George, I'm sure the piano techs and collectors will provide you
with good, sound advice.   Here's what I think, though...!

Most really small (short) old baby grands, in my opinion, are no
more than a useless piece of furniture: the tone is so poor.
I much prefer the sound of a big, 56-inch vertical "upright" piano,
which has much more sound board area than has the tiny grand.

The "baby grand" piano exists to fill the piano salesman's
requirement for an _inexpensive_ grand piano.  It's extremely
difficult to make a tiny piano with the same tone that a bigger
piano has.  But the typical piano customer is more concerned with
the price.  The baby grand has almost the same number of parts as
a big concert grand, therefore if it is to be cheaper it can only
be because it is assembled hastily, and the design probably hasn't
changed in 80 years!  (And it was a poor design _then_!)

Your big old Gulbransen vertical will yield much more exciting
music than an old baby grand.  Have a good piano tech look it over
for you -- the crack in the plate may not be serious.  Then get the
book by Art Reblitz on rebuilding player pianos, and fix it up
like new.

You'll love it!

Cheers,

Robbie Rhodes