Rudolph Wurlitzer Connection

The www.amica.org AMICA Bulletin Volume 49, Number 3 Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association May-June 2012

Bart Off and his Seeburg F

ISSN #1533-9726 The AMICA BulleTIn AUToMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CoLLECToRS' ASSoCIATIoN

Published by the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Visit the AMICA web site at: http://www.amica.org Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax exempt group devot- to enter the “Members-Only” portal, ed to the restoration, distribution, research and enjoyment of Current User Name: AMICA automatic musical instruments. AMICA was founded in San Password: treadle Francisco, California in 1963.

VoLUME 49, Number 3 May-June 2012 AMICA BULLETIN

FEATURES DEADLINES Ads and articles must be received Promoting AMICA ...... by John Motto-Ros ...... 108 on or before the 1st of these ODD The Philipps Pianella & Paganini Orchestrions ...... months: & The Rudolph Wurlitzer Connection ...... January July by Q. David Bowers ...... 114 March September Nickel Notes ...... by Matthew Jaro ...... 128 May November Bulletins will ordinarily be mailed in the 1st week of the even months, for expected delivery mid-month.

Terry Smythe 55 Rowand Avenue COLUMNS Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J2N6 204-832-3982 (email preferred) President’s Message...... 104 [email protected] Vice-President’s Message ...... 105 Editorial Observations ...... 104 MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Membership Update ...... 106 Membership Dues: AMICA 2012 Convention Itinerary ...... 107 USA Bulk Mail ...... $55.00 Letters ...... 108 USA First Class ...... $70.00 AMICAn Making Music . . . . by John Moto-Ros . . . . . 113 Overseas ...... $70.00 Canada-Mexico ...... $65.00 AMICAn On The Road ...... by Darryl Coe ...... 139 Renewals – Additional $5.00 due if Chapter News ...... 141 renewed past the Jan. 31 deadline New Audio/Video Discs ...... 149 Address changes and corrections In the News ...... 150 Directory information updates In Memoriam ...... 155 Additional copies of Web Sites of Interest ...... 156 Member Directory . . . $25.00 Ads ...... 157 Single copies of back issues ($10.00 per issue – based upon availability)

Lyle Merithew & Sandy Swirski 416 Colfax Drive San Jose, CA 95123-3403 Front Cover: Bart off and his Seeburg F 408-227-9284 Inside Front Cover: Sohmer piano Ad 1897 [email protected] Inside Back Cover: Standard Play Monthly Ad october 1924 To ensure timely delivery of your BULLETIN, please allow 6-weeks Outside Back Cover: PUCK, November 1889 advance notice of address changes.

AMICA Publications reserves the right to accept, reject, or edit any and all submitted articles and advertising. While the AMICA Bulletin offers accurate and historic information to its members, the bulletin, its publisher and the AMICA Board cannot be held responsible for contributions that may be considered by some as inaccurate, speculative, or of an OP/ED Format

PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENT EDIToR Tim Baxter John Motto-Ros Terry Smythe 939 Briarcliff Rd NE 110 Allen Ranch Road 55 Rowand Avenue Atlanta, GA 30306-4664 Sutter Creek, CA 95685 Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J2N6 404-377-1220 209-267-9252 204-832-3982 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

VICE-PRESIDENT TREASURER Alan Turner Joe Orens 148 Kingsway Avenue 8917 Wooden Bridge Road Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3M 0H1 Potomac, MD 20854-2448 204-489-3075 301-340-6664 [email protected] [email protected]

SECRETARY MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Bob and Bonnie Gonzalez lyle Merithew & Sandy Swirsky 26 Foremast Cove 416 Colfax Drive Corte Madera, CA 94925 San Jose, CA 95123-3403 415-924-6834 408-227-9284 [email protected] [email protected] - Committees -

AMICA ARCHIVES CoNVENTIoN CooRDINAToR Tom hutchinson Frank nix 15361 Hopper Road 6030 Oakdale Avenue Sturgeon, MO 65284 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 573-442-6675 818-884-6849 [email protected] [email protected]

AMICA MEMoRIAL FUND AMICA Honor Roll Ray Dietz Thomas & Donna Stengel 1250 Lanier Road 46 Court St. Martinsville, VA 24112-5212 Lancaster NY 14086-2302 276-638-8563 716-683-5309 [email protected] [email protected]

AUDIo-VISUAL & TECHNICAL WEBSITE MANAGER harold Malakinian Karl ellison 2345 Porest Trail Drive 6 Lions Lane Troy, MI 48098 Salem, MA 01970-1784 248-528-3111 978-740-5680 [email protected] [email protected]

AMICA ENDoWMENT FUND Richard VanMetre 1506 South Courtland Avenue Park Ridge, IL 60068-5333 847-318-7310 [email protected]

