Presto
Issue: 1932 2267 - Page 14
14
September-October, 1932
PRESTO-TIMES
BUSH CONSERVATORY MERGER
The sale of the effects, office furniture, fixtures,
pianos—about eighty all told, grands and uprights—
and much other paraphernalia incidental to a well
regulated music school, such as books, music, small
instruments, etc., of the Bush Conservatory, which
made an assignment for the benefit of its creditors,
was conducted by Auctioneer Winternitz. There were
about thirty grands, embracing the A. B. Chase, Vose,
Henry F. Miller, Bush & Lane, and Conover, and the
uprights, something like fifty in number, were of vari-
ous makes. The Steinway and Mason & Hamlin
grands which were in use at the school were not put
up for sale, they having been loaned or privately
owned.
The instruments brought about 20 per cent of the
original purchase prices.
There is a long story of the Bush Conservatory
connecting William L. Bush with the destinies of the
school and its various vicissitudes, for it was he who
established this well-known school of music and he
who fostered and protected the school. The school
was very dear to the heart of Mr. Bush who, in his
prosperous days and in the days when the Bush &
Gerts business was prominent and wealthy, not only
established the school but was instrumental in seeing
it financed, and he spent from his own pockets many
thousands of dollars; well-nigh a hundred thousand
dollars, to be more exact. "Billy" was very faithful
to the school and its personnel and even now in its
last days when the doors of the institution were
closed he found new positions for many of the teach-
ers and has helped others to keep on with their work.
The faculty and entire personnel of the school have
always been friends of Mr. Bush and have appre-
ciated his great work in keeping the institution alive.
Incidentally Mr. Bush established the Bush Tem-
ple of Music and the Bush Conservatory at Dallas,
Tex., which grew to great prominence in the South.
AMERICA'S GREATEST MERGER
The Aeolian-American Combination.
Yes, this is probably the biggest merger of piano
manufacturing interests that has ever taken place
on this side of the Atlantic and probably in either
Europe or America.
Of these two great concerns, one, the American
Piano Corporation, being practically an exclusive
piano making and piano selling concern, the other, the
Aeolian company, being 75 per cent pianos, makes
the combination almost strictly a merger of piano
manufacturing and piano dealing interests.
The Aeolian Company's business abroad has for
many years been no inconsiderable part of its im-
mense traffic, as its instruments are well known in
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna or other European
cities, as they are in America. A large trade in many
foreign lands and the prestige it lias acquired brings
an increasing clientele from year to year.
The officers of the Aeolian-American Corporation
are:
W. H. Alfring, president; G. C. Kavanagh, ex-
ecutive vice-president; W. Lee White, treasurer;
Clarence E. Bond, secretary, and R. W. Staff and
E. C. Thompson, assistant tn&asurers.
Mr. Alfring is also president of the Aeolian Com-
pany and Mr. Kavanagh is vice-president of the
American Piano Corporation, as also is Mr. White,
the treasurer of the American Piano Corporation.
This merger affects the manufacturing and factory
distributing end of the two merging concerns, which
concerns have factories at Boston, Rochester, Balti-
more, New York, and two large retail establishments
in New York City—the Aeolian at 689 Fifth avenue
and the American Corporation,, Chickering, and Knabe
warerooms at 584 Fifth avenue, New York. These
retail establishments will remain, according to present
plans, as now carrying on business, supplying the
metropolitan territory and v^ill keep separate and in-
The charter, good will and entire business of the
Bush Conservatory at Chicago was secured by the
Chicago Conservatory of Music at a cash purchase
and most of the teachers have joined with this new
consolidation.
INTEND TO CONTINUE THE VOGUE
PIANO
tact their existing sales organizations. This means,
Mr. Alfring said, that such famous institutions as
Aeolian Hall and Ampico Hall in Fifth avenue and
Ampico Hall in Boston, and their counterparts
throughout the country, will continue under their
present identities.
Both the Aeolian and American companies have
several manufacturing plants in the United States,
while Aeolian has manufacturing plants in London
and Melbourne, Australia.
A paragraph in the joint announcement, speaking
of the product of these companies, says: "The char-
acter and identity of the instruments which, under
their respective names, have earned such a splendid
reputation with the musical public, will be preserved
and probably will in some cases be still further en-
hanced due to the opportunity now created for the
best talent and craftsmanship of all participating
companies."
