Presto
Issue: 1930 2242 - Page 10
10
P R E S T O-T I M E S
for the three Steinway Concert Grands and one up-
right which the great musician carries with him on
this tour. Mr. Arnold has been the voice regulator
for Steinway & Sons' pianos for the last thirty years
and is considered the greatest artist in his profession
the world knows today.
Forty Years Ago
(From The Presto, January 8, 1890.)
Spid of a Salesman Well Known in the Trade
in the Nineties:
Chicago has a "hired man" in the music trade, a
real live and alive hired man. This hired man is
Antonio de Anguera of the W. W. Kimball Co. Of
course, Tony doesn't go out in the back yard and
saw wood to earn his daily bread, but he is an attrac-
tion for that being—the much looked for and wished
for individual—the piano customer. Tony, a la
Katisha of Gilbert and Sullivan, is an attraction peo-
ple come miles to see.
Inventory was being taken at the Story & Clark
factory during the last two weeks. The showing of
business for the past year has been the greatest rec-
ord so far.
Said of G. P. B. Again:
Mr. George P. Bent's "Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year" was conveyed in a readable as
well as a very acceptable manner. Accompanying an
elegant souvenir calendar for the new year, Mr. Bent
wishes that the recipient may have few "Crosses" and
many "Crowns."
Said of a Live House While It Lasted:
The mammoth establishment of Lyon, Potter &
Co., 174-176 Wabash avenue, is now receiving its
finishing touches, which are indeed very handsome.
Milligan, decorator of the Chicago Auditorium, is do-
ing the ornamenting, which is being modeled after
the style of that gorgeous temple, in ivory and gold.
Said of an Eminent House of Today:
From Weser Bros., the enterprising firm of piano
manufacturers, New York, P R E S T O hears of great
activity since the completion of a new addition to
the factory.
One of the Rice-Hinze pianos of Des Moines, la.,
will arrive in the city this week and may be seen at
366 Wabash avenue. The instrument will be noticed
further in these columns after it is examined there.
Said of the Lyon & Hcaly Harp, Which Has
Since Won the JVorld's Greatest Honors:
Messrs. Lyon & Healy received very flattering tes-
timonials from Mme. Maretzek, the harpist with the
Italian opera at the Auditorium. This well-known
firm has entered an entirely new field in making such
a classical and delicate instrument as the harp.
Said of the Famous Harlem-Bronx Piano District:
The Harlem river seems to attract piano manufac-
turers, and about a dozen establishments are already
completed or under way in that vicinity.
Said of a Well-Known Piano Selling Finn Still
in Existence:
A fire originating in E. E. Chandler's music and
jewelry store and Metropolitan Hall at Boone, Iowa,
destroyed several buildings last Friday night. The
total loss is $60,000.
LOYAL DEALERS NEEDED.
"A strong, militant, loyal dealer organization, im-
bued with enthusiasm for the product it handles as
well as the company back of the product," says H. H.
Hobart, vice-president of the Curtis Companies, Inc.,
"is not only invaluable, it is indispensable to the
prosecution of a successful marketing campaign. To
develop these factors is one of the most important
objectives the manufacturer should set for himself."
January, 1930
SPECIAL AND PARTICULAR MENTION
Thanks, and the same to you.
Yes, there ought to be mighty good times for the survivors.
Now, let's figure it out; probably not many more, though perhaps a few, but for the
ones that continue to carry on there is velvet in sight.
GIANTS COMPETING IN RADIO
Just how hard the smaller radio firms will be squeezed by the giants now in the business
and by other giants entering it is problematical. Prof. Galusha Anderson, when president of
the old University of Chicago in the 80's, used to think he had uttered a dreadful threat to
the intrepid young males who were students in that great institution of learning when he said
at chapel exercises, "If any of you young men think you can break any of the rules of this
institution, we shall see what we SHALL see." So now, the onlooker at radio competition
"shall see what he SHALL see."
One of the things we may see, if not SHALL see, is the squeezing of the little fellows.
Xo little David with a sling and smooth stones taken from a brook will be able to slay this
Philistine Goliath. While no open war has been declared, the struggle is a gigantomachy
between the Olympians and the giants. It has passed the stage of titanomachy—it is now
testing out the survival of the fittest.
