When a chiropractor named Dr. Ashley Manning opened the California Piano Supply Co. at 2251 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles in 1927, he knew that he’d need to do something bold if he was going to attract customers into his store, which was in a residential neighborhood. Manning must have been a big thinker because in around 1930, he built a large piano, measuring 40 feet high and 25 feet long, to the front of his store and painted it red. This, of course, provided no end of publicity opportunities—such as sticking four very young girls to pose on top of it. Although how Manning got them up there remains a mystery to me.

Here’s another shot using adults who, we may assume, climbed up there voluntarily:

Here is one of their advertisements:

This photo from possibly the 1950s shows how red it really was:

This is how that corner looked in November 2021. At least the building is painted red, but the corner looks so empty now, doesn’t it?