Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
July-August, 1934
PRESTO-TIME
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADES JOURNAL
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH OF
PUBLICATION MONTH
F R A N K D. ABBOTT
_ _ _ _ - - - - - -
Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O . " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter April 9. 1932, at the
Post Office at Chicago, 111., under act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $1.00 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.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, 111.
The increasing interest manifested in music through diversified activities all over the
country these days is noticeable on every hand and the response to efforts put forth for
the cultivation of music, for musical instruction and for the achievement of accomplishing
something- is manifest across the length and breadth of the land. This condition has been
particularly noticeable in our public schools, the parochial schools and other educational insti-
tutions.
At no time in this country's history have there been so man}- school bands and orchestra
organizations as now, nor more or a greater degree of talent and quality in our school band
and orchestra member makeup.
Kvery town and village, smallest hamlet and community center nowadays has its school
band and music for occasions is supplied in the community by the school membership. In
many localities municipal and civic bands have been replaced by school organizations and in
many instances school quotas have been added to a reorganized "town band."
A correspondent writing Presto-Times about the competitive band convention held at
Des Moines, Iowa, some time ago, where many school bands from various parts of the coun-
try representing more than five thousand young musicians, were in attendance, says: "J heard
several of their performances and I take my hat off to them. Some of the concerts were really
great and for youngsters, boys and girls, much of their work was surprisingly excellent."
* * * *
Speaking of the desirability of having information for manufacturers on monthly and
weekly outputs so that figures can be secured to show the number of pianos, both new and
used, sold to the public each month, the president of the National Piano Manufacturers Asso-
ciation of America, Mr. Lucian Wulsin, says, "This information, if promptly and currently
available, taken in conjunction with the factor} shipments, would give the variation
of the supply of pianos in dealers' hands and should materially aid to prevent over-stocking
and resulting in demoralization of prices and sales of distress merchandise. As an industry,"
Years ago a gentleman then in the employ of a
he says, "we are very backward in our lack of correct knowledge as to the real size of the
great piano industry and who now holds a prominent
retail piano market and its variations."
position with that house was thus interrogated by his
How true and how correct Mr. Wulsin sizes up the situation ! The thought is, as con-
ambitious wife: "Well, dear hubby, are you going to
spend all your days in that old office?" Aside from
veyed by him, that over-production and consequently price demoralization can be avoided and
the prominent position he still holds with the old
eliminated to a great degree, a condition which, with manufacturing limited bv reduction
house this gentleman is also at the head of another
of
factories and reduction of factory capacity, ought to be something accomplishable.
great music business and is a leader in great move-
ments associated with the industry. This wife's gentle
* * * *
chide fell on attentive ears.
Various piano manufacturers who are barely holding on and avoiding a complete
*
* +
shut-down are striving by might and main, and as never before, to work into a quantity pro-
The name "Ampico Hall," in bold-faced letters
duction of sufficient magnitude to enable them to continue business and sell at a price com-
twelve inches high and ten inches wide still remains—
remains very still and very quiet—over the door and
mensurate with their cost of production. The cost of production with most of these manu-
the frontage at 230 South Wabash avenue, Chicago,
facturers is so great; so far out of proportion to the best selling price thev can obtain, that
occupied several years ago by the American Piano
they are at their "wits' end" as to what can be done to improve conditions. To either secure
Company under the Ampico Hall name.
better prices or increase factory production t o a point that will enable them to keep above
"J. & J.", part of the title of the J. & J. Music
the red line
Shop, Grand Rapids. Mich., simply means that Jay
Van Dusen and Jerrie Van Velsen are the proprietors being able to say of the piano in your home, 'Yes, it's president of Lyon & Healy, was asked concerning the
and the owners of these initials.
a Steinway'?" With many buyers this argument is possibility of a Lyon & Healy exhibit at the A Cen-
* * *
convincing and the sale follows.
tury of Progress Exposition, he remarked that the
A correspondent from Montgomery, Ala., the head
famous Lyon & Healy corner was the greatest spot
of an important music house of that city, writes: "We
In an Aeolian advertisement naming several pianos in Chicago. It is a space where exhibits can be easily
are clear out of used pianos and have plenty of good as "A Few Rare Values from Our Used Piano De- and quickly rearranged and entirely changed from day
prospects for second-hands from $100 to $175, but partment," the Aeolian Company, New York, modest- to day or hour by hour, and if it were offered for
we simply cannot get these particular prospects up ly places the Chickering, of their own product, at
sale would bring a handsome figure.
to the price of a new piano." This is a sample of $395.00, while a Sohmer, a Hardman, a Steinway, are
MR. KIESELHORST RUSHES IN AND OUT
many letters received by manufacturers pleading for named at $475.00, $425.00 and $825.00 respectively.
OF CHICAGO
salable second-hand grands and uprights. If this con-
* * --;.
dition keeps on a very good second-hand or repos-
K. A. Kieselhorst, who not long ago was a whirl-
The host of friends of Edward H. Droop of E. F.
sessed instrument will not be found anywhere.
wind in music trade activities at St. Louis and sur-
Droop & Sons, Washington, D. C, will be glad to
rounding districts, landed in Chicago by airplane a
Presto-Times has a list of eight or ten important hear that he has recovered from a recent attack of
music houses of the country seeking salable second- gout. As gout is said to belong to the millionaire few days ago but made hop. skip and jump for his
calls on friends mostly along Chicago music trade
hands and repossessed instruments.
class of ailments, the fact that a prominent piano man,
Our correspondent at Montgomery will understand as Mr. Droop is, has been a sufferer from it is prac- row, the few remaining hours of his stay in the city
that the condition he speaks of is not local with him tical evidence that prosperity has returned to the piano being given over to visiting A Century of Progress
Imposition. Rumor has it that Ed is nibbling at a
but covers the entire country. The surplus of used business.
+
*
*
bait which may land him again on music trade shores
pianos is definitely gone.
It may be worthy of note to observe that of two where formerly he was so conspicuous a figure.
important
cities of the country bearing the name
Boston is now almost entirely bereft of piano manu-
SOLD OUT; WANTS MORE
Superior—Superior, Wis., and Superior, Neb.—the
facturing—of piano factories carrying on and produc-
E. B. Luke, Ardmore, Okla., keeps on hustling for
leading
music
store
in
each
of
these
cities
is
owned
ing. Cambridge and Watertown are the main points
trade and gets his share of what is to be had. He
of supply for pianos from the Hub district of the by a woman. The Superior Music Company of Su- has been pushing the second-hand end of business
perior,
Wis.,
is
owned
by
Mrs.
Earle
Braman.
The
grand old Bay State.
for the past year and with good results in both profits
other by Mrs. Zona Berg at Superior, Neb.
and sales. In fact he has just about run out of
* * *
salable models of both uprights as well as grands
Motor trucking all over the country has been con-
QUIEN SABE?
and is in the market for a few truck- or carloads oi
tinually cutting into railroad freight transportation
A while ago the remaining stock of pianos of the instruments.
very severely. From all the great manufacturing
defunct Chillicothe (Ohio) Piano Company was pur-
centers of the country gcods are sent out in motor
chased by Ray & Company, liquidators at Columbus
The J. & J. Music Shop has been opened at 211
trucks. From Chicago alone motor caravans deliver
at a bankrupt sale. The Summers & Sons Music
(iilbert building. Grand Rapids, Mich., by Jay Van
pianos and, incidentally, other lines of musical instru-
House put in a bid for these instruments for as
Dusen and Jerry Van Velsen. Both these gentlemen
ments and musical merchandise to many far-away
much as they considered them worth but the liquida-
have been connected with music and associated with
points; Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma are on the motor
tors finally got the goods and, quien sabe, they may
music houses for the past twelve or fifteen years and
route, and loads of pianos have gone to points in New
still have them.
both are musical and performers on musical instru-
England. One contending feature in this motor truck
ments.
delivery proposition is the hazard of accident, the
LYON & HEALY
liability of serious accidents and delay and the con-
The twenty by twenty corner window space at the
Mason & Hamlin, following its distinguished con-
sequent uncertainty of insurance of goods in transit.
northeast corner of Wabash avenue and Jackson
temporary, Chickering, has departed its, too, old home
boulevard, Chicago, is probably the most valuable
town, Boston, having become located with the other
One of the many plain and conservative newspaper "advertising space" in America at the present time
members of the Aeolian-American group at their East
advertisements of E. F. Droop & Sons Company, and for the two or more months ahead, when swarms
Rochester, N. V., factories. This move will evidently
Washington, D. C, calls attention to its leading piano of people will be flocking to Chicago, World's Fair
be of advantage in many ways and help to facilitate
Mason & Hamlin progress.
in this fashion: "Isn't there supreme satisfaction in and convention city of 1934. When R. J. Durham,
*
•:•
*
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/