Big ones are in the game. The giants include the Victor-Radio Corp., the Grigsby-Gru-
now, and eight or nine others. Now enters a great giant—the General Motors Radio Cor-
poration, in which General Motors will have a 51 per cent, stock interest and will put up $5,-
100,000 cash. The remaining 49 per cent, will be held, and $4,900,000 will be supplied by
Radio Corporation of America, General Electric, and Westinghouse Electric. Television is
another novel field in which General Motors means to become a leading factor. Its view is
that television will make strides equalling those already made by radio.
WAITING AT THE SWITCH
One of these days, if present conditions continue, dealers will look almost in vain for a
manufacturing house where they can obtain their desired supplies of instruments. They will
discover that the makers have run out of ready-to-ship pianos, and so will not be able to get
instruments at selling prices, and particularly many certain models and designs that their
trade calls for.
When business in pianos returns with the demand for a number of instruments here
and there, manufacturers will get the orders just as of yore—that is, the dealers who have
for many years ordered pianos as one who draws water from a well which he imagines never
goes dry, will send in their orders expecting a prompt response. What will be the feelings
of disappointment in the minds of these dealers when they discover that their manufacturers'
responses are letters of inquiry, wanting to know how many pianos they want made and how
many weeks' time they can have to produce them?
It will be useless then to imagine that the manufacturers are giving them the cold shoul-
der, that their treatment is that of the icy stranger, or even to imagine that they can get
different methods of manufacture from any other firm. For when business begins to come
back—as the wisest in the trade predict it will—the dealer who has his order in long in ad-
vance is the fellow who will be waited on first.
It requires no gift of special imagination to visualize the list of strong and representative
piano manufacturing concerns that will be alive and stronger a year from today than now
to meet the demands of discriminative dealers, and these firms of manufacturers will be able
to produce with dispatch the goods demanded by their trade.
The point is, demand is bound to run in excess of supply ere long, partially by reason of
recent eliminations and others liable to occur. The foresighted piano manufacturer of the U.
S. A. is the fellow who keeps his machinery greased and his forces making a few, so that
when a good order comes in he can readily produce the goods.
New Edition for 1930 In Preparation
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
Will Contain Full Lists with Concise Classification and Description of all
American Pianos, Players and Reproducing Pianos, with Sketches of their
Makers. Essential to All Salemen. Price 50 cents, post paid.
NO PIANO DEALER OR PROSPECT CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT IT.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.,
417 S. Dearborn St., CHICAGO
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/
P R E S T O-T I M E S
for the three Steinway Concert Grands and one up-
right which the great musician carries with him on
this tour. Mr. Arnold has been the voice regulator
for Steinway & Sons' pianos for the last thirty years
and is considered the greatest artist in his profession
the world knows today.
Forty Years Ago
(From The Presto, January 8, 1890.)
Spid of a Salesman Well Known in the Trade
in the Nineties:
Chicago has a "hired man" in the music trade, a
real live and alive hired man. This hired man is
Antonio de Anguera of the W. W. Kimball Co. Of
course, Tony doesn't go out in the back yard and
saw wood to earn his daily bread, but he is an attrac-
tion for that being—the much looked for and wished
for individual—the piano customer. Tony, a la
Katisha of Gilbert and Sullivan, is an attraction peo-
ple come miles to see.
Inventory was being taken at the Story & Clark
factory during the last two weeks. The showing of
business for the past year has been the greatest rec-
ord so far.
Said of G. P. B. Again:
Mr. George P. Bent's "Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year" was conveyed in a readable as
well as a very acceptable manner. Accompanying an
elegant souvenir calendar for the new year, Mr. Bent
wishes that the recipient may have few "Crosses" and
many "Crowns."
Said of a Live House While It Lasted:
The mammoth establishment of Lyon, Potter &
Co., 174-176 Wabash avenue, is now receiving its
finishing touches, which are indeed very handsome.
Milligan, decorator of the Chicago Auditorium, is do-
ing the ornamenting, which is being modeled after
the style of that gorgeous temple, in ivory and gold.
Said of an Eminent House of Today:
From Weser Bros., the enterprising firm of piano
manufacturers, New York, P R E S T O hears of great
activity since the completion of a new addition to
the factory.
One of the Rice-Hinze pianos of Des Moines, la.,
will arrive in the city this week and may be seen at
366 Wabash avenue. The instrument will be noticed
further in these columns after it is examined there.
Said of the Lyon & Hcaly Harp, Which Has
Since Won the JVorld's Greatest Honors:
Messrs. Lyon & Healy received very flattering tes-
timonials from Mme. Maretzek, the harpist with the
Italian opera at the Auditorium. This well-known
firm has entered an entirely new field in making such
a classical and delicate instrument as the harp.
