Remo Saraceni, a sculptor, toy inventor and technological fantasist best known for creating the walking piano on which Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia danced in a beloved scene from the 1988 hit movie “Big,” died June 3 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. . 89.
The cause was heart failure, said Benjamin Medaugh, his assistant and caregiver. Saraceni died at the Medaugh home, where she had been living in recent years.
Mr. Saraceni's specialty was “interactive electronics,” he said. x&ved=2ahUKEwiC15epys-GAxXwEFkFHTlHCTAQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20magazine%20remo%20saraceni&f=false” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>said New York Magazine in 1976. His other inventions included a watch that could answer out loud when you asked the time, a stethoscope stereo system that could blast your heartbeat, and plexiglass clouds that lit up with the sound of a whistle with a pastel color. suitable for lighting a room. They were all powered by what Saraceni (pronounced SAR-ah-SAY-nee) called “people energy”: the voice, touch, and warmth of the human body.
The power of this type of technology to enchant its users became a central element of the plot of “Big” and, in turn, the central element of one of the most fondly remembered scenes in the history of cinema. recent.
After wishing to be “big” on a magical Zoltar divination machine, the film's main character, Josh Baskin, transforms from a 12-year-old boy to a young adult (played by Mr. Hanks). He gets a management job at a toy company whose owner, Mac (Robert Loggia), recognizes Josh as his Saturday employee at FAO Schwarz. Mac is a shrewd capitalist who examines his industry in action; Josh is a boy who enjoys the world of toys (albeit in a man's body).
While Josh impresses Mac with his deep knowledge of FAO Schwarz products, they stumble upon Mr. Saraceni's nearly 16-foot-long walking piano. With childlike absorption, Josh begins jumping on him to the tune of “Heart and Soul.” Mac, inspired by Josh's unconscious delight, joins him, making the performance a duet. To an astonished crowd, the two perform “Chopsticks.”
Mac names Josh the company's vice president of product development, which sets the rest of the film's plot in motion.
“It was like jumping rope for three and a half hours every time we did the scene,” Hanks said. said Playboy in 1989. “We rehearsed until we were tired.”
The film grossed more than $150 million and boosted Hanks' status as a Hollywood star, earning him his first Academy Award nomination (for best actor). It also inspired decades of visitors to FAO Schwarz, where it was common for hundreds of people on a single day to line up to play the keys in their sneakers, sandals and loafers.
“Even if you don't know how to play the piano with your fingers, you can play it with your feet,” Saraceni said. said The New York Post in 2013.
He introduced the earliest form of piano to the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum in 1970. according to the sports and pop culture site The Ringer. Called “Musical Daisy,” it was an interactive sculpture with eight quilted petals that played different notes when you sat on it. She continued to experiment with the idea, turning the daisy into a musical rug before unveiling the piano concept in her Philadelphia studio in 1982.
Shortly after, FAO Schwarz acquired a Walking Piano. In 1985, the store's new management sought to turn it into a destination for film and television shoots. Anne Spielberg, Steven Spielberg's sister and co-writer of the “Big” script, paid a visit and “came back excited” about the piano, the other writer, Gary Ross, told The Ringer.
In it order From director Penny Marshall, Saraceni made a new version of the piano with three octaves instead of one and keys that light up when played.
Although no other invention of Mr. Saraceni became as well known as his piano, many others inspired similar delight.
Remo Saraceni was born on January 15, 1935 in Fossacesia, a city on the southern coast of Italy. His father, Giuseppe, worked with relatives making shoes and other leather goods, and his mother, Filomena Carulli, managed the house.
Remo started inventing when he was a child. His father got into trouble, he said The Chestnut Hill Local, when Remo turned a Mussolini poster into a kite.
He took electronics classes in Milan and worked as a radar specialist in the Italian army, but as a civilian he worked as a television repairman. He also founded his own brand of large, suitcase-shaped portable record players. He came to the United States in 1964 to attend the World's Fair and seek a better livelihood, although he spoke no English, had no American friends, and no savings.
He found work again as a television repairman and taped a note on his bathroom mirror: “America is where anything is possible.”
He married Maria Francione in 1965. They divorced in 1976 but remarried in 1995, when she was ill and died shortly after. He is survived by her sons, Ugo and Luca, and two grandchildren.
At the height of his success, in the early 1990s, Saraceni had his own 20,000-square-foot shop in Philadelphia with about 20 employees. Children especially loved visiting them, and many of Mr. Saraceni's clients were children's museums around the world. He made them devices like a “musical hand”: motion sensors connected to a sheet of music. Children could wave their hands like conductors and hear classical music coordinated with their movements.
After “Big,” Saraceni’s work exploded in popularity. But he was also forced to spend time chasing down copycat manufacturers and suing companies for trademark infringement.
At the end of his life, he was in a legal battle with a firm called ThreeSixty Group, which acquired FAO Schwarz in 2016. Medaugh, Saraceni's heir and executor, said he will pursue the lawsuit, which accuse the store selling imitations of Mr. Saraceni's work without adequately compensating him and says this left him destitute.
Mr. Saraceni's pianos can still be purchased for between $6,000 and $16,500, depending on size, by emailing info@bigpiano.comMr. Medaugh said. They represent the possibility of a healthy and fantastic relationship between people and technology.
“technology should live and breathe with you,” Saraceni told The Daily News in 1983. “It should answer to you, not you to it.”
