Destroying Old Pianos

[Ron Nossaman]

At 07:37 PM 4/20/99, you wrote:
>Hi Barrie, 
>           My first experience working on piano's was many moons ago at
>Strathclyde. College "Rag Days". Three college's competing,Three pianos at
>one end of the sports field, centre field a scaffold with three car tyres
>tied to the scaffold.
>One sledge hammer per team. The object of the race, to pass all of the
>parts of the piano through the tyre and deposit at the far end of the field.
>Much drinking of ale to lubricate the whole affair, and wild cheering from
>the frenzied crowd, the closest that I ever got to having an encore.
>This would make a great idea for a TV game show, and let the uninformed
>public know that some piano's should DIE.
>Memories of youth.
>Regards Roger
>



Local "Old Timers" used to talk about having staged an event like this with
a Regional Seminar, or PTG promotional, I'm not sure which, since it was
before my time. They found two of the nastiest, deadest, least serviceable
old uprights they had ever seen, and scheduled the event. They apparently
advertised it, to get as much public exposure as possible. Everyone had a
GREAT time, and it was a publicity disaster. People were INCENSED that these
alleged PROFESSIONALS would so callously destroy  and waste these perfectly
good and potentially valuable antiques, thereby depriving at least two kids
of the chance of learning to play on them. Later, when unsuspecting new
members would suggest doing this they got about fifteen minutes of gory
details as to why it wasn't such a good idea. At that time, the public in
this area wasn't apparently ready to be informed that *any* piano should die
- ever -, and it doesn't seem to be much different here now. I suppose I can
sympathize to some degree. Back in the 60's I watched a televised demolition
derby where someone had entered one of the prettiest model A's I'd ever seen
and reduced it to scrap in a couple of minutes. He could have easily sold it
for far more than the prize money (which he didn't win) and someone,
somewhere, would have preserved it. I'm not by any stretch of the
imagination a car freak, but that was awfully hard to watch. Then again... I
wonder how far you could fling a model A with a trebuchet.

 Ron