Kids' museum welcomes Big donation: moviedom's walking piano

Visitors to a Philadelphia children's museum will soon be twinkling the ivories with their toes, when the Please Touch Museum unveils its latest addition: the Walking Piano from the movie Big.

Art collectors Janet and Joseph Shein who purchased the original, nearly five-metre lighted keyboard after the 1988 release of Big, have donated the famous piece of movie memorabilia to the museum.

The keyboard is featured in a key scene of the film, which starred Tom Hanks as a boy magically transformed into an adult after he makes a wish. Hanks, whose performance nabbed an Oscar nomination, famously "plays" Chopsticks and Heart and Soul on the three-octave piano in New York's F.A.O. Schwartz toy store with fellow cast member Robert Loggia.

Italian-born artist, engineer and lighting designer Remo Saraceni built the interactive keyboard, which he dubbed The Walking Piano, in Philadelphia, where his company Museum Interactive Technologies is based.

The Sheins, who live in Merion, Pa., said in an interview that they intially bought the piece because they considered it electronic sculpture and, over the years, have enjoyed allowing neighbourhood kids to play it each Halloween.

However, the couple ultimately decided to donate it to the Phildelphia museum, which has a collection of more than 12,500 toys and games dating from 1945.

"I am thrilled to add this icon of the big screen to our collection," museum president and CEO Nancy Kolb said in a statement.

"The movie as a whole and the piano scene in particular captures the innocence and enthusiasm of childhood. Much like a children's museum, it is about the joys of childhood and how, as we grow older, we play less but we never completely lose that desire to be a kid again."