Presto
Issue: 1934 2272 - Page 6
PRESTO-TIMES
PRESTO-TIME
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADES JOURNAL
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH OF
PUBLICATION MONTH
FRANK D. ABBOTT
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 April 9. 1932, at the
Post Office at Chicago, 111., under act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $1.C0 a year; 6 months, 60 cents; foreign,
$2.00. Payable in advance. No extra charge in United
States possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for adver-
tising on application.
FASHION DEMANDS THE PIANO AGAIN
Fashion, the inexorable arbiter of society, has decreed that the piano, the old and tried
friend of the family circle, is once more restored to high favor as a household god.
At social gatherings, afternoon teas, after-dinner entertainment and suppers and other
affairs of the social set, playing on the piano is the high feature and the man, woman or child
competent to play the piano acceptably, find that they have a real social asset of marked value.
In the society columns of the daily newspapers throughout the country, special and favor-
able mention is now constantly made of piano playing by either a member of the family or a
guest at society's affairs.
The home is again becoming the center for social activity in which the piano shares in
the restored happiness and gaiety of social life. Fashion has accomplished for the piano what
appeals to education and culture signally failed to do.
It is now considered fashionable, beside the grand piano in the parlor, to have in more
elaborate homes, one or two additional pianos in other parts of the house.
Fashion will prove a potent factor in bringing back the old-time favorable recognition of
the fundamental instrument of the music industries and result in harmony, happiness and
pleasure for the home and social life of the nation.
/
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, III.
April-May, 1934
*
*
*
*
,
/
CODE AUTHORITY CAN CREATE NEW AND HEALTHY GROWTH OF
INDUSTRY
With the provisions of the supplements to the Code of Fair Competition as determined
by the Code Committee, it seems evident that a larger growth on constructive lines is in the
making, and that a greater progress for the industry is in sight.
Many practices which have been too common in the past are in a fair way of elimination
and a healthy, sound building up of the industry will prove its salvation.
^r
T»
*t*
•?*
CONVENTIONS AND CONVENTIONS
The quotation from a letter recently received from
a well known executive of the Whittle Music Com-
pany, Dallas, Texas, printed in another column of this
issue of Presto-Times, makes the statement in a few
words which is entirely correct as to present condi-
tions and truthfully prophetic as to the future when,
he says, that small grand pianos suitable for resale
are hard to get and the trade-in in such instruments
almost a thing of the past; that the piano business is
coming back and that his sales are very largely in
high class instruments and, further anticipating a
great recovery in business his house is stocking up
with instruments.
Presto-Times has a request from a remote section
of Europe for copies of this paper to be sent to
RAUTATIEKIRJAKAUPPA-0 Y
and the copies have gone forward, very carefully ad-
dressed and proof of name read so that should the
parties who have the handling of this mail matter
hereafter be so fortunate as to not become blear or
cross-eyed from close examination, it seems to be in
a fair way of final delivering to
RAUTATIEKIRJAKAUPPA-O Y, etc., etc., etc.
Numerous indications come to Presto-Times show-
ing how the paper is often kept in hands for months
and years before it is finally thrown into the waste
basket. An instance has just come to hand where
George W. Morris, well known dealer at Marietta,
Ohio, in making a remittance for subscription and a
copy of the Buyers' Guide, used a subscription blank
cut out of a copy of the paper of five years ago; so
long ago that the remittance he sent was based on its
then publication weekly.
The house of N. Stetson & Company, Philadelphia,
controls a considerable amount of territory on the
Steinway piano, being distributors for Eastern Penn-
sylvania, and South New Jersey and Delaware. The
year 1934 sees the former officers re-elected, namely:
August von Bernuth, president; Luke B. Moore, vice-
president and treasurer, and Henry Junge, secretary.
Samuel Insull, many years ago was interested in
the music industries to the extent, that he invested
$200,000 in a company to cut music rolls by electricity
for player pianos. The manager of the company was
a Mr. Henderson, who had formerly been one of Mr.
Insult's secretaries. This company was afterwards
merged.
One of the Lyon & Healy advertisements appearing
in Chicago papers, says: "Seventy years Lyon &
Healy has been engaged in selling reputable pianos."
A record like this is just about as strong an attrac-
tion to the buyer as is the quality and standing of
the instrument offered.
The action of the NRA Commission with regard
to the rules for the musical merchandise section which
were accepted by a committee of the industry on
March 23, were released to the industry and the public
on April 4.
