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The US Literally Threw Pianos From Planes During World War II · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you asked always
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Uh my name is Ben.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: That's our super producer, the one and only Mr Max
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Williams on the ones and twos of super Production. I
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: guess and Noel, you're coming. You're coming from a different
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: place today, Huh, I'm coming in hot. If you hear
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: like some you know, sirens or like a car crash
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: or just people screaming, it's because I'm right by an
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: air conditioning window unit at a rented apartment in Bushwick.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I was on vacation and then it was like, oh no,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: we got to record an episode. And then also the
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  Speaker 1: WiFi stopped working. So I'm doing this really like roundabout
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  Speaker 1: way of recording this right now. So uh, my apologies
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  Speaker 1: for any um substandard quality of the audio. It'll still
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  Speaker 1: be the crisp Noel Brown sound you're used to, which
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  Speaker 1: you might hear some extra little goodies in the background,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: like my flatmate Scott Um folding up the sheets so
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: we can get out of here in time for check out.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's gonna it's gonna sound great. We're hearing you loud
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  Speaker 1: and clear. And you know, one thing the pandemic has
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  Speaker 1: taught me is to think of those extra kind of
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  Speaker 1: unintended sounds or those uh Bob Ross happy mistakes. It's
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  Speaker 1: just another part of entertainment. I think it was Franklin D.
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  Speaker 1: Roosevelt who said entertainment is always a national asset, invaluable
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  Speaker 1: in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like a national ass hat because of putting
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  Speaker 1: you guys through the ringer with my weird situation. So
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  Speaker 1: thank you for rolling with me um in this In
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  Speaker 1: this episode today, which is as you were alluding to
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  Speaker 1: about wartime, I named my file that I'm recording war pianos.
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  Speaker 1: What does this mean, Ben, What does this mean? Ah? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: war piano Well, as you pointed out my friend before
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  Speaker 1: he started recording, this would be a great band name,
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  Speaker 1: maybe an album name. But this is also a true story.
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  Speaker 1: During World War Two. It turns out the Steinway and
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  Speaker 1: Sons piano company created specially built pianos for US military troops,
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  Speaker 1: and these were called the Victory Vertical. Sometimes they were
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  Speaker 1: literally air dropped into conflicts just to provide a bit
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  Speaker 1: of relaxation. And you know they were made in a
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  Speaker 1: place not too far from where you're staying. They were
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  Speaker 1: made in a factory based in Queens. That's right, the
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  Speaker 1: Steinway and Son's factory in Queens. It was specifically a
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  Speaker 1: factory where they manufacture these specialty pianos that were made
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  Speaker 1: to be sold directly to the US government, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And it's like imaginations can often run wild and ridiculous
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  Speaker 1: history when we see these headlines before we dig deep in,
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  Speaker 1: and in my mind, I I just kind of picturing
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  Speaker 1: the sort of Fellini absurdist version of the story. We're
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  Speaker 1: actually dropping pianos on the enemy, you know, because you know,
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  Speaker 1: when you drop a piano from a great hight, it
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  Speaker 1: makes a really terrifying sound. Also, I found this out
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  Speaker 1: from a documentary. I can't remember exactly where I saw it.
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  Speaker 1: But if you drop a piano and it like you know, survives,
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  Speaker 1: as in it doesn't like completely, the strings don't just
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  Speaker 1: completely you know, break and explode. And I used the
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: word explode not lightly, because if you are not careful
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  Speaker 1: or if you are not like paying attention, it's almost
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  Speaker 1: it becomes a ticking time bomb because if the the
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  Speaker 1: I believe it's called the string bed or something like that,
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  Speaker 1: the part of the piano where the strings run across.
