Posted on 05/17/2005 3:11:41 AM PDT by beyond the sea
LONDON (AFP) - Police and social workers sifted through public responses to an appeal to identify a mystery piano player who was found wandering, soaked and confused on an English beach last month.
Orchestras across Europe have been contacted as part of a broad effort to identify the young blond-haired man who is now being held in a secure mental health unit in the southeastern Kent region.
The Medway Maritime Hospital, where he first received care, said the man had not spoken since being found soaking wet on the beach of the coastal town of Sheerness dressed in a chic black suit and tie.
Making it harder to identify him is the fact that all the labels had been cut from the suit, white shirt and tie, social workers said Tuesday.
The Medway hospital made an appeal for help from the public through the national service for missing persons, and released a photo showing a tall, thin man with closely-cropped hair and hunched shoulders.
The helpline had received more than 160 calls by late Monday.
Police and social workers said they would examine a number of new leads on Tuesday.
A spokesman from West Kent National Health Service Trust said that sorting through all the information received after the appeal would take several days.
After failing to elicit any details from the patient, who appears anxious around strangers, hospital employees gave him a pen and paper hoping he would write his name, but instead he drew a detailed sketch of a grand piano.
"When we took him to the chapel piano it really was amazing... he played for several hours, non-stop," said Michael Camp, one of the social workers at the Medway hospital.
"I am not knowledgeable about classical music but I could tell he was pretty good," said Camp, who is based at the accident and emergency unit at Medway.
A spokeswoman for the West Kent National Health Service Trust would not confirm reports that he has played sections of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, because "nobody was skilled enough" to recognize the music.
But she said he had staged a "beautiful" performance.
"He's not talking at all," she said. "He's very frightened. He's drawing, but not to communicate. We are aware that he is a very vulnerable man and we would be putting him in a dangerous situation if we let him go."
Interpreters from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were brought in to see if he was from eastern Europe, and possibly an asylum seeker, but no one has been able to get him to talk.
The case has drawn comparisons with the Oscar-winning 1996 movie "Shine", which tells the story of acclaimed pianist David Helfgott who suffered a nervous breakdown while playing.
"Making it harder to identify him is the fact that all the labels had been cut from the suit, white shirt and tie,"
Hmmm...............
Was there a car rapped around a tree or a pole anywhere nearby that beach? Has anyone seen Billy Joel lately?
But on those clothes labels ....... that gives me the thought that this may be a great hoax. But, we'll see.
The poor man. I was going to make a "Rain Main" joke, but it is not appropriate. I hope they can help him.
I bet its 1900.
You did (just kidding).
I hope, if it's not a hoax, that he can be helped too. I'm thinking that the person that he may have lived with may be dead. And this may be a Peter Sellers' like "Being There" without the TV and Shirley MacClaine.
The regular crowd shuffles in
There’s an old man sitting next to me
Makin’ love to his tonic and gin
****
He says, son, can you play me a memory?
I’m not really sure how it goes
But it’s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man’s clothes
Making it harder to identify him is the fact that all the labels had been cut from the suit, white shirt and tie
Two solid clues: (1)Piano player; (2)Outlet mall shopper;....
Mmm? Savanna Syndrome patient?
That's what it is, Savant Syndrome. Sorry for my mistake.
This sounds like a mega hit for a movie. Interesting.
They already made it: The Bourne Identity.
This is just a pretty good publicity stunt by the "piano man".
I think you have about a 50/50 chance of being correctamundo.
I agree with you.
This biggest "giveaway" is that nobody has come forward.
This make "one" think that it was planned.
Another fact that does not look good for him is the tags of his clothes have been removed.
Sad to say, but publicity is the name of the game in this case.
IMHO
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