Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., Publishers.
Editor
FRANK D. ABBOTT
- - - - - - - -
(C. A. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
Managing Editor
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
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
Post 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. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items'of news and other matter are solicited and if of
general 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 is not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-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 re-
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. Pull 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.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16. 1929.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later
f han Wednesday noon of each week.
HELPFUL MUSIC WEEK PHASE
The announcements of National Music
Week, to be observed May 5 to 11 by the Na-
tional Music Week Committee, of which C. M.
Tremaine is secretary, are strong in sugges-
tions to listen to music during that interval.
But they are also powerful in the urge to
make music. In other years the committee
invited the public to participate in musical
functions and with excellent effect. This year,
however, everybody is asked to take part in
music making in the home or elsewhere.
That is a practical course for which the way
is prepared by the great familiarity with mu-
sical performances created by the radio. All
the world seems to be listening in today and
it is certain the radio program performers
evoke the desire for emulation among ambi-
tious listeners.
In emphasizing the "play your own music"
phase of Music Week this time, the committee
is following a policy pursued since the Week
was first organized on a national scale.
EVERY DEALER'S DUTY
The virility of a trade is judged by the ac-
tive and enthusiastic character of its local,
state and national associations. And an un-
mistakeable sign of that virilitv is the interest
of members in annual conventions or periodic
meetings to discuss important situations in
the trade. In such a method of judgment the
member of a trade who is indifferent to the
importance of its local and national trade as-
sociations may be considered lacking in an
essential of merchandising. A music dealer
possibly may be vigilant in the businesslike
operation of his store and yet fall short of a
broad-minded interest in his particular trade.
It is the feeling of the mass of individuals in
a trade which influences thought and action.
Inaction in a trade association is the reflection
of individual attitude therein. The alertness
of the national associations of the music
trade, for instance, is in equal ratio to the
eager interest of the membership in the af-
fairs that concern everybody in the trade.
Problems in the trade are nearer solution
when they are properly understood by those
whose business they disturb. The piano deal-
ers, for instance, who, on the outside of their
local and national trade associations, fret over
decreasing sales, could best help themselves
and their fellows in the trade by co-operation
within, in the effort to discover the cause.
The music dealer who neglects to join the
local and national association of the trade is
profiting by the association activities of his
fellow dealers within the association. He
benefits from the group piano classes in the
schools and other piano sales promotional
schemes created and fostered by the associ-
ation. The dealers who actively co-operate
on the Merchants' Promotion Stamps do
something to help themse'ves to sell more
merchandise.
The national conventions of all the associ-
ations of the music trade and the holding as-
sociation—the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce—will be held in Chicago the week
beginning June 3. Other meetings for that
week in Chicago will be the Radio Manufac-
turers' Association, the federated radio as-
sociations and the National Association of
Broadcasters. A joint session of the music
and radio interests on June 4 will accentuate
the element of mutual interest in all the
meetings. It will be a good time for the
neglectful dealer to join his fellows in his na-
tional association.
February 16, 1929
THIRTY YEARS AGO
(From The Presto, February 16, 1899.)
It is not possible to regulate the stencil by such
legislation as the Redington bill proposes. Common
law makes fraud a misdemeanor. There is no need
of special legislation in that direction. It is plainly
fraud to offer a piano as the product of a famous
firm when it is not as represented. The stencil itself
is not the real trouble. Mr. Redington's bill belongs
to the kind of protection that does not protect.
In the Export Edition of The Presto, issued in
September last, some statistics were given designed
to show to just what extent musical instruments
already enter into the trade activities of Mexic. The
figures given, drawn from official sources and aug-
mented by the personal investigations and observation
of the editors of The Presto, proved quite surprising
to many in the trade who had supposed that there
was no music business to speak of in Mexico. And
the trade in pianos and organs in that country grows
with a rapidity not yet fully appreciated by our man-
ufacturers.
Vose is a name that conveys a forceful meaning
to piano dealers as well also to the musical public
generally.. "Vose" has come to mean music
Great heavens! A trade paper says "the time will
come when the American piano manufacturer will
have to make a special instrument for the export
trade.". And this notwithstanding that at least a half-
dozen American piano manufacturers have been at
work on just such pianos for from one to two years
past.