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  Speaker 1: If that gets cracked, then the piano becomes essentially unsound
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  Speaker 1: structurally on sand down and it can you know, slowly
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  Speaker 1: get to the point where that thing's gonna break. And
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  Speaker 1: when you think happens when it breaks, boom Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: literal explosion of piano wire and wood and strapnel. So
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  Speaker 1: it could have been potentially a good weapon, but that
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  Speaker 1: is not what we're talking about today. We're talking about
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  Speaker 1: more of a way of uplifting the troops and giving
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  Speaker 1: them a little bit of um, you know, uh, leisure
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  Speaker 1: time or something to kind of like, you know, take
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  Speaker 1: them away from the horrors of war. I like the idea, though,
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  Speaker 1: it's a good point. I like the idea of every
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  Speaker 1: piano being a potentially deadly pinata if you just catch
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  Speaker 1: it on the wrong you know, catch it on the
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  Speaker 1: wrong side of the strings, the wrong side of the strings.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yes, you're right. It's also uh, there's also
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  Speaker 1: a boon to piano manufacturers. Let's let's dive in. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so we know that during World War two people were
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: still people. They a loved music, right and music was
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: bringing folks together, especially as troops were scattered across the
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  Speaker 1: European and Pacific theater. There's something different here because in
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: World War One radio wasn't really a thing for the
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  Speaker 1: average person. But in World War Two, by December over
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  Speaker 1: like nine six point two per cent of people owned radios,
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  Speaker 1: and so millions of Americans would gather around and listen
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  Speaker 1: to music, listen to news from the front. This unified people.
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  Speaker 1: They had this massive, amazing effect on morale, and this
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  Speaker 1: is something that government officials recognized. They started thinking about
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  Speaker 1: how to keep the spirits of soldiers up despite the
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  Speaker 1: horrors of war. Expect the idea of morale isn't just
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  Speaker 1: like a pr thing. I mean, it can actually affect
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  Speaker 1: how soldiers behave you know, in the line of duty,
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  Speaker 1: how alert they are, and how you know, behind the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: cause they are, because I mean it's when when people
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  Speaker 1: start really feeling despaired or you know, homesick. It can
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  Speaker 1: absolutely affect the way they fight, uh and the efficiency
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  Speaker 1: with which they you know, conduct themselves in the field
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  Speaker 1: of battle. So what was the best way to keep
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  Speaker 1: soldiers morale up was a very important question that the
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  Speaker 1: government had to figure out during World War Two, because
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  Speaker 1: this is also an absolutely unprecedentedly nasty war. It was absolutely, very,
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  Speaker 1: very traumatic for all of these soldiers and their families.
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  Speaker 1: UM Michigan Radio dot org has a fantastic article about
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the push to get pianos to the front lines that
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  Speaker 1: talks about a lot of this stuff. Highly recommend checking
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  Speaker 1: that one out. But the government ultimately figured out the
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  Speaker 1: most efficient and powerful and doable way to keep the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers morales up was by essentially shipping them or air
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  Speaker 1: dropping them pianos. But not just any pianos. These were
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  Speaker 1: pianos that had to be specially designed and reinforced uh
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  Speaker 1: so that they could actually be parachuted into conflict zones.
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan Piper, who manages artifacts and exhibitions at the Museum
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  Speaker 1: of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, which has like a
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  Speaker 1: place I would love to go to. This place also
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  Speaker 1: has uh some several examples of the pianos from this
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  Speaker 1: Victory Vertical project in their collection, and he goes on
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  Speaker 1: to talk about the military legacy of the Steinway and
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  Speaker 1: Sons Company. The president at the time UM had four
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  Speaker 1: sons that were in the military themselves, so he had
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  Speaker 1: actual skin in the game, and the company had um
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  Speaker 1: already kind of shifted their production to building things like
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  Speaker 1: tails and wings and parts you know, for military transport
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  Speaker 1: like gliders and all of that. And because of that,
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  Speaker 1: they already had these parts to kind of bolster these
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  Speaker 1: pianos and make them ready to go to be air
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  Speaker 1: dropped into these very dangerous zones. Yeah, exactly. And this
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  Speaker 1: is part of a larger trend that we see in manufacturing.
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  Speaker 1: During World War Two, majority of US industry shifted to
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  Speaker 1: a wartime economy. It didn't episode about this for car
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: stuff a while back, you know. Only it's not fair
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  Speaker 1: to say that auto production numbers dropped. They disappeared, and
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  Speaker 1: all the automakers were making stuff for the war. And
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  Speaker 1: of course people at Steinway and Sons are also able
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  Speaker 1: to push their manufacturing base into products that will benefit
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  Speaker 1: the war effort. The thing with this idea of Uncle
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  Speaker 1: Sam saying, hey, make us pianos. We will pay you
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  Speaker 1: a guaranteed amount of money, and we need this many pianos.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that's cool about that is that that could
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  Speaker 1: make the difference between the business staying afloat were going broke.
