Notes From the Past

It has been three decades since I spent a few years happily residing in the heart of Hollywood. While news of change in a neighborhood is often tough to swallow, it is with particular sadness that I read about the demise and sale of Hollywood Piano Rental Co. (June 22).

How effortless it was for this college-age kid to walk into the original store on a summer day in 1972, with just a little cash in his pocket in those days before the ubiquity of plastic, and arrange delivery of the most beautiful old Steinway baby grand piano to my Franklin Avenue apartment for the princely rental rate of $40 per month. That gorgeous piano afforded practice and brought much enjoyment for the next couple of years, and I have never failed to remember it with utmost fondness.

Charles Smith

Danbury, Conn.