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.
Why Make Goat of Piano Trade?
"Why pick on the piano business? We certainly
have our troubles getting business without having
outsiders who do not understand, butting in?" asked
a prominent piano manufacturer yesterday. "Our
business is conducted on the cleanest basis of any
that I know of. If the Better Business Bureau must
have a victim, why not pick on the opticians, a few
of whose ads are said to be under suspicion? But
of all business, that of the piano is the least deserv-
ing of criticism at the present moment; we give more
than money's worth; the piano was never so well-
made or so satisfactory as a musical instrument as
it is today.
"We eliminated knockers from our own trade years
ago. That was a long step in advance. The trade
then took a high place among absolutely reliable
merchandising men. What dry goods man, what real
estate man, what doctor of medicine would dare
today accuse a dealer in standardized pianos in Chi-
cago of doing business other than fairly and squarely?
"What druggist would dare do it? What preacher
gets up and denounces the piano man from his pul-
pit? What producer of tin cans, of paper, of bus
rides across the country, of neckties or dog collars
would go out of his way to throw a lie at the honest
dealer in fine pianos?
The Latest "Knocker."
"Yet, here bobs up this hobgoblin knocker in the
form of a Better Business Bureau and knocks and
knocks and knocks. It shoots its mud-guns directly
at the finest and cleanest piano houses in America
It seems to glory in the bespatterment it causes
along piano row.
What Is the Underlying Purpose?
"Several dealers in St. Louis told me last year
that a so-called Better Business Bureau there had
made a lot of mischief and really damaged the piano
business in that great city. Is it the purpose of the
Chicago Better Business Bureau to do likewise here?
And who is paying for this propaganda? I'd like to
know the source of this tearing-down effort."
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/
ference. The board of control of the Music Mer-
chants' Association at its last meeting adopted a res-
olution covering the situation as follows:
"Whereas, The executives of the radio associations
a short time ago made it known to the executives of
our association that it would be agreeable to them for
the convention of our association and Music Trade
Industries to occur at the time and place that the
next joint radio convention or exhibition is to be
held, and assured us of their assistance and coopera-
tion in making our convention a success, and being
impressed by this demonstration of friendliness on
the part of our friends—the radio manufacturers, job-
bers and broadcasters; be it
Resolved, That it is equally agreeable to us for our
conventions and exhibitions to occur simultaneously
in the same city, and that for this reason we have
decided upon holding our convention and meetings at
the Drake Hotel, Chicago, during the week of June 3,
up to and including Thursday night, and that with a
view to fully cooperating with them in making our
associated convention and exhibition the greatest pos-
sible success, we shall be very glad for a committee
of our association to meet with their representatives
for the purpose of arranging our respective programs
in such a manner as to avoid any possible conflict, and
to increase the interest in the programs of all con-
cerned."
Possibilities of Conventions.
It is believed by those who have closely studied
the possibilities of the associated conventions that
programs can be worked out that will avoid conflict
in the scheduling of business meetings, get-together
meetings, banquets, exhibitions, etc, and will add
tremendously to the interest and benefit of all who
attend both conventions and exhibitions.
MUSIC DEALERS'
INTEREST IN RADIO
An Increasingly Apparent Fact Today Is that
Interests of the Music Trade Now In-
cludes Radio, and Circumstance
Points to Opportunity of Radio
Manufacturer.
By C. J. ROBERTS.
During the past few weeks it has been increasingly
apparent that the interests of music merchants and
different branches of the radio trade have been identical
in many respects and this feeling or knowledge has
been crystallized in the arrangements which have been
made by the two groups to hold their conventions
simultaneously in the same city. It is now also real-
ized that music merchants who sell radios and even
those who do not (and there are now very few of the
latter, and untimately there will be practically none
at all), have interests that are in common with those
of exclusive radio merchants. It is important that
music merchants shall attend radio conventions and
exhibitions. It is equally important for members of
the radio trade to attend conventions of the Music
Industries.
Interests in Common.
Music merchants now handling radios are vitally
interested in keeping up to date in regard to the
progress of the radio trade and as music merchants
distribute such a large percentage of the output of
the radio manufacturers, it is important that the latter
keep informed of the need of music merchants and co-
operate with them in disposing of as many of their
finished units to the public as possible.
The music merchant who does not now sell radio
i> a prospect for the manufacturer.
New Line of Prospects.
Many of the exclusive radio dealers are prospects
for the manufacturers of pianos and other musical
instruments and supplies. Not a few dealers w r ho
began handling radio exclusively have later become
music merchants and now sell pianos, talking ma-
chines and other musical merchandise. Very many
more will ultimately do so. A number of formal
and informal conferences of executives and leaders in
the two industries have occurred, mainly in order
to pave the way for a definite, formal joint con-
Sees Great Convention.
I earnestly believe that the next convention of the
Music Industries will be the greatest in history. The
radio convention and exhibition is certain to be a
great event. We are beginning apparently very early
to form our plans, but this is necessary to insure the
success of the occasion. The splendid committees
that have been appointed are already at work. The
executives of the various organized bodies within the
trade are earnestly and enthusiastically attacking the
problems which confront them. The next convention
will be very much of an experiment, but this is not a
time to "stand pat." Without experiment no prog-
ress is ever made. We must go forward and will go
forward.