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  Speaker 1: But there was a catch, because these pianos might need
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  Speaker 1: to be air dropped. So just any normal old piano
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  Speaker 1: is not going to it's not gonna do the deed.
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  Speaker 1: If you ever moved to piano, you know, it's a
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  Speaker 1: pain just when it's on the ground. So not only that,
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's such a it's such a particular piece
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  Speaker 1: of you know, kit that typically there are whole companies
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  Speaker 1: that are devoted to just moving pianos because you have
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  Speaker 1: to handle in a certain way because like I said,
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  Speaker 1: they could be really dangerous if something gets cracked and
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  Speaker 1: literally you know, you can have exploding wires, you know,
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  Speaker 1: coming for you. This is the part of the story
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  Speaker 1: that I find really interesting, like specifically how they kind
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  Speaker 1: of ruggedised, you know, wartime ified these pianos really interesting
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  Speaker 1: and clever, um and specific stuff that you wouldn't necessarily
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  Speaker 1: think unless you were a piano person. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Steinway Company at this point is already famous for
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  Speaker 1: the high quality of its musical instruments, but these are
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  Speaker 1: these are pretty much works of art, right, They're quite fragile.
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  Speaker 1: You have to be careful with them. So they needed
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  Speaker 1: to figure out how to design a piano that was
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  Speaker 1: super durable and with this, we want to give a
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  Speaker 1: shout out to Atlas Obscure with their excellent article When
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  Speaker 1: the Pianos Went to War by Wennie Lee. This article
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  Speaker 1: also introduces us to Jonathan Piper, who's the manager of
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  Speaker 1: artifacts and exhibitions at that Museum of Making Music over
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  Speaker 1: in Carl's Bad, and he points out that Steinway needed
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  Speaker 1: to not only create a piano that could take a beating,
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  Speaker 1: but they also had to create a piano that was
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  Speaker 1: cheap to manufacture. They hadn't be careful with their materials
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  Speaker 1: because you know, there was a let rationing going on.
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  Speaker 1: There were a lot of shortages, and this is where
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  Speaker 1: we see some of those features they talked about, like
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't have legs because legs would break off when
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  Speaker 1: you drop it from the air. So I think they
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  Speaker 1: used a different kind of glue as well. The list
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  Speaker 1: goes on, Oh, they also don't have ivory keys. That's
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  Speaker 1: where it was a water resistant glue, which makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: They used something that's referred to in the aueb Secure
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  Speaker 1: article as anti insect treatments, which I guess makes sense
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  Speaker 1: because the piano is sort of a cavernous thing where
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: if you had like insects the guy in there, and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: like you know, bread could be a real problem and
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  Speaker 1: it could carry you know, the potentially disease carrying uh insects,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you know, into a area with lots of you know,
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  Speaker 1: infectable humans, even if it's just something like light right
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: or something like you know, bed bugs. Maybe I'm just
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  Speaker 1: guessing here, but that seems like the reason for that
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  Speaker 1: UM and the keys were covered with celluloid instead of ivory.
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  Speaker 1: And here's some of the little specific details that I
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  Speaker 1: think you're interesting, because you're right, this was obviously an
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  Speaker 1: important thing for the military brass and the idea of
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you know, making sure that the morale was up. But
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  Speaker 1: the materials were really precious and they had to be
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you know, used to make things like weapons, actual weapons
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  Speaker 1: of war and transport we were talking about, which is
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  Speaker 1: what the sign Way Company was already UM partly had
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  Speaker 1: shifted partly to manufacture, so they needed to use as
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  Speaker 1: little metal as possible in one of these UM specifically
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  Speaker 1: a tenth of the metal that would have been used
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  Speaker 1: in the normal piano. UM. So in order to do that,
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  Speaker 1: for example, the base strings, the really low rumbly strings
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  Speaker 1: on the left side of of the piano um were
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  Speaker 1: wrapped in soft iron instead of copper, for example, and
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  Speaker 1: they were able to reduce the metal in the piano,
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  Speaker 1: not only because it saved them those precious materials, but
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  Speaker 1: also made it where four soldiers could carry the thing.
