Music: They Laughed When .. .

Next to the phonograph, the piano is the U.S.’s fastest selling musical instrument, and it is doing better than at any time since the big boom days of the ’20s. The American Music Conference, which keeps track, said last week that sales so far this year are 20.32% above 1954: at that rate, some 180,000 pianos will be shipped by year’s end. About 19 million Americans now play piano. Next most popular instruments: guitar (played by 4,000,000), stringed instruments (3,000,000), woodwinds and brasses (2,000,000 each), ukulele (1,600,000).