Presto

Jan.-Feb., 1934
P R E S T O-T I M E S
JUBILEE OF WURLITZER PIANO CO. DEALERS
Gathering at the Factory and General Offices, DeKalb, Ills, and Wind=Up
of the Meetings in Chicago
DeKalb, the Wurlitzer factory town seventy-five
miles west of Chicago, had a gala week, two days,
February 5 and 6, being a demonstration in honor of
the gathering of dealers representing the Wurlitzer
Grand Piano Company instruments, who came there
from various parts of the country in a conference for
mutual advantage; for mutual instruction in Wur-
litzer selling, Wurlitzer production, Wurlitzer ways
of carrying on the piano business. DeKalb exhibited
a splendid welcome to these visitors.
Lincoln highway, the main business street of the
city, was decorated with "Welcome to DeKalb" ban-
ners and streamers. The local papers printed accounts
rather lavishly displayed of the proceedings of the
meeting and its business men of the city printed their
advertisements under the heading, "Greetings to the
Wurlitzer Dealers." These advertisements would
read, "Greetings^ to the Wurlitzer Company; dealers
and employees; J. C. Penny & Company'"; "We.come
to DeKalb; Fisk-McLean Motor Company"; and an-
other, "Greetings to the Wurlitzer organization; we
welcome you to our city; Carlson Brothers." Prac-
tically all the important business houses of the city
thus gave welcome to their great contemporary, the
Wurlitzer Manufacturing Industry. And aside from
the business houses hundreds of individual signatures
were made as greetings to Wurlitzer, such represen-
tative names as His Honor the Mayor, the City Clerk,
City Treasurer, Judge of the City Court, Police Judge,
City Attorney, Commissioner of Public Works, the
Fire Chief, Chief of Police, the Aldermen, of all of
the four wards of the city, all the leading attorneys,
doctors, educational institutions and teachers. In
short, everything representative of DeKalb's best in-
terests greeted the Wurlitzer gathering and gave evi-
dence of their loyalty and fidelity to the Wurlitzer
industry by placing their names on record in print in
one of the leading DeKalb newspapers. In the cen-
ter page of the DeKalb Daily Chronicle was a large
cut, "Wurlitzer Week," showing a grand piano in
the center.
The Invitation
The invitation sent out by the Wurlitzer Grand
Piano Company to their own regular dealers and a
few other dealers who had not been handling the
Wurlitzer product, read as follows:
"You are cordially invited to attend a two-day
Wurlitzer dealers' meeting to be held in Chicago and
DeKalb on Monday and Tuesday, February fifth and
sixth, nineteen hundred and thirty-four."
Music Houses Represented
Some of the firms were represented by more than
one individual. For instance, in the case of the Tem-
plin Music Stores, Mr. Wilbur Templin had with him
his son Wilbur, Jr.; Frank Wilking, who motored
to DeKalb, brought with him his youngest brother,
Carl Wilking, who is actively engaged in the Wilking
Music Company activities; Renier's Music House,
Dubuque, Iowa, brought as a guest Mr. Hoffman;
both R. G. Hessel and Julius Kolicek represented the
Hessel Music House; Harris Meyers of the Meyers
Music Store brought with him his leading piano tuner;
E. M. Sides accompanied M. L. Fletcher; and F. M.
Friesen came with A. W. Tenhoff of the Tenhoff
Piano Company. Edward A. Schmidt Jr. was the
guest of his father, E. A. Schmidt, of the Schmidt
Music Company. Robert Crockett accompanied D.
T. Lowman of the Warlick Piano Company; and Miss
Marie Larson was the guest of Mrs. Earle Bratnan
of the Superior Music Company, and there were other
salesmen, tuners, repairmen, etc., independent of the
music houses listed below.