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  Speaker 1: It was still four and fifty five pounds, but they
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  Speaker 1: had to make it where you know, it was doable
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  Speaker 1: because it would be dropped into a place where within
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  Speaker 1: me intercepted and they have to carry it back to
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  Speaker 1: the base. And they also I believe, like added like
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: handles on the side that would allow them to do
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  Speaker 1: just that. Yeah. Yeah, and this also has visually it's different.
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  Speaker 1: It has olive green blue and gray paint job instead
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  Speaker 1: of like a classy dark wood finish. It like a
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Camo piano. Right essentially, yes, yes, a Camo piano piano
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  Speaker 1: will work on it. So they the this These are
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  Speaker 1: like you said, these are lightweight. They're designed to be
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  Speaker 1: able to move. According to a professor at Eastern Michigan University,
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  Speaker 1: concert pianist Garrick Peterson, who is heading the Victory Vertical project,
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  Speaker 1: these pianos, the Victory Verticals or o g s as
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: we'll find uh only had about thirty three pounds of metal.
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  Speaker 1: For comparison, a normal upright piano would have about three
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds of metal, so they cut a lot out right.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, it really is very ingenious the way they
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: were able to figure out how to do this while
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: making the thing sound like a Steinway and Sons piano.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, And you know that one of the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: only unmusical things about this was the official government name,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: which was the Olive Drab Government Issue Field Piano abbreviated
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: to O G. Alive Drab is I think the most
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: like I like, you know, uh, it's definitely odd. Olive
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: drab to me is like the most depressing sounding name
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: for a color ever. Um. Then I don't know why.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's just the word drab. Um. But the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: thing that's neat too is Steinway. It was such a
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: legacy brand already at that point, they've been making pianos
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: before even the metal frame piano became a thing that
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't patented until eighteen five. So this is like a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: very old company that had that had experienced kind of
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: making pianos without metal frames, so they were uniquely positioned
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to be helpful in this A whole operation. Um Vertical
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Horizon getting it's not what it's called. It's called Operation
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Victory Vertical, but Vertical Horizon did have a banger two
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: um back in the early Absolutely. Yes, so these um
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: this task of getting these pianos and bringing them out
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to people fighting on the front falls do something called
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the Special Services, which was the entertainment wing of the U. S.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Army Service Forces. Is that like the US or what
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: they're connecting to. Yeah, like yeah, I believe so. So
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the Special Service, Uh, their entire job is to keep
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that morale high. So they're the ones who are in
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: charge of the logistics here. Steinway, when they get this deal,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: they go on to make more than three thousand of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: these specially designed pianos between nineteen forty one and into
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three. During the Korean War, Uh, they were
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: dropped into the field by parachute and they would come
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: with tuning equipment and instructions. And that's kind of weird.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: It feels stressful to already be in a battle and say, okay,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: now it's time to teach myself to tune a piano.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Everybody be quiet for a second. I will tell you
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I don't own an acoustic piano, but I do own
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: an auto harp, which is similar mechanism like string wise, Um,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you know, it's all of these strings that are connected,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: um with these kind of like keys that you have
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to tighten with an Allen wrench or like almost like
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a ratchet. So you have to have a special wrench
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: that that you know, even can like turn the thing
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to tune it. And then there's so many strings that there,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you know, each one has to be kind of tuned individually,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: so it takes a long time and requires quite a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: lot of precision, and it's not something that really just
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: any you know, kind of novice could do. I just
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: looked up them. My internet came back, by the way,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: how about that. UM. I just looked up Victory vertical
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: pianos for sale, UM, and I found one. It is
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: twenty thousand English pounds. It is really neat looking. It
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: is as advertised beent. It is this olive drab. It
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: looks exactly like a government issue anything. It's a government
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: issue piano might as well be a freaking pharmacist, you know.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: But it just has keys on it and it's got like,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: you know the place where the music stand would come
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: out it looks like it's kind of like ratcheted shut,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: almost like a like a window that's got boards on it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Um and it's got it's an upright piano like you
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: picture like a honky tonk kind of like barroom piano.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: And then it shows on this page the container that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: it was actually dropped in. It's not just dropped keys out,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: you know, like ready to go. It's in like a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: giant wooden packing container. But what a cool group of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: photos here because it shows a bunch of army buddies
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: gathered around the thing with one guy playing and everyone
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: else just kind of pounding around, leaning leaning on the piano.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I mean it really you can see what an effect
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: on their moral it had, Like they're very bad and
