Presto
Issue: 1930 2250 - Page 12
September, 1930
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
12
Dollars and Sense in Piano Business
How Leading Houses Attract Trade and Bring in
Business and Dollars
STEINWAY.
Here is a characterization of the Steinway pianos
by Grinnell Bros, of Detroit, who call their main
store "the musical center of Detroit." "The world's
best and most famous piano, the piano bringing you
musical joy in unequalled measure, the piano you can
take greatest pride in owning, Steinway, the instru-
ment of the immortals. Furnished in conventional
and period art models, various sizes, and obtainable
in Michigan only at the House of Grinnell. Liberal
allowance for your old piano in part payment. Conve-
nient terms may be arranged if desired. Come in and
see about getting your Steinway now."
The Sampson Music Co., Boise, Idaho, handling the
Steinway pianos in Boise, Gooding, Nampa, Pocatello,
Weiser, Emmett, Twin Falls and Payette, Idaho, with
a headline, "True Thrift Is Built on Value, not on
Price," go on to say: "A Steinway naturally costs
more than an ordinary piano, because it is a more-
than-ordinary instrument. Yet in point of long life,
prestige and beauty of line and tone it is the greatest
piano value ever offered. Steinway pianos never have
been built to meet a price. They are made as well as
human skill can make them, and the price is deter-
mined later. The result is the world's finest piano."
WISSNER.
The Wissner Piano Co.'s store at Bridgeport, Conn.,
make this announcement: "The advanced Wissner
Ponyette 1931 new pony upright piano with a marvel-
ous tone. Just the piano for your child. It will be
infinitely easier to urge your children to practice on a
piano built just for them—with a touch so delicate
that it responds to their small fingers and wrists."
BALDWIN.
Theodore J. Miller & Sous, Dixon, 111. (est. 1873),
say: "Appointed distributors of complete line of pi-
anos made by the Baldwin Piano Co. You are in-
vited to call and see these beautiful instruments. Visit-
ors welcome."
The Baldwin Piano Store, 1602 Broadway, Mattoon,
111., announce "a money saving opportunity without
parallel on pianos. Not to buy during this sale,
means that you are positively overlooking a great
opportunity!"
CHICKERING.
McKee Music Co., Charleston, \Y. Va., are making
special offers on Chickering pianos and especially on
the Chickering baby grand.
VOGUE.
The Howard B. Morenus Co., La Porte, Indiana,
in an advertisement in their local paper, say: "The
Vogue, on account of its exquisite tone and modern
case design, beautifully finished in lacquer, is being
chosen by the most critical musicians throughout the
entire United States. This week we received by wire
an order for the shipment of a carload consisting of
21 Vogue grands, finished in hilite brown mahogany,
to the largest music house in Los Angeles, Calif. Mrs.
Warren Mathews has just purchased a beautiful
brown mahogany Vogue grand for her Jefferson street
home."
STARR.
The Star Piano Corporation. Richmond, hid., held
a month-end sale of pianos in that piano manufactur-
ing city. Of the used pianos in the sale it said: "Any
one of these pianos would be ideal for school or
student use."
KIMBALL.
The Kimball Piano Store, 573 Bulletin street, Ham-
mond, lnd., in announcing that the store must move,
offered "17 pianos, loaned free." explaining: "We are
moving and must dispose of our surplus stock of
pianos. Instead of storing these pianos to depreciate
in value, we are ready to take the loss now. and have
priced these instruments at tremendous reductions so
that many should be sold immediately. All pianos not
sold outright will be placed in homes of families who
are interested in owning a piano in the immediate
future, and for the valuable advertising we receive by
having good families use them. We, of course, reserve
the right to select the homes in which these pianos
are to be placed."
WUPL1TZER.
Wurlitzer's, 1015 Grand avenue, Kansas City, Mo.,
in conducting the Wurlitzer August $50,000 stock re-
ducing sale, declared: "Only Wurlitzer—world's larg-
est music house—can offer such amazing musical
values. Prices on radios, pianos and musical instru-
ments less than cost in many instances. All guar-
anteed 100 per cent by manufacturer and Wurlitzer.
Such pianos as Steinway, Chickering, Vose and others;
such radios as RCA-Victor, Atwater Kent and Lyric
included in these bargains."
