The talking machine world (Jan-June 1919)

July 15, 1919 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 129 SOME INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN ST. LOUIS TRADE J. F. Ditzel Blossoms Out as an Author — Victrolas Cheer Telephone Girls During Strike — TriState Association After Misleading Advertising — Business Conditions Reviewed St. Louis, AIc, July 2. — Business was good in St. Louis in June in talking machines and records. The only thing that kept it from being better was scarcity of machines. The supplies on hand and obtainable were not sufficient to meet the public's demands. That is not saying that at any time during the month a person who wanted to buy a talking machine could not find one. But it is saying that the person who wanted to buy was lucky if he found the kind that he wanted. Manager J. F. Ditzel, of the Famous & Barr Co., by the way, is about to break into literature. He has taken his pen in hand and written an epic about women and music and how music helps women to bear the grind of the day's toil. He is going to send it forth in attractive pamphlet form to do its creative work in bringing to women the message that music waits to serve them at their tasks. Manufacturers of PHONOGRAPHS and PHONOGRAPH CABINETS are invited to write us for samples of Trimmings and Parts such as Catches, Sockets, Pulls, Knobs, Escutcheons, Sliding Shoes, Lid Supports , Automatic Stops, Tone Rods, NeedleCups, Etc. Our line of such hardware is complete and with our increased facilities we are in a position to give reasonably prompt service to a few more desirable customers. GRAND RAPIDS BRASS CO. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN The Bell Telephone Co. thinks that music has charm to keep its girls in line when there is a strike on. The company has purchased a number of the Victor $90 styles to beguile the rest hours of the girls, who have to be kept in the exchange buildings during the strike. They were bought from the Famous & Barr department and Manager Ditzel remarks that there is a noticeable tendency among industrial corporations to supply talking machines for the stimulating of their employes during luncheon and other rela.xation periods. The Tri-State Victor Dealers' Association, which has been somewhat somnolent of late, woke up this week when President Reis, glancing through a telephone directory to see how his ad looked, saw another ad which did not look good to him. It told how a small dealer on the South Side had Victrolas, Brunswicks and one of the 57 varieties of olas. The executive committee of the Tri-Staters was liurriedly convened and an inquest held, at the end of which the matter was referred to the Better Business Bureau. The Tri-Staters are attracting a good deal of attention. An inquiry was received the other day for a copy of the constitution and by-laws from a group of Southern dealers, who are planning to get together in the same way. Invitations have been sent by Manager C. L. Staffelbach of the Hellrung & Grimm Pathe department to all his dealers in Illinois and Missouri to come to town next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday, or, all four, and hear Mr. Parsons, of the Pathe Freres, New York, demonstrate the new Pathe Actuelle. Between 150 and 200 dealers are expe__cted. J. A. Schlichter has been appointed manager of the retail department of the Silverstone Music Co. He succeeds W. W. Mitchell, who resigned and has gone to his home at Waterloo, 111. Leo M. Schlude, assistant manager for six years, has resigned to take the management ot the B. Nugent & Bro. talking machine department. H. H. Ray, formerly with the Kiesel-. horst Co., is his successor. Mark Silverstone and M. Goldberg were in New York attending the Edison meeting. The new quick-service record department at the Smith-Reis store is getting under way. Several of the stores along Olive street lit up with red lanterns for the advent of the "Red Lantern" Victor records yesterday. The Krite-Boyens Piano Co., which has been at Grand avenue and Olive street, opened Monday in its new store at 1012 Olive street. The Columbia department has very attractive French art glass bottles at the rear of the store. Miss Bertha Strasser is in charge. John McKenna, of Chicago, has been appointed manager of the Columbia Graphophone Co.'s St. Louis branch, succeeding A. W. Roos, who becomes assistant manager. The Columbia people are planning a big get-together meeting about the middle of July at the Hotel Statier for all the dealers in St. Louis and the branch's territory, including Little Rock, Memphis and other cities. About 150 are expected. C. R. Salmon, city salesman for the Columbia, finished first in the needle drive for the St. Louis branch. He sold his million in ten days and was the fourth to finish his quota. The Brunswick Shop is a new institution at Alton, 111. It is at 309 Belle street and is in charge of R. J. Smith. A. S. Engelmann, of the St. Louis Brunswick store, says he has taken no new orders for nine months because he did not think it fair to the old dealers whose orders are back. He has received assurances of great improvement in the deliveries next month. The Mackey Furniture Co. has rented the five-story building at 1122 Olive street, adjoining it on the east, for pianos and Grafonolas. In the main store the musical instruments have not had a department of their own. WHY WALLKANE NEEDLES ARE SUPERIOR The highest grade steel needle of American manufacture, and playing only one record, is put through a complicated, scientific, chemical process, by which the point of the needle is greatly improved. The popular explanation of the method is as follows : An ordinary steel needle is made of wire, which consists of long, parallel running grains on the inside. This wire is inserted in automatic machines, which automatically cut off the steel needles. The friction of the revolving record grooves will gradually flatten out the point of the needle, so that more and more grain of the steel will reach the record grooves. The WALL-KANE needle will eliminate the grain of the steel coming into contact with the grooves by a process which is accomplished as follows: The steel needle is first dipped into a chemical solution which will take out most of the charcoal, making a closer unit of the needle. Then the needles are dipped in several solutions, which place three different coatings on the top of the point, so that an entirely separate unit is created on the point, very much smoother and 25 to 30 per cent, softer than an ordinary steel needle's point. More than three thousand revolutions are required to take off these three coatings by the friction of the point with the record. The playing surface of more than ten records do not amount to 3000 revolutions — that is why WALL-KANE needles will play at least ten records perfectly, and will make less surface noise, and by the distribution of the solution into the grooves of the record, the record itself will be greatly benefited, and its life prolonged. PROTHTYOUR RECORDS By using EACrtNEOTf BEWARE OF IMITATIONS . Package of 50 WALL-KANE needles Loud, Extra Loud and Medium, greater value than 500 ordinary needles, retails for 15c, costs the dealer 7/^c., Sc. in the Far West. JOBBING TERRITORIES OPEN Progressive Phonographic Supply Co. 145 West 45th Street, New York