The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1916)

64 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD FROM OUR CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS— (Continued from page 61) LYON & HEALY'S HANDSOME RETAIL DEPARTMENT Most Completely Equipped for the Convenience of the Public — Concert Hall an Interesting Feature of This Well-Arranged Establishment A silent salesman case, in Chicago, III., July 11. — In the June World an illustrated account was given of the facilities for handling the. wholesale talking machine business of Lyon & Healy in the company's reception room. which accessories are displayed, is a feature of the latter. The rotation system of handling customers is used so that the salesmen get an equal chance. The sales force is a thoroughly trained one. It includes T. B. Stone, whose five years of service has been marked by steady promotion; Joseph N. Vesey, veteran in point of years of service with the house, and who has been selling talking machines for Lyon & Healy for a decade and a half; John Otto, second oldest in years given to the department, and who knows the Victor from A to Z, and Harry G. Bartruff, an efficient newcomer. Miss M. Olso is the "usheress," who receives customers and assigns them to the salesmen, and she has as an assistant a young mer season, recourse is had to three overflow rooms on the mezzanine floor just off the beautiful waiting room. Up on the second floor the big and wonderfully equipped retail record room looms up in Section of the Victrola Sales Department, Two of the Sound Proof Rooms Are Seen in the Background new building at the corner of Wabash avenue and Jackson boulevard. This month an attempt will be made to convey some idea of the retail "talking machine department. Perhaps departments would be the better term. The machine sales department occupies space on the first floor and on the mezzanine; the remarkable retail record department and the general offices of Department H are located on the second floor, the remainder of which accommodates various media of wholesale Victor activity, while on the ninth floor is found the repair department. Start in with the "machine sales." Turn to the right as you enter the store from Wabash avenue and there you are. If your mission is to purchase sheet music or to spend a few minutes in the L. & H. concert hall, or whether you are going "up stairs," you must pass the Victor machines. First there is a beautifully rugged and Adam A Section of the Victor Record Sales Department, New Lyon style furnished reception room. & Healy Building (No. 2) Off of this open four Victor salesrooms, woman named Gladys Foster. When the four each containing a sample of each of the Vic main salesrooms are all occupied, as is fretrola styles. The art styles are shown in the quently the case, even in the so-called dull sum Concert Hall, New Lyon & Healy Building, Victrola and DuoPiano Concerts Are Given Here Daily all its glory. You step right off the elevators into the reception room, where Mrs. Pinger, the "monitor," receives the customers, assigns them to private record rooms if they want to hear records, to a station of the long counter if they want to select records to be sent on approval, or, if they have just purchased machines, to the service room in one corner of the department, where, seated at convenient tables they are waited upon by musically versed attendants who assist them in selecting their initial record selections. There are twenty-three commodious record demonstration rooms extending around three sides of the large center space, in which the record stock cabinets are located. In assigning a customer to a room the monitor glances at the electric signal board shown in illustration No. 2. The dead bulbs indicate the rooms not occupied. A saleswoman is summoned and as a room is entered and the door is closed the room is lighted and the bulb corresponding to the room number on the signal board also lights up. Exactly the reverse happens when the room is vacated. If the customer happens to be alone in a room and wants an attendant, she pushes a button, a purple light bulb on the signal board gets busy, as does also the monitor, who "buzzes" the appropriate attendant. Each demonstration sales woman has charge of two adjoining rooms. These demonstration rooms reach the height of soundproofness. An idealized system of weather stripping prevents sound leaking out between the door and the door jam. It is also applied to the bottom of the door, but is coun Dealers Who Believe in Efficiency and Who Want This Model holds 3 Victrolas or 3 similar-sized machines. Also easily carries 1 piano. 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