Dear Friends,  I would have a tendency to disagree with the story about
Steinway Ampicos in a mine, unless the time period was just before
World War II.  During the Depression, and, I guess, anytime, if someone
had enough money, the American Piano Company would install an Ampico
system in almost any kind of piano.  The probability that a Steinway
would end up in a mine seems highly unlikely, since these instruments
would have to have been specially ordered.  Someone with a _large_
amount of money would have had to place the order for many instruments.

Would Hitler have ordered them?  Doubtful; he would have rather had
Weltes, but their factory had been bombed during WW1.  Where was the
mine, Europe or the U.S.?  How about the Vatican?  One of the royal
houses in Europe?...

While we're talking about fantasies and mysteries, here's a real
mystery to ponder:

Rachmaninoff recorded his Second Piano Concerto for the Ampico on
April 7, 1919.  Masters must have been made, but they were never
issued.  What happened to the masters?  Did Elmer Brooks give the
masters to someone while they were going on a tour in the factory
in the 1960s?  Or did they go into the furnace to heat the building?
Does anyone you know have them?

The poser for the day.

Best wishes,  Mike Walter