The Wurlitzer retail store, 136 North Third street,
De Kalb, 111., have a double-column advertisement
offering baby grands at what they claim is one of
the greatest values ever offered by Wurlitzer. They
add: "This artistic and dainty little Baby Grand is
small enough to fit into the smaller-sized living rooms
and large enough to give you the full rich tone so
desirable in Grand Pianos." The Wurlitzer store at
Hamilton, Ohio, say in an attractive advertisement:
"Another feature that will attract the little folks and
perhaps the grown-ups as well is the free distribution
of the Wurlitzer Miniature pianos. During the sale,
anyone sending in their name and address and telling
whether or not they take music lessons, will be sent
absolutely free of charge a toy piano!"
DESTROY WORTHLESS TRADE=INS
BUT SHARE DEALER'S LOSS
Starr Piano Co., Richmond, lnd., Starts the Exeri-
ment Through a System of Credits.
An announcement sent recently to members of the
retail trade by Fred Gennett, secretary of the Starr
Piano Co. of Richmond, lnd., constitutes an interest-
ing follow-up of the discussion which took place at
one of the open forum sessions of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants at the convention held in
New York in June, regarding the importance of de-
stroying old, worthless pianos taken in trade.
In his statement, Mr. Gennett says that as an ex-
periment to determine the real value of manufacturer
to dealer cooperation on this subject, the Starr Piano
Co. offers to share the dealer's loss in destroying
worthless trade-ins. The Starr company offers, dur-
ing a limited period, to extend a series of credits
ranging from $5 to $20 to be allocated to the dealer's
present account or on future purchases, these credits
to be in connection with the sale of Starr-made in-
struments. Only one trade-in credit will be allowed
to each sale. Claims are to be made on forms fur-
nished by the Starr company and approval of the
claims will be made upon inspection and witnessing
of destruction of worthless instruments by Starr com-
pany representatives. All claims must be tiled before
a certain date. No credit deduction may be taken
prior to formal acceptance of the claim and the com-
pany's decision as to any claim is to be final. A report
received from the Starr company indicates that a large
number of retail dealers have already taken advantage
of this very unusual offer.
If a number of piano manufacturers, possibly all
of the members of the National Piano Manufacturers
Association, were to adopt a plan of somewhat similar
nature, it is probable that a very long step would be
taken towards the elimination of a great number of
worthless pianos which might otherwise still remain
in the market to retard the sale of new instruments.
it is interesting and important to note that a plan
similar to the one which has been presented by the
Starr Piano Co. has for a considerable length of time
been in operation in the automobile trade and has
proved of very great value. This indicates that the
idea is not only not untried, but has worked out suc-
cessfully in a very successful industry.
MANY FIND GOOD TRADE.
A good many complaints about dullness in trade
are sandwiched in the letters that reach Presto-Times
from day to day, but not all are complaining—not by
a jugful. One of those who report business as being
good and collections coming in freely is W. P. Hare,
of the Waltham Piano Co. store at Warren, Ohio.
Presto-Times has received several letters from others
duplicating, in a general way, what Mr. Hare says
of his trade. For a time Mr. Hare had discontinued
his connection with the Waltham store, but he went
back to the old standby' line at the former seat of
his operations—W r arren—and is now there, active and
busy. Mr. Hare said that on one of his one-day sales
last week he sold five pianos, three of which were for
cash, and he now plans to dispose of a lot of second-
hand pianos at auction sale. By the way, he has open-
ings for tw r o or three live-wire piano salesmen. Such
salesmen ought to be able to find a good many cus-
tomers in his territory.
POPULARITY SWINGS
TOWARD PIANO
Foster & Waldo, 818-820 Nicollet avenue, Minne-
apolis, are doing some very effective advertising this
month. With a picture of a group of young folks
about a piano and the young hostess seated at it, the
story begins:
"Now what shall it be?" asked Dorothy, "bridge or
shall I play the piano?"
"Play the piano, Dorothy," exclaimed one of the
guests, answering for all of them.
Dorothy made the piano trill and croon; pictured
mountain greenery, sparkling brooklets, rushing rap-
ids: the barbarian orgy of a Tartar tribe; and the
romance of the Old South so graphically that one
could almost feel the welcoming grip of the Old Colo-
nel's hand, and hear the chug of the steamboat. Music
that seemed to bathe, soothe and refresh one's very
soul.
"After all," thought her guests, "nothing equals a
good piano when there's someone at the keyboard
who can make it almost talk."
