The 1941 movie Lady be Good dance sequence
are these real pianos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsgxEI_YR-8

Interesting! Thanks for the video link.

I've never seen a set of pianos like those. It was quite clear that the first couple of keyboard players were WORKING those keys....so I'd guess that the pianos were real, and not a 'lip-sync' kinda thing. But....odd design and cases... one-offs for the film? Modified pianos just for that clip?

Don't know, boss!

Thanks again,
(Great dancer, too!)

Gobble 'til ya wobble ya'all.

Those pianos remind me of the Rippen aluminium grands - could there be a connection?

The first piano looks like a 40" Steinway. Although the grand pianos are similar to some actual French pianos, I would guess they are props.

Definitely NOT an aluminum Rippen.

Wim

I only hear one piano.

* weird shape nobody has seen before
* lid does not seem to really fit, attached too high
* lid bends - not stiff enough?
* front side of piano seems very thin, too thin?
* legs at unusual place, would need special construction to not touch sound board and would interfere with sound radiation
* If it were real, they probably would cost a lot (for the design)
* they have a dozen of them
* We hear only 1 piano

My guess it's fake

They are stage props. The piano we hear is clearly a slightly honky-tonk upright.

Except for the lids, which might have been reinforced and cut differently, they look like copies of a Walter Dorwin Teague Steinway. I say copies because I doubt they could find that many of them. Although definitely prerecorded, the honky-tonk sound might be because there are at least four pianos in the recording at one point (with imperfect tuning) and one in the forefront that is in much better tune. I'm trying to figure out how they would make props with playable actions that would rise and fall without bouncing off strings though.

My guess is if they are real and since there are curtains around the first few feet below the key area and then a pedestal in the rear is they are spinets with a mock up attached to it. They had great prop builders in those days.

Have to say it sounds like a big grand because of the bass tone of the left hand boogie-woogie repeated phrase. I think they just spent time in finger and feet syncing the sound to the the visuals. I think the stage pianos are real pianos, with cabinet modifications, really being played, but the soundtrack is separate.