What’s your favourite scene from the Tom Hanks film Big? It probably involves Hanks and Robert Loggia dancing on a giant piano (called the Walking Piano), created by Remo Saraceni. The sculptor, toy inventor and technological fantasist passed away in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He was 89.

At the time of its release in 1988, Big was the fourth film in eight months to have a plot around body-switching (following Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa and 18 Again!) but the Penny Marshall-directed film ended up making over $150 million worldwide and is now considered a classic.

In the film, a 12-year-old Josh Baskin (Hanks) wishes before a magical Zoltar fortunetelling machine to be transformed into an adult. The wish is fulfilled and he finds a job at a toy company whose owner, Mac (Robert Loggia), is pleasantly surprised by the fresh ideas Josh brings in. Ultimately, Josh impresses Mac dancing on the 16-foot-long Walking Piano, created by Saraceni. The two of them do a rendition of Chopsticks.

Born in Fossacesia, Italy, in 1935, the inventor spent his early years at a home with limited resources. Growing up during Benito Mussolini’s fascist rule, he made it to the US only in the mid-1960s, working on his inventions by day and helping the US Navy advance its space efforts by night in Philadelphia.

Remo Saraceni called his inventions “interactive electronics

Saraceni came up with an early version of the piano at the Philadelphia Civic Centre Museum in 1970, according to The Ringer and it was called Musical Daisy. The idea kept evolving.

The inventor had a successful relationship with a toy store called FAO Schwarz and it sold many of his Saraceni toys in the 1980s, including a musical daisy cushion. But the relationship changed in 2016.

Saraceni wanted to return to his native Italy but he was embroiled in a yearslong trademark infringement battle over his creation.