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: just kicking it, you know, absolutely, Lee, you know this.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: And these weren't all exclusively dropped out of parachutes. A
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: lot of them were trucked two different USO centers. Uh,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: some of them were even on submarines, so they like
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: imagine installing a piano on a World War Two era submarine,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this piano in the submarine. Yeah, it was actually put
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in before the submarine was fully constructed. They kind of
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: built the piano into the thing. So when the submarine
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: got decommissioned, they couldn't get rid of the piano without
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: taking apart the entire boat because, as you can imagine,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: space is tight on submarines. I was about to say, yeah,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: how do you even that? Seems like the last thing
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: he'd be willing to sacrifice space for it on a submarine,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and they maybe needed to build a submarine version. Somebody
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: probably slept on top of the piano. That's a good point.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: It's a good point. I love that you're mentioning this
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: image of people coming together and uh singing right and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: playing music. This is a crucial point to acknowledge because
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the World War two US Army was a draft army,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: meaning people were conscripted, meaning these weren't necessarily career soldiers. Right,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you'd have musicians. You have people who ordinarily we're just
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: like playing the piano for a living, who got dressed
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: into the military. So imagine how cool it is when
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you know, you and your crew see one of these
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: pianos getting dropped, and then the guy you know from
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Missouri or whatever who plays piano, It's like, oh, I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: could go nuts on this for days. That's amazing. Well,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and let's think about it. I mean, back then the
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: piano really was like the sort of jukebox of its time,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: or like think about like you know, the old images
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of the Old West with the saloon and the piano player,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: like that is where the music came from. This was
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: like a human you know, juke box, and the pianos
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that were shipped as part of this program came with
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: sheet music, and it would have been like popular tunes
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of the time, like like classics, you know, like things
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: like Chopin or whatever, or like maybe more like ragtime
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: kind of tunes, but also would have had things like
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: pimnals like Protestant hymnals or patriotic kind of raw raw
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: you know, sing alongs uh and and stuff like that
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: that everyone would have been super familiar with, and that
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: anyone who would have been a pianist at the time
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: would have been schooled in music reading most almost definitely.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I mean that was just like part came came with
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: a territory. It wasn't like there was any free jazz
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: guys that were sitting down and just kind of like
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: popping up. But even those guys came from usually very
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: specific kind of classical roots or you know, academic music training.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: That's how music was viewed in those days. Yea. And
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: by the very end of the war, in total, remember
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: earlier we said they'd made over three thousand victory verticals
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: exclusively for the military. They also made others that went
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: to churches or school so all at all, they made
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: ballpark five thousand of these things. And you know, these
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: things are durable, like you were saying, well you can
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: if you have the scratch for it. Even by one
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: today we know also that Steinway didn't just make pianos. No,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: we talked about earlier on. They were making like things
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: like gliders, you know, like for paragliders or whatever, and
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: other bits and parts and stuff that would have made
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: sense based on their supply chain. But one thing that
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: absolutely makes sense because if you think about it, what
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: is a piano if not kind of a coffin with
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: like strings and keys. Um, it really is. It's gotta
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it's got a hinged lid. Um, it's it's a it's
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a giant case that houses stuff. Um. So that was
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: one of the things they made, was coffins. Um, and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: then they shipped it to making these victory verticals. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: when you think about the fact that only five thousand
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: of these things ever existed, I don't think twenty thousand
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: English pounds that much of a stretch. I mean, this
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: is absolutely a museum piece. You know, Um, I don't know.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: You guys want to pull our pull our coins and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: get one from the studio, you know, why don't. Yeah,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: we'll put it next to that gigantic, uh gigantic Grandfather
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: clock that we we use with the quister. So we
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: owe thanks to Professor Peterson over there at Eastern Michigan
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: University because he has been so instrumental in telling the
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: story of a vertical victory piano. I'm not taking it back,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: We're leaving it m x uh. And he said that
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: he had not heard of this story until twent and
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: he learned about it when he actually got to sit
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: down with Henry Steinway of the Steinways, the last member
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of the family that had been involved in the Steinway company,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and he uh. The way Peterson says is, I sat
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: down and I just asked him a ton of question
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and one of them was tell me something you're really
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: proud of. And he had no idea that this story existed.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: He thought he was the last person on earth to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: hear about it, and he started talking to his friends,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: other musicians, other professors, other pianists, and no one knew
