RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

PIANO FORTITUDE

Laurel and Hardy made a handsome living out of ineptitude. They bumbled and stumbled their way through scores of domestic situations familiar to their audiences, and this no doubt contributed largely to their success. If they had to walk through a door, they would trip over the mat. There was not a car they did not drive the wrong way in a one-way street. If they had to open a bottle of milk one could expect, with reasonable certainty, to find the contents dripping from the ceiling, or better still—each other, within

admit he is anything but competent, at everything. It is not in him to confess failure. But there are more of the Laurel and Hardy situations, every day of the week, than even the Hollywood producers would imagine. And, here and there, one can find an honest man. We know one. who told us about his recent decision to give his piano to his son and daughter-in-law. He had not used the instrument for some 30 years, and even at the height of his career, he had never achieved anything more distinguished than an ability to cross hands while playing "Chopsticka.” So he felt that if the music was not tn Mm any more, the

piano would be of more value to others.

But getting a piano on to a truck is no task for a retired pianist, and the man solicited the aid of a neighbour. They managed quite well, until it was necessary to lean the instrument over at an angle to get it through an opening. It was then that the neighbour produced the sort of yell peculiar to dying Redskins in the early days of the talking film. The owner of the piano had thrust an elbow firmly on the lid of the piano to keep it from flying open. He was not aware that beneath the lid his neighbour’s right ear was firmly imprisoned.