102 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 AMICA INTERNATIoNAL Chapter officers FoUNDING CHAPTER LAND oF DIXIE Reporter: Larry Emmons Pres: John Ulrich - 510-223-9587 President: Walt Gerber - waltgerber@bell- Board Rep: Jere DeBacker [email protected] south.net Vice Pres: Karen Simons Vice President: Robert Soule SoWNY (Southern ontario,Western New Sec: Jack & Dianne Edwards Treasurer: Tim Baxter York) Treas/Bd Rep: Lyle Merithew & Sandy Swirsky Secretary: Danita Gerber Pres: Glenn Roat Reporter: Bob & Bonnie Gonzalez Board Representative: Tim Baxter [email protected] [email protected] Vice Pres: Bob and Kathy Singer BoSToN AREA Sec: Shirley Roat Pres: Kirk Russell - [email protected] MIDWEST (oH, MI, IN, KY) [email protected] Vice-Pres: Phil Konop - [email protected] Pres: Don Johnson - 248-650-1840 Treas: Holly Walter Sec: Phyllis Konop [email protected] [email protected] Treas: Dorothy Bromage - [email protected] Vice Pres: Liz Barnhart Reporter: Glenn and Shirley Roat Reporter: Sec: Hilda Merchant [email protected] Board Rep: Bob Hunt - [email protected] Treas: Alvin Wulfekuhl Board Rep: Mike Walter Reporter: Christy Counterman Photographer: Bill Lukasiak CHICAGo AREA Board Rep: Liz Barnhart Pres: Jerry Biasella - 708-756-3307 SoUTHERN CALIFoRNIA Vice Pres: Richard Van Metre NoRTHERN LIGHTS (MN, ND, SD, MB, Pres: Jerry Pell - [email protected] Sec: Carol Veome - 773-338-1042 Northernontario) Vice Pres: Mike Choate [email protected] Pres: Paul Watkins - 763-421-0672 Sect/Reporter: Shirley Nix Treas: Joe Pekarek [email protected] [email protected] Reporter: Curt Clifford Vice Pres: Treas: Diane Reidy Board Rep: TBD Sec: Mark Kraabel Board Rep: Frank Nix Treas: Barbara Watkins HEART oF AMERICA Reporter: Jerrilynn Boehland TEXAS Pres: Bob Stout - 816-833-1556 Board Rep: Paul Watkins or Mark Kraabel Pres: Rich Clayton - 972-369-0470 [email protected] [email protected] Vice Pres: Dan Davis PACIFIC CAN-AM Vice Pres: Michael Barisonek Sec: Trudy. Moffitt Pres: David Goodwin - 253-517-3348 [email protected] Treas: Brian Graham [email protected] Treasurer: Janet Tonnesen Reporter: HC and Marlene Beckman Vice Pres: [email protected] Board Rep: Gary Craig Secretary: Larry Sanchez Secretary: Suzanne McCall Treas: Mark Smithberg [email protected] LADY LIBERTY Reporter: David Goodwin, Larry Sanchez Bulletin Reporter: Ken Long Pres: John Dousmanis (646) 638-2201 Board. Rep: Carl Dodrill [email protected] Vice Pres: Vincent Morgan - 718-479-2562 Board Rep: John McCall [email protected] RoCKY MoUNTAIN j-mccall@sbcglobal .net Sec: Bob Stuhmer Pres: Jere DeBacker - 303-570-6243 Treas: Maryam Morgan [email protected] Reporter: Martin "Buzz" Rosa Vice Pres: Ken Hodge Board Rep: Vincent and Maryam Morgan Sec: Louise Lucero Newsletter Editor: Bill Maguire Treas: Barry Weiss Affiliated Societies and organizations American Theatre organ Society (AToS) Carousel organ Association of America President/CEO – Ken Double Editor/Publisher: Ron Bopp Netherlands Mechanical organ Society-KDV 1815 DeFoors Walk, NW (918) 527-0589 A. T. Meijer Atlanta, GA 30318 4725 Montrose Dr., Bradenton, FL, 34210 Wilgenstraat 24 PH: 404-790-5400 [email protected] NL-4462 VS Goes, Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Friends of Scott Joplin THEATRE ORGAN Co-Editors – Northwest Player Piano Association 1217 St. Croix Ct. Mike Bryant and Don Feely Everson Whittle, Secretary Kirkwood, MO 63122-2326 Editorial Office 11 Smiths Road, Darcy Lever, website: http//stlouis.missouri.org/fsjoplin 3111 NE 165th Pl. Bolton BL3 2PP, Gt. Manchester, England Email: [email protected] Vancouver, WA 98682 Home Phone: 01204 529939 Phone: 206-619-6645 International Piano Archives at Maryland Business Phone: 01772 208003 E-Mail: [email protected] Performing Arts Library,University of Maryland Email: [email protected] 2511 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Associazione Italiana Musica Meccanica College Park, MD 20742 Pianola Institute Villa Silvia - Via Lizzano, 1241 Phone:301-405-9224 Clair Cavanagh, Secretary 47023 Cesena (FC), Italy Fax: 301-314-7170 43 Great Percy St., London WC1X 9RA Phone: 0039-547-323425 Email: [email protected] England Fax: 0039-547-661264 Email: [email protected] International Vintage Phono Player Piano Group Website: www.ammi-italia.com & Mechanical Music Society Adam Ramet, Bulletin Editor C.G. Nijsen, Secretaire General 42 Park Road, Westcliff on Sea, Essex, UK Australian Collectors of Mechanical Musical 19 Mackaylaan Email: [email protected] Instruments 5631 NM Eindhoven, Netherlands Peter Phillips - Editor Smithsonian Institution 26 Alice Street Musical Box Society of Great Britain Division of Musical History Padstow, NSW 221, Australia Alison Biden Washington, D.C. 20560 Phone: (612) 9773-4734 St Giles Hilltop, Northbrook Close email: [email protected] Winchester, Hants. Society For Self-Playing Musical Instruments SO23 0JR, UK Gesellschaft fur Selbstspielende Netherlands Pianola Association email: [email protected] Musikinstrumente (GSM) E.V. Nederlandse Pianola Vereniging Ralf Smolne Att. Jan van Hulzen, Member of the Board Musical Box Society International Emmastr. 56 Chopinrode 25 Rosanna Harris, Editor D-45130 Essen, Germany 2717 BH Zoetermeer, Netherlands P.O. Box 111, Phone: **49-201-784927 email: [email protected] Custer, SD 57730 Fax :**49-201-7266240 605-673-3068 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 103 President/ 2012 Convention Chair’s Message Hi Folks,

