WHEN IDA MET HARRY...

Pure magic ensued on stage, over the airwaves and throughout their lives together

- Joanne Culley

A task I set for myself during the pandemic is sorting through the boxes of sheet music left by my grandparents, Ida and Harry Culley, who were a duo piano team from the 1930s to the 1950s, performing on radio and stage.

Ida started playing piano at four years old in 1901. Her mother took her to a parade on Yonge Street in Toronto to welcome back the troops from the Boer War, where she heard the band play a marching song called “Soldiers of the King.” Afterwards, when she played it by ear on the piano, her parents realized she was a child prodigy. She went on to perform at the Canadian National Exhibition, put on piano demonstrations in music store showrooms and provided live piano accompaniment for the silent movies—where she met Harry, who was playing in a nickel theatre across the street.

After they married, the pair developed a two-piano, four-hand act called the “Black and White Spotters.” Ida adopted the alluring stage name “Claudette” while they played live on two grand pianos.