Unknown woman in a sailor suit. 1910 era.
Flora played piano. So did Marion. (Marion talks about ‘practicing’ without mentioning the word ‘piano’ in her 1907 diary. )
I left a blank in my blog, to fill in later: I wanted to find a typical song she might be practicing.
This particular issue has editorials trashing the women’s suffrage movement as well as the editorial trashing nickelodeons. (I put these editorials up on my website http://www.tighsolas.ca/ which I am using to write this novel Flo in the City.
Well, as I wrote on the Tighsolas website, piano playing was very popular in 1909. The ‘fad’ may have been at its apex. The middle class splurged on pianos… they cost a lot. 1,000 or so. That’s why ads for pianos seldom showed prices. (In a 1902 letter, Margaret is asking Norman to buy a piano second hand and see if they can get one for 100. dollars.)
So it’s no surprise that in this February 1909 issue of LHJ there is a full page column “A Department devoted to the Questions of Piano Students” by Josef Hofman, with the adjoining page having a song In the Twilight Garden, which I just decided I will have Flora playing (even if it is published a few months after)for it has a love and marriage theme.
Beside that song, in the magazine is, surprise, an advert for Ivers and Pond Pianos. Five models, no prices, but promise of deferred payment plan.
Good stuff for my story.
Oh, and on the Editorial Page, among the articles I mentioned is yet another one of interest, which I will write about in a future blog.