A hearty thanks to those who have been so helpful to date for our 2012 Convention in Pittsburgh, including Mike Walters (SOWNY) as well as Joel Clusky and eileen Jacobs (on the ground in the 'Burgh) who given enormous assistance. We are trying to make the hospitality room even more of a "destination" by loading it with more than the usual number and type of instruments. I still need volunteers to take shifts to acts as monitors and demonstrate some of the more esoteric instruments (training will be provided; a few won't be strictly "hands on" as they are beyond the usual pumpers and reproducing pianos). Please respond to me at my “convention” email address below if you’d like to help with this, or in any other capacity. Finally, in a long-held idea of John Motto-Ros, he would like to invite the media to at least some part of the convention. If anyone has any media contacts in Pittsburgh and its environs, please let me know so we can try that avenue first. I am excited to greet you in Pittsburgh!

Sincerely, Tim Baxter amica_2012_mindspring.com editorial Observations In recent weeks, thanks to John Motto-Ros and Alan Turner, AMICA has been before the public in a highly visible and appreciated manner. These events serve to remind us of the need for all members to be sensitive to such oppotunities when they emerge. Founding and Boston Chapters have found ways to lend a helping hand consistent with our goals and objectives. Perhaps all Chapters should make a point of establishing a close relationship with local historical societies, which often maintain historic mansions, within which many had player pianos in their day. In recent weeks, an opportunity emerged for AMICA to acquire 73 issues of The Music Trades, a weekly journal 1890 to 1940. The issues we acquired are not duplicated within what we already have. Our objective is to digitize them all and make them available in our on-line research library. At the same time, a number of possible opportunities for additional original literature are emerging, where it will be desirable to appeal to members in specific areas to inspect and acquire for AMICA. Our initiative in promoting Q. David Bowers’ new book – Violin-Playing Machines, has been remarkably successful, supporting a print run of 750 copies. This reinforces a perception that there is a wide- spread hunger out there for new published information. In this issue, we are featuring a fine article by Q. David Bowers - The Philipps Pianella & Paganini Orchestrions & The Rudolph Wurlitzer Connection. He donated the manuscript for this excellent article to both AMICA and our sister society in Ger- many, Gesellschaftfur̈ Selbstspielende Musikinstrumente (GSM), where it is appearing in their journal simultaneous with ours. Continuing with Matthew Jaro’s excellent column, Nickle Notes, we are featuring Bart Off, a collector of coin actuated instruments and does immaculate restorations. We would like to highlight, in a similar fashion, other collectors/collections of note. Historically, AMICA’s Publications Committee has been essentially a committee of one. Recent initiatives suggest that time has come to form a proper committee to assist with such as harvesting original literature and new book administration, etc. Those interested in these initiatives are invited to contact me personally. See you all in Pittsburgh! Enjoy! Terry Smythe [email protected]

104 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Vice-President’s Message As I write this message, I am preparing my Steinway Duo-Art for loan out to a social event called “The Roaring Twenties – Black & White” being put on by the “Young Associates” of Manito- ba. The event is looking as though it will be a sell-out with approximately 500 people in attendance. The event is reported to cater to the up-and-coming movers and shakers as well as many well established entrepreneurs and business professionals in the Winnipeg area. I am doing this loan as a means to get more exposure for our hobby and in turn AMICA as a major force in the hobby. I will have numerous past issues of our bulletin as well as AMICA membership applications for anyone who might be interested in finding more out about AMICA and our hobby. In addition, the organizers of the event, "Young Associates” have agreed to post a link to AMICA on their website after the event, so that people who enjoyed the Duo-Art music can find more information about AMICA and our hobby. Watch in the next bulletin for a more detailed article on the event as well as how it all turned out. If you consider doing this sort of loan of your instrument(s), here are a few things to keep in mind; the organizers of the event should pay the moving expenses for both directions, they should carry full replacement value insurance on your instrument(s) while away from your home and finally, in the case of a piano (or similar stringed instrument) they should pay for tuning at least at the event venue, and ideally upon its return home as well. My hope is that this exposure of my instrument in a public venue like this generates some new interest in our hobby and that in turn brings AMICA a few new members! Musically,

Alan Turner [email protected]

