Deckman - You're note ties in with the "radio pitch" terminology, but doesn't explain why Leeder and his dad considered that a "half tone high." A440 is what most of us now would consider the normal tuning - and probably would have been commonly used by radio performers quite a while back.

It would still be interesting if our original poster would give us a clue about how they "normally" tuned. (I'm still guessing it was to the piano in the parlor.)

John