The Day Pianos Fell From The Sky During World War II

During World War II, keeping morale high was a complicated issue to solve. Countless war treaties mention how important this is to keep an army strong, even when it finds itself outnumbered or in a weapon disadvantage and specially in a war as long as this one, to give the soldiers some entertaining, particularly for the horror they were witnessing.

It was fairly common that theatre companies and some musicians were sent to areas near the front in order to perform. These performances would give soldiers a small but vital sense of normalcy and a space for them to release stress and tension from combat. However, shows weren’t the only thing they used.
Photo: Army.mil

Between 1941 and 1953, Steinway & Sons company got a contract that allowed to build special pianos which were considerably lighter in weight than a regular metal piano, considering that there were strong restrictions on the use of iron, copper, brass and other metals which were used for the manufacture of weapons.

This is how Steinway & Sons was able to build a piano that instead of weighing the usual 300 pounds, weighed 30 pounds instead. Steinway produced a total of 3,000 “Victory Vertical” pianos, usually olive green, blue, and gray, similar to military uniform colors.

Photo: Steinway & SonsThe pianos that fell from the sky were from the first delivery, which was done by launching the pianos on parachutes on top of equipment to tune the piano and a series of compositions so that soldiers could play popular songs, and patriotic hymns as well (among other hit songs from the time).
Irving Berlin singing aboard the USS Arkansas in 1944. Photo: Wikimedia CommonMost pianos were then taken to the front above trucks and, in the case of submarines, the pianos were built-in, so it was impossible to remove them from the ship. Soldiers were then able to create their own entertainment, particularly because some of the soldiers were musicians that had been drafted for service.

Photo: Michiganradio

«There was always someone that could sit down and figure out those boogie-woogies, and the soldiers apparently enjoyed them very much.» Garik Pedersen, pianist and professor at the Eastern Michigan. 

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