Buckpitt Music House, Elmira, New York; Tem-
plin Music Stores, Elkhart. Indiana; Boston Store
Piano Department, Joliet, Illinois; Hiltbrunner Music
Company, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Hessel Music
House, Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Wilking Music Com-
pany, Indianapolis, Indiana; Meyer Music Store, Kala-
mazoo, Michigan; Renier's, Dubuque, Iowa; Sandee
Music Shop, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Ray Miller,
Dixon, Illinois; Butler Music Company, Marion, In-
diana: L. B. Gorton Company, Benton Harbor, Michi-
gan; Spencer's Harmony Hall, Iowa City, Iowa; W.
J. Davis Music House, Saginaw, Michigan; M. L.
Fletcher Music House, Hornell, New York; A. W.
Tenhoff Piano Company, Mountain Lake, Minnesota;
G. A. Crancer, Lincoln, Nebraska; G. A. Swanson,
Ironwood, Michigan; Schmidt's Music Company, Dav-
enport, Iowa; Williams Music Company, Sioux Falls,
South Dakota; Saunder's Music Company, Ottawa,
Kansas; Jacobs Music House, Fort Wayne, Indiana;
L. M. Gerhardstein, Sandusky, Ohio; Grigware Music
Company, Midland, Michigan; Superior Music Com-
pany, Superior, Wisconsin; Young & Chaffe Music
Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Warlick Piano
Rooms, Bluefield, West Virginia; M. L. McGinnis
Piano Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Stotler Mu-
sic Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Chenowith & Green,
Enid, Oklahoma.
Most of the above firms are what may be denomi-
nated, "regular Wurlitzer dealers" and they do not
include any of the Wurlitzer branch stores located in
various parts of the country. Hence there was no
representation from the W r urlitzer-owned branch
stores at the DeKalb meeting. Incidentally it may be
noted that two or three of the firms above named
have heretofore had little or no business in the sale
of the Wurlitzer product.
The schedule of the two days' proceedings as laid
out in the program is as follows:
Monday (February 5: Luncheon at Rice Hotel,
12:30 noon; bus for factory at 1:15; tour of the fac-
tory, Mr. Farny and factory superintendent Nelson,
1:30; sales meeting 3:30 (speakers, Harris Meyers,
Kalamazoo, M. L. McGinnis of Minneapolis, Frank
Wilking, Indianapolis); bus leaves factory for Rice
Hotel 5:15; Dinner 6:15; DeKalb Egyptian Theater,
8:00 p. m.
Tuesday: Breakfast 7:00 to 8:30; bus leaves hotel
for factory 8:45; sales meeting 9:00 (L. B. Gorton,
CYRIL FARNY
Vice-President and General Manager, Wurlitzer Grand
Piano Company
J. Edward Butler, Charles E. Howe, H. R. Glidden.
Wilbur Thompson, and others, speakers). After the
noon-day luncheon at the Rice Hotel another sales
meeting was held with Claude Buckpitt, D. T. Low-
man and Cyril Farny as principal speakers. A spe-
cial inspection of the new 1934 models was held and
orders placed for as early delivery as could be made.
At about five o'clock the bus and individual automo-
biles started to Chicago for the dinner at the Tavern
Club and visit to the Grand Opera House perform-
ance in the evening. Enroute to Chicago a stop was
made at Geneva to visit the Fabian Sound Labora-
tories where the party was shown certain research
work which Mr. Farny and the Wurlitzer Company
are now engaged in. The visit there, although of
short duration, was exceedingly interesting.
The individual automobiles of guests and those
traveling in the buses reached the Tavern Club, tha f
delightful home-like haven located on the top floors
of 333 North Michigan Boulevard, Chicago, just in
time for an hour's repast before the Theater enter-
tainment. The banquet was an exceedingly interest-
ing one numbering something like a hundred guests.
The one particular feature of the evening was the
presentation of a testimonial in the form of resolu-
tions presented to Cyril Farny thanking him and his
associates of the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company for
their hospitality at DeKalb. This testimonial will be
engrossed and a framed copy presented to Mr. Farny.
The resolution signed by those in attendance not
only expresses the thanks of the signers for the en-
tertainment but expresses the endeavor to extend the
sales of Wurlitzer instruments and a warm regard for
the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company as an organiza-
tion and the members of the organization personally.
