Philly-area creator of iconic piano in movie ‘Big’ is in a legal battle with FAO Schwarz

The FAO Schwarz flagship store in Manhattan brought longtime Philly-based artist and inventor Remo Saraceni one of his biggest breaks. The store sold several of Saraceni’s toys in the 1980s, including a musical daisy cushion that played different notes depending on where someone sat and a giant piano several feet in length that responded to pressure.

News dispatches of the time said Anne Spielberg, screenwriter for the movie Big, saw the giant piano in the FAO Schwarz showroom and it inspired the iconic sequence of Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia toe-tapping “Heart and Soul” and “Chopsticks” on the piano for the big screen.

“The piano was instant success immediately, all over,” said Saraceni. “The piano became like an icon all over the world. … It is some sort of people’s energy gathering to celebrate life and love through music and light.”

The relationship between the Saraceni and FAO Schwarz would go on amicably for decades, but that partnership soured after the brand was acquired by equity-backed ThreeSixty Group in 2016. The toy inventor and the brand’s new owners, MerchSource LLC, and affiliates, have been locked in a yearslong trademark infringement battle. Saraceni has accused the company of selling a version of the piano without his buy-in.

Saraceni asked people to boycott the iconic store this holiday season, accusing FAO’s parent company of leaving him destitute. He is living in his assistant’s home at age 88 with tens of thousands in legal fees and credit card debt.

“Right now the FAO in FAO Schwarz stands for fraud, abuse, obscene,” said the inventor in his boycott plea made as part of a GoFundMe campaign.

Attorneys representing the FAO Schwarz owners declined to comment.

Saraceni said his relationship with the toy company existed long before the Tom Hanks film hit the big screen.

FAO Schwarz displayed a model of the Big Piano between 1982 and 2015, which Saraceni maintained. After Big’s release in 1988, media outlets reported an explosion in demand for the toy. In a 2021 filing against FAO Schwarz in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Saraceni claimed the piano was similarly a boon for the toy store, becoming a “major draw” for its customers over the years, resulting in millions in revenue.

But FAO Schwarz would crumble under rising rents and competition from discount retailers, closing its Fifth Avenue toy store in 2015 — its last in the country. ThreeSixty Group purchased the brand in late 2016, with a grand return of the iconic store planned for Rockefeller Center two years later.

According to court filings, Saraceni was in negotiations with FAO’s new owners about the use of the Big Piano brand before the reopening. Saraceni alleges he provided the business a Big Piano for their temporary retail and trade shows with the understanding FAO Schwarz would not use the trademark “in connection with pianos, toy pianos, piano playmats, electronic keyboards, or any other item that would infringe Remo Saraceni’s trademark rights without a prior written agreement.”

By the November 2018 grand reopening of the Rockefeller Center FAO Schwarz store, negotiations had come to an end, said Saraceni. His 2021 suit alleges the flagship store had a “confusingly similar imitation of the Big Piano prominently displayed in the store and selling knock-off version piano mats,” benefiting FAO Schwarz at Saraceni’s expense.

The suit accuses FAO Schwarz and its owners of referring to the replicas as Big Pianos, creating a “false association” with Saraceni’s creation without his permission.

In court filings, attorneys representing FAO Schwarz countered that Saraceni only started using the Big Piano in branding around 2008. They said the invention was called the Walking Piano before that and argued the switch was “an effort to leverage the goodwill and notoriety generated by FAO Schwarz and the movie Big.” And because the piano was displayed in the FAO Schwarz showroom for so long, the brand developed some rights as well, according to attorneys.

Benjamin Medaugh, Saraceni’s assistant, right-hand man, and caretaker, said Saraceni has been living with him in Swarthmore since 2021 but he’s on a limited income, and the legal fight with FAO Schwarz has left him $26,000 in debt for legal fees alone.

Saraceni, who was born in the coastal city of Fossacesia, Italy, in 1935, had a humble upbringing. He made all his toys and thinks he became inventive out of necessity. He made it to the United States by the mid-1960s, seeing it as a promised land after growing up under Benito Mussolini’s fascist rule. He applied for a visa as an industrialist because he could manufacture radios. In Philly, Saraceni said he worked the night shift helping the U.S. Navy advance its space efforts. During the day, he’d work on his art inventions, focusing on how the mind and body reacted to music and light.

“It’s innate in us to harmonize with the environment, especially for love and peace,” said Saraceni.

Saraceni wants to retire in Italy, where his two sons live. He sees the outcome of the FAO Schwarz battle as his last hope to return home, as well as determining his legacy.

Medaugh said Saraceni and the toy brand’s owners had been in settlement talks but no reasonable offers had been made.

“He wants to go finish out his days on the coast in Italy where he was born but that requires more than the $800, $900 a month he gets from Social Security,” said Medaugh.