The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1912)

12 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. Columbia instruments: A line to fit the pocketbook of every possible buyer of a talkingmachine. Columbia records : A line from which every dealer can meet the musical preferences of any one who owns a talking instrument. Columbia Phonograph Co., Gen'l Tribune Building, New York PHONOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. A Hint Regarding Summer Trade Stimulation — Conquering Dull Times. The average dealer looks forward to this season of the year with more or less trepidation. His customers, no matter how attentive they may have been throughout the winter and spring, find so many other mediums of amusement awaiting them upon the threshold of the good old summer time that they lose interest in the talker temporarily, relegating it to the attic, along with the overcoats and the moth balls. Of course, there are the true music lovers who keep their machines going in all seasons, but they are the exception and not the rule. The fact that Mother Earth, gowned to display her voluptuous charms most lavishly, flirts with your patrons, flaunting her beauty in their very taces, should not discourage you. The old coquette mil have "nothing on you" if you meet her attacks with sufficient energy. Make friends with the dame yourself, Mr. Dealer. Allow her to claim your customers throughout the summer for her very own if she insists upon it, but with the distinct understanding that you and the talking machine be allowed to play an active part :$n the drama also. There is no reason in the world why the talker should be abandoned just because the air is balmy and the birds are singing. Good music is a thing never to be thrust aside as unseasonable, and it is up to you to so instruct your customers. The time is now ripe for the launching of that vacation advertising, and through this alone, if ably executed, you should be able to maintain the enthusiasm and patronage of your trade. Summer publicity should always be in harmony with the weather. Hot climates demand hot sauces, so do not spare the paprika. I will not attempt to write your advertisements for you, Mr. Dealer, for I know full well that the task is far beyond me, but will attempt in my crude way to make a seasonable suggestion. Have you ever encouraged phonographic correspondence among your patrons? Does Mr. Cityman, toiling in his downtown office, realize, I wonder, how much more Mrs. Cityman, sojourning at Bon-Air on the Roncocas, would appreciate hearing from him by record rather than by letter as at present? Hubby is extremely busy piling up the dollars, and, consequently, has very little time for recreation. Wifey, being very much in love and awfully lonesome, demands at least one letter every day, and gives the girl at the long distance switchboard a headache if she does not receive it. Hubby's stenographer finds it embarrassing also to sandwich love letters between legal documents, and, in fact, it is a very unsatisfactory arrangement all 'round. Here's where you and the talker come in, Mr. Dealer. Get in touch with Mr. Cityman through snappy advertisements in the journal he likes best, explaining to him therein the many advantages of phonographic correspondence. Show him how, in the quiet of his office, through the use of the dictaphone of commercial phonograph, he can talk to the one he loves best as confidentially and as freely as though he were strolling with her along the secluded pine-bordered paths at Bon-Air. All the little nothings that he knows will please her and that he would not care to place on paper or speak into a telephone transmitter, can be confided to the little wax cylinder with the utmost safety. No fear of the guests at the hotel reading a mislaid letter and gloating over its contents if phonographic correspondence is indulged in. Even if there is a talking machine in the music room at Bon-Air, Mrs. Cityman may leave her wax missives of love around in any old place if she so desires, and no one will be the wiser as to their contents. When Mrs. A. Scandal spies a little pasteboard box upon the piano after one of Mrs. Cityman's daily visits to the postoffice, and proceeds to experiment, she hears what sounds to her like a Japanese war bulletin or a stump speech in Choctaw, and returns the record to its place in a very disappointed and disgusted frame of mind. How is it done? Why, it's a cinch! Listen: Furnish, as an addition de luxe to the standard equipment of Mr. Cityman's dictaphone, a belt slightly longer than the one ordinarily in use, and emphasize the fact that it is to be reserved exclusively for the talks with wifey. When adjusting it to his machine, he should cross it, which act, of course, reverses the movement of the mandrel, hence when reproduced, unless wifey is on to the little scheme, and performs a like operation upon her phonograph, the reproduction will be entirely unintelligible. When oppressed and weary with the noise and gossip of the hotel, Mrs. Cityman will (if your ads so suggest) have her talking machine conveyed to the boat landing, and, comfortably ensconced in her favorite canoe, paddle to a secluded cove where the air is heavy with the fragrance from wild-rose, fox-grape and honeysuckle blooms, and kingfishers dive for perch among the lily pads. Then opening her case of records, she listens to the voice she loves. Every subtle inflection has been caught by the delicate recording stylus. He is talking to her, and she is soothed and rested. Old Mother Earth has claimed her all right, but — here's the point ! — her phonograph bore her company. Now, Mr. Talker Man, get busy with this phonographic correspondence idea. Oil up your shaving machine, and lay in a goodly store> of blanks — you're going to need them this summer. You will sell some commercial machines also if you lay this matter before business men who have not already installed them. The novelty of the thing will tickle their fancy. Howard Taylor Midpleton. MAKING MISTAKES. Just as sure as "to err is human," to make mistakes is a good sign. If we did' not make mistakes once in a while, we should be calling for our ecclesiastical harps. A mistake now and then keeps our conceit in check f.nd our hand to the plow. DOES GOOD WORK IN TEXAS. Hyatt Lemoine, the Go-Ahead Traveling Salesman of the New Orleans Store of the Columbia Phonograph Co., Increases the Number of Columbia Representatives at All Points Visited During His Recent Trip. (Special to The Talking Machine World.) New Orleans, La., June 5, 1912. One of the most successful salesmen on the staff of the local establishment of the Columbia Phonograph Co. is Hyatt Lemoine. This genial and aggressive traveler for the New Orleans store has just returned from a very successful trip through south Texas, and on which many new Columbia dealers were secured. In one week Mr. Le u . . , . moine secured eight Hyatt Lemoine. _ . ,. , , new Columbia dealers. Every order was a bona fide and initial order and was sent in with the necessary signed contracts, etc. The local manager of the Columbia store, W. F. Standke, counts the record made by Mr. Lemoine in this one week an exceptionally good one, and states than when you consider that the eight dealers are located in eight different towns and are among the best and largest merchants in each place, and that the orders range from the required initial amount up to $500, this record is one that is seldom equalled. TO EXHIBIT AT ATLANTIC CITY. Pooley Furniture Co. to Display Full Line of Cabinets During Jobbers' Convention — Manufacturing Plant Enlarged to Meet Demands. (Special to The Talking Machine World.) Philadelphia, Pa., June 10, 1912. The Pooley Furniture Co. has just bought out two new cabinets, illustrated in its advertisement elsewhere, which are attracting a great deal of attention from progressive talking machine men throughout the country. H. N. McMenimen will attend the convention of National Talking Machine Jobbers' Association at Atlantic City the opening days of July, and has engaged a display room for an exhibition of the entire line of Pooley cabinets. Within recent date the Pooley Furniture Co. has added considerable floor space, which is given over exclusively to the manufacture of record cabinets, and even with this tremendous capacity the company finds it difficult to fill orders with that despatch which they would like. Meanwhile every effort is made to meet the demands of the trade both in standard of goods and importance of shipments.