Human desires move in a circle. The pendulum of
popularity is again rapidly swinging to the piano.
A half-million children are taking lessons. There is
a pronounced quickening of effort at piano factories.
There's a very marked increase in unsolicited piano
sales at Foster & Waldo's.
PIANOS CAN BE SOLD
TO PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE
Baldwin Piano Co. Advises Its Salesmen to Call on
Homes with Phones.
The Baldwin Bulletin, always alert for prospect
finding, tells of "Something else the Literary Digest
poll showed: A salesman can make just so many
calls a day. The mails can take his message into
hundreds of homes for him. But it pays to be careful
of what kind of mailing lists to use. The Literary
Digest has reason to know pretty much what it is
talking about in this respect because of the millions
of individuals they circularize from time to time.
"They have a list of 23,035,750 automobile owners.
They have a list of 12,128,617 homes with telephones.
They circularize the home list four times a year and
it pays big. They circularize the automobile list only
twice a year because it doesn't pay, they find.
"In trying to discover why this is, they find that
people who own telephones are more progressive than
those who don't. And they find also that an extraor-
dinary number of people who have cars don't have
phones. Go after the home in which there is a tele-
phone."
"MORE MUSIC PER NICKEL"
The Clark Orchestra Roll Co., DeKalb, 111., makes
announcement as follows:
"By popular demand of automatic instrument-owners
everywhere, we are pleased to introduce the new
most popular musical hits, enticingly arranged for
dance or concert. They give your patrons much longer
selections. This feature is especially desired among
dancers.
" 'More music per nickel' is the reason why the
8-Tune Special will please the crowd. This is an
innovation in Clark Orchestra Rolls that will tickle
thousands of feet!"
Among popular college cheer leader rolls listed
in the September bulletin of the Clark Orchestra Roll
Co. are the following:
R. K. Illinois Loyalty March.
R. T. Notre Dame Victory March.
R. (j. Go U Northwestern.
C. Across the Field (Ohio State).
L. G. On Iowa.
L. T. Hail Purdue.
L. F. Our Chicago.
Q. B. Hail Minnesota.
R. H. B. Cardinal and Gold (Southern California).
L. H. B. Indiana Loyalty March.
F. B. On, Wisconsin.
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 0-T I M E S
12
Dollars and Sense in Piano Business
How Leading Houses Attract Trade and Bring in
Business and Dollars
STEINWAY.
Here is a characterization of the Steinway pianos
by Grinnell Bros, of Detroit, who call their main
store "the musical center of Detroit." "The world's
best and most famous piano, the piano bringing you
musical joy in unequalled measure, the piano you can
take greatest pride in owning, Steinway, the instru-
ment of the immortals. Furnished in conventional
and period art models, various sizes, and obtainable
in Michigan only at the House of Grinnell. Liberal
allowance for your old piano in part payment. Conve-
nient terms may be arranged if desired. Come in and
see about getting your Steinway now."
The Sampson Music Co., Boise, Idaho, handling the
Steinway pianos in Boise, Gooding, Nampa, Pocatello,
Weiser, Emmett, Twin Falls and Payette, Idaho, with
a headline, "True Thrift Is Built on Value, not on
Price," go on to say: "A Steinway naturally costs
more than an ordinary piano, because it is a more-
than-ordinary instrument. Yet in point of long life,
prestige and beauty of line and tone it is the greatest
piano value ever offered. Steinway pianos never have
been built to meet a price. They are made as well as
human skill can make them, and the price is deter-
mined later. The result is the world's finest piano."
WISSNER.
The Wissner Piano Co.'s store at Bridgeport, Conn.,
make this announcement: "The advanced Wissner
Ponyette 1931 new pony upright piano with a marvel-
ous tone. Just the piano for your child. It will be
infinitely easier to urge your children to practice on a
piano built just for them—with a touch so delicate
that it responds to their small fingers and wrists."
BALDWIN.
Theodore J. Miller & Sous, Dixon, 111. (est. 1873),
say: "Appointed distributors of complete line of pi-
anos made by the Baldwin Piano Co. You are in-
vited to call and see these beautiful instruments. Visit-
ors welcome."
The Baldwin Piano Store, 1602 Broadway, Mattoon,
111., announce "a money saving opportunity without
parallel on pianos. Not to buy during this sale,
means that you are positively overlooking a great
opportunity!"
CHICKERING.
