The talking machine world (Jan-June 1919)

June IS, 1919 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 121 ST. LOUIS TRADE BEGINNING TO CATCH UP ON STOCK Still Some Shortage but Situation Is Improving — Waiting for Carload of Pathephones — C. G. Child Addresses Victor Dealers — Artophone Co. Reorganized — Other News St. Louis, Mo., June 1. — Perverse May weather affected talking machine sales somewhat but the ill May wind blew good for the records. The bad weather that kept folks indoors turned their attention, for entertainment, to the talking machine and when all the old records had been played the need of some new ones was suggested and on the next day's trip down town some were purchased and taken home for the next evening, which could be counted upon to be as drippy and depressing as the evening before. Numerous welcoming demonstrations for home-coming St. Louis soldiers also interfered with machine sales to some extent, but stimulated sales of patriotic and military records. The Victory Loan drive, the third adverse factor for the month, did not hurt the talking machine biisiness as much as the piano business, but some ill effects were felt from it. Notwithstanding all these things, however, it was not a bad month. Dealers are still able to sell about all the machines that they can get and more than they can get of the most popular styles and sizes. Jobbers are behind their orders. They'are gradually catching up on some styles but making no appreciable progress on Cithers. They are getting plenty of promises from the factories, but promises serve poorly in lieu of machines. Charles L. Staffelbach, who manages the Pathe distribution from the Hellrung & Grimm House-Furnishing Co., is waiting for that carload of high-priced machines which he needs badly for filling orders. George W. Lyle was here last week from the factory at Brooklyn and Mr. Staffelbach wrung from him a promise that a carload would be right along. He has enough of the sijialler kinds to go around, but the dealers are standing around waiting for the big ones. There is encouraging news that the factory is being enlarged and the capacity increased. Pathe territory is being extended. Mr. Staffelbach returned the other day from a trip through Western Missouri, where he placed a number of new agencies. Supplies of records are coming very well and improving all the time, he says. St. Lodis dealers and their clerks are better record salesmen than they were before C. G. Child, managing director of the Victor Recording Department, came here early in the month. When President Val Reis, of the Tri-State Victor Talking Machine Dealers' Association, heard that he was coming he called a meeting at the Missouri Athletic Association and Mr. Child was invited as the guest of honor and he told them a lot of things about records which the wisest of them did not know before. He told them how records were made and gave them some very useful instruction in selling methods. Val Reis, president of the Smith-Reis Piano Co., thinks the time has come to do more merchandising and less demonstrating of records. For the past week he has had the east side of his store torn up with preparations for the installation of a quick-service record department. The installation is to consist of record racks against the wall and a high counter. Note the high. There will be no stools in front of it and it will even be too high to lean upon. The idea is to discourage tarrying. It is to be just as different as possible from the way that business is done in the demonstration booth, where the^ customer pays a visit and is nicely entertained and maybe buys something and maybe not, using up in the meantime a lot of the salesmen's time, which costs the firm a considerable amount of money. Mr. Reis has an idea that the time has come to quit that sort of thing, which is a survival of the time when people had to be persuaded to buy records, the persuasion taking the form of endless demonstrating. He is going to try to educate his customers away from all that. He expects the people to come in and stand up to the counter and say what they want and get it and pay for it and carry it away, all in the time that it usually takes for a demonstration fiend to get very nicely settled in a booth for a half hour's entertainment. "If you buy a piece of sheet music you don't expect to have somebody sing it for you," says Mr. Reis, "and if you go to the book store to buy a book you don't expect to have somebody read it to you so that you can decide whether you want it or not. You buy it by the title and the author. Records should be bought the same way and I think they are going to be. I am going behind the counter and show the girls how I used to sell sheet music without demonstrating. I did it for two years without any demonstrating." The Artophone Co. has been reorganized and the capital stock has been increased from $10,000 to $75,000. Edwin Schiele, formerly in the distilling business, is turning his attention to talking machines for the dry regime. He has been made treasurer of the company, succeeding Robert H. Cone in that capacity, Mr. Cone continuing, however, as president. The company is operating only through the big jobbing houses and is opening up a lot of new territory, especially in the South. Distribution in Europe is through the Artophone Sales Co., with E. V. Tetgens of London as manager for Europe. Agencies have been established at London, Paris, Brussels and Copenhagen. The Artophone Co. had a display at the recent Household Show at the Coliseum in charge of A. E. Hamm and E. V. Wagner. Fred Coleman, proprietor of the Wellstone Talking Machine Co., 5849 Easton avenue, has been appointed manager of the Record Transfer Bureau of the Tri-State Victor Dealers' Association, succeeding L F. Ditzel of the Famous & Barr Co., who found himself too busy to give it the needed attention. Philip Lehman, head of the Lehman Piano Co., is dropping talking machines, for the reason that he does not think there is any use of handling them unless they are handled right, and he has no room to handle them right. He has been carrying some Vitanolas and Nightingales, but will close out those that he has as soon as possible. The Silverstone Music Co. has enough orders for Edisons, according to Myron Rosenberg, general manager, for the rest of the year, particularly for the high-grade machines. The firm is selling a good many Chippendales, priced at $285, at retail, in the absence of other highgrade machines. Dealers are doing the same. Mark Silverstone, president of the company. Manager Rosenberg and O. A. Reynolds, outside representative, will go East for the Edison convention to be held in New York June 26 and 27. A number of Edison dealers from around St. Louis also are going. Mark Silverstone was in New York and at the factory in East Orange last week. E. C. Roth, secretary of the Koerber-Brenner Music Co., Victor distributors, has bought a new home in Webster Grove and has been moving into it during thepast week. H. H. Murray, mechanical engineer of the Victor Co., was in St. Louis recently. Columbia dealers were given a dinner at the Statler Thursday by the officials of the Columbia Graphophone Co. wholesale department. Renewed attention was called by Mr. Salmon to the No. 7 record display rack which is being pushed. It has only been out in this territory for the past three or four weeks and is taking well. It is practically a self-service affair, for customers are expected to pick from it the records they want and take them to the salesman to be wrapped up. Columbia machines are coming better now and the dealers are in better humor. There is still a considerable shortage but substantial deliveries are expected in June. EDISON SHOP IN WICHITA TO OPEN An exclusive Edison shop will be opened in Wichita, Kan., some time this month by the Inness-Cosgrove Music Co., according to plans which have been announced. T,he new store will be in the building at 407 East Douglas street, which has been remodeled and equipped with eight soundproof booths. A tentative date for a formal opening has been set for June 15, and as soon as the alterations are nearing completion it will be possible to fix a definite time for the event. TACOMA DEALER EXPANDING T. R. Barth, of Tacoma, Wash., has again moved into larger quarters in response to his growing trade. The new store will be known as the Musicians' Supply House, and will feature the Pathe and Sonora as well as all kinds of musical instruments. AUTOMATIC COVER SUPPORT SIMPLE-SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMICAL No Springs to Get Out of Order Order Now for Future Delivery Finished in GOLD SILVER NICKEL COPPER BRASS WEBER -KNAPP CO. JAMESTOWN, N. Y.