Play It Again – The Joan Crawford Piano – A Treasured Part of Palos Verdes History By the President of the Palos Verdes Historical Society Dana Graham
Play It Again – The Joan Crawford Piano – A Treasured Part of Palos Verdes History
By the President of the Palos Verdes Historical Society Dana Graham
Over the years many Hollywood movie stars and celebrities have lived in Palos Verdes. One of them was Joan Crawford, who rented on Via Horquilla in the early 1950’s for her daughter Christina when she was attending Chadwick School. This is one of the houses that daughter Christina famously talked about in Mommy Dearest. She also talked about being made to take piano lessons, and one of the pianos was a parlor grand made by Jonas Chickering in 1888. The “Steinway” of the day, Chickerings of this era were top quality and innovative pianos with a unique sound. Such 19th Century piano luminaries as Franz Liszt and Louis Gottschalk played only Chickering pianos on their tours. In fact when Henry Steinweg (he Anglicized it later to Steinway) arrived in the US in 1850 he attended a concert by the renowned Jenny Lind. He didn’t care about Jenny Lind, but was so enthralled by the Chickering piano that he practically had to be hauled bodily away from it so the concert could begin.
The Palos Verdes Historical Society acquired the 1888 Chickering Parlor Grand a few years ago, following its longtime ownership by a family in Lunada Bay. They had acquired it thru a public auction of Joan Crawford’s possessions in 1956 and had proudly displayed, and lovingly cared for, it since then. In case you’re a Chickering devotee, this is a model 109C Parlor Grand measuring 6’4” long by 5’1” wide. In these days before electrical amplification, manufacturers experimented with mechanical means to get a bigger, louder sound. In keyboard instruments this began with the clavichord in the 16th Century, which was improved upon by the harpsichord, from which the piano was another leap beginning in the late 18th Century. The piano was so much louder than the harpsichord that the first pianos were known as pianoforte. Jonas Chickering was not afraid to continue to innovate, of which this piano is a beneficiary. In the model 109C he used an unusually large sounding board, which is why the back of this piano is so wide, and why it has a noticeably larger, more resonant sound compared to other parlor grand pianos.
The Palos Verdes Historical Society has loaned this splendid piano to a local musical family who has it in the “music room” of their magnificent new house. While it has been mechanically maintained over the years by an expert piano craftsman, it had suffered some cosmetic damage and deterioration. The family who now houses it has arranged with a very skilled artist to lightly and sensitively restore the beautiful paintwork on the case.
Piano restored by: Shari Tipich
Securely moving the piano into its new domicile was no small endeavor, requiring piano movers, a crane, and a specially built platform to get the piano up some exterior stairs into its special room.
When circumstances permit, we plan to offer live concerts so that anyone interested can hear what top quality pianos sounded like 150 years ago. So, if you want hear, live, what the pianos of Frederic Chopin, Camille Saint-Saens, Gabriel Faure, Felix Mendelssohn, and the Schumanns (Robert, Clara, and Fanny) sounded like back in the day, you won’t want to miss it.
Photography Credit: Dana Graham
Dana Graham, real estate expert, historian, PV Native and you can find Dana at www.danagraham.com
Dana is President of the Palos Verdes Historical Society.