McKee Music Co., Charleston, \Y. Va., are making
special offers on Chickering pianos and especially on
the Chickering baby grand.
VOGUE.
The Howard B. Morenus Co., La Porte, Indiana,
in an advertisement in their local paper, say: "The
Vogue, on account of its exquisite tone and modern
case design, beautifully finished in lacquer, is being
chosen by the most critical musicians throughout the
entire United States. This week we received by wire
an order for the shipment of a carload consisting of
21 Vogue grands, finished in hilite brown mahogany,
to the largest music house in Los Angeles, Calif. Mrs.
Warren Mathews has just purchased a beautiful
brown mahogany Vogue grand for her Jefferson street
home."
STARR.
The Star Piano Corporation. Richmond, hid., held
a month-end sale of pianos in that piano manufactur-
ing city. Of the used pianos in the sale it said: "Any
one of these pianos would be ideal for school or
student use."
KIMBALL.
The Kimball Piano Store, 573 Bulletin street, Ham-
mond, lnd., in announcing that the store must move,
offered "17 pianos, loaned free." explaining: "We are
moving and must dispose of our surplus stock of
pianos. Instead of storing these pianos to depreciate
in value, we are ready to take the loss now. and have
priced these instruments at tremendous reductions so
that many should be sold immediately. All pianos not
sold outright will be placed in homes of families who
are interested in owning a piano in the immediate
future, and for the valuable advertising we receive by
having good families use them. We, of course, reserve
the right to select the homes in which these pianos
are to be placed."
WUPL1TZER.
Wurlitzer's, 1015 Grand avenue, Kansas City, Mo.,
in conducting the Wurlitzer August $50,000 stock re-
ducing sale, declared: "Only Wurlitzer—world's larg-
est music house—can offer such amazing musical
values. Prices on radios, pianos and musical instru-
ments less than cost in many instances. All guar-
anteed 100 per cent by manufacturer and Wurlitzer.
Such pianos as Steinway, Chickering, Vose and others;
such radios as RCA-Victor, Atwater Kent and Lyric
included in these bargains."
The Wurlitzer retail store, 136 North Third street,
De Kalb, 111., have a double-column advertisement
offering baby grands at what they claim is one of
the greatest values ever offered by Wurlitzer. They
add: "This artistic and dainty little Baby Grand is
small enough to fit into the smaller-sized living rooms
and large enough to give you the full rich tone so
desirable in Grand Pianos." The Wurlitzer store at
Hamilton, Ohio, say in an attractive advertisement:
"Another feature that will attract the little folks and
perhaps the grown-ups as well is the free distribution
of the Wurlitzer Miniature pianos. During the sale,
anyone sending in their name and address and telling
whether or not they take music lessons, will be sent
absolutely free of charge a toy piano!"
DESTROY WORTHLESS TRADE=INS
BUT SHARE DEALER'S LOSS
Starr Piano Co., Richmond, lnd., Starts the Exeri-
ment Through a System of Credits.
An announcement sent recently to members of the
retail trade by Fred Gennett, secretary of the Starr
Piano Co. of Richmond, lnd., constitutes an interest-
ing follow-up of the discussion which took place at
one of the open forum sessions of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants at the convention held in
New York in June, regarding the importance of de-
stroying old, worthless pianos taken in trade.
In his statement, Mr. Gennett says that as an ex-
periment to determine the real value of manufacturer
to dealer cooperation on this subject, the Starr Piano
Co. offers to share the dealer's loss in destroying
worthless trade-ins. The Starr company offers, dur-
ing a limited period, to extend a series of credits
ranging from $5 to $20 to be allocated to the dealer's
present account or on future purchases, these credits
to be in connection with the sale of Starr-made in-
struments. Only one trade-in credit will be allowed
to each sale. Claims are to be made on forms fur-
nished by the Starr company and approval of the
claims will be made upon inspection and witnessing
of destruction of worthless instruments by Starr com-
pany representatives. All claims must be tiled before
a certain date. No credit deduction may be taken
prior to formal acceptance of the claim and the com-
pany's decision as to any claim is to be final. A report
received from the Starr company indicates that a large
number of retail dealers have already taken advantage
of this very unusual offer.
