This is the third in a series of four articles describing three extraordinary 20th century architects whose types form a 7-1-4 configuration (Fig. 31)
As a boy he helped support his family by playing the piano in a silent movie house. When the theater owner later substituted an organ for the piano, young Lou improvised and learned to play it overnight rather than lose his job. On weekends he walked twenty blocks to take the free art classes offered at the Fleischer Sketch Club. Helen Fleischer, the philanthropist behind the classes, was so impressed by his skill at playing the piano that she gave him a grand piano. As there was no room for it in the tiny Kahn tenement flat, Lou exchanged it for his bed and slept on the piano.