Word: aeolian
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...least children who will grow up to enjoy making music-U.S. parents are buying a record number of pianos. In 1966, sales hit 243,800, nearly 100,000 more than a decade ago. The company that is hitting the top notes of this financial fortissimo is privately owned Aeolian* Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of pianos, which last year crafted 50,000 units and grossed nearly $30 million...
While the Aeolian name itself is not widely recognized, its golden trade names have graced the underside of fall boards for more than a century and a half. Most familiar is the Chickering, whose owners included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Teddy Roosevelt. Francis Scott Key played The Star-Spangled Banner on a Knabe; Lyndon Johnson has a Knabe, and Bobby Kennedy a Chickering. Other Aeolian pianos, built at seven plants in the U.S. and Canada, include Mason & Hamlin, Fischer, Pianola, Weber, George Steck, Duo-Art, Cable, Hardman Peck, Winter, Kranich & Bach, Ivers & Pond and Mason & Risch...
...uprights for $150. Two brothers, William and Henry Heller, whose father was one of Winter's founders, were convinced that the real future lay in high-quality, high-priced models. They bought back the piano interest from Sears in 1941 for a mere $180,000 and merged with Aeolian American Piano Co., long a leader in the quality field. Today prices range from a high of $7,250 for an ebony Mason & Hamlin concert grand to a low of about $400 for a 64-key spinet upright. After years of lagging popularity for the old player piano, the company...
Anticipating growing competition, Aeolian in 1951 moved Ivers & Pond south to Memphis and built the company's largest and most modern piano plant. It was close to the supply of high-grade wood, opened untapped markets, and, for a while at least, labor costs were considerably lower. Nevertheless, even a low-priced piano takes about six weeks to manufacture, while a more expensive one can take up to six months. As President Henry R. Heller Jr.-the grandson of the company's co-founder-puts it: "We can mass-produce to a point, but when you reach...
...Vulcano, one of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily, is compounded of black sand beaches and a wild lava landscape that looks like a modern sculptor's nightmare. The sea around it is an unbelievable sapphire, lined with small white polished stones, through which bubble numerous hot sulphur springs, which are supposed to work wonders on an amazing range of problems from acne to sex. And against this black and blue landscape are some 25 dazzling white Saracen-style houses built by rich vacationers, plus a hotel called Les Sables Noirs. Built around a flower-filled patio, Les Sables...