Music Trade Review

Issue: 1945 Vol. 104 N. 8

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The JSusic jffiaJe
Established 1879
VOL 104, No. 8
REVIEW
2787th Issue
August, 1945
THE PIONEER PUBLICATION OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
The Piano an Important Factor
in Army and Navy Hospitals
HEN Lieut. Col. Howard C.
Bronson of the Special Serv-
ices Division of the U. S.
Army was addressing the members of
the National Music War Council re-
cently, he pointed to the crying need
for musical instruments for the re-
rehabilit a t i o n
centers of t h e
army where
wounded veter-
ans are gradual-
ly being brought
to normal. That
t h e piano plays
no small part in
this type of work
was force f u l l y
m a n i f ested re-
cently at the St.
C. BROWN HYATT
Albans N a v a 1
Hospital, St. Albans, Queens, N. Y.,
in the case of Alan C. Wagner, avia-
tion motor mechanic, third class, of
the Navy.
Wagner, who is 21 years old, was
severely wounded while a member of
the crew of the escort aircraft carrier
Bismarck Sea, which was struck by
several Japanese aerial torpedoes and
sunk on Feb. 21 last, while supporting
the landing of the marines off Iwo
Island.
He is a graduate of the Garden City
High School, Garden City, L. I., in the
class of 1941, and as a student was
fond of playing the piano as a hobby.
This fact was known to a young
woman friend, who is now Mrs. Tink-
er Connolly of Garden City.
Visiting the hospital to see "Al,"
Mrs. Connolly was saddened by the
W
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, AUGUST, 1945
thought that the boy was no longer
able to play the piano, being para-
lyzed from the waist down. She
spoke to her father, C. Brown Hyatt
of 153 Kensington Road, Garden City,
a consulting engineer. When asked
if he could invent something so that
the young sailor could again play the
piano, Mr. Hyatt said :
"The word 'can't' was never in my
vocabulary, so I hunted around until
I found an old upright Milton player
piano. Then I took it home and
turned my living room into a labora-
tory. Knowing nothing about pianos
or their construction the first thing I
did was to take the piano and player
action all apart. Then came the prob-
lem of getting it together again. I
removed the keys and keybed and then
proceeded to find out how I could
connect all the metal tubes again to
the action and have the keys on a
remote control keyboard. First I cut
a board 54" long in which I bored
88 holes over which I placed 88
springs and back of these I placed 88
electric magnets. In fact there are in
all 96 wires which go from the key-
board to the piano, two of which con-
trol the on-and-off button which I
placed on the remote keyboard, two
spare wires for emergencies and four
parallel wires to complete the circuit."
:V. )'. Daily \czvs Photo
Alan C "Wnjcner, womulco' veteran aviation motor mechanic, third class, plays on
piano built for him by C. Brown Hyatt. Insets .show piano while being constructed.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Two Sittriuil t" <>r|>N Photos shiiwhiK how the |)i;iiu> |iliiy.*t tin importinit role
in Army anil Xnvy Hospital*. The piano lit the left is :i (iiilbrimsoii.
Dealer Digs Up Old Motor
When this was done the next prob-
lem was the motor. Knowing; nothing
about player piano motors, Mr. Hyatt
tried several methods without success
until he met Harry Holmes, president
of Holmes & Co., Hempstead, L. I.,
who dug up an old electric motor
from an electric player. With this
installed, Mr. Hyatt found that he
could obtain the desired results. He
then called in a tuner and regulator
and together they put the piano in
first class playing condition.
"My reward," said Mr. Hyatt,
"came when I saw that young man
smile as his fingers touched the key-
board. It was the first time he had
smiled in many months. He could
hardly believe that such a thing had
come true for him and although his
right hand had been partly useless
since he had been wounded he went
to it and soon was not only perform-
ing for his own satisfaction and pleas-
ure but for the many other wounded
veterans in his ward. He was also
fascinated by watching the action
through a glass panel which I had in-
stalled in the top of the instrument."
Six Weeks to Finish
The completion of this instrument
took about six weeks and now Mr.
Hyatt is seeking new world's to con-
quer for the benefit of those who have
conquered our numerous enemies.
Pianos in Many Hospitals
The piano has been found a neces-
sary adjunct to the equipment of all
hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
In fact many veterans are piano play-
ers and many of those who have never
played before are now spending their
convalescent days in learning how.
Two other photos are reproduced
herewith which were taken in two
different centers. The one on the left
at La Garde Hospital, New Orleans,
and the other a Signal Corps release
in one of the other large hospitals.
These conclusively show the import-
ant role the piano is playing in these
institutions.
the buyer of a musical instrument
should have the best possible aid to
learn how to play on it.
"There are different ways of help-
ing people to learn how to play an
Piano & Instrument Co., New York, sighted policy to think that we can instrument and probably it could be
believes that one of the important fac- sleep happily when the sale has been one of the most important jobs for the
tors for a better piano business during made. A few years later, those in- NAMM to organize*/ a good inexpen-
the postwar era is to promote piano struments which were bought but not sive teaching service.
"I hope that this problem will be
teaching vigorously.
played on will come back on the mar-
"Now is the time," he said recently, ket, with not enough new customers. solved in the best interests of the pub-
"to decide if the piano and musical Could the auto industry make progress He, and if so, our industry can look
instrument business should have just if 70 7< of the people who bought autos forward to steadily growing business
for many years to come."
a short period of boom, probably two never learned how to drive?
to three years to come, and then fall
"I think that to teach people how
back and have a crisis similar to "the to play the instrument is not only a Cable Piano Co.
piano depression in 1929, or if we most important cultural problem, but Moves to New Location
should plan for gaining friends and a life or death question for the future
The Cable Piano Co., W. E. Guylee,
laying the foundation of a growing of the music industry.
president, has opened new headquar-
demand for musical instruments.
"Nowhere is it more true than in ters at 330 South Wells Street, Chica-
"As we do not want to run up-hill our industry, that in the long run go 6, operating retail stores in Minne-
without a plan, just to have a terrible honesty is the best policy. It is a part apolis, Detroit, Atlanta, and other
let-down, we have to work on it now, of this honesty that we should do cities. The Cable Piano Co. of Chicago
that the mttsical instrument when sold everything in our power to see that is now owned by Marshall Field & Co.
After the Sale See That the
Piano is Played, Says Sternberg
Bela Sternberg, head of the Halifax should be played on. It is a short-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. AUGUST, 1945

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