Manufacturing: Making the Best of It

Infantrymen around a “GI” Steinway
Steinway & Sons was allowed to produce 500 special “GI” pianos with an olive drab finish to entertain the troops.  Despite a ban on production, a few manufacturers were given contracts to produce musical instruments for the military.

The instrument manufacturers who survived the Crash and endured the Great Depression found themselves marching to the music of rationing and regulation during World War II.

The number of piano makers dropped from 125 in 1928 to 36 by 1932, as hundreds of small companies failed. Many merged with rivals in a bid for survival. Those who scraped by relied on invention and ingenuity.

Musical instrument manufacturers mobilized for the war effort by applying their metal and woodworking abilities to the production of everything from precision altimeters to bomb casings and airplane wings. They were so successful that nearly half of the major makers received the official Army-Navy “E” for excellence.

The music industry’s wartime experience in applied technology led to new and improved products after the war.