Life — September 1932 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Delivering the Steinway: Metamorphoses" This satirical piece humorously depicts moving a grand piano (a Steinway) into an apartment. The cartoon shows the instrument being maneuvered through a window amid chaos—a common practical problem in urban living. The joke plays on the contrast between the piano's status as a refined, elegant instrument and the ungainly physical comedy of getting it into the space. Characters discuss absurd solutions (throwing a noose around it, fastening it through windows), treating the precious object roughly. The title "Metamorphoses" suggests the piano undergoes a transformation—from treasured musical instrument to unwieldy physical obstacle. This satirizes both bourgeois pretensions to cultural refinement and the messy realities of maintaining such status symbols in cramped city apartments. The humor is situational rather than explicitly political.