Unique AMICA engraved plaque mounted on the treble stack shroud, for all to see. Promotional banner for the event Ed Note: History repeats itself 35 years later, as this is the second time that a Duo-Art reproducing grand piano has graced this building here in Winnipeg. See also our AMICA Bulletin for: April 1977, Vol 14, No 3 ts

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 105 Membership Update David Allan Dwight Johnson G.l. Ward 692 N. Adele St.#9 3300 Smith Drive 23 Bevan Pl Orange, CA, 92867 Armstrong, BC, V0E 1B1, Canada Carlingford, NSW, 2118, Australia [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Dyrk & Jodi Bolger Kate Kelcher larry Weingartner & Paula Mackowiak 10 Parrish Bay 5129 Emerson Ave. S 2606 Clover St St. Andrews, MB, R1A 3B2, CANADA Minneapolis, MN, 55419-1155 Rochester, NY, 14618 204.339.2560 612-823-0303 585.473.8652 [email protected] [email protected] John Kiszla Robert Buckler 1903 Winter Harbor Pl Mark Weyna 1587 Anderson Road Vallejo, CA, 94591-8020 345 S.Warrington Rd. Pittsburgh, PA, 15209-1000 415.215.1701 Des Plaines, IL, 60016-3023 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Rick and Pamela Crandall Janice lee & Richard Crabb Welcome Back! 601 E. Hopkins Avenue, Suite 202 3515 Morrell Ave., Aspen, CO, 81611, Kansas City, MD, 64123 Phil Bordeleau 970.379.1305 cell 816-483-2831 1912 Alston Ave., [email protected] [email protected] Fort Worth, TX, 76110 817-926-7346 Darold & Judy Davis Mikey Mills 10201 NW 72nd Terrace 204 Ridgepointe Drive Warren and norma hagist Kansas City, MO, 64152 Cold Spring, KY, 41076 645 Slocum Road [email protected] Saunderstown, RI, 02874-1708 Gene de laveaga 401-295-5694 10684 W. Merab Court John Plut [email protected] Star, ID, 83669 2 Lake Vista Ave 201-514-0329 Daly City, CA, 94015 John and Cyndy haskey [email protected] 650.994.1614 310 Braemoor Dr, [email protected] Santa Cruz, CA, 95060-9451 Jim & Marlene Doak 831-420-1723 2845 Woolsey Ln. Roger Ritter [email protected] Wayzata, MN, 55391-2752 2638 DeSoto Way S 952-473-1308 St. Petersburg, FL, 33712 Richard Riley [email protected] P.O. Box 1258 Julian ellington Rocklin, CA, 95677 14780 E. Kentucky Dr. #428 Ted Stahl [email protected] Aurora, CO, 80012-3720 48300 Structural Dr 303-522-6409 Chesterfield, MI, 48051 Mike and Sandy Schoeppner [email protected] 586.246.3600 12906 Raytown Road [email protected] Kansas City, MO, 64149-1007 Brian and Betty Falk 816-767-9766 321 Wexford Heights Dr. Stephen & Charlene Stokes [email protected] Saint Paul, MN, 55112-3148 300 Spring Hill Lane 612-633-4907 Lebanon, PA, 17042-9055 Mel Sutter [email protected] 717.273.4384 225 W. Sutter Lane [email protected] Bernice, OK, 74331-2936 Bonnie hageman & Ray Johnson 918-323-0222 1420 Rosecrest Ter Craig Ventresco [email protected] San Jose, CA, 95126-2147 1869 Stockton St. #4 408-371-2251 San Francisco, CA, 94133-2957 Stuart Weiner [email protected] 7 Normandy Parkway Morristown, NJ, 07960-5717 732-740-3798 [email protected]

