[ Art Reblitz wrote in 140403 MMDigest:

> While writing the book ["The Golden Age of Automatic Musical
> Instruments"], I had the opportunity to interview Arthur E. Pierce,
> a radio announcer and player piano hobbyist from Plattsburgh,
> New York.

Someone should write a biography of Art Pierce, mentioned above.  He
was one of the great characters of the piano world.  Maybe he was a
hobbyist when it came to players, but he was a consummate technician
of piano rebuilding and repair.  In his long working life running the
Piano Workshop there in upstate New York, hundreds, if not thousands
of pianos came under his hands for everything from tunings to total
rebuilds.  With limited vision that worsened with age, he eventually
was doing piano rebuilding blind.

He was a quiet philanthropist, a spiritual person, and a joker as well.
Pianos and automatic music have always attracted a colorful crowd, and
Art had a starring place in that pantheon.

Jim Katz