The executives of the organized bodies in the trade
need the cooperation of every one in the trade.
Dealers v..
Profiting
by Straube
Difference
HE SUPERIOR construction of the
T
Straube Grand, the difference which can
be seen as well as heard, is helping hundreds
of piano merchants to make more, easier
and quicker sales.
The dramatic way in which dealers can
prove Straube superiority to prospects, the
exclusive features such as laminal construc-
tion of the key bed, the rim and the braces,
afford exceptional opportunity for profit.
With the approach of the holiday season
this opportunity for profit with the Straube
is intensified. It is easier to turn"shoppers"
into purchasers when you can demonstrate
quality in construction and in tone so clearly.
Have the advantage of Straube's exclusive
points in your holiday selling. Get all the
facts now; it will not obligate you in the
least. Let us show you the Straube difference
which means profittomerchants.Write today.
STRAUBE PIANO COMPANY
1107 Manila Ave.,
O N E
Hammond, Ind
traube
O F
T H E
Pictured above is the Straube Florentine Grand, one of
the many period models available in various sizes — in-
cluding the world's smallest full scale grand. The Sonata,
four feet, four inches.
Inset in the circle is the back of a Straube Grand, show*
ing the laminal construction of key bed, rim and braces-
exclusive Straube features.
W O R L D
Rationally
P I A N O S
November 17, 1928
DEALERS RESENT
BUREAU'S SLAPS
Chicago Piano & Organ Association Indig-
nant Over a Signed Advertisement in the
Chicago Evening Post Which Seems
to Impugn Honesty of All Dealers.
At the annual meeting of the Chicago Piano and
Organ Association last week, held in the Great North-
ern Hotel, Chicago, public inspection was sharply
focussed upon the sort, the kind, the variety, the
intent of the propaganda that has recently appeared
in the Chicago Evening Post as advertising matter
about the piano business and signed by the Chicago
Better Business Bureau.
A recent advertisement, so signed, was read at the
meeting, every word of which was followed by tense
interest by the entire audience for evidences of some
hidden dagger pointing insidiously at the very vitals
of the entire trade under the cloak of fighting a few
carelessly worded ads in the daily papers.
A Blow Against Honesty.
The copy of the objectionable advertisement was
then turned over by unanimous vote to the executive
board of the association for further study and for
recommendations for action at the next meeting of
the trade in Chicago. It would seem that in its effort
to cure some small sore spot in the trade the Better
Business Bureau has unwittingly, or witlessly, struck
a body blow at the entire trade, the insinuation being
that no piano man is to be trusted or trustworthy.
And this, in view of the honesty and the progress that
has been made during several years of improving
their advertising and their honorable selling methods,
does not sit well on the stomach of any honest piano
man in Chicago (and from 95 to 99 per cent of them
"are on the square," perfectly reliable and eager to
give a dollar's worth of value for every dollar a cus-
tomer gives them).
Some Sore Spots, Perhaps.
The bureau may have found some sore spots. So
far, so good. But it has overreached in its accusa-
tions, which have hit the entire trade (the better
part of it the hardest) by abominable generalizations.
A rhetorician may indulge in metonymy or synec-
doche by putting a part for the whole, but an entire
piano trade of a great city strenuously objects to
being classed with one or two offending members.
It is positively blighting to permit such misleading
propaganda to go before a public which has a right
to have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.
Why Make Goat of Piano Trade?
"Why pick on the piano business? We certainly
have our troubles getting business without having
outsiders who do not understand, butting in?" asked
a prominent piano manufacturer yesterday. "Our
business is conducted on the cleanest basis of any
that I know of. If the Better Business Bureau must
have a victim, why not pick on the opticians, a few
of whose ads are said to be under suspicion? But
of all business, that of the piano is the least deserv-
ing of criticism at the present moment; we give more
than money's worth; the piano was never so well-
made or so satisfactory as a musical instrument as
it is today.
"We eliminated knockers from our own trade years
ago. That was a long step in advance. The trade
then took a high place among absolutely reliable
merchandising men. What dry goods man, what real
estate man, what doctor of medicine would dare
today accuse a dealer in standardized pianos in Chi-
cago of doing business other than fairly and squarely?
"What druggist would dare do it? What preacher
gets up and denounces the piano man from his pul-
pit? What producer of tin cans, of paper, of bus
rides across the country, of neckties or dog collars
would go out of his way to throw a lie at the honest
dealer in fine pianos?
The Latest "Knocker."
"Yet, here bobs up this hobgoblin knocker in the
form of a Better Business Bureau and knocks and
knocks and knocks. It shoots its mud-guns directly
at the finest and cleanest piano houses in America
It seems to glory in the bespatterment it causes
along piano row.
What Is the Underlying Purpose?
"Several dealers in St. Louis told me last year
that a so-called Better Business Bureau there had
made a lot of mischief and really damaged the piano
business in that great city. Is it the purpose of the
Chicago Better Business Bureau to do likewise here?
And who is paying for this propaganda? I'd like to
know the source of this tearing-down effort."
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).