Said of the Famous Harlem-Bronx Piano District:
The Harlem river seems to attract piano manufac-
turers, and about a dozen establishments are already
completed or under way in that vicinity.
Said of a Well-Known Piano Selling Finn Still
in Existence:
A fire originating in E. E. Chandler's music and
jewelry store and Metropolitan Hall at Boone, Iowa,
destroyed several buildings last Friday night. The
total loss is $60,000.
LOYAL DEALERS NEEDED.
"A strong, militant, loyal dealer organization, im-
bued with enthusiasm for the product it handles as
well as the company back of the product," says H. H.
Hobart, vice-president of the Curtis Companies, Inc.,
"is not only invaluable, it is indispensable to the
prosecution of a successful marketing campaign. To
develop these factors is one of the most important
objectives the manufacturer should set for himself."
January, 1930
SPECIAL AND PARTICULAR MENTION
Thanks, and the same to you.
Yes, there ought to be mighty good times for the survivors.
Now, let's figure it out; probably not many more, though perhaps a few, but for the
ones that continue to carry on there is velvet in sight.
GIANTS COMPETING IN RADIO
Just how hard the smaller radio firms will be squeezed by the giants now in the business
and by other giants entering it is problematical. Prof. Galusha Anderson, when president of
the old University of Chicago in the 80's, used to think he had uttered a dreadful threat to
the intrepid young males who were students in that great institution of learning when he said
at chapel exercises, "If any of you young men think you can break any of the rules of this
institution, we shall see what we SHALL see." So now, the onlooker at radio competition
"shall see what he SHALL see."
One of the things we may see, if not SHALL see, is the squeezing of the little fellows.
Xo little David with a sling and smooth stones taken from a brook will be able to slay this
Philistine Goliath. While no open war has been declared, the struggle is a gigantomachy
between the Olympians and the giants. It has passed the stage of titanomachy—it is now
testing out the survival of the fittest.
Big ones are in the game. The giants include the Victor-Radio Corp., the Grigsby-Gru-
now, and eight or nine others. Now enters a great giant—the General Motors Radio Cor-
poration, in which General Motors will have a 51 per cent, stock interest and will put up $5,-
100,000 cash. The remaining 49 per cent, will be held, and $4,900,000 will be supplied by
Radio Corporation of America, General Electric, and Westinghouse Electric. Television is
another novel field in which General Motors means to become a leading factor. Its view is
that television will make strides equalling those already made by radio.
WAITING AT THE SWITCH
One of these days, if present conditions continue, dealers will look almost in vain for a
manufacturing house where they can obtain their desired supplies of instruments. They will
discover that the makers have run out of ready-to-ship pianos, and so will not be able to get
instruments at selling prices, and particularly many certain models and designs that their
trade calls for.
When business in pianos returns with the demand for a number of instruments here
and there, manufacturers will get the orders just as of yore—that is, the dealers who have
for many years ordered pianos as one who draws water from a well which he imagines never
goes dry, will send in their orders expecting a prompt response. What will be the feelings
of disappointment in the minds of these dealers when they discover that their manufacturers'
responses are letters of inquiry, wanting to know how many pianos they want made and how
many weeks' time they can have to produce them?
It will be useless then to imagine that the manufacturers are giving them the cold shoul-
der, that their treatment is that of the icy stranger, or even to imagine that they can get
different methods of manufacture from any other firm. For when business begins to come
back—as the wisest in the trade predict it will—the dealer who has his order in long in ad-
vance is the fellow who will be waited on first.
It requires no gift of special imagination to visualize the list of strong and representative
piano manufacturing concerns that will be alive and stronger a year from today than now
to meet the demands of discriminative dealers, and these firms of manufacturers will be able
to produce with dispatch the goods demanded by their trade.
The point is, demand is bound to run in excess of supply ere long, partially by reason of
recent eliminations and others liable to occur. The foresighted piano manufacturer of the U.
S. A. is the fellow who keeps his machinery greased and his forces making a few, so that
when a good order comes in he can readily produce the goods.
New Edition for 1930 In Preparation
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
Will Contain Full Lists with Concise Classification and Description of all
American Pianos, Players and Reproducing Pianos, with Sketches of their
Makers. Essential to All Salemen. Price 50 cents, post paid.
NO PIANO DEALER OR PROSPECT CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT IT.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.,
417 S. Dearborn St., CHICAGO
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).