The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1908)

54 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. a few months ago he says trade was 40 per cent, better than it was for the corresponding period of the previous year. The Indiana company are equipped with a full stock of machines and records and are fully prepared for the trade of this year. The business pf the Kipp-Link Co., who handle Edison and Victor machines, has been booming for the last five days. This company say the holiday trade was entirely satisfactory. The Kipi>L,ink Co. are more centrally located than any other store of the kind in the town, and their business is growing as the people find out their location. 'A. E. Jay, of the Kipp-Link Co., is having great success with the sale of his new J return attachment for talking machines. The return attachment allows the music to be repeated with a cessation which is barely perceptible to the listener. It is popular, especially for equipping instruments that are used in dancing halls and skating rinks, and is coming to be used more and more in the 5-cent theaters. It is manufactured in Indianapolis and at Cincinnati. Five-cent theaters in Indianapolis are thinning out and getting down to a living basis. So far as these theaters are concerned, Indianapolis for several months has resembled a boom town. Fully twenty of these places were started, and it seemed that they never would stop starting them. This has ceased, however, and it is expected that a number of them will drop out soon. It will be a question of the survival of the fittest. Business has been rather dull for several days for the penny arcades. Holiday business was good, as there were a number of conventions in the city holiday week. The dulness now, however, is making up for the holiday rush. John H. White, for twenty-nine years one of the official reporters of the House of Representatives, who died at his home in Englewood, N. J., acquired his fortune out of talking machine instruments made in the early days of the trade, and on which his retirement from oificial life was based. Get Busy! Put in a line of Searchlight Folding Horns Do It Mow! SEARCHLIGHT HORN CO. 755 LEXINGTON AVE.. Borough ol Brooklyn. NEW YORK CITY TRADE NOTES FROM INDIANAPOLIS. Review of Business Transacted for Year — Up to November Records Were Broken — Instalment Business Suffered IVIost — Outlool< at Present Time Is Better — Craig's Estimate of Year's Business — Kipp-Link's Good Holiday Trade — Five Cent Theatres Thinning Out. (Special to The TalkiDg Machine World. ) Indianapolis, Ind., Jan. 6, 1908. Talking machine men have made estimates on their trade for 1907 and they find that it fell far short of the business of 1906. A conservative calculation is that the business for the year just closed was 70 per cent, of that for the preceding year. Some dealers place the figure at GO per cent, and others at 80 per cent., but 70 per cent, seems to be a conservative estimate. It is notable that all of this decrease came in the last few months of the year. Up until November dealers say business was practically as good as it had been during the preceding j'ear. From that time on it was on tie wane and the holiday trade was far behind that of last year. Another notable fact is that it was the instalment business that suffered chiefly. The cash business was up to that of the preceding year. Dealers do not attempt to explain this condition. In considering the outlook for the coming year talking machine men are optimistic. Factories in this city and in other cities or the State which have been closed for some time are opening up and the business of the farmers is in good condition. Dealers see no reason why the trade this year should not be brisk, and they are preparing to push it. The dull trade of the last few months, however, has not been without results. Thomas Devine, of the Columbia Co., took advantage of the opportunity to dispose of stock which had accumulated. Mr. Devine, who is well informed on the conditions of the talking machine trade in Indianapolis and in the State, disc.usses conditions as follows: "Our business during the year was quite a great deal less than that of a year ago, due in part no doubt to the stringency of the money and also to the fact that factories right and left were laying off hands. Our wholesale business was specially light. This was not due to the fact that we -did not have orders. The trouble was we did not have the goods to fill the orders, and in consequence we were compelled to turn down a great deal of business which ordinarily we would have been glad to take care of. "But the outlook, so far as I can see now, could hardly be brighter. Before the financial flurry got started in full blast our people let up in certain factory departments, at the same time giving us to understand that we must look to. our own resources for a time at least. As a result of this we promptly got busy on such old stock of various kinds as we had. We whipped it into shape and pushed it hard. Ordinarily this class of goods would have remained on our shelves, eventually finding its way to the scrap heap. During the holiday season we disposed of practically all of our second-hand damaged product. Now that our factory is again running there is no reason why we should not consider ourselves in better shape than ever before for pushing and taking care of the graphophone business in Indiana.'' A little advice to talking machine salesmen by Mr. Devine appears on the cover page of a current issue of The Columbia Salesman. A copy has just been received at the Indianapolis store. The advice is brief and as follows: "Of all the qualifications, natural and acquired, that go to make up the assets of a salesman none is more apt to be underrated than the ability to remember names. To be able to call a customer by name is to have in your possession the outside key to his strong box." Charles Craig, of the Indiana Phonograph Co., who handles Edison machines, estimates his business for the last year at about 70 per cent, of that of the preceding year. He says, however, that this business for the last two weeks has been increasing, and that the daily business is now double what it was two weeks ago. Up until