The talking machine world (Apr-June 1921)

80 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD May 15, 1921 Manufacturer of Exclusive Cabinet Hardware and Accessories 60 Grand Street New York City INCREASED EVIDENCE OF BUYING IN THE ST. LOUIS TRADE Dealers Who Are Fighting Hard for Trade Are Getting It — Records More in Favor Than Machines— President LaPierre Disappears — New Victor Dealers — Silverstone Activity — News of Month St. Louis, Mo., May 2. — The talking machine business in St. Louis and contiguous territory is considered satisfactory, in view of all existing circumstances. The retail movement of all kinds of machines is fair. Dealers are still buying cautiously and mostl}^ for immediate needs. Distributors are not finding fault with this because they are confident that with the return of greater confidence the buying of the dealers will gradually come to a larger scale. Nobody complains about the record business. Sales are quite up to expectations. The Stix, Baer & Fuller talking machine department is one place where there is no complaint about business. Manager F. J. Ennis says the A-pril business is a 100 per cent improvement over the same month last year, on machines, and "a little better than that on records. The sales of machines ranged from high-priced period designs to the cheapest. Last Saturday eighteen machines were sold. The Saturday before seventeen were sold. Another day thirteen were sold. Five sales a day is considered small. The department recently added the Brunswick line to its Victor and Sonora products now handled. The retail department of the Silverstone Music Co. is another place where sales are better. Retail Manager Schlichter says the retail business is much improved over what it was thirty days ago. On one day recently four Chippendales, a Sheraton and a Heppelwhite were sold and four Chippendales and a Heppelwhite were placed out, with every assurance of being sold. Manager E. M. Morgan, of the Columbia Co., St. Louis branch, says that the March and April business, under the new prices, has been satisfactory, particularly in the country. Mr. Morgan made trips through southern Illinois and central Missouri late in the month. "Siam Sob" has been sweeping this part of the country. When Manager Morgan, of the Columbia Co.'s St. Louis branch, was notified that 1,000 Soos had been sent to him he was about as near despair as such an optimistic person could get. That was three weeks ago. Now he is out of Soos and dealers are telegraphing for more and it gives him great joy to know that another shipment is on the way. George E. Brightson, president of the Sonora Co., New York, was in St. Louis last week. The Artophone Corp. is vacating the first, second and third floors of the building at 1103 Olive street to make room for the Shattinger Music Co., which will move during the month from 910 Olive street and be ready to open in the new location June 1. The Artophone Corp. will occupy the fourth and fifth floors and do a wholesale business in Artophone and Kimball talking machines and Okeh records. The Meinell Music Co. has opened for business at 4035 West Florissant avenue, where it will handle Artophone and Kimball machines and Okeh records. I\. W. Jackson, manager of the Brunswick St. Louis branch, is back at his duties after spending three weeks in a hospital and undergoing two operations. He reports that the Mothers' Day plan of the Brunswick Co. is stimulating business and that the dealers are co-operating handsomely. He expects the record releases to be on time hereafter and says there is substantial improvement in the record business. The Missouri Association of Retail Jewelers held its annual convention in St. Louis the last week in April. Many of the jewelers who attended handle talking machines and they took advantage of the opportunity to call on their distributors. Mme. Galli-Curci's appearance recently in St. Louis was the inspiration for a clever announcement by the Kieselhorst Piano Co. Small cards, 3x4, giving the time and place of the concert and inviting the customer to hear her records, were fastened to the inner edge of the lid of each Victrola in the record-demonstrating rooms. Upon raising the lid to play a record the attention was drawn at once to the card. The evening's printed program held three full-page advertisements of exclusive Victor dealers. The Koerber-Brenner Co. announces the opening of three exclusive Victor accounts in Illinois: The J. N. Johnson Co., of Mt. Vernon, opened its handsome department on April 1. It consists of four handsome booths in ivory and gray, with a lobby, record racks and service counter with every help for efficient service. Miss Grace Maxey is in charge. The second account is that of the Hindman Drug Co. at Benton, 111. Mr. Hindman knows what the \^ictor can do, for he is proprietor of the Karr Druci Co. at Christopher, 111., which has main That Well-Known Trade Name In An Oplex Sign MOST of the well-known trade names of pianos and talking machines have been reproduced in the raised snow-white glass letters of an Oplex Electric Sign. Such a sign "ties" the manufacturer's national advertising right to your store. Oplex Signs are the kind with the raised snow-white glass letters — perfect day signs as well as night signs, greatest reading distance, lowest upkeep cost, most artistic designs. Let us send yoit a sketch shozviiig lioic YOUR Oplex Sign zcill look. FLEXLUME SIGN COMPANY 36 KAIL STREET BUFFALO, N. Y.