And by the early to mid 1980's high volume sales were no longer a reality. The Aeolian Piano Company for it's entire history depended on higher volume or mass production. Although this second hey day was never quite as big as the first one in the early 20th century. Although pianos were made and sold during the 1930's, sales dropped considerably and by the late 30's the player era was just about over.Īfter WWII the piano business as a whole slowly begin to recover and entered into what I call it's second heyday. Radio, the great depression of 1929 and World War II nearly crushed the industry. It flourished in the early 1900's during the first heyday of the American piano industry. The Aeolian player piano was probably the largest selling player ever. Search for more pianos for sale in Memphis Tn, and other cities. They may not be using the Aeolian name on current production.
#Aeolian wheelock baby grand piano plus#
Gibson now owns the name plus many others. Baldwin went out of business in 2001 and Gibson Guitars bought Baldwin. Baldwin later acquired many of the Aeolian piano names in the 1990's after Wurlitzer closed. In 1985 Wurlitzer acquired the Aeolian name. The rising costs of the industry, employee problems and quickly rising Asian competition were about to end the long continuous run of profitable piano making that Aeolian had enjoyed for so many years.īut they were not the only 100+ year old Americian piano maker that collasped in the 1980's and 90's. The Memphis factory, which had actually built pianos since 1951( as Ivers & Pond ), closed in 1985. This last plant was located in Memphis,TN. In 1983 Aeolian was sold to a former president of Steinway. And Asian piano makers have surpassed that number in annual production. Only the Kimball company may have produced more than that in one year. In the 1960's Aeolian made as many as 50,000 instruments some years. But there were many different brand names placed on the front of the pianos. Aeolian continued to build player pianos until 1982.Įarly players had the Aeolain Company name cast on the plate inside. The player piano business was tremendous before the Great Depression. They also manufactured a huge number of player pianos and supplied player actions to many other companies. In the late 1800's William Tremaine was a very successful home organ maker, selling chamber organs to the wealthy. But it was used in later years on foreign made grands and uprights. The Aeolian brand itself was never used on their instruments in the earlier years. The ability to hold a large amount capital is one reason Aeolian, Baldwin, Steinway, Kimball, Wurlitzer and a few other US piano plants survived the Great Depression of the 1930's. This was a huge amount for a piano factory to control in the early 1900's. They employed well over 5000 people and had capital of over $15,000,000. There were factories in New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Melbourne and Sydney. This brought even more piano names under the control of Aeolian. Over the next 35 or 40 years he acquired a huge number of piano names or brands. His son Harry took over in 1898 and changed the name to The Aeolian Company. William Tremaine established the company in 1887 as the Aeolian Organ & Music Co. Now the Gibson Guitar company owns the name. It changed hands 5 or 6 times in it's long interesting history.
0 kommentar(er)
