Presto

May, 1930
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH IN EACH
MONTH
FRANK D. ABBOTT
The American Music Trade Journal
Editor
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 th«*
Post Office, Chicago. 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $1.25 a year; 6 months, 75 cents; foreign,
$3.00. Payable in advance. No extra charge in United
States, possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for adver-
tising 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 c!ose at noon three days preceding date of pub-
lication. Latest news matter and telegraphic communica-
tions should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day.
Advertising copy should be in hand four days before pub-
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, I1L
lication day to insure preferred position. Pull page dis-
play copy should be in hand three days preceding publi-
cation day. Want advertisements for current issue, to
insure classification, should be in three days in advance
of publication.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press at 11 a. m.
three days preceding publication day. Any news trans-
piring after that hour cannot be expected In the current
issue. Nothing received at the office that is not strictly
news of importance can have attention after 9 a. m. of
that date. Tf they concern the interests of manufactur-
ers or dealers such items will appear the. issue following.
CHICAGO, MAY, 1930
PRESTO=TIMES SERVICE BUREAU
HITTING THE TARGET
Presto-Times carries on a Service Department
which is open and free for advice and information to
its readers, patrons, friends and anyone interested,
concerning manufacturers in the music industries,
their capacity for production and estimates of their
products, so far as such information is obtainable and
available.
For many years this paper has tendered its services
toward aiding individuals and firms in various ways;
in business associations, in certain line of purchases,
agency and distributor connections, and various con-
fidential angles that often arise in "getting together."
Presto-Times is often in a position to render appre-
ciable service of direct advantage to the parties con-
cerned, something we are always ready and glad to do.
This service is voluntarily offered, having in view
the mutual advantage to principal and agent and, vice
versa, to agent and principal, holding all communica-
tions and relations in the strictest confidence.
Commercial Service of
Presto Publishing Company,
417 S. Dearborn St., Chicago.
The function of trading is the special activity which so directs the aim of the dealer that
he can hit the target. It is the accuracy of voluntary movement. It prevents walking in circles
like a man lost in the woods. It is not an imitative act to go out and sell a piano; it is
efficient practice.
Selling a piano is not a hypothetical process. To hit the target, fine initial adjustments
are necessary in taking aim, for even a minimum of error in the preliminaries may lose the
sale. Parrot-like talks or the habitual repetition of a little prepared speech will never do;
such blarney only arouses opposition in the customer.
The man who knows his goods would show little sense were he to resort to such flabber-
gasting. Wisely he will talk of his pianos with feelings of freedom, self-confidence and power;
this gives the customer a sense that the man's instruments are to be relied upon. Every good
salesman realizes that he is being watched as he talks and that the important factor entering
into the situation is the confidence of the observer, which varies in different individuals from
extreme doubt to absolute certainty. And if he closes a sale he will secure the signature to
the contract quietly and without flourish, although inwardly he may be as jubilant as an
author who has just discovered a climax and denouement for his novel.
PIANO NOT VANISHING
Indefinite dread never got a merchant anywhere. It never answered one of his puzzling
questions, although it did always affect his temper. The increased tension that he puts upon
his mind by imagining that sales were not going to be large did just that thing to him. The
fluctuations in his business which he attributed to accidental conditions or that he slandered
Wall Street with causing, or put at the door of the legislatures, were much nearer home, did he
but know- it. They were due largely if not wholly to his own lack of objective methods. Blue-
ness stands for shadow and emptiness. It is brought on by emotional imagery, like hypo-
chondria. It oppresses the atmosphere and is accompanied by futile impulses. It fails to dis-
tinguish between the active and the passive touch; it has no accuracy of discrimination; it is
difficult, moreover, to explain. It finally becomes an obstacle to any further enlargement of
the man's business.