At the East Rochester, N. Y.. plant people there
are waiting anxiously for greater activities to start
at the plant and there has been some fear that that
suburb of Rochester proper might lose some or all
of these industries because of an attempt by the
Boston Chamber of Commerce to center the piano
factories at that city. But latest information is to
the effect that thes^ plants will be used, thus closing
the Garwood, N. J., New York City, Meriden, Conn.,
and Baltimore. Md., factories.
The Ampico player factory at 689 North Clinton
street, Syracuse, has not been in active operation for
some time; in fact, part of the premises were sold
to a paper box manufacturing company.
With this consolidation of manufacturing interests
inquiring minds in the retail field are wondering as
to concentration in a few hands of an extensive field
of retail stores.
In the meantime some wonderful bargains in low
figures are being advertised in Eastern newspapers on
the stock of these two great merging concerns.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
/>&*s,
According to L. M. Diedrich, secretary of the
Howard B. Morenus Company, La Porte, Ind., this
concern will continue to markef the piano named
the "Vogue," which it brought out when the More-
nus Company was established by the late Howard B.
Morenus some three years ago. Mr. Diedrich says:
"We feel that Vogue pianos for which some demand
has been created may continue in production and
continue to be sold to those dealers who are familiar
with the quality of this splendid instrument."
MR. VAN MATRE RETURNS FROM HIS SEC-
OND 1932 AUTOMOBILE TOUR
OF THE EAST
Mr. Van Matre, president of the Schumann Piano
Company, has just returned from another Eastern
trip in the interest of the Schumann piano. This i?
Mr. Van Matre's second long trip to the Eastern ano
Central states by automobile and driving a fine high
powered car he covers a great area of territory in a
comparatively short time.
During the past three or four months a new line c*
factory equipment has been installed in the Schumann
factory, which equipment includes the recently pat-
ented stringing device used in the present system of
stringing construction in the Schumann pianos.
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
Contains Full Lists with Concise Classification and Description of all
American Pianos, Players and Reproducing Pianos, with Sketches of
Manufacturers. Essential to All Salesmen. Price 50cents, postpaid.
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/
September-October, 1932
PRESTO-TIMES
BUSH CONSERVATORY MERGER
The sale of the effects, office furniture, fixtures,
pianos—about eighty all told, grands and uprights—
and much other paraphernalia incidental to a well
regulated music school, such as books, music, small
instruments, etc., of the Bush Conservatory, which
made an assignment for the benefit of its creditors,
was conducted by Auctioneer Winternitz. There were
about thirty grands, embracing the A. B. Chase, Vose,
Henry F. Miller, Bush & Lane, and Conover, and the
uprights, something like fifty in number, were of vari-
ous makes. The Steinway and Mason & Hamlin
grands which were in use at the school were not put
up for sale, they having been loaned or privately
owned.
The instruments brought about 20 per cent of the
original purchase prices.
There is a long story of the Bush Conservatory
connecting William L. Bush with the destinies of the
school and its various vicissitudes, for it was he who
established this well-known school of music and he
who fostered and protected the school. The school
was very dear to the heart of Mr. Bush who, in his
prosperous days and in the days when the Bush &
Gerts business was prominent and wealthy, not only
established the school but was instrumental in seeing
it financed, and he spent from his own pockets many
thousands of dollars; well-nigh a hundred thousand
dollars, to be more exact. "Billy" was very faithful
to the school and its personnel and even now in its
last days when the doors of the institution were
closed he found new positions for many of the teach-
ers and has helped others to keep on with their work.
The faculty and entire personnel of the school have
always been friends of Mr. Bush and have appre-
ciated his great work in keeping the institution alive.
Incidentally Mr. Bush established the Bush Tem-
ple of Music and the Bush Conservatory at Dallas,
Tex., which grew to great prominence in the South.
AMERICA'S GREATEST MERGER
The Aeolian-American Combination.
Yes, this is probably the biggest merger of piano
manufacturing interests that has ever taken place
on this side of the Atlantic and probably in either
Europe or America.
Of these two great concerns, one, the American
Piano Corporation, being practically an exclusive
piano making and piano selling concern, the other, the
Aeolian company, being 75 per cent pianos, makes
the combination almost strictly a merger of piano
manufacturing and piano dealing interests.