Yes, there are conventions and conventions, as there are different types of individuals and
things. What Presto-Times now wants to get over is the recognition of the magnitude, scope
and constructiveness of the Music Supervisors' National Conference recently held at the
Hotel Stevens, Chicago.
This conference was certainly the most important gathering of persons associated with
musical education and culture and connected in a way with the music industries.
If any of the music industries could plan a similar gathering, that would attract even a
small fractional part of the attendance that was present and interested in the supervisors'
conference, such a movement would prove a tremendous impetus to the music trade.
FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF
THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTOR
A Great Artist Admires Piano Made by Henry
Engelhard Steinway Nearly a Century Ago
(Illustration on Title Page)
The Steinway photographic group shown in this
issue of Presto-Times is an unusually interesting pic-
ture; it is novel and the events are historical. Here
are shown father and eldest son, Theodore E. Stein-
way, president of Steinway & Sons, and Frederick,
and, seated at the piano, a great piano virtuoso, Josef
Hofmann, who may be exemplifying by a phrase from
a Bach, Beethoven or Chopin score some certain de-
tail; some thought on tone production or mechanical
construction as he compares this instrument, made in
1836 by Henry Engelhard Steinway before he came to
America, with the Steinway piano of today. This
well preserved instrument was the first grand made
by the founder of Steinwdy & Sons and was recently
discovered in Europe and sent to this country. The
oil painting on the wall back of the piano shows the
founder at his workbench.
Josef Hofmann, a man whose mind is developed
in things mechanical and scientific, examines closely,
critically, this old instrument now in such remark-
ably excellent condition.
Hofmann studies the
minutest detail in construction of the pianos he uses.
His is a mind for invention. Visit his workshop and
meet him at his workbench; ask him to show you the
automobile he built in the early days of the motor
car and you will realize this trait in his makeup, and
the greatest achievements of Josef Hofmann's career
have been with the Steinway piano.
The illustrious ancestry of the house of Steinway,
now in its fifth generation, is well exemplified in this
notable photograph showing grandson and great
grandson of the founder.
EXECUTIVE OF A PROMINENT MUSIC
HOUSE PREDICTS IMPROVED CONDITIONS
George H. Snyder, of The Whittle Music Company,
Dallas, Texas, who has had wide experience in piano
selling and whose estimate of piano trade conditions
is reliable, says: "The piano business is beginning to
come back and I am having a fair trade mainly in
high class instruments but very little in cheap pianos.
I think the low priced grand, if it can be made a
quality instrument will be a good seller, and we are
stocking up with that condition in view. Bargains in
second-hand grands and in those really worth any-
thing are almost a thing of the past."
NO DEALERS CONVENTION IN JUNE
OR JULY; POSSIBLY ONE FOR
AN AUTUMN DATE
The questionnaires sent out by Edwin R. Weeks,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, to members of the Executive Committee
relative to the advisability of holding a convention
this year resulted in a postponement, at least till early
fall. At any rate, it is decided not to call a meeting
for June or July.
President Weeks says that personally he is "sorry
to make this statement, but it seems inevitable."
THE REAL STATUS OF PIANO
NAMES TODAY
Presto-Times' correspondence and resulting compi-
lations evidence that with the compelling changes in
the industry that have taken place in recent times
and still continue to become effective demand prac-
tically what may be called a reclassifying of pianos
and their origin and present status of their manufac-
ture in the entire American piano manufacturing in-
dustry.
The list of today that the trade should be fully
posted on has these classifications:
Continuous Ownership-Management.
Continuous Family Control.
Successor-Merger Ownership.
Pianos that are not produced in own factories.
IMPROVEMENT CONTINUES
The reply to a letter sent to Cyril Farny, vice-
president and general manager of the Wurlitzer
Grand Piano Company, DeKalb, Illinois, repeats a
piece of information that had already appeared in
some of the music trade papers that the first three
months of 1934 exceeded by about twenty per cent
the amount of business a year ago and that this im-
provement was continued in a marked degree through
April.
JUST TOOL MAKERS
After all is said the manufacturers are only servants
to the performer; they only serve the musician whose
tools he uses as a medium of expression. His bank
account may be only in dollars and cents against the
manufacturers thousands, yet the maker is servant to
the performer.
The Tennessee Music Company, Inc., has been in-
corporated at Memphis, Tenn.; capital stock of
$10,000.
