The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company presents “Pianorama,” a 1950s black-and-white promotional film that follows two young children who become enamored by their grandfatherly neighbor’s piano-playing ability and are soon drawn into the world of music. The children beg their parents for a piano of their own, only to be met with resistance from their father. “Martha needs a new refrigerator and I’ve had my eye on a new car … you can’t keep food in a piano or ride to work in one. I’m afraid we’re not rich enough for all those luxuries,” he laments at mark 03:52. But “modern production techniques” combined with “old-time craftsmanship” can make a piano affordable, the old neighbor counters at mark 04:45. By mark 05:35 the film launches into a narrative of how pianos are built, with footage showing how the once hand-crafted pieces can now be made in minutes using machinery. Each step of the process is captured by the camera with the narrator explaining the action. Engineers are shown at drawing boards at mark 09:50 designing not only piano cabinets but also carefully positioning strings and plates on paper before bringing them to life. Workers in a sound laboratory test a piano’s sound at mark 11:20, where its tone is analyzed and perfected. Painstaking detail of the piano-making process is shown as the film rolls and strings are shown being affixed to the finished cabinet at mark 19:22. Cabinets are finished and stained until a shiny new piano flashes on the screen at mark 22:25. “It’s an instrument that’s truly the heart of the home,” the elderly neighbor proclaims at mark 26:28 — a sales pitch that may be enough to convince the father to add one to his own home.
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1853 by German immigrant Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company originally imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments from Germany for resale in the U.S. Wurlitzer enjoyed initial success largely due to defense contracts to provide musical instruments to the U.S. military. In 1880 the company began manufacturing pianos. Eventually the company relocated to North Tonawanda, New York and quickly expanded to make band organs, orchestrions, nickelodeons and pipe or theatre organs popular in theatres during the days of silent movies.
Over time, Wurlitzer acquired a number of other companies which made a variety of loosely related products including kitchen appliances, carnival rides, player piano rolls, and radios. Wurlitzer also operated a chain of retail stores where the company’s products were sold.
As technology evolved, Wurlitzer began producing electric pianos, electronic organs, and jukeboxes and eventually became known more for jukeboxes and vending machines, which are still made by Wurlitzer, rather than for actual musical instruments.
Wurlitzer’s jukebox operations were sold and moved to Germany in 1973. The Wurlitzer piano and organ brands and U.S. manufacturing facilities were acquired by the Baldwin Piano & Organ Co. (commonly called the Baldwin Piano Company) in 1988 and most piano manufacturing was moved overseas. The Baldwin Co., including its Wurlitzer assets, was subsequently acquired by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in about 1996. Ten years later, Gibson acquired Deutsche Wurlitzer and the Wurlitzer Jukebox and Vending Electronics trademarks, briefly bringing Wurlitzer’s best-known products back together under a single corporate banner in 2006. Baldwin ceased making Wurlitzer-brand pianos in 2009.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
