Walter Lane

[Les Smith]

On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, pianoman wrote:

> It always puzzles me how someone at the zenith of their trade can cease
> immediately being involved in that trade.  Walter Lane according to Les did
> only the best.  When he stopped, what did he do to keep himself going?
> service mainly) to this day as his name reputation lives on.  I think even
> if you stop doing whatever it is you are doing and you have done it really
> well you can't stop things.  Things on their own just keep going and
> gradually (very) will slow down.  But they do not stop.  Surely Walter Lane
> must have done something after 1930, what was it?

It's an interesting question, Jim, but if I'm forced to give away
everything here on Pianotech, there will be nothing left fot the book!
(Just kidding, there isn't going to be any book). When it came to pianos,
Walter Lane was a creative genius of the first rank. As I mentioned earli-
er, one can see this by perusing his patent drawings regarding, plate,
bridge, soundboard and frameowrk design, or even by just closely examining
one of his upright pianos. Like many such creative artists, Walter had
little interest in the more practical aspects of running a piano company.
He needed someone to handle that aspect of the company affairs, while he
devoted himself exclusively to designing and building pianos. That is why
he formed an early association with the Bush brothers of Bush and Gerts
fame (or infamy). It was not a successful alliance. The Bush brothers were
looking for a quick return on their investment and were primarily inter-
ested in producing low-quality, commercial quality instruments, which
could be turned over rapidly for a quick profit. Walter was interested
in building pianos of the highest quality possible and in necessarily
limited quantities. Such an alliance was doomed to failure.

Both Walter Lane and the piano world in general are fortunate that there
appeared a money-man on the scene in 1906 who recognized the genius of
Walter and decided to finance him with virtually unlimited capital, so
that he could give his creative genius free reign and never again have to
waste his energies on the mundane financial concerns of running the com-
pany. This financial benefactor's name was William Beach and he happened
to be a banker in Holland Michigan. He not only bought out the Bush
Brother's interest in the company, but his bank extended a huge line of
credit to B&L as well. If there was any real justice in the world, just
as Mason and Hamlin pianos should have been called Mason, Hamlin and
Gertz, Bush and Lane pianos should have been called Beach and Lane. It
was Beach's bank that arranged the purchase of the Ferrand Player Piano
Compnay (also of Holland, Michigan) by Bush and Lane and thus ensured
B&L's fliration with immortality. William Beach's role in the success
of Walter Lane's pianos can hardly be overstated. Simply put, William
recognized the genius of Walter Lane, and he gave him the financial
wherewithall to run with it as far and as fast as he could. In the
end, that proved to be 1930. 

In 1930, Walter Lane turned 62 to years old and was in failing health.
Even worse, William Beach was 17 years Walter's senior, and was thus
79 when his bank--like so many others--ran into problems. You ask why
they didn't continue on. The simple amswer is that they couldn't. Not
only the piano industry, but the whole country was in a state of flux
and change, and things would never again be as they once were. Never.
And so Bush and Lane closed their doors forever while at the absolute
top of their game, but is was hardly an occasion for a wake.

Together, Walter Lane, aided by his benefactor, William Beach, had one
hell of a run, which lasted the better part of twenty-five years. In
that time, working together, they produced some of the most outstand-
ing upright pianos and player pianos anyone ever built, anywhere, any-
time. Which is the reason why, among my collection of turn-of-the-
century grands, there is but a single upright, and the name on it's
fallboard reads "Bush and Lane".

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net