Presto
Issue: 1934 2271 - Page 5
Jan.-Feb., 1934
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
MATHUSHEK
AND
THE
SPINET
GRAND IN THE PACIFIC COAST
TERRITORY
PERSONAL
The Pacific Coast representative of the Mathushek
line, Louis F. Goelzllh, 133 McAllister Street, San
Francisco, has been unusually active in work through-
out his territory during the present season. Having
enjoyed a prosperous holiday and mid-winter trade he
has kept up the work of distribution, notably in sales
of the Mathushek Spinet Grand, with remarkable re-
sults; remarkable in the number of new and profitable
contacts and progressive dealer representation which
he has made for Mathushek all along the coast.
In all sections of the territory covered by Mr.
Goelzlin, the Mathushek line and more particularly
that notable Mathushek product, the Spinet Grand,
has come into especial prominence. Quoting Mr.
Goelzlin in an interview with a representative of
Presto-Times he remarked: "The Spinet grand piano
is attracting a great deal of attention throughout the
nation. Among the discriminating class it has met
a very warm reception.
And, in another line, the instrument has attracted
the particular attention of interior decorators.
Dealers in my territory," continued Mr. Goelzlin, "who
have taken on the Spinet grand easily appreciate the
possibilities for the sale of the instrument when
pianos or other designs cannot be moved and they
appreciate the wonderful attractiveness of the Spinet
Grand in their stores."
Various musical societies in Mr. Goelzlin's terri-
tory have featured the Spinet grand in concerts and
many times the instrument has been used where ef-
fective stage setting has been required and at the
same time appreciative of the distinct musical qualities
of the instrument. One of such occasions was a con-
cert of the Mozart Society of Santa Barbara recently
given where a program of the 17th and 18th centuries
chamber music was played.
A novel display of Mathushek grands was shown
at the Emporium, one of San Francisco's big depart-
ment stores, not long ago where a little cottage was
set up called the "Charm House" and in this was
placed a Spinet grand. It is said that the manage-
ment of the Emporium considered the display an
exceedingly interesting and valuable attraction.
Friends in the trade of Axel Christensen, famous
rag-time piano mimic and virtuoso, who like to hear
Axel over the air can tune in WJJD, Chicago, from
where he new broadcasts.
Although Hugh A. Stewart joined the Gulbransen
Company as manager of the piano department only
about two years ago, this was not a new position
with that house for he had formerly been associated
with Gulbransen and was listed in the Annual Sou-
venir issue of the Piano Traveller's association pub-
lished in 1923 as follows: "H. A. Stewart, Gulbransen-
Dickenson, 3232 West Chicago avenue, Chicago." At
this time Mr. Stewart had been with Gulbransen five
years; since 1919. For nine years before that, that is
to say from 1910 to 1919, Mr. Stewart was with the
Price & Teeple Piano Company.
THE GULBRANSEN STOCKHOLDERS'
MEETING
At the annual meeting of the stockholders of the
Gulbransen Company the following directors were
elected: A. G. Gulbransen, Chairman of the Board;
Chris Gulbransen, S. E. Zack, George A. McDermott,
Frank Christopher, Thomas Kane, L. W. Peterson,
C. J. Peters.
These directors at a meeting held immediately after
the stockholders' meeting elected the following offi-
cers of the corporation: A. G. Gulbransen, president
and general manager; George A. McDermott, vice-
president; S. E. Zack, secretary and treasurer.
The company's piano business has been very satis-
factory all through the months of January and Febru-
ary and shows an increase of approximately 100 per
cent over the same period a year ago. The company
confidently expects that their sales for 1934 will
greatly exceed all through the year the piano business
of 1933. This belief is substantiated in the fact that
sales in the piano division of the company have been
on the increase for the past several months.
MUSIC SUPERVISORS* NATIONAL
CONFERENCE TWENTY-
THIRD MEETING
The biennial convention of the Music Supervisors'
National Conference, to be held in Chicago at the
Hotel Stevens, April 8-13, 1934, will have as its major
theme, "Music in the Life of the Nation." with em-
phasis on the problems and needs of the time, par-
ticularly stressing the relation of music and music
education to the leisure-time program now being de-
veloped,
j
' |
President Walter H. Butterfield of Providence, R.
1., has announced an unusually strong program, with
speakers of international renown, and a varied sched-
ule of festivals, concerts and demonstrations. A fea-
ture of outstanding importance will be the appearance
of the National Supervisors' Chorus of five hundred
selected voices, conducted by Dr. Hollis D'ann.
The Music Education Exhibitors' Association is
planning several important features, including an ex-
hibit of educational materials and equipment which
will occupy the entire fifth floor of the Stevens, which
will be the official hotel for the convention.
Superintendent of Public Schools, Chicago, William
J. Bogan, is general chairman of the Convention Com-
mittee and heads the executive sub-committee, of
which Herbert Somers is secretary. Further infor-
mation regarding the meeting may be obtained from
the permanent headquarters of the Music Supervisors'
National Conference at 64 East Jackson Boulevard,
Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. George F. Guinter, manager of the piano de-
partment of the M. O'Neil Company, the great de-
partment store of Akron, Ohio, and who has held
that position for upwards of 15 years, says that the
trade in his department is on the up grade and that
1934 will certainly show many more sales than the
past year's trade.
Gabrilowitch, the eminent concert pianist and or-
chestral conductor, may probably be named the dean
of concert pianists in America. It was thirty years
ago when Mr. Gabrilowitch was brought to America
by A. M. Wright and since that time he has per-
formed continuously as a pianist and for the past
decade or more as orchestral conductor, also. His
late interpretations at the Steinway piano show viril-
ity and the spirit of youth as in his earlier days.
Lee Roberts, erstwhile Chicago music trade mem-
ber, one whose friends are legion and who went to
the Pacific Coast to take a position in San Francisco,
is now connected with a radio broadcasting station
in that city. Recently an entire Lee Roberts pro-
gram was given by the sponsors of "The Ship of Joy"
which is a coast to coast broadcast and on the air
weekly. This program was made up entirely of Lee's
compositions. A nice talk was given about Lee;
his musical talents; some of his new compositions and
a little story about "Smiles," the song that is per-
haps the most "lasting" of all popular songs of the
day. While other songs, popular for a while, are now
entirely forgotten, "Smiles" is sung, and sung, and
sung, and it has long been used as theme songs in
broadcasting. Evidently "Smiles" has yet a long life
ahead.
Charles Howe, well known travelling representa-
tive for the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company, was the
victim of an almost very serious automobile tip-over
recently. Mr. Howe travels a good deal by automo-
bile these days and w T hen the accident occurred, which
was just west of Freeport, Illinois, he was en route
to Chicago from a trip in Northern Iowa conveying
a good bunch of piano orders in his pocket for the
factory at DeKalb. In trying to avoid a car which
was about to side-swipe his own Buick coupe he
was crowded into the ditch. He car rolled over two
times but after fifteen or twenty minutes of suspense,
fearing every second that a gasoline explosion would
occur, he disentangled himself, by pulling his overcoat
which had been caught in the door. Safe in the road-
way he was brought home by a passing car.
D. D. Luxton, General Sales Manager of the Vose
& Sons Piano Co., Watertown, Mass., recently re-
turned to his office from a rather extensive trip
through the Central and Central-West states and
all along the line on this trip he found conditions
very much improved over his former visit to the same
territory some months ago. He observed a great deal
more optimism in the music trade as well as such a
feeling generally. "Denny" is a close observer and
is always conservative in his estimates and observa-
tions of trade conditions.
Mr. Mcluerny, the new manager of the Chicago
Rudolph W T urlitzer house, has been for the last five
years general manager of the Rudolph Wurlitzer,
Cleveland, Ohio, store. Mr. McFnerny started with
Wurlitzer some eleven years ago as a piano sales-
man on commission with a small drawing account.
Later he was placed in charge of a special store
opened in Cleveland by the Cleveland branch and from
that position he was placed in charge of the entire
Cleveland business as general manager. Mr. Mc-
Inerny therefore comes to Chicago admirably
equipped for his new position as general manager of
the Chicago store.
Mr. Edmund Gram, head of the Edmund Gram
Music House, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is spending
some weeks in Florida and at the present time is liv-
:
ng at that quite famous resort. Coral Gables Lodge,
Coral Gables, Florida.
Frank F. Story is just back to Chicago from a
trip to the Pacific Coast. He spent several days visit-
ing E. H. Story, formerly president of the Story &
Clark Piano Company, whose home is in Pasadena,
and who is in fine health and is greatly interested in
various lines of work in beautifying his estate at Pasa-
dena.
Mr. Story found trade conditions up and down the
coast considerably improved within the past few
months and a greater feeling of optimism all along the
route of his travels.
R. E. Durham, President of Lyon & Healy, Chi-
cago, is a member of the local retail code authority
as representative of the Music Industry group of
Chicago and vicinity, having recently been elected as
such representative.
CHICAGO P. AND O. ASSOCIATION
DATES
Washington's birthday coming on a Thursday this
year conflicts with the plans for the February lunch-
eon of the Chicago P. & O. Association at the Audi-
torium Hotel so that the gathering if held at all in
February will have to be on Wednesday the 28th, but
this date is not yet fully determined upon.
Although the real big event in celebration of the
beginning of the Chicago Piano and Organ Associa-
tion will not take place until next October the last
annual dinner at the Auditorium Hotel took on just
a little the air of celebration, it being the first banquet
of the 1933-34 election, forty years after the rehabili-
tation of the Association which had been formed in
1884 and reorganized in 1893 and 1894 when E. S.
Conway was then elected president. This explains
how it was said of David Kimball when he was elected
president for the current year, "and, look, a member
of the house of Kimball the first president and now
for this anniversary year another official of that great
house forty years later elected president."
The fifty-five diners, aside from the entertainment
ensemble, made up of dealers, guests and members
generally filled the room, but nevertheless indicates
that there is good ground for more members in build-
ing up the association.
The episode of the "piano manufacturer from Aus-
tralia" was a happy piece of conceit on the part of
President David Kimball and was perfectly carried
out; so adroitly was it done that one individual pres-
ent had planned to have a chat with "piano-maker
Dornfield from Australia" and ask him about certain
dealers in that country with whom he had visited
on a trip there last year. He was going to ask Mr.
Dornfield about the Allan Music House, inquire about
some friends associated with the Beale Music Com-
pany and F. A. Nicholson & Company, acquaintances
that he felt sure "Dealer Dornfield" would be
acquainted with.
It was noticeable that there were six past-presi-
dents of the association at this dinner: R. J. Cooke
and G. L. Hall of the Cable Piano Co.; L. C. Wagner
of the Baldwin Piano Co., Chicago branch store; F.
P. Whitman and Eugene Whelen of the W. W. Kim-
ball Co., and Adam Schneider, now treasurer and
executive secretary of the association. A group of
invited guests of the W. W. Kimball Co., musical
artists, teachers, directors, mostly located in Kimball
Hall, John R. Hattstaedt, Heniott Levy, Rud. Reuter,
R. Czerwonky, Shirley M. Candell, Loro Cooch, H.
Hyde, Herbert Butler, E. L. Stephens, L. Harbison
added interest to the occasion.
WILL NOT MANUFACTURE PIANOS
A statement has been going around that the Baker
Furniture Factories. Inc., which bought the Bush &
Lane piano factory, machinery, etc., at Holland, Mich-
igan, would add piano manufacturing to its business,
but this statement is explicitly denied by the Baker
Company. They further state that they did not pur-
chase any of the patterns or equipment for piano mak-
ing in their Bush & Lane purchase.
HARPS
by LYON & HEALY
This phrase "Harps by Lyon & Healy" could
truthfully appear on 95 out of every 100 programs
played by the world's leading symphony and oper-
atic orchestras. An overwhelming majority that
means sales for the dealers of this famous Harp.
Send for our new illustrated Harp Catalogue free
LYON & HEALY
Wabash at Jackson
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 0-T I M E S
MATHUSHEK
AND
THE
SPINET
GRAND IN THE PACIFIC COAST
TERRITORY
PERSONAL
The Pacific Coast representative of the Mathushek
line, Louis F. Goelzllh, 133 McAllister Street, San
Francisco, has been unusually active in work through-
out his territory during the present season. Having
enjoyed a prosperous holiday and mid-winter trade he
has kept up the work of distribution, notably in sales
of the Mathushek Spinet Grand, with remarkable re-
sults; remarkable in the number of new and profitable
contacts and progressive dealer representation which
he has made for Mathushek all along the coast.
In all sections of the territory covered by Mr.
Goelzlin, the Mathushek line and more particularly
that notable Mathushek product, the Spinet Grand,
has come into especial prominence. Quoting Mr.
Goelzlin in an interview with a representative of
Presto-Times he remarked: "The Spinet grand piano
is attracting a great deal of attention throughout the
nation. Among the discriminating class it has met
a very warm reception.
And, in another line, the instrument has attracted
the particular attention of interior decorators.
Dealers in my territory," continued Mr. Goelzlin, "who
have taken on the Spinet grand easily appreciate the
possibilities for the sale of the instrument when
pianos or other designs cannot be moved and they
appreciate the wonderful attractiveness of the Spinet
Grand in their stores."
Various musical societies in Mr. Goelzlin's terri-
tory have featured the Spinet grand in concerts and
many times the instrument has been used where ef-
fective stage setting has been required and at the
same time appreciative of the distinct musical qualities
of the instrument. One of such occasions was a con-
cert of the Mozart Society of Santa Barbara recently
given where a program of the 17th and 18th centuries
chamber music was played.
A novel display of Mathushek grands was shown
at the Emporium, one of San Francisco's big depart-
ment stores, not long ago where a little cottage was
set up called the "Charm House" and in this was
placed a Spinet grand. It is said that the manage-
ment of the Emporium considered the display an
exceedingly interesting and valuable attraction.
Friends in the trade of Axel Christensen, famous
rag-time piano mimic and virtuoso, who like to hear
Axel over the air can tune in WJJD, Chicago, from
where he new broadcasts.
Although Hugh A. Stewart joined the Gulbransen
Company as manager of the piano department only
about two years ago, this was not a new position
with that house for he had formerly been associated
with Gulbransen and was listed in the Annual Sou-
venir issue of the Piano Traveller's association pub-
lished in 1923 as follows: "H. A. Stewart, Gulbransen-
Dickenson, 3232 West Chicago avenue, Chicago." At
this time Mr. Stewart had been with Gulbransen five
years; since 1919. For nine years before that, that is
to say from 1910 to 1919, Mr. Stewart was with the
Price & Teeple Piano Company.
THE GULBRANSEN STOCKHOLDERS'
MEETING
At the annual meeting of the stockholders of the
Gulbransen Company the following directors were
elected: A. G. Gulbransen, Chairman of the Board;
Chris Gulbransen, S. E. Zack, George A. McDermott,
Frank Christopher, Thomas Kane, L. W. Peterson,
C. J. Peters.
These directors at a meeting held immediately after
the stockholders' meeting elected the following offi-
cers of the corporation: A. G. Gulbransen, president
and general manager; George A. McDermott, vice-
president; S. E. Zack, secretary and treasurer.
The company's piano business has been very satis-
factory all through the months of January and Febru-
ary and shows an increase of approximately 100 per
cent over the same period a year ago. The company
confidently expects that their sales for 1934 will
greatly exceed all through the year the piano business
of 1933. This belief is substantiated in the fact that
sales in the piano division of the company have been
on the increase for the past several months.
MUSIC SUPERVISORS* NATIONAL
CONFERENCE TWENTY-
THIRD MEETING
The biennial convention of the Music Supervisors'
National Conference, to be held in Chicago at the
Hotel Stevens, April 8-13, 1934, will have as its major
theme, "Music in the Life of the Nation." with em-
phasis on the problems and needs of the time, par-
ticularly stressing the relation of music and music
education to the leisure-time program now being de-
veloped,
j
' |
President Walter H. Butterfield of Providence, R.
1., has announced an unusually strong program, with
speakers of international renown, and a varied sched-
ule of festivals, concerts and demonstrations. A fea-
ture of outstanding importance will be the appearance
of the National Supervisors' Chorus of five hundred
selected voices, conducted by Dr. Hollis D'ann.
The Music Education Exhibitors' Association is
planning several important features, including an ex-
hibit of educational materials and equipment which
will occupy the entire fifth floor of the Stevens, which
will be the official hotel for the convention.
Superintendent of Public Schools, Chicago, William
J. Bogan, is general chairman of the Convention Com-
mittee and heads the executive sub-committee, of
which Herbert Somers is secretary. Further infor-
mation regarding the meeting may be obtained from
the permanent headquarters of the Music Supervisors'
National Conference at 64 East Jackson Boulevard,
Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. George F. Guinter, manager of the piano de-
partment of the M. O'Neil Company, the great de-
partment store of Akron, Ohio, and who has held
that position for upwards of 15 years, says that the
trade in his department is on the up grade and that
1934 will certainly show many more sales than the
past year's trade.
Gabrilowitch, the eminent concert pianist and or-
chestral conductor, may probably be named the dean
of concert pianists in America. It was thirty years
ago when Mr. Gabrilowitch was brought to America
by A. M. Wright and since that time he has per-
formed continuously as a pianist and for the past
decade or more as orchestral conductor, also. His
late interpretations at the Steinway piano show viril-
ity and the spirit of youth as in his earlier days.
Lee Roberts, erstwhile Chicago music trade mem-
ber, one whose friends are legion and who went to
the Pacific Coast to take a position in San Francisco,
is now connected with a radio broadcasting station
in that city. Recently an entire Lee Roberts pro-
gram was given by the sponsors of "The Ship of Joy"
which is a coast to coast broadcast and on the air
weekly. This program was made up entirely of Lee's
compositions. A nice talk was given about Lee;
his musical talents; some of his new compositions and
a little story about "Smiles," the song that is per-
haps the most "lasting" of all popular songs of the
day. While other songs, popular for a while, are now
entirely forgotten, "Smiles" is sung, and sung, and
sung, and it has long been used as theme songs in
broadcasting. Evidently "Smiles" has yet a long life
ahead.
Charles Howe, well known travelling representa-
tive for the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company, was the
victim of an almost very serious automobile tip-over
recently. Mr. Howe travels a good deal by automo-
bile these days and w T hen the accident occurred, which
was just west of Freeport, Illinois, he was en route
to Chicago from a trip in Northern Iowa conveying
a good bunch of piano orders in his pocket for the
factory at DeKalb. In trying to avoid a car which
was about to side-swipe his own Buick coupe he
was crowded into the ditch. He car rolled over two
times but after fifteen or twenty minutes of suspense,
fearing every second that a gasoline explosion would
occur, he disentangled himself, by pulling his overcoat
which had been caught in the door. Safe in the road-
way he was brought home by a passing car.
D. D. Luxton, General Sales Manager of the Vose
& Sons Piano Co., Watertown, Mass., recently re-
turned to his office from a rather extensive trip
through the Central and Central-West states and
all along the line on this trip he found conditions
very much improved over his former visit to the same
territory some months ago. He observed a great deal
more optimism in the music trade as well as such a
feeling generally. "Denny" is a close observer and
is always conservative in his estimates and observa-
tions of trade conditions.
Mr. Mcluerny, the new manager of the Chicago
Rudolph W T urlitzer house, has been for the last five
years general manager of the Rudolph Wurlitzer,
Cleveland, Ohio, store. Mr. McFnerny started with
Wurlitzer some eleven years ago as a piano sales-
man on commission with a small drawing account.
Later he was placed in charge of a special store
opened in Cleveland by the Cleveland branch and from
that position he was placed in charge of the entire
Cleveland business as general manager. Mr. Mc-
Inerny therefore comes to Chicago admirably
equipped for his new position as general manager of
the Chicago store.