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/
PRESTO-TIME
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADES JOURNAL
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH OF
PUBLICATION MONTH
FRANK D. ABBOTT
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 April 9. 1932, at the
Post Office at Chicago, 111., under act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $1.C0 a year; 6 months, 60 cents; foreign,
$2.00. Payable in advance. No extra charge in United
States possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for adver-
tising on application.
FASHION DEMANDS THE PIANO AGAIN
Fashion, the inexorable arbiter of society, has decreed that the piano, the old and tried
friend of the family circle, is once more restored to high favor as a household god.
At social gatherings, afternoon teas, after-dinner entertainment and suppers and other
affairs of the social set, playing on the piano is the high feature and the man, woman or child
competent to play the piano acceptably, find that they have a real social asset of marked value.
In the society columns of the daily newspapers throughout the country, special and favor-
able mention is now constantly made of piano playing by either a member of the family or a
guest at society's affairs.
The home is again becoming the center for social activity in which the piano shares in
the restored happiness and gaiety of social life. Fashion has accomplished for the piano what
appeals to education and culture signally failed to do.
It is now considered fashionable, beside the grand piano in the parlor, to have in more
elaborate homes, one or two additional pianos in other parts of the house.
Fashion will prove a potent factor in bringing back the old-time favorable recognition of
the fundamental instrument of the music industries and result in harmony, happiness and
pleasure for the home and social life of the nation.
/
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, III.
April-May, 1934
*
*
*
*
,
/
CODE AUTHORITY CAN CREATE NEW AND HEALTHY GROWTH OF
INDUSTRY
With the provisions of the supplements to the Code of Fair Competition as determined
by the Code Committee, it seems evident that a larger growth on constructive lines is in the
making, and that a greater progress for the industry is in sight.
Many practices which have been too common in the past are in a fair way of elimination
and a healthy, sound building up of the industry will prove its salvation.
^r
T»
*t*
•?*
CONVENTIONS AND CONVENTIONS
The quotation from a letter recently received from
a well known executive of the Whittle Music Com-
pany, Dallas, Texas, printed in another column of this
issue of Presto-Times, makes the statement in a few
words which is entirely correct as to present condi-
tions and truthfully prophetic as to the future when,
he says, that small grand pianos suitable for resale
are hard to get and the trade-in in such instruments
almost a thing of the past; that the piano business is
coming back and that his sales are very largely in
high class instruments and, further anticipating a
great recovery in business his house is stocking up
with instruments.
Presto-Times has a request from a remote section
of Europe for copies of this paper to be sent to
RAUTATIEKIRJAKAUPPA-0 Y
and the copies have gone forward, very carefully ad-
dressed and proof of name read so that should the
parties who have the handling of this mail matter
hereafter be so fortunate as to not become blear or
cross-eyed from close examination, it seems to be in
a fair way of final delivering to
RAUTATIEKIRJAKAUPPA-O Y, etc., etc., etc.
Numerous indications come to Presto-Times show-
ing how the paper is often kept in hands for months
and years before it is finally thrown into the waste
basket. An instance has just come to hand where
George W. Morris, well known dealer at Marietta,
Ohio, in making a remittance for subscription and a
copy of the Buyers' Guide, used a subscription blank
cut out of a copy of the paper of five years ago; so
long ago that the remittance he sent was based on its
then publication weekly.
The house of N. Stetson & Company, Philadelphia,
controls a considerable amount of territory on the
Steinway piano, being distributors for Eastern Penn-
sylvania, and South New Jersey and Delaware. The
year 1934 sees the former officers re-elected, namely:
August von Bernuth, president; Luke B. Moore, vice-
president and treasurer, and Henry Junge, secretary.
Samuel Insull, many years ago was interested in
the music industries to the extent, that he invested
$200,000 in a company to cut music rolls by electricity
for player pianos. The manager of the company was
a Mr. Henderson, who had formerly been one of Mr.
Insult's secretaries. This company was afterwards
merged.
One of the Lyon & Healy advertisements appearing
in Chicago papers, says: "Seventy years Lyon &
Healy has been engaged in selling reputable pianos."
A record like this is just about as strong an attrac-
tion to the buyer as is the quality and standing of
the instrument offered.
The action of the NRA Commission with regard
to the rules for the musical merchandise section which
were accepted by a committee of the industry on
March 23, were released to the industry and the public
on April 4.