106 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 AMICA 2012 Convention Pittsburgh, PA, uSA outdoor catered lunch and after July 11 – 15, 2012 Dave’s concerts Tour of the grounds will include viewing the Please plan on attending the 2012 Convention in Pitts- clock tower with its 1907 Seth burgh, PA, an exciting city with attractions galore, many within Thomas clock and roll-playing walking distance of our convention hotel. Schulmerich carillon, a Black Our convention hotel, the Sheraton Station Square, is wood gyrocopter, and an antique situated at the premier location in the city: on the Monongahela radio collection. Riverfront in downtown Pittsburgh overlooking Fort Duquesne • Dinner on own and the Golden Triangle, where the Allegheny and Monongahela • Pumper contest Rivers meet to form the Ohio River. The hotel is part of the Sta- tion Square shopping complex, which comprises 52 acres of indoor Saturday, July 14 and outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment. Being among • Workshops Pittsburgh’s largest tourist destinations, it attracts more than three • Mart (if sufficient interest) million people annually. Station Square incorporates the former • Local Sightseeing “grand” station of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, with • Banquet with Ortner-Roberts Jazz Trio some of the original structures such as the freight house building Sunday, July 15 and the elegant concourse being converted into restaurants and a • Closing breakfast and annual meeting shopping mall. (If you ever saw the movie “Flash Dance,” a por- • Private collection tours (on own, or we may charter tion was filmed at the Grand Concourse Restaurant). Station buses if there is enough interest; additional fee for Square boasts a stop on Pittsburgh’s light Rail System (“PAT”), buses on this day only may be assessed; see registra- as well as the docks for the Gateway Clipper River Fleet and tion form) “Just Ducky” DKW (WW2 amphibious boat) tours. Spare time can be used to tour many excellent sites, including: Wednesday, July 11 • The Warhol Museum • Arrival and 9:00am Board Meeting / self-guided • The Carnegie Museum of natural history (the sightseeing for non-Board Members biggest and best dinosaurs, and much, much more) • Pianola concert with Bob Berkman – Bob has sever • The Carnegie Museum of Art al “shows” he can perform and will highlight a • The national Aviary unique cultural aspect of the pianola in a finely-tuned • The Duquesne and Monongahela Inclines (and the and entertaining show breathtaking view of the city from atop Mount Washington) Thursday, July 12 • The nationality Rooms at the university of Pitts- • Opening breakfast burgh • Tour of Frick Art and historical Center, including • “Just Ducky” Duck tours on vintage WWII DKW Clayton, the mansion of Pittsburgh industrialist amphibious transport Henry Clay Frick, and the Car and Carriage Muse- um. The mansion includes a Welte Cottage The hotel rate is $119 a night, and the convention registra- Orchestrion restored by Durward Center in a rare tion fee of $385.00 will include all attractions and transportation “original installation” location. (except for Sunday collection tours by tour bus; we’ll see if there is • Box lunch provided in between tours enough interest to merit bus rentals for that day), as well as two • Tour of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners. The convention is open Gardens, with 17 distinct botanical experiences, to members of MBSI, COAA and the Player Piano Group at no including a Palm Court, Butterfly house, Orchid additional charge (or AMICA membership requirement). Room and formal outdoor garden. The Phipps Wel- To make a hotel reservation, call the Sheraton Station come Center is the first LEED-certified building in Square at 1-800-325-3535 and mention the AMICA room rate. a public garden and boasts a fabulous Dale Chihuly useful links: chandelier. • Return to hotel and board Gateway Clipper River Sheraton Station Square: http://www.sheratonstationsquare.com/ Boat dinner tour of Pittsburgh’s three rivers and Frick Art & Historical Center: http://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/ stunning skyline. Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden: http://phipps.conservatory.org/ Friday, July 13 Blackwood: http://www.blackwoodmusic.org/ • Tour of Blackwood, a 35-acre estate in Butler Coun Kennywood Amusement Park: http://www.kennywood.com/ ty built in its entirety by AMICAns Don Fink and Gateway Clipper: http://www.gatewayclipper.com/ Ben Robertson. Visit to include a concert by Dave Duquesne Incline: http://www.duquesneincline.org/ Wickerham on Blackwood’s meticulously restored 3 Carnegie Museum of Art: http://www.cmoa.org manual, 26 rank Wurlitzer theatre organ with gold- Warhol Museum: http://www.warhol.org leaf “waterfall” console. Nationality Rooms at Pitt: http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/ • Mini Organ Rally on the grounds during a wonderful National Aviary: http://www.aviary.org/ Just Ducky Tours: www.justduckytours.com/ AMICA Bulletin - Jan/Feb 2012 107 Promoting AMICA Promoting AMICA by John Motto-Ros no missed opportunities here! Background: About three years ago, we had a GM/Chrysler/Toyota dealership in Amador County located between Sutter Creek and Jackson, CA. Hard times hit, and the dealership was closed. This consisted of a new building complex less than five years old. A stroke of luck--a classic auto restoration shop relocated in the former Chrysler building. The showroom is now loaded with very old cars from 1900 to the mid-1930's. I visited with the owner and found out he likes nickelodeons. The Grand Opening was Saturday, May 12, 2012. The owner came and picked up our Wurlitzer Pianino and placed it in a alcove off the main showroom.

Pianino in the background and also catches a four million dollar Dusenberg convertible that belonged to Mae West.