If a number of piano manufacturers, possibly all
of the members of the National Piano Manufacturers
Association, were to adopt a plan of somewhat similar
nature, it is probable that a very long step would be
taken towards the elimination of a great number of
worthless pianos which might otherwise still remain
in the market to retard the sale of new instruments.
it is interesting and important to note that a plan
similar to the one which has been presented by the
Starr Piano Co. has for a considerable length of time
been in operation in the automobile trade and has
proved of very great value. This indicates that the
idea is not only not untried, but has worked out suc-
cessfully in a very successful industry.
MANY FIND GOOD TRADE.
A good many complaints about dullness in trade
are sandwiched in the letters that reach Presto-Times
from day to day, but not all are complaining—not by
a jugful. One of those who report business as being
good and collections coming in freely is W. P. Hare,
of the Waltham Piano Co. store at Warren, Ohio.
Presto-Times has received several letters from others
duplicating, in a general way, what Mr. Hare says
of his trade. For a time Mr. Hare had discontinued
his connection with the Waltham store, but he went
back to the old standby' line at the former seat of
his operations—W r arren—and is now there, active and
busy. Mr. Hare said that on one of his one-day sales
last week he sold five pianos, three of which were for
cash, and he now plans to dispose of a lot of second-
hand pianos at auction sale. By the way, he has open-
ings for tw r o or three live-wire piano salesmen. Such
salesmen ought to be able to find a good many cus-
tomers in his territory.
POPULARITY SWINGS
TOWARD PIANO
Foster & Waldo, 818-820 Nicollet avenue, Minne-
apolis, are doing some very effective advertising this
month. With a picture of a group of young folks
about a piano and the young hostess seated at it, the
story begins:
"Now what shall it be?" asked Dorothy, "bridge or
shall I play the piano?"
"Play the piano, Dorothy," exclaimed one of the
guests, answering for all of them.
Dorothy made the piano trill and croon; pictured
mountain greenery, sparkling brooklets, rushing rap-
ids: the barbarian orgy of a Tartar tribe; and the
romance of the Old South so graphically that one
could almost feel the welcoming grip of the Old Colo-
nel's hand, and hear the chug of the steamboat. Music
that seemed to bathe, soothe and refresh one's very
soul.
"After all," thought her guests, "nothing equals a
good piano when there's someone at the keyboard
who can make it almost talk."
Human desires move in a circle. The pendulum of
popularity is again rapidly swinging to the piano.
A half-million children are taking lessons. There is
a pronounced quickening of effort at piano factories.
There's a very marked increase in unsolicited piano
sales at Foster & Waldo's.
PIANOS CAN BE SOLD
TO PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE
Baldwin Piano Co. Advises Its Salesmen to Call on
Homes with Phones.
The Baldwin Bulletin, always alert for prospect
finding, tells of "Something else the Literary Digest
poll showed: A salesman can make just so many
calls a day. The mails can take his message into
hundreds of homes for him. But it pays to be careful
of what kind of mailing lists to use. The Literary
Digest has reason to know pretty much what it is
talking about in this respect because of the millions
of individuals they circularize from time to time.
"They have a list of 23,035,750 automobile owners.
They have a list of 12,128,617 homes with telephones.
They circularize the home list four times a year and
it pays big. They circularize the automobile list only
twice a year because it doesn't pay, they find.
"In trying to discover why this is, they find that
people who own telephones are more progressive than
those who don't. And they find also that an extraor-
dinary number of people who have cars don't have
phones. Go after the home in which there is a tele-
phone."
"MORE MUSIC PER NICKEL"
The Clark Orchestra Roll Co., DeKalb, 111., makes
announcement as follows:
"By popular demand of automatic instrument-owners
everywhere, we are pleased to introduce the new
most popular musical hits, enticingly arranged for
dance or concert. They give your patrons much longer
selections. This feature is especially desired among
dancers.
" 'More music per nickel' is the reason why the
8-Tune Special will please the crowd. This is an
innovation in Clark Orchestra Rolls that will tickle
thousands of feet!"
Among popular college cheer leader rolls listed
in the September bulletin of the Clark Orchestra Roll
Co. are the following:
R. K. Illinois Loyalty March.
R. T. Notre Dame Victory March.
R. (j. Go U Northwestern.
C. Across the Field (Ohio State).
L. G. On Iowa.
L. T. Hail Purdue.
L. F. Our Chicago.
Q. B. Hail Minnesota.
R. H. B. Cardinal and Gold (Southern California).
L. H. B. Indiana Loyalty March.
F. B. On, Wisconsin.
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).