Sunday, May 02, 1999
Willis Music celebrates 100 years of service
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Janet Gratsch, 76, remembers when Willis Music Co. occupied a graceful building at Seventh and Race.
“We had such a wonderful stock of music, you could buy anything there,” says Ms. Gratsch, who worked 53 years for the music publishing company.
Celebrities would frequent the store, including Cincinnati Opera soprano Licia Albanese, who was singing Madama Butterfly at the zoo, Jerry Lewis, in town for a nightclub act, and comedian Victor Borge, who was seeking music for his shtick with the symphony that night.
“Luckily I had his book on display, My Favorite Intermissions,” she says.
IF YOU GO
|
What: “By the Fountain,” concert and reception. The Beyer Musical Society celebrates 100 years of Willis Music Co. and the Society's 50th season.
When: 3 p.m. today.
Where: Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum, Eden Park (enter at the DeWitt entrance).
Information: The concert is free. 381-8028. |
“Jimmy Levine (now New York Metropolitan Opera maestro) came in when he was 12 years old, when he was just becoming a marvelous pianist,” she says. “He was a fresh kid, but I waited on him for many years. He left and became very famous, and after 20 years, he came back. He came up the stairs to our department and he said, "Miss Gratsch, are you still here?' I was so moved!”
Willis Music Co., which has been a Cincinnati fixture for 100 years, is being honored with a concert by the Beyer Musical Society today at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
From a small sheet music store on Fourth Street, to a $12 million music publishing business that reaches to Europe, Australia, Japan and China, Willis Music has been devoted to teaching fingers to play.
“The same book you're using here is helping someone in China,” says Kevin E. Cranley, president and the third generation of Cranleys to head the business.
Famous red books
In April 1899, Charles H. Willis founded the Willis Music Co. in downtown Cincinnati. Music publisher Gustave Schirmer bought the company in 1919, making it a branch of G. Schirmer of Boston.
Four years later, John J. Cranley — Kevin Cranley's grandfather — became general manager of the Cincinnati office. Eventually, he acquired more than 50 percent of the company through stock options. Today, the Cranley family owns the company, now headquartered in Florence.
Under John Cranley, Willis Music became one of the country's top publishers of piano teaching methods and sheet music. Generations learned to play piano using red books in a series by John Thompson.
“Teaching Little Fingers to Play (by John Thompson) came out in 1936 and is still very popular,” Mr. Cranley says. “One of the most famous interviews was (rock star) Billy Joel with Barbara Walters. She asked him how he learned to play the piano and he said, "John Thompson. Didn't everybody?'”
Through its history, the company cultivated many of the country's best educational composers, including Edna Mae Burnam, William Gillock, Lynn Freeman Olson and Cincinnati's Carolyn Miller. Today, the catalog touts more than 12,000 titles.
10th largest in U.S.
Mr. Cranley, 40, who succeeded his father Edward Cranley as president in 1990, is not daunted by declining interests in classical music, or by the lack of music education in American public schools.
“Overall, the industry has shifted from years ago, when owning a piano was a goal of many families,” Mr. Cranley says. “There are many more outlets for families now. We're not having trouble selling, but it's a wider variety of music.”
Consequently, Willis Music carries a growing selection in the pop arena. Since the 1920s, the company has sold musical instruments, now selling Kohler & Campbell pianos, band instruments, drums, guitars, folk instruments such as dulcimers, and musical merchandise. It is the 10th largest full-line U.S. music retailer.
Willis Music left the Race Street store in 1982, and by 1991 had eight retail stores in malls in Cincinnati, Louisville, Florence and Knoxville, Tenn.
The company has secured partnerships with eight companies throughout the world to market music abroad. When Willis decided to enter the Chinese market, it had a rude awakening: John Thompson books had been selling there for 40 years.
“Our difficulty was that John Thompson was famous before copyright laws,” says Mr. Cranley, adding that “bootlegged” music was also a problem in the Philippines.
Although the world has changed markedly since Willis Music first opened on Fourth Street 100 years ago, Mr. Cranley is optimistic about the company's future. Today, he says, a new generation is learning to play piano with the John Thompson books.
“We don't teach someone to be musical,” Mr. Cranley says. “We've just given people the opportunity to experience something that's already inside them.”
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