Yes, there are conventions and conventions, as there are different types of individuals and
things. What Presto-Times now wants to get over is the recognition of the magnitude, scope
and constructiveness of the Music Supervisors' National Conference recently held at the
Hotel Stevens, Chicago.
This conference was certainly the most important gathering of persons associated with
musical education and culture and connected in a way with the music industries.
If any of the music industries could plan a similar gathering, that would attract even a
small fractional part of the attendance that was present and interested in the supervisors'
conference, such a movement would prove a tremendous impetus to the music trade.
FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF
THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTOR
A Great Artist Admires Piano Made by Henry
Engelhard Steinway Nearly a Century Ago
(Illustration on Title Page)
The Steinway photographic group shown in this
issue of Presto-Times is an unusually interesting pic-
ture; it is novel and the events are historical. Here
are shown father and eldest son, Theodore E. Stein-
way, president of Steinway & Sons, and Frederick,
and, seated at the piano, a great piano virtuoso, Josef
Hofmann, who may be exemplifying by a phrase from
a Bach, Beethoven or Chopin score some certain de-
tail; some thought on tone production or mechanical
construction as he compares this instrument, made in
1836 by Henry Engelhard Steinway before he came to
America, with the Steinway piano of today. This
well preserved instrument was the first grand made
by the founder of Steinwdy & Sons and was recently
discovered in Europe and sent to this country. The
oil painting on the wall back of the piano shows the
founder at his workbench.
Josef Hofmann, a man whose mind is developed
in things mechanical and scientific, examines closely,
critically, this old instrument now in such remark-
ably excellent condition.
Hofmann studies the
minutest detail in construction of the pianos he uses.
His is a mind for invention. Visit his workshop and
meet him at his workbench; ask him to show you the
automobile he built in the early days of the motor
car and you will realize this trait in his makeup, and
the greatest achievements of Josef Hofmann's career
have been with the Steinway piano.
The illustrious ancestry of the house of Steinway,
now in its fifth generation, is well exemplified in this
notable photograph showing grandson and great
grandson of the founder.
EXECUTIVE OF A PROMINENT MUSIC
HOUSE PREDICTS IMPROVED CONDITIONS
George H. Snyder, of The Whittle Music Company,
Dallas, Texas, who has had wide experience in piano
selling and whose estimate of piano trade conditions
is reliable, says: "The piano business is beginning to
come back and I am having a fair trade mainly in
high class instruments but very little in cheap pianos.
I think the low priced grand, if it can be made a
quality instrument will be a good seller, and we are
stocking up with that condition in view. Bargains in
second-hand grands and in those really worth any-
thing are almost a thing of the past."
NO DEALERS CONVENTION IN JUNE
OR JULY; POSSIBLY ONE FOR
AN AUTUMN DATE
The questionnaires sent out by Edwin R. Weeks,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, to members of the Executive Committee
relative to the advisability of holding a convention
this year resulted in a postponement, at least till early
fall. At any rate, it is decided not to call a meeting
for June or July.
President Weeks says that personally he is "sorry
to make this statement, but it seems inevitable."
THE REAL STATUS OF PIANO
NAMES TODAY
Presto-Times' correspondence and resulting compi-
lations evidence that with the compelling changes in
the industry that have taken place in recent times
and still continue to become effective demand prac-
tically what may be called a reclassifying of pianos
and their origin and present status of their manufac-
ture in the entire American piano manufacturing in-
dustry.
The list of today that the trade should be fully
posted on has these classifications:
Continuous Ownership-Management.
Continuous Family Control.
Successor-Merger Ownership.
Pianos that are not produced in own factories.
IMPROVEMENT CONTINUES
The reply to a letter sent to Cyril Farny, vice-
president and general manager of the Wurlitzer
Grand Piano Company, DeKalb, Illinois, repeats a
piece of information that had already appeared in
some of the music trade papers that the first three
months of 1934 exceeded by about twenty per cent
the amount of business a year ago and that this im-
provement was continued in a marked degree through
April.
JUST TOOL MAKERS
After all is said the manufacturers are only servants
to the performer; they only serve the musician whose
tools he uses as a medium of expression. His bank
account may be only in dollars and cents against the
manufacturers thousands, yet the maker is servant to
the performer.
The Tennessee Music Company, Inc., has been in-
corporated at Memphis, Tenn.; capital stock of
$10,000.
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).