The Aeolian Company's business abroad has for
many years been no inconsiderable part of its im-
mense traffic, as its instruments are well known in
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna or other European
cities, as they are in America. A large trade in many
foreign lands and the prestige it lias acquired brings
an increasing clientele from year to year.
The officers of the Aeolian-American Corporation
are:
W. H. Alfring, president; G. C. Kavanagh, ex-
ecutive vice-president; W. Lee White, treasurer;
Clarence E. Bond, secretary, and R. W. Staff and
E. C. Thompson, assistant tn&asurers.
Mr. Alfring is also president of the Aeolian Com-
pany and Mr. Kavanagh is vice-president of the
American Piano Corporation, as also is Mr. White,
the treasurer of the American Piano Corporation.
This merger affects the manufacturing and factory
distributing end of the two merging concerns, which
concerns have factories at Boston, Rochester, Balti-
more, New York, and two large retail establishments
in New York City—the Aeolian at 689 Fifth avenue
and the American Corporation,, Chickering, and Knabe
warerooms at 584 Fifth avenue, New York. These
retail establishments will remain, according to present
plans, as now carrying on business, supplying the
metropolitan territory and v^ill keep separate and in-
The charter, good will and entire business of the
Bush Conservatory at Chicago was secured by the
Chicago Conservatory of Music at a cash purchase
and most of the teachers have joined with this new
consolidation.
INTEND TO CONTINUE THE VOGUE
PIANO
tact their existing sales organizations. This means,
Mr. Alfring said, that such famous institutions as
Aeolian Hall and Ampico Hall in Fifth avenue and
Ampico Hall in Boston, and their counterparts
throughout the country, will continue under their
present identities.
Both the Aeolian and American companies have
several manufacturing plants in the United States,
while Aeolian has manufacturing plants in London
and Melbourne, Australia.
A paragraph in the joint announcement, speaking
of the product of these companies, says: "The char-
acter and identity of the instruments which, under
their respective names, have earned such a splendid
reputation with the musical public, will be preserved
and probably will in some cases be still further en-
hanced due to the opportunity now created for the
best talent and craftsmanship of all participating
companies."
At the East Rochester, N. Y.. plant people there
are waiting anxiously for greater activities to start
at the plant and there has been some fear that that
suburb of Rochester proper might lose some or all
of these industries because of an attempt by the
Boston Chamber of Commerce to center the piano
factories at that city. But latest information is to
the effect that thes^ plants will be used, thus closing
the Garwood, N. J., New York City, Meriden, Conn.,
and Baltimore. Md., factories.
The Ampico player factory at 689 North Clinton
street, Syracuse, has not been in active operation for
some time; in fact, part of the premises were sold
to a paper box manufacturing company.
With this consolidation of manufacturing interests
inquiring minds in the retail field are wondering as
to concentration in a few hands of an extensive field
of retail stores.
In the meantime some wonderful bargains in low
figures are being advertised in Eastern newspapers on
the stock of these two great merging concerns.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
/>&*s,
According to L. M. Diedrich, secretary of the
Howard B. Morenus Company, La Porte, Ind., this
concern will continue to markef the piano named
the "Vogue," which it brought out when the More-
nus Company was established by the late Howard B.
Morenus some three years ago. Mr. Diedrich says:
"We feel that Vogue pianos for which some demand
has been created may continue in production and
continue to be sold to those dealers who are familiar
with the quality of this splendid instrument."
MR. VAN MATRE RETURNS FROM HIS SEC-
OND 1932 AUTOMOBILE TOUR
OF THE EAST
Mr. Van Matre, president of the Schumann Piano
Company, has just returned from another Eastern
trip in the interest of the Schumann piano. This i?
Mr. Van Matre's second long trip to the Eastern ano
Central states by automobile and driving a fine high
powered car he covers a great area of territory in a
comparatively short time.
During the past three or four months a new line c*
factory equipment has been installed in the Schumann
factory, which equipment includes the recently pat-
ented stringing device used in the present system of
stringing construction in the Schumann pianos.
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
Contains Full Lists with Concise Classification and Description of all
American Pianos, Players and Reproducing Pianos, with Sketches of
Manufacturers. Essential to All Salesmen. Price 50cents, postpaid.
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).