BUSINESS ENDING ON BITTERSWEET NOTE.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Maggie Owen pauses, and let's the question sink in. What is she going to do with the rest of her life? Since 1947, when she and her late husband, Bob, opened Owen Piano Co. - first in North Hollywood, then in Canoga Park - it's been the heart of the piano business in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . The place where hundreds of music teachers held recitals for their students, and dozens of movie and TV stars bought two or three pianos at a time. Autographed pictures to Maggie and Bob from Julie Andrews Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews, DBE (born Julia Elizabeth Wells[1] on 1 October 1935[2]) is an award-winning English actress, singer, author and cultural icon. , Jean Stapleton, Rue McClanahan Rue McClanahan (born Eddi Rue McClanahan on February 21, 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress, best known for her roles on the television sitcoms Maude and The Golden Girls. , Robert Stack, Mimi Rodgers, Sally Field Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is a two-time Academy Award winning American actress. She is also a three-time Emmy Award-winning and two-time Golden Globe Award winner who became a household name at age 20 as Sister Bertrille in the 1960s sitcom , Steve Allen, and dozens of other stars and music artists line the walls of Maggie's office. It's just down the hallway from the recital room, where the West Valley branch of the Music Teachers Association of California holds its monthly meetings and recitals. At least, for a few more months. After 55 years, Owen Piano Co. is preparing to close its doors. Maggie was busy Monday mailing out the last of 1,200 letters to longtime customers to give them the bad news. The business just isn't the same anymore, she says, especially with Bob gone two years now. ``What am I going to do with the rest of my life?'' Maggie says. ``I think maybe I'll take that slow boat to China.'' Bob would have liked that, she says with a smile. They met - where else - in a music store. It was 1946, and Bob Owen had been home only a few months after serving in the South Pacific during World War II. He was eager to share his dreams of becoming a jazz guitarist Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has a long history in jazz music, both as an ensemble instrument performing chordal accompaniment, and as with the good-looking girl working in the sheet music and records sections at Morey's Music Store in Long Beach. ``He just kind of grew on me,'' Maggie said. ``One day we were listening to some records from one of the great jazz guitarists See also
``So, he just sort of got sidetracked into the piano business,'' she said. ``For the next 55 years.'' While Bob got his piano business off the ground in the back room of Eddie Miller's Record Shop in North Hollywood in 1947, Maggie was home raising the first of five children the couple would have in the tiny house on Topanga Canyon Boulevard that later would be expanded to become the Owen Piano Co. As Topanga Canyon grew into a major thoroughfare THOROUGHFARE. A street or way so open that one can go through and get out of it without returning. It differs from a cul de sac, (q.v.) which is open only at one end. 2. Whether a street which is not a thoroughfare is a highway, seems not fully settled. , so did Bob Owen's family piano business thrive. Each child took a turn selling pianos and sheet music from their old family home. In January 1994, at age 75, Bob told Maggie he thought the time had come for them to retire, and maybe take that slow boat to China they had been talking about. ``We got a 30-day permit from the city to conduct a going-out-of-business sale Noun 1. going-out-of-business sale - a sale of all the tangible assets of a business that is about to close; "during the Great Depression going-out-of-business sales were very common" . On the last day the permit was valid, the Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. hit, and damaged a lot of our pianos. ``I told Bob maybe it was a sign we shouldn't close, and he agreed. So we stayed, and put even more effort into the business. We embellished the recital hall with a new stage and two pianos, and enlarged our sheet music section.'' Pretty soon, a few hundred music teachers in the Valley were asking if they could use recital room for their students. ``They opened their arms to us,'' said Joanna Ezrin, president of the 90- member West Valley chapter of the Music Teachers of California Association. ``If it wasn't for the Owen family, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what we would have done. They have meant so much to all the music teachers in the Valley. ``I can't tell you what a hole I have in my heart that they're closing.'' Tarzana music teacher Marina Gushansky stopped by Monday to say goodbye to Maggie and give her a hug. ``Thank you for being so warm and caring to so many of us,'' Marina said. ``We're in shock. I just don't know what we're going to do without you. It's just so sad.'' Maggie tells her not to lose hope. The Owen Piano Co. may be closing, but the building will be rented out to a new business, she says. ``We're talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to a few businesses, including one or two thinking of opening a music store,'' she says. Who knows? But no, she won't change her mind about closing this time, not even if another earthquake hits, Maggie says. She'll be on that slow boat to China. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Maggie Owen rests her arm on a 100-year-old Steinway piano in her Canoga Park store, which is closing up after 55 years of making music. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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