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: about it. So thank you Professor Peterson for bringing this
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: story to the world. Absolutely, and in the story kind
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of does uh it's sort of the beginning of a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: trajectory of this whole idea of getting music to the troops. Right.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: You know, the radio was tough because you're abroad, so
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: those broadcast signals have to be you know, local and like,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: you know, supported by the local regime. So if you're
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in a hostile territory, it's harder to you know, I mean,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I guess they could have set up a I'm sure
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: they did if you think about things like Good Morning
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Vietnam later, where they had like, you know, radio for
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the troops on base. But this was an easier solution,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: as logistically complicated as it sounds. But in the dawn
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: of recorded music, right um, which was a little bit later,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you started to get, uh, sort of an escalation of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: this whole thing, and then something that woul ultimately be easier.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: The American Federation of Musicians or a fm UM did
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a strike from nineteen forty two to ninety four UM
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: over Surprise Surprise disputes over royalties. So there was literally
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: no music being recorded for record labels in the US
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: during that span of time. And again I know that
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: radio and theatrollas and things like that recorded music. Sort
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of we're happening at the same time, but this was
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: sort of in the heyday of like people being able
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to afford, you know, to have music, recorded music at
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the house. So the Army essentially started its own label,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: UM got a pass and more like called scabs or whatever.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: So they were able to round up some of the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: biggest music stars of the UH and created something called
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: V discs um V standing for Victory and they were
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: record exclusively for the troops again sort of like the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: U s so Vibe in the live you know, show set,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: but in recorded music. And then these were shipped overseas.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: We actually have a clip here of what one of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: those sounded like. Come in in on a wing and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a friend, co man on a wing and a friend.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: So there's one motor gone. We can still carry on
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: man then on a wing and a friend. What a show. Yeah,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: we really hit our targets for the night. How we're
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: saying as we live look below, as our fields over
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: saying with our pull through afore and our drugs in
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the dawn on A and a Friend. Wonderful and what
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: better way to draw today's episode to a close. No,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I'm always so glad to hear from you, and I'm
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: so glad that you're having adventures up there in the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Big Apple thinks as well to the one and only
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams thinks the Casey Pegram. And thanks to
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed not that music you just heard,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but the the soundtrack for our show, which I think
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: you're hearing now absolutely, which consequently would have become the
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: sound we will have by this point become the soundtrack
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: of many of your lives. So Alex Williams reaching out
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: from beyond now that he's like dead or anything, he's
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: just not here with us now, he would absolutely have
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: been the guy in the army who would have been
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: banging out some awesome tunes on one of those vertical
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: victory verticals. Alex is an excellent Okay, Max Okay triggered,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Uh No, I've definitely been to like you know then
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you you learn an improv guy and um, they're back
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: pre pandemic times. Hopefully, I think it's coming back. But
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: there's a venue where you always used to do improv
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: shows called the Highland in ballroom, and you'll recall that
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: in the uh little foyer before you go into the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: you know, the part where you see did and watch
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the show is an upright piano and I remember distinctly
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: taking Alex to one of those in him playing it
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: quite loudly for a borderline inappropriate amount. Yeah, yeah, let
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: me jump in here on that. I remember Alex doing
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: that all the time, but not at a bar or ballroom,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: but at our apartment every single day. The man's best
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: song in his heart. The man's got a song in
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: his heart, and springing a step in your right bend
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: practice does make perfect. But he would have been absolutely
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: at home in the military sitting at one of these
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: upright pianos. So Alex here in spirit along with Christopher
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Haciots and Eves, Jeff Coats and Ben thank you as well,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and sorry again for any weird bush wicky noises that
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you guys may have heard, but we made it through.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: It was a little shorter one, but really sweet one.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: If you ask well, you know, you know my history man.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I've been recording in across the Pacific and undisclosed locations, etcetera.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: It's just it's part of the gig and sometimes it
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: can be fun to record in a new place and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: tell a new story. Also thanks to the one and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: only Jonathan Strickland, a k a. The Quister, who may
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: sooner rather than later drop in on our show just
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: like a victory vertical falling from the sky, but more
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: like one of these scary exploding types that I mentioned
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show. Well, you know, we'll
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: we'll see we'll, we'll we'll cross that root becom when
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: we get there, only time with We'll see you next time, folks.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows.