The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, MARCH, 1916 Doings of the Dealers — Continued the second highest school a $100 instrument and the third in the contest fifty dollars' worth of records. This school already had an Edison instrument. This announcement made Wilmot the biggest man in town — the man of the hour — not so much because of the amounts given, which were generous indeed, but from the very unexpectedness of the gifts. It is the idea behind this contest that is of value to other dealers. The price, or the number of instruments, is another matter which can be considered later. You can hold a contest and give whatever price of instrument that you think the effort and the results are worth to you, although it is a difficult and delicate task to judge, before a contest is started, the benefits to accrue to you in sales. You could hold, say, a contest for the most popular teacher if there is but one good sized school in town. But if there are a sufficient number of schools to hold the contest between them, the teacher idea would likely not cause so much interest as a school contest, for a teacher would not be known to so large a number nor have so many interested in her winning as to work as a vote getter. Every pupil attending a school, when schools are matched against one another, is a loyal worker. Then, again, a contest could be held for the most popular principal, but, unless all principals are unusually popular, they likely, too, would not stir the interest like the school idea, for the same reasons applying to the teacher scheme. Consider the several applications of this contest idea and the greatest possible number who might get behind the different contests, to work for each, and you will have a better realization of how splendid a plan Wilmot's school contest idea is. THEY HAVE THEIR TROUBLES— BUT THEY'RE SELLING Those dealers who make as an excuse for their not making sales that "It is hard times," should find food for thought in the recent trade report from England. There, in a country which is racked with war, its consequent drain upon the public moneys and its stringency, where the terrible seriousness of their lives at present is every day before them, more musical instruments are being sold than in music history. They find that the British workmen are investing their savings in pianos and phonographs. Music in the home has made their homes more attractive, they have found. Life contains more for them, is brighter. It refreshes them so that they return in better spirits for their next day's labor. If phonographs can be sold so readily and in such number in a country about this fortunate counti afflicted, h( NEW USES FOR PHONOGRAPHSSOME SALES HINTS The many applications of the Edison phonograph are interestingly shown in the recent installation of Edison Phonographs in the Edison Motion Picture studio at Belford Park, New York City, as an aid to acting. The direct and immediate effect of music on the emotions, especially "emotional" music, has long been known to psychologists. The directors, as the stage directors are known in motion pictures, are just waking up to the power of music. The director's task is to see that the actor's feelings and thoughts are so expressed that, without words, the audience will "get" them vividly. The exactions of the picture screen call for the highest form of realistic acting. This search for the real feeling has brought forth, in the Edison studio, this reliance upon the Edison phonograph as an emotional excitant. This incident suggests several things to the thoughtful dealer. Inasmuch as all sales are made by our producing a certain effect in the prospect, the choice of the selections to be played to a prospect is an all important thing. Just because your prospect may profess a liking for dance music only, do not hesitate to play at least one record which is deeper in feeling, for it is quite likely that the prospect can be more deeply stirred by playing one of such records than many dance records or light popular records which appeal only to a passing fancy. Remember, too, that many who are sensitively fine in feeling are seemingly so afraid of showing it for fear of showing too much that they assume a mask of no sentiment at all. This type can be influenced to a sale more often by the choice of music of feeling than you could ever guess. Watching your prospect while you play such a record will often tell you much, in the more absorbed attention and the expression of the face. If there is one or more of the smaller motion picture theatres in your town you could approach the manager with the proposition to put a Diamond Amberola in his theatre to bring out the full dramatic value of his pictures. If music from an Edison phonograph can produce the thrill and emotional feeling in the player who acts the part, then it certainly can produce the desired effect in the more susceptible persons constituting the audience. Then, again, a proper selection of records, with an Amberola, is much less expensive than the salary-every-week piano player. Anybody could operate the phonograph while the pictures are being run.