The Pied Piper

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The Pied Piper music store was a big part of downtown
Huntington and the regional music scene for 35 years

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HUNTINGTON -- The Pied Piper music store was an important part of downtown
Huntington and the regional music scene for 35 years.

Lawrence E. "Larry "Levine and his brother, Charles "Chuck"
 Sidney Levine, built a musical legacy from scratch.

They first opened the Pied Piper at 1035 4th Ave., in June of 1967.

In 1976, when the Huntington Urban Renewal Authority purchased and demolished
 their building to make way for a city-owned parking lot, the two brothers bought  a
triangular shaped piece of property at 3rd Avenue and Veterans Memorial
Boulevard where they built a unique Tudor-style building. Their block-long
building was a 15,000-square-foot music mall that housed everything
 from a super-sized showroom and a 150-person auditorium, to
 full car audio installation bays and even a fountain.

The brothers went on to open branch stores in the region. In 1991,
 the Pied Piper was ranked by Music Trends magazine as
the nation's third largest full-line music store chain.

Perhaps part of that business success among music lovers was that both
Larry and Chuck were professional musicians. They're remembered
 today for bringing to Huntington "Drums Across the Tri-State," a
 Drum Corps International show that ran here for a number of years.

The Pied Piper closed in 2002 when a new owner purchased their
 store's distinctive building. Today the building houses
 the local Morgan Stanley brokerage office.

Larry Levine died in 2002 and his brother Chuck in 2009.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 13, 2019.

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