Not missing an opportunity to promote AMICA, we brought old BULLETINS with FREE COPY labels and our silent salesman loaded with membership applications. I would estimate there were at least 500 people attending the event. The Pianino was frequently played and attendees were delighted. The owner asked if I would leave it there for awhile, and the answer was yes. We live nearby, and I can check it often. Win-Win for AMICA. letter Ed note: This is a fine example of promotion for AMICA and its To: Terry Smythe goals and objectives. Another similar opportunity has just From: Roy Beltz emerged in the Tacoma, WA area - LeMay - American Car Date: 23 April 2012 Museum. See: Re: The Missing has Been Found! http://www.lemaymuseum.org/ I wrote an article about AMICA Table Favors that was published in the March/April 2000 AMICA Bulletin, and subse- Perhaps our Pacific Can-Am Chapter might consider quently reprinted in the March/April 2007 AMICA Bulletin. embracing this opportunity to do something similar. For “1982”, I stated , “No table favors were received this year.” Going one step further, how many of our Chapters have On 7 March 2012, I received from Bill Dean, Bethle- joined forces with their local historical societies? Many of these hem, PA., a sample of the 1982 table favor. At that time, he operate vintage mansions, which in their day, may well have had was the Convention Coordinator. a player piano, or even a producing piano on premises. The table favor is a small packet of stationery, 3” x 4”. Not too different from our Founding Chapter which embraced restoration of a Wurlitzer nickelodeon in Virginia City, On each sheet in the upper left hand corner, is an image of a MT, through the Montana Historical Society, and the Boston pianist seated at a grand piano. The stationery is sealed in clear Chapter which embraced restoration of a player piano for the plastic, with a small gold label attached, stating, “AMICA Charles River Museum in Waltham, MA. International Convention 1982, Bethlehem, PA.” I now have all known AMICA table favors, as well as some related items. 108 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Letters (cont’d) to: terry smythe forations. There is nothing to indicate the date, but the original From: Julian Dyer Duo-Art #6100 was issued in 1919 and the miniature may well Date: 7 March 2012 have been created for the relaunch of the Duo-Art in the UK after WW1 in c.1920. Other miniature Duo-Art rolls were issued in Re: Miniature Rolls London for the launch of the Audiographic series in the later 1920s, but this is clearly much earlier. All of them are very unusual, and have rarely if ever been written about. The musical museum in Brentford has only got three (and not all boxed, either) despite Frank Holland's decades of assiduously collecting every Duo-Art roll he could locate! I have no idea whether anything like this was ever issued by the Aeolian's American operation. By comparison, I've also photographed the miniature roll that Mastertouch in Australia issued for its 75th anniversary some 18 years ago [below, with the Duo-Art miniature alongside 2163 for comparison]. It's a standard roll trimmed to 5-5/8" width, with souvenir words printed on it but not aligned with the perforations. It's in a shortened box of otherwise normal dimensions, and has normal spool ends. The words are "Hello, I'm a souvenir mini roll from the Mastertouch piano roll company. Thank you for helping us to celebrate 75 years of piano roll production in Australia. 26-11-94."

2164

Recently I was fortunate enough to obtain this miniature Duo-Art roll [pics 2163, 2164]. It's a compressed version of the start of the production roll of Paderewski's Minuet in G played by the composer (Duo-Art #6100), omitting the blank space and the sustaining pedal but otherwise taken directly from the production stencil, as the comparison photo shows [2193]. The eader

2193 is printed on directly, not a separate attachment as per normal British-issue rolls. The spool ends are wooden turnings in scale with the roll, screwed on to the core. The box is a scaled miniature of the original, and the roll is 5" wide with normal-size per-

