A photograph taken about 1954 of the player piano at the home of William E. “Bill” Dietrich and Helen [Hoffman] Dietrich in Specktown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The piano was purchased about 1922 from a traveling salesman and was first used when a woman who played at the church came over and gave lessons to Kathryn Dietrich, the daughter of Bill and Helen. It was said that the lessons cost 50 cents an hour. Kathryn learned to play well enough on this piano that later in life she was able to play occasionally as a sub in Sunday Schools and also to hold a regular “gig” as the pianist for the opening exercises at PTA meetings while her children were in elementary school in New Jersey.
The player piano was also a feature of family gatherings in the 1920s and 1930s, when the numerous paper rolls were loaded into the player mechanism, and sing-alongs were conducted.
By the early 1950s, the piano had fallen into disrepair. It was badly out of tune and some of the keys didn’t work. The paper rolls, after years of being stored in the attic, had become brittle and the mechanism no longer turned.
But, it was good enough for visiting grandchildren to practice their own lessons. In 1955, a Disney film, Davy Crockett, was released, and the theme song from that movie, “King of the Wild Frontier,” was issued in sheet music, which the grandchildren obtained and clunked out on the broken piano as everyone sang along.
Then Bill and Helen decided to get a TV and re-arrange the furniture in the living room. The piano had to go. Bill found someone to cart it away.
The player piano, when first purchased, was considered somewhat of a status symbol in Specktown. But other things came along to replace it.
_________________________________
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.