The Assembly Room of the Meetings
The east end of the second floor of one wing of
the factory was given over to the convention and
as one stepped into the doorway leading to this room
he was greeted by what looked like a tremendous
group of grand pianos; almost a staggering array of
instruments ready for shipment. This mass of in-
struments brought out a remark from one of the
visitors to the effect that "why does the Wurlitzer
Company keep their factory running with this big lot
of instruments on hand all ready to be shipped?" But
the suggestion of over-production was soon dispelled
when it was learned that one row of these instru-
ments consisting of twenty-four grands was an order
for the Wilking Music Company of Indianapolis, and
the next row of twenty-four likewise an order for the
Stotler Music House, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a third
row of about the same number were ready for motor
truck shipment to San Antonio, Texas. It was
learned that the instruments would be loaded on
motor trucks after the convention was over and sent
to their destinations, Indianapolis, San Antonio and
Tulsa. Most of the other instruments on the floor
and, by the way, they were all instruments of the
four-hundred-dollar to eight-hundred-dollar models,
were awaiting shipments to various parts of the coun-
try as soon as the motor trucks could gather them.
At this writing probably every instrument of that
array of grand pianos will have been replaced by
others. In fact, and getting a little ahead of this
story to speak of the last hours of the convention,
the orders placed just before the party left for the
Tavern Club in Chicago Tuesday afternoon, far more
than exceeded the display of finished instruments
shown during the convention.
After Chairman Laughead's introductory remarks
at the opening meeting he presented the vice-presi-
dent and general manager of the Wurlitzer Grand
Piano Company, Mr. Cyril Farny. He was intro-
duced as a worthy scion of the family Wurlitzer;
a grandson of Rud. Wurlitzer, Sr., the founder of
the Wurlitzer business in America. He remarked
that Mr. Farny is carrying on in accordance with the
legend of the house, "Wurlitzer: Built by Wurlitzer."
Mr. Farny gave evidence in his talk as he did all
through the convention, of having mastered the sci-
ence and the art of piano building for he showed on
various occasions his careful study and his under-
standing of piano construction. His remarks were
brief, entertaining, convincing. He spoke of the suc-
cess of the Wurlitzer Piano Manufacturing Industry
since it was taken over at DeKalb and referring to
the present business told how it is increasing month
by month, January and February being far ahead of
the two preceding months and an immense percent-
age of increase over a year ago.
At the close of Mr. Farny's remarks he invited
everyone present to accompany him on a trip through
the factory and this feature of the meeting proved
to be, in most ways, the most interesting event of
the two days.
The meetings each day, forenoon and afternoon,
generally presided over by Gordon Laughead, gen-
eral sales manager of the Wurlitzer Grand Piano
Company, and to whose ability much of the success
of the gathering is credited, were interspersed by en-
tertainment, generally piano playing and vocal selec-
tions by the attending guests.
At one of these free lance talks at the "roundtable
discussions" the subject of collecting bad debts came
up and Frank Wilking was asked to relate how when
an Apollo piano had been selected by a family of
Indianapolis and the instrument which had been or-
dered could not be furnished when she called for it
because every Apollo instrument in the store had
been sold out. Mr. Wilking then went on to tell how
they tried to locate a slow paying Apollo account
where a piano might be repossessed in order to sup-
ply the instrument required but so well had his ac-
counts been paid up under his new system of collec-
tions that there was only one Apollo account in ar-
rears over two months and when the particular in-
strument represented by this account was called for
the parties immediately paid up and would not part
with the instrument.
After this episode of his collection department Mr.
Wilking gave an interesting talk on the subject of
"The Importance of Proper Store Setting to Sell
Grand Pianos." On this subject Mr. Wilking is
authoritative for he has one of the handsomest and
most attractive stores of the country; elegant indi-
vidual sales rooms, studios and an audition hall that
is known to every musical person of that locality.
Mr. Wilking is a firm believer in proper settings
and proper surroundings as an important aid in selling
pianos. "A piano store," he says, "should be made
a comfortable place to do business. The pianos should
be placed amid surroundings that will enhance the
beauty of the instrument and the instruments should
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/
856004 A