Opposing all the ideas and concepts of the "blue devil" is the spirit of the optimistic mer-
chant. He has to do every day with the effective and he spurns the non-effective. He briefly
adjusts details and his voice, without excitation, is a resonator that sounds of the things of
life and the world. He is filled with the plans of going on, or "carrying on," to use an extreme
Englishism, He has no time for dwelling on the probable causes of light trade; he is too busy
going after what trade there is. He is likely to be better understood by his stenographer than
Mr. Blue is by his private secretary—the one man satisfied, the other dissatisfied. It is a good
thing for the piano industry as a whole that there are so many optimists heading the big com-
panies, and that as long as nature is variable and inexahusted a new crop of them will be
coming on.
MERCANTILE THINKING
Editor Presto-Times.
Dear Sir:
Recently the New York World had a statement
given by Edward C. Boykin, executive secretary of
the National Piano Manufacturers' Association, head-
ed "Piano Builders Say Radio Music Stirs Interest."
The writer had a clipping which appeared in the
Kansas City Post March 13, 1930, but misplaced.
In some way, parts of same were very well. As a
whole, it looks to me very detrimental and a blow at
piano business, especially when quoting the pianos
of 1926 at 250,000 to 150,000 in 1928, and it looks to
me like something wrong., At any rate, why would it
not he fair to enlighten the public as to why? Here
is a good opportunity to bring in that many manu-
facturers of cheap pianos were forced to discontinue,
as there was no market for that class of merchandise.
It would also have been in order to say something
on the American Piano Co.'s difficulties, same line as
in your March issue on the Packard Piano Co.; such
would uphold the standing and commercial stock of
the piano end and not discourage those in it and mis-
lead the public by intimating that the piano is going
to pass out, etc., about which there is too much
gossip.
I am for boosting, not knocking and belittling our
aim and endeavors in gains for the better, and we
should be able to give out the truth.
I certainly made it my business to write Mr.
Boykin a line and while sure he meant different than
it reads, it nevertheless is taken entirely different by
the public, thereby giving the piano a black eye.
It is worth your while to secure that article as it
certainly appeared in other newspapers as a news
item and should receive attention at once by correc-
tion and giving the truth. Besides Mr. Boykin is not
aware of the many used pianos bought in preference
to the cheap, new so-called pianos.
Let us all cooperate and boost the piano or say
nothing if it is not in favor of the piano. These small
matters are of great importance when thought of and
when such statements are given out. I am a fighter
for better things and state the way to improve.
Sincerely yours,
A. WEBER.
DESCRIPTIONS OF BALDWIN.
The Baldwin Piano Co. is doing some attractive
advertising in the daily papers by asking, "How do
you describe your Baldwin?" The ad goes on to
say: Bacliaus calls his "noble"; Bori, "inspiring";
Buhlig, "bell-like": Gieseking, "the most beautiful";
Iturbi, "incomparably superior."
THE CONVENTIONS
The conventions of the piano and radio men that take place at New York and Atlantic
City next month face different conditions from any preceding national meetings of the prin-
cipal organized bodies. The market has changed and is changing; new men are gripping the
wheel of progress ; there are mergers galore.
Going concerns, which always have most to do at conventions, are probably fewer in
number than in any previous year, but there are a lot of piano names in abeyance, and these
will have the privilege of piping- up out of the grass. Such names and firms are always
potentially existing and read}- for resurrection whenever a modern Gabriel sounds his trum-
pet at the eastern gates of Paradise. A good piano name never dies, but like John Brown's
soul, goes marching on.
This convention will show that the going concerns are the ones who stuck to their knit-
ting, so that when the blasts of winter came they had warm socks and mittens with which
to fight the storm. Now the flowers of May are blooming, piano trade is returning, and when
Christmas comes the piano dealers will all be able to serve turkey, with cranberry sauce and
all the other garnishments that make up a holiday table.
Neither the piano nor the radio conventioners will exhibit any great evidences of the trials
they have been through. What they will exhibit will be the most entrancing instruments for
delighting the ear and fascinating the eye that it has been the happy lot of men and women
to enjoy at any time in the world's history.
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