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 109 To: Amica Editor: Terry Smythe ciative, then off they went via Yellow cab. 55 Rowand Avenue When I went to return the ampico roll to my friend with Winnipeg, MB, Canada r3j2n6 the hitchcock autograph, I thought I won't be able to talk him out From: Roger Morrison of this roll at any price. When I told him all about the visit and Another Autographed Roll! showed him the autographed roll and profile hand drawn by Mr. Hitchcock, he too was excited and then said, "Roger, I want you In previous issues of the AMICA Bulletin, I have seen to have this roll -- he autographed it for you!" I could not believe and read articles on piano rolls autographed by the pianist or what he said and did. I was 21, that was 54 years ago, and I still composer, but the Ampico roll I had autographed was by neither have this Ampico recording in my Ampico library of music, as one. though it just happened yesterday! Back in 1958 I was 21 years old and was working for a company in Glendale just north of downtown Los Angeles and a Roger Morrison few minutes from Hollywood, California called Pacific Piano 818 957 3640 Supply Company. They were in sales and service, and sold parts and player piano supplies to technicians in southern California. They also had a refinishing department, action regula- tion and restringing departments. Another specialty department was rebuilding foot pump player pianos, and Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos. I worked with three other men and learned the trade of rebuilding reproducing pianos. One afternoon piano movers brought in a parlour sized grand piano made in England needing restoration work. The owner wanted it restrung, new hammers & dampers installed, have the action regulated and the case French polished. When the job was completed the owner and his wife wanted to come to see the piano before it was delivered to their home in hollywood and to meet the crew who did the work. When work began on the piano our boss told us who the owners were; Mr & Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock.....I said, "the Alfred Hitchcock?" "yes!", came the answer. Later, i told a friend of mine who was also an Ampico owner and roll collector, who was going to come to visit our shop and he then handed me a roll and said i should play this roll for him when he comes to see his finished piano. The roll my friend handed me to play was "Funeral March of a Marionette" by Gounod #57994; Alfred Hitchcock's theme song for his TV Pro- gram. When the day arrived for Mr. & Mrs. Hitchcock to inspect their piano, the whole shop all guessed at what kind of automobile they would arrive in -- a Rolls Royce, Bentley, Cadil- lac, Lincoln, etc.; chauffer driven, or will he be driving? We all lost the bet; they arrived in a Plymouth Yellow taxi cab! They preferred Yellow cab service when getting around in Los Angeles for many events. The shop had just completed a full restoration on a Knabe Ampico Louis XV grand and when Mr. And Mrs Hitchcock arrived in the show room to see their piano, we had the Ampico playing in the back shop as background music playing the "Funeral March of a Marionette!" Mr. And Mrs. Hitchcock were thrilled with their piano, thanked everyone involved in the restoration and then asked if he could see the shop and what was playing his theme song? That is when I got to meet Mr. & Mrs. Hitchcock and to ask if he would autograph the roll. He said he would be very happy to do so, and he pulled out of his coat a fountain pen and autographed it for Ed Note: The sharp-eyed among us will note that this Ampico me. Some may remember when he started his TV Program with roll is sitting in a Duo-Art spool box. Not a mistake! Roger has his signature profile and then slipped into it himself, turned 90 modified his Steinway Duo-Art to also accept Ampico rolls. An degrees, looked into the camera and started with a slow, "Good article about this accomplishment is promised. Stay tuned..... ts Evening". He and his wife spent about forty five minutes visiting, enjoying everything they saw, were very pleasant, fun and appre- 110 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 To: Terry Smythe the once bright red Le Ludion book organ still plays, From: Vincent Morgan though its books have all seen better days and are frail. they Date: 22 May 2012 need to be replaced. But the once seemingly dead bird in a swan-roofed Re: nisco Museum of Mechanical Music building is rising like the phoenix from its ashes and is singing its beautiful music once again. guests arrive daily and are treated to on May 10th Maryam and i visited one of our favorite a grand tour. Boxes of new arrivals wait to be uncrated and dis- places in israel, the nisco Museum of Mechanical Music in the played. others arrive almost daily. still others wait in line to be ein hod artist colony just south of haifa. this was our first visit repaired. since the devastating forest fire in sept. 2010 that destroyed most With us on this grand tour was a young couple on their of the vegetation on the Mt. Carmel mountain range, and all of honeymoon. they marveled at the sound of music emanating the rest of the artist colony. the nisco Museum was saved due to from the mechanical musical machines. neither the groom nor the strong concrete building in which the collection is housed. his young bride had ever seen a player piano, gramophone or still, the heat of the fire broke through the glass doors, blackened large music box before. Wide-eyed with love and even more so the room and its con- with the music of yesteryear, they glowed, smiled, listened and tents, melted many remarked with joy at what they saw and heard. musical movements, nisan, who made his fortune by inventing wind-up toys, rusted instrument has spent it on bigger wind-up toys, those that children of all ages strings, warped and have enjoyed for the past couple centuries. some of both types melted phonograph were lost in the fire, but more are taking their places. nisan records and reduced proudly shows off his new wind-ups made from tuna cans, wire, many of the music feathers and even egg cartons, which are for sale in the museum’s boxes to ash, melted unique store. the nisco Museum is also probably the world’s lead and rust. nisan only source of musical mezuzahs in the world. (For the uninitiat- Cohen’s living quar- ed, a mezuzah is a small box about 3 inches or more long con- ters are still unusable, having been completely gutted in the fire taining a scroll with special passages recorded by Moses in num- and the flush toilet has been replaced with a portable “one-holer” bers and Deuteronomy. they are usually found on the doorposts for the time being. of Jewish homes.) the Lady the nisco Museum is also one of the world’s largest Liberty Chapter of depositories of Yiddish music in the world. this survived the fire aMiCa, intl. and is still in tact. donated $500 thank you to the members of the Lady Liberty Chapter toward the muse- for your generosity in helping this museum to literally rise out of um’s recovery the ashes. this is the only museum of mechanical musical efforts. even instruments in the entire Middle east. May others follow in your though it was a footsteps. as a result of your generosity, the entrance fee will be drop in the prover- waved for any aMiCan or MBsi member who visits the muse- bial bucket, it was um and identifies himself as such. if you happen to take nisan a greatly appreciated. copy of this article you will receive a double blessing. and, yes, Fellow aMiCan Nisan Cohen this museum encourages people to take photos, make videos, etc. Ron schmuck was given full airfare to and from israel and hired to work on as many of the instruments as he could during his all- and letting others know about their existence. too-short stay. as a result, the museum reopened in only 6 months. thank you, Ron, for your help. Apollo there is still much to be done. the aeolian orchestrelle piano/phono is almost back to working condition, but remains behind a curtain player for now. next to that, and also behind the curtain, the red Welte still sits blackened by the fire on the outside with the condition still unknown on the inside. the apollo upright with phonograph sits near the entrance still in its blackened and blistered state, inoperable. near it is a blackened music box that miraculously still plays. it looks dry and rusty on the inside, but the comb and spring are still in tact. Rusty and warped music box discs fill the room along with now boxless musical movements that once delighted the Nisan Cohen guests, but are now a pile of melted metal that will probably for- introducing the ever remain silent. the spanish street barrel piano sits silent Steinway Duo- with strings rusty and broken next to a once beautiful barrel harp- Art, which has sichord, which suffered the same fate. Both are restorable, been restored though darkened by the soot and ashes of the fire.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 111 Nisan Cohen introducing the Steinway These Duo Art, once which has made been music. restored

This record has seen better days

Large cylinder box, blackened and tune sheet burned off, but it still Red Welte plays music. reproducing piano

Young couple on their honeymoon who had Empress never seen a disc box mechanical still plays. music machine before

Nisan with an Edison cylinder machine that still needs much work

Music box movements melted together and table leg that looks like a small animal praying for mercy.

