The talking machine world (Jan-Mar 1921)

12S THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD THE Western Division of The World, Chicago, III., Feb. 8, 1921. Well, the great day has come ! It has also, as it were, gone. The groundhog, in a word, has emerged on time. He has crawled from his hole. He has looked around, all around. He has seen a shadow. He has supposed it to be his shadow. And he has acted accordingly. But in fact the groundhog, for once in his career, has Emergeth the Groundhog! been wrong. What he saw was not his shadow, though it certainly looked like it. It was the last fading shadow of the DARK BLUE HAZE! And what is the Dark Blue Haze? The D. B. H., dear friends, is the fog which has enveloped the world with indigoesque gloom since last the swallows ceased to fly. That same Dark Blue Haze, glory be, is nevertheless rapidly dissipating its dark blue self and is hieing away to wherever the home of dissipated clouds may be. Business is no longer on the down grade. For which again many thanks. In short, after all the difficulties and troubles of the past few months, the fact remains as clear as it well can be that everything is on the mend. The talking machine business has done wonderfully well, and has held up in a manner which its most enthusiastic admirers could hardly have expected. It all goes to show that we very seldom realize the strength of a position until we find ourselves compelled to defend it against odds which seem to be overwhelming. Then we become desperate, spit on our hands and hop to it in record time. We immediately find that we have been looking at all the unfavorable elements in the situation, and eliminating all the others. And that is why what the groundhog really saw was not his shadow, but the last disappearing shade of the DARK BLUE HAZE ! The Merry Month of Moving While we are speaking about groundhogs, weather and business, we might as well remind the gentle reader that moving day is only two and a half months away. When moving day approaches, even though there be housing shortages and all that sort of thing, flats (beg pardon, "apartments") and bungalows change hands with considerable frequency. Now, a good many of those who move do a certain amount of shopping beforehand in the way of new furniture, and all that sort of thing. The gentlemen who sell talking machines will forgive us if we say that their musical instruments may, for the moment and purely as a matter of argument, be included for present purposes with furniture. Then, if that be so, it is plain that the "furniture" business of the great cities ought to be very much alive on or about the period between April 5 and May 1. Whereby, unless we miss our guess, the talking machine trade ought to perk up and get busy along about the same date. Why not? Why should not the talking machine merchant get busy and begin talking actively about how nice it would be to have a nice new talking machine in that nice new home when Mr. and Mrs. move next May 1 ? This is a stunt that the furniture men never neglect. They always realize that the moving householders will look with less and less favor on their old stuff in comparison with the nice newly directed rooms of the new place as the day of actual moving approaches : and they never fail to take advantage of the fact. Talking machine men, please don't overlook this, even if it be old stuff. Everybody tells us that record business is remarkably good, both in wholesale and in retail. This is pleasant news, but it was to have been expected. Dance records are leading in all editions, and this, too, is in accord with anticipation. The fact is, of course, that the people of this country are just as much dance-mad as ever On With the Dance! they were. And why not ? One may object to some of the noises that are called music and one may equally well object to some of the dances which some misguided young folks seem to like. But to object to the fact that the nation is dance-crazy would be nonsense. For one thing, the talking machine is the home promoter of dancing, par excellence, and the more talking machines there are in the homes the fewer excuses there will be for rushing out every night to dance O-WE in a public place. Incidentally, the talking machine men might capitalize this suggestion in their advertising. Does any one forget how for several years the famous house of Brunswick has capitalized the suggestion of home in their successful billiard table advertising? Now, this same house is in the talking machine business, too, and its advertising department certainly has not forgotten the home suggestion. Not much ! Well, what they have not forgotten the talking machine merchant anywhere need not forget. The talking machine is the universal instrument. No matter what be the intellectual level of the individual, that individual can be touched somewhere by the lure of music and is consequently fair game for the seller of talking machines. For the talking machine alone supplies every want in music. Dancing is one of the branches of music. Dancing is the music of the body, and needs the music of tone to frame it and set it to work. The dance craze of the nation is therefore a very real part of the talking machine business and the craze for dance records is one of the healthiest signs we have seen for a long time in respect of our industry. For the line of musical progress is straight. From the lower to the higher it goes unvaryingly. If the purchaser of records starts on dance music, he or she will end on the highest priced and most artistic numbers. It always works the same way. Wherefore, we have every reason to rejoice, for when dance records are selling like hot cakes the infection will surely spread to the other branches of the record trade in a very short time. 1 Accessories Continue in Demand From all we hear, likewise, supplies and equipment of all kinds are selling very well indeed. The remark applies to automatic stops, repeaters, record lights, record-cleaners, springmotor winders, permanent and semi-permanent needles, and, in fact, every sort of accessory to the talking machine. This industry of ours is getting to look like the motor car business. Accessory equipment is more and more considered indispensable as the talking machine takes a more and more surely established place in the affections of the people. Nor should anyone overlook the fact that whenever the sale of these accessories is on the increase then the general trade is also certainly in a favorable condition. For when the people begin to take enough interest in their talking machines to buy all sorts of accessory improvements to them they are taking an interest which cannot be brushed aside as trivial. The talking machine, plainly, is beginning to settle itself firmly in the affections of the people. It is becoming a staple, just as the motor car has become a staple. Twenty years ago it was very much a question whether the motor car would ever amount to anything. Thirteen years ago another wise, intelligent man told the writer that the flying machine was against the laws of Nature and of God ; yet within that very year the Wright Brothers had done the trick. The talking machine twenty years from now will be — what? Wherefore let us not forget that we are only at the beginning and that this activity in the accessory field is one of our growing pains. A very good salesman — not of talking machines but of pianos — said to the writer this very day, "About six months ago the gang up and down Wabash avenue" (which for the benefit of those readers who are not fortunate enough to reside in Chicago we shall say is a principal street and the Piano Row of our metropolitan burg. Finding the Lost Art Ed.) "made up their minds that it was going to be a bad year for business. They won. But about one-tenth of the number, including myself, made up our minds that it was going to be a good year. And we won, too. We have been doing business right along every day, but doing it only by hard, stiff work, by going out after prospects and digging them up, and then by selling. The truth is," continued our friend, who was in a meditative mood, "that salesmanship had been a lost art during the war days. It was not necessary to do any real selling when the people were falling over themselves to buy any sort of a thing that looked like a piano or, for that matter, a talking machine. Now to-day two things are plain. One is that under