The talking machine world (July-Dec 1922)

August IS, 1922 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 133 BALTIMORE Business Continues to Improve With Both Wholesalers and Dealers — Store Improvements and Trade Changes of the Month Baltimore, Md., August 10. — July business in talking machines was considerably better than the trade generally had looked for. The sales of portable machines exceeded all expectations and practically every wholesaler in the city was cleaned out by the end of the month. This demand was unusual and the dealers had a hard time supplying the trade, many of them borrowing machines from other branch houses. The record business also has been good, dealers generally finding it impossible to supply the demand for the latest issues. This is especially true of the new Victor Health records. The three Victor jobbers, Cohen & Hughes, Eisenbrandt's and E. F. Droop & Sons, have been cleaned out of these records for some time, with additional orders accumulating daily. A new talking machine, the Voluma, will shortly be put on the market. This machine will be manufactured in Baltimore by the Voluma Corporation. It is claimed by the inventor, James T. Cook, to give unusual results. It has several unique and interesting features. It is made in this city. The Voluma Corporation recently opened a demonstration store on North Howard street. Victor dealers here report an unusually heavy advance sale of the Victrola Model 111, which they expect to have for delivery next month. Wholesalers generally report heavy buying for the Fall trade, most dealers placing orders for considerably more and better quality of goods than last year. The local Columbia branch reports a good business from the southern section of its territory, especially North Carolina, where business has taken an unexpected boom. C. F. Shaw, manager of the local branch of the Brunswick Co., has just returned from a trip to North Carolina and reports opening the following accounts as exclusive Brunswick dealers: R. C. Thompson, Graham, N. C. ; Stadiem-Cohn, Thomasville, N. C; Levy, Page Co., in Norfolk, and L. R. Brown, of Richmond, Va. Mr. Shaw also gives a glowing account of business revival in North Carolina as well as several other States in the South. The Brunswick people have started an extensive campaign of billboard advertising in this vicinity, which is reported to be bringing good results. Edward Strauss, of New York, divisional manager of the Brunswick Co., spent a week at the local branch this month. Quite a number of men in the trade are now taking their vacations, including W. F. Roberts, manager of the E. F. Droop & Sons Co. branch. The Rosenstein Piano Co., under the direction of Manager George P. West, has inaugurated a semi-monthly salesmanship meeting of its outside sales force, which is bringing good results. The meetings this month were addressed by William H. Swartz, sales promotion manager of the Columbia Co., and C. F. Shaw, manager of the local Brunswick agency. Miss Irma Groell, manager of the record order department of Cohen & Hughes, is in New York on a two weeks' vacation, and while there she will visit a number of the larger jobbing houses for the purpose of getting new ideas of the business. F. S. Harris, manager of the Washington branch of the same house, is spending two weeks' vacation in Atlantic City, and H. T. Bosee, sales manager, and wife will leave for a ten-day trip on the nineteenth. I. Son Cohen, head of Cohen & Hughes, was in New York last week to meet his wife and daughter and son-in-law, who just returned from a trip to Europe on the "Mauretania." The marriage of Miss Elizabeth Son Cohen to William Biel, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Biel, of New York, one of the founders of the United States Cigar Stores Co., took place in New York last month at the Ambassador Hotel, and immediately after the ceremony the couple left for Europe, where they met Mrs. Cohen, who had preceded them by several weeks. A. Burdwise is featuring and making a special window demonstration of the new phonoreel and reproducing attachment for talking machines. This is the only working demonstration that is being given in the city. Leonard Trout, of Trout's Music Shop, Highlandtown, is feeling rather "chesty" these days over the fact of having won out with a Grafonola in a recent voting contest at Camp Holabird in competition with four other well-known makes of talking machines. Trout's entry was a K-2 Grafonola on which he featured Ted Lewis selections with the result that when the vote was taken, which included both officers and enlisted men, he was declared the winner by a comfortable margin. L. & K. Snyder, 2132 East Monument street, are remodeling their place and when improvements are completed will have a store about four times the former capacity in addition to one of the handsomest display rooms in that section of the city. The firm handles the Columbia line exclusively. Cohen & Hughes are making an extensive display of period Victor machines at their salesrooms on Saratoga street, which is meeting with great success from the trade, many of the dealers bringing prospective customers there, where they can see all the latest styles of machines, something which hardly a dealer in the city has the space to carry or exhibit. S. C. Cooke, assistant manager of the Baltimore branch of the Columbia, is making an automobile tour of the Eastern section of the country during his two weeks' vacation. EMERSON FOREIGN RECORDS Are Good Sellers Because they please the greater number of 30,000,000 foreigners Emerson Records in Italian, Hebrew, Jewish, Polish, German, Russian, Ukrainian Are Leaders in Their Field DEALERS, CATER TO YOUR FOREIGN TRADE WITH EMERSON RECORDS Send for Catalogs and Information Today EMERSON PHONOGRAPH CO. 206 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, N. Y.