Another enterprising American house will make a
push for trade in Mexico. Mr. Alex. Ludwig, repre-
senting William Tonk & Bro., will soon start on a
tour of the southern countries. Mr. Ludwig is now
in the south and will make his Mexican trip before
returning north.
"January was good, but February looks better for
our business. We are getting in a large stock of the
Emerson and the M. Schulz pianos," says C. Burk-
holder of Sterling, 111.
Among the honorary pallbearers at the funeral of
Mr. G. Milton Hughes of Baltimore, on the 9th inst.,
were Mr. Chas. Jacob of Jacob Bros., New York,
and Mr. W. S. Bond, secretary and treasurer of the
Weaver Organ & Piano Co., York, Pa.
On another page will be found an important an-
nouncement—especially important to the piano deal-
ers in Mexico and the other southern countries where
American pianos have been debarred because of their
great size, weight and comparative cost, stating that
the Chicago Cottage Organ Co. has created a special
style of the beautiful "Kingsbury" piano for their
One of the most promising features of piano export
trade, is one of the best signs for the Amer-
group instruction is the enthusiasm of the ican piano
young pupils. Teachers everywhere report
Edward Steinert, the talented son of M. Steinert
the obvious eagerness of the boys and girls cf the firm of M. Steinert & Sons Co., died February
11, after a long illness, at his residence in Brookline,
to show what they could do. The group les- Macs.
Mr. Steinert was in the prime of life, with a
son systems provided for the class of teach- great future before him; he was a young man who
ers stimulate musical feeling and do not em- had made a great reputation for himself, having been
several years the head of M. Steinert & Sons' branch
phasize the merely mechanical aspects of house
in Providence.
piano playing at the expense of expression.
Among the eastern members of the trade in Chi-
Teachers should be able to accomplish great cago last week was Mr. Herman Giese of the New
things with the aid of the group class systems. York branch of the piano wire industry in Westig,
Germany. Mr. Giese was on a visit to the piano
* * *
factories in the west and his success in winning new
A joint session of the national associations customers must have been highly gratifying to him.
Lemuel Kline and R. E. Davis have assumed con-
of the music industry and the radio associa-
tions to be held June 6 during the annual trol of the Fort Wayne house of the W. W. KimbaJJ
Company.
conventions of the bodies in Chicago, will
There is quite a little war going on in Racine, Wis.,
mark a unity of purpose in many things in among piano agents. In fact, the relations among
which music and radio interests are con-" them have become so strained that they refer to one
in words which wouldn't look well in print.
cerned. From the business point of view the another
Prices have been cut and the end is not yet in sight.
meeting will be the most important event dur- Indeed, some are threatening libel suits against one
another.
ing the conventions.
Mr. Edwin Eshelby, London manager and general
* * *
representative of Steinway & Sons, is an Englishman,
The International Broadcasting Corporation a native of Gloucestershire. He commenced his ca-
recognizes the necessity for education for reer, says London "Music Trades Review," in 1865,
piano owners on the care of pianos. It has being apprenticed to the old firm of Hale & Co. in
arranged for a weekly talk over WOV every Cheltenham, and in 1867 he came up to London to
Kirkman's factory. In 1870 he went to New York,
Saturday by William C. Stonaker, vice-presi- and entered the employment of Messrs. Steinway &
dent of the New York Division of the Na- Sons as a tuner and regulator, remaining there till
tional Piano Tuners' Association, on the care 1877, by which time the then agents for the sale of
Steinway pianos in England had got together quite
of the piano.
a little business, and he was appointed to open the
* * *
Manchester agency. He afterwards acted as traveler
The R. S. Williams Co., Ltd., Toronto, Can- to the firm until the year 1887, when he was called
ada, which is now proudly celebrating the upon to take the management in London. Mr.
Eshelby is a Fellow of the Philharmonic, and a mem-
eightieth anniversary of its founding, should ber of the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society,. and
have an equal amount of pride in its high also of the Frinton School Board, at which place he
standing in the opinion of the Canadian public. has a house.
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