Mr. Edmund Gram, head of the Edmund Gram
Music House, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is spending
some weeks in Florida and at the present time is liv-
:
ng at that quite famous resort. Coral Gables Lodge,
Coral Gables, Florida.
Frank F. Story is just back to Chicago from a
trip to the Pacific Coast. He spent several days visit-
ing E. H. Story, formerly president of the Story &
Clark Piano Company, whose home is in Pasadena,
and who is in fine health and is greatly interested in
various lines of work in beautifying his estate at Pasa-
dena.
Mr. Story found trade conditions up and down the
coast considerably improved within the past few
months and a greater feeling of optimism all along the
route of his travels.
R. E. Durham, President of Lyon & Healy, Chi-
cago, is a member of the local retail code authority
as representative of the Music Industry group of
Chicago and vicinity, having recently been elected as
such representative.
CHICAGO P. AND O. ASSOCIATION
DATES
Washington's birthday coming on a Thursday this
year conflicts with the plans for the February lunch-
eon of the Chicago P. & O. Association at the Audi-
torium Hotel so that the gathering if held at all in
February will have to be on Wednesday the 28th, but
this date is not yet fully determined upon.
Although the real big event in celebration of the
beginning of the Chicago Piano and Organ Associa-
tion will not take place until next October the last
annual dinner at the Auditorium Hotel took on just
a little the air of celebration, it being the first banquet
of the 1933-34 election, forty years after the rehabili-
tation of the Association which had been formed in
1884 and reorganized in 1893 and 1894 when E. S.
Conway was then elected president. This explains
how it was said of David Kimball when he was elected
president for the current year, "and, look, a member
of the house of Kimball the first president and now
for this anniversary year another official of that great
house forty years later elected president."
The fifty-five diners, aside from the entertainment
ensemble, made up of dealers, guests and members
generally filled the room, but nevertheless indicates
that there is good ground for more members in build-
ing up the association.
The episode of the "piano manufacturer from Aus-
tralia" was a happy piece of conceit on the part of
President David Kimball and was perfectly carried
out; so adroitly was it done that one individual pres-
ent had planned to have a chat with "piano-maker
Dornfield from Australia" and ask him about certain
dealers in that country with whom he had visited
on a trip there last year. He was going to ask Mr.
Dornfield about the Allan Music House, inquire about
some friends associated with the Beale Music Com-
pany and F. A. Nicholson & Company, acquaintances
that he felt sure "Dealer Dornfield" would be
acquainted with.
It was noticeable that there were six past-presi-
dents of the association at this dinner: R. J. Cooke
and G. L. Hall of the Cable Piano Co.; L. C. Wagner
of the Baldwin Piano Co., Chicago branch store; F.
P. Whitman and Eugene Whelen of the W. W. Kim-
ball Co., and Adam Schneider, now treasurer and
executive secretary of the association. A group of
invited guests of the W. W. Kimball Co., musical
artists, teachers, directors, mostly located in Kimball
Hall, John R. Hattstaedt, Heniott Levy, Rud. Reuter,
R. Czerwonky, Shirley M. Candell, Loro Cooch, H.
Hyde, Herbert Butler, E. L. Stephens, L. Harbison
added interest to the occasion.
WILL NOT MANUFACTURE PIANOS
A statement has been going around that the Baker
Furniture Factories. Inc., which bought the Bush &
Lane piano factory, machinery, etc., at Holland, Mich-
igan, would add piano manufacturing to its business,
but this statement is explicitly denied by the Baker
Company. They further state that they did not pur-
chase any of the patterns or equipment for piano mak-
ing in their Bush & Lane purchase.
HARPS
by LYON & HEALY
This phrase "Harps by Lyon & Healy" could
truthfully appear on 95 out of every 100 programs
played by the world's leading symphony and oper-
atic orchestras. An overwhelming majority that
means sales for the dealers of this famous Harp.
Send for our new illustrated Harp Catalogue free
LYON & HEALY
Wabash at Jackson
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).