112 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 To: Terry Smythe The man in the picture with me is John Ellingsen who From: Richard Reutlinger was the general curator of the collections in Virginia City and Date: 30 March 2012 Nevada City when the Bovey family still owned the whole thing. He stayed on with the State of Montana after they bought every- Here are a couple of pictures of a pair of lamps I donat- thing. He retired a couple of years ago and has written a wondered to the Montana Historical Society. They are for a Cremona G ful book on the history of the area due out about now. in the Bay of Hay Saloon in Virginia City. The lamps came from This is the same area that I involved AMICA in the Dave Ramey Jr., who graciously offered them at a very favorable Adopt-a-Piano campaign a few years ago...we (Founding Chap- price, after realizing where they were destined. ter) paid for the restoration of a Wurlitzer nickelodeon.

AMICAn Making Music

John & Nadine Motto-Ros

on saturday, May 5, Carl Sonny Leyland performed at the home of John and Nadine Motto-Ros in sutter Creek, Ca. sonny played a nice variety of music—his classic boogie-woogie, some rags and popular standards with vocal accompaniment to some.

Founding Chapter AMICA members in attendance: George & Sharyn Cunningham, Richard Reutlinger, John & Nadine Motto- Ros, Carl Sonny Leyland, Sandy Swirsky, Lyle Merithew, Tom Hawthorn, Warren Jennings, Vickie & Doug Mahr, Arlo (Chip) Lusby kneeling.

More about Carl Sonny Leyland at: http://www.carlsonnyleyland.com/ John & Nadine Motto-Ros may be contacted at: [email protected]

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 113 The Philipps Pianella and Paganini Orchestrions and the Rudolph Wurlitzer Connection by Q. David Bowers

Introduction promote the products being showcased and rarely told the Q David Bowers The author, working with Arthur Reblitz, has been story behind the instruments, or researching and writing a book that will provide extensive why some succeeded while others failed in the marketplace. information on orchestrions, coin-operated pianos, photoplay- Much information otherwise lost to history was provided to ers, and other roll-operated instruments used in public places the author by Farny Wurlitzer in a series of interviews and in in America in the early 20th century. Included will be the story correspondence of the 1960s and early 1970s. Remarkably, he of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company and its relationship with still had all of his correspondence with Philipps, dating back to J.D. Philipps & Söhne of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. Much the early 20th century and had a crystal clear memory of information in the present article is from the work-in-progress events. manuscript. Today in the early 21st century the Philipps Pianella From 1903 to 1914 Wurlitzer imported over a thou- and Paganini instruments are over a century old for some sand orchestrions from Philipps, designated by the maker as models and are approaching that point for others. Only a few Pianella and Paganini models, and sold by Wurlitzer as the dozen of the larger cabinet style (without keyboard) models Mandolin PianOrchestra (most of the Pianella models), Con- survive today, mostly in private collections. cert PianOrchestra (larger Pianella models), and the Paganini (the most sophisticated of all, sold under the same name in Europe and America). What was common knowledge in the early 20th century has faded into history, leaving only certain of the instruments themselves as well as printed accounts in Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, The Music Trade Review, original catalogs, and other sources to provide information today. These trade advertisements, stories, and other features were intended to

The Philipps Pianella Paganini Orchestrion Model No. 9, introduced in 1910 at the Brussels World’s Fair (as shown here), created a sensation and won a first prize gold medal. This instrument was one of over 20 models that used a special paper roll to simu- late the human playing of the violin, cello, and other instruments through specially-constructed pipes and a sophisticated expression mechanism. These were widely sold in Europe by Philipps, and about 300 were marketed in American by the Rudolph Wurl- A Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 30A on the front of a itzer Company. circa 1913 catalog. This instrument was made by Philipps as the The background of the Paganini and other Philipps orchestrions Pianella Monopol Xylophon. (In this article this particular model is is related in the present article together with the special arrange- shown in several different presentations—representative of many ment Philipps had with Wurlitzer. more Philipps models sold by Wurlitzer)

114 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Rudolph Wurlitzer docked in Hoboken, New Jersey, although accounts vary. His first employment was with a local grocery store. With no money and a negligible knowledge of the English language, it was a difficult beginning for the young immigrant. He heard that there was a large German-American community in Cincinnati, Ohio, and decided to go there. En route he arrived in Philadelphia, a large and bustling city with many attractions. Impressed, Rudolph decided to make his home there instead. This changed when on the street he was rudely insult- ed by a man who made it clear that newcomers of his ilk were not wanted. He resumed his original intention of going to Cincinnati. In that Ohio River city his first job was peddling trin- kets door-to-door. Next came work in a department store for $4 per week. Seeking to build some capital he determined to set aside 25% of his wages, but found this impossible to do in view of living expenses. The store owner responded to the request that he stay overnight, watching the premises and sleeping in a crate. Now, with no rent to pay, his savings plan went into effect. In 1854 he secured a position with Heidel- bach & Seasongood, a well-known regional retailer of dry goods and other merchandise, at $8 per week, including the privilege of sleeping in a loft over the store. A few steps away was a retail shop for musical instruments operated by a Mr. Johnson. Rudolph noticed that Rudolph Wurlitzer, founder of the company bearing his name, as the retail prices were extremely high—multiples of what he photographed around the turn of the 20th century. had been used to in Germany. Upon inquiry he learned that Johnson bought from an importer, who in turn bought from a Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer, known as Rudolