Piano Movers

For some reason, piano movers are funny. Why is that? I just saw a commercial on TV featuring two guys hoisting a baby grand piano up to an upper floor via a rope and pully system. Alas, the rope was not strong enough and the piano fell. But since pianos fall very slowly, the two were able to get below it to attempt catching it using some sort of fabric or plastic. That didn't work so the piano broke into a million pieces. They gathered up the pieces and stuffed them into a strong plastic bag (the subject of the commercial) and then delivered the bag of parts to the intended apartment.

This piano moving gag is not new at all. There was a silent Charlie Chaplin film from 1914 called "His Musical Career". You can watch the entire short film on YouTube. He has to deliver a piano up a single flight of stairs and he does so all by himself with the piano on his back!

In 1932, Laurel and Hardy made their classic film "The Music Box". They are piano movers who have to deliver a piano up a long flight of outdoor stairs. These stairs and their 131 steps still exist out in LA. Once they finally get the piano to the top, a postman informs them that they could have driven their horse-driven cart around the block to get to the same location. So, they heave ho the piano back down the stairs to do just that!

This L&H film was a remake of a similar film from 5 years earlier called "Hats Off". In this film, the boys have to lug a washing machine up the very same stairs. Unfortunately, this film is lost.

The Three Stooges made a film called "An Ache in Every Stake" in which they are ice men delivering blocks of ice on a very hot day. So hot, in fact, that they can't get the product up the 147 steps of a similar stariway in LA before the ice shrinks from a one foot block into a one inch cube.