Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
February, 1930
CHICAGO CONCERT CO.
PLEASES PIANO CLUB
Repertoire of Company Is Wide and Its Programs
Range from Grave to Gay.
Frank Bennett and his organization, known as the
Chicago Concert Company, have been exceedingly
kind to the Piano Club of Chicago, and incidentally
to the Chicago Piano & Organ Association, in giving
them services at various times to round out programs
of entertainment. Consequently, they are well-known
to the music trade. Only a month or so ago Mr.
Bennett brought his famous quartette over to the
Piano Club and the singing that day gave delight
FRANK BENNETT.
COINOLAS
FOR
RESTAURANTS, CAFES and
A M U S E M E N T CENTERS
BETTY HOUSTON.
Style C-2
FROM THE BIGGEST
ORCHESTRION
CATHRYXE UTKSCH
to everybody in the room. Presto-Times is pleased
to present herewith pictures of four of the members
of this musical organization, and does not hesitate to
recommend Mr. Bennett and his artists as real mu-
sicians.
The repertoire of the company is wide and com-
prehends various programs. They include operatic
singing, folk songs and many numbers of popular
appeal—solos, duos, trios, quartettes—"from grave
to gay.'' Individually and collectively they have ap-
peared before the best audiences in prominent musical
centers throughout America.
Frank Bennett is connected with the artist depart-
ment and in charge of Baldwin interests in the Chi-
cago radio broadcasting stations.
GOOD TRADE AT DES MOINES.
Presto-Times is indebted to L. C. McMackin, of
the McMackin Piano Service Co., Des Moines, Iowa,
for information saying that his firm put on the keys—
eighteen sets of them—for one firm alone that week.
He enclosed a clipping of an editorial from the Des
Moines Evening Tribune Capitol, saying that a Des
Moines furniture dealer declares he sold twice as
many pianos in 1929 as in any previous year. In
part the editorial says: "The piano refuses to be
stampeded to help any crazy notions of music. It
sings but it refuses to moan. No. the piano will go
when music goes."
BIG FIRM PROMOTING
INTEREST IN MUSIC
Grinnell Bros. Helping Children in Michigan in
Musical Matters.
LUDWIG & LUDWIG BUSY.
A call by a Presto-Times representative recently
at the factory and offices of Ludwig & Ludwig,
banjo manufacturers, 1611 North Lincoln street, Chi-
cago, where E. C. Logelin, assistant to the manager,
was met, disclosed the fact that the company is very
busy. Larger orders have come to this well-known
and reliable firm of manufacturers since its merger
with the C. G. Conn, Inc., interests at Elkhart, Ind.
J. M. Grollimund is advertising manager for Ludwig
& Ludwig at Elkhart.
Great Musical Conference in Chicago on March 24
Takes Up School Work, Too.
The 1930 conference of music teachers will be par-
ticularly significant in that it will give a great deal
of attention to the problems growing out of the
recent developments in mechanical music. The great
popularity of radio and the "talkies" has introduced
many new problems into school music teaching and
these will be thoroughly discussed at the March
meeting. "Music for a more abundant life" is the
theme adopted for the conference.
While the conference program is still far from com-
plete, already it is evident that the meeting will be
one of the greatest ever held in America in a musical
cause.
Edward Howard Griggs, Frantz Proschowski, Dr.
John Erskine, Helen Hay Heyl, Mrs. Ruth Ottaway,
Guy Maier, Rudolph Ganz, Glenn Frank and Eugene
Stinson are among the prominent men and women
who will address the conference. Percy Scholes and
Hubert Foss, both of England, are expected to be
present. Sectional meetings will provide further op-
portunities to discuss all phases of school music work
—vocal, instrumental and music appreciation.
Three of the big musical events of the conference
definitely have been arranged. One is a big band
demonstration. The second is a concert by the Na-
tional High School Orchestra of 300 players, and the
third a concert by the National High School Chorus
in which 400 outstanding singers from every section
of the country will take part. All of these events
will be heard in Chicago's far famed Auditorium,
where for years and years Chicagoans have been in
the habit of going to listen to opera.
A RUSSIAN MUSICAL EVENING.
A concert ball was given by the String Orchestra
of the Russian society, "Znanie," at its hall, 1902 West
Division street, Chicago, on the evening of January
25. Despite the zero weather, the hall was crowded,
which was very gratifying to A. W. Meyerson, leader
of the orchestra. Miss Marie Sneider, the pianist,
who is a graduate of the Alveina Conservatory of
Music, played some wonderful pieces of the masters.
The varied program included a drama, "Samogon-
schitza," based on Russian life in 1923; "Petroushka,"
an old-fashioned Russian play by A. W. Meyerson and
many other interesting features.
PAUL. MALLOKY.
Grinnell Bros, of Detroit, dealers in musical instru-
ments, phonographs and radio sets, propose to spend
$40,000 in Muskegon during 1930, of which $12,000 is
to be used for advertising and promotion of public
appreciation for music, F. H. Gokey, manager of the
Muskegon branch, has announced.
The Detroit firm, which opened a branch store in
Muskegon last year, operates 43 branches, all but
two of which are in Michigan.
The promotion program planned for the coming
year undertakes to impart to young people, school chil-
dren particularly, an understanding of musical values.
The Muskegon store aims to carry on the program
with the cooperation of Muskegon schools. Mr.
Gokey is also making arrangements to organize a
boys' band which would be supported by Grinnell
Bros.
Radio is an important factor in cultivating general
appreciation of music, according to Mr. Gokey. Grin-
nell Bros, have taken a long-term lease on the present
location of the Muskegon branch, 373 Western ave-
nue. The branch employs eight persons.
MECHANICAL MUSIC
TO BE DISCUSSED
HARDMAN RETAIL MANAGER.
Robert S. McCarthy has been made retail sales
manager for Hardman, Peck & Co. in New York.
Mr. McCarthy's career in the piano business has
included work for C. J. Heppe & Sons, Philadelphia;
Gimbel Bros, in Philadelphia where he was in charge.
At another time he was in charge of the Aeolian
branch in Brooklyn, and just before this recent pro-
motion he was in charge of the Hardman, Peck &
Co. branch at Flushing, L. I.
SNOW BLOCKADES HURT TRADE.
Tiny Colnola
THE SMALLEST
KEYLESS
Manufactured by
The Operators Piano Co.
715-721 N. Kedzie Ave.
CHICAGO
The big snow blockade in the Dakotas and other
points in the Northwest has interfered Avith all kinds
of business for some weeks past. Piano men have
been unable to get out and canvass or deliver instru-
ments when sold, and farmers found it impossible
to get through the drifts to reach towns and buy in-
struments, even when so inclined.
FURBUSH IN THE SOUTH.
E. W. Furbush, well-known p'ano man, has been
enjoying himself for some weeks past at Hot Springs,
Ark., stopping at the Arlington Hotel. He writes
some Chicago friends that he is very much pleased
with the life that is worth living down there.
WILSON SELLING FOR WATKIN.
R. B. Wilson, recently associated with a competing
house, has joined the forces of the Will A. Watkin
Co. at Dallas, Texas. Mr. Watkin, speaking of Mr.
Wilson, says that "he is widely known and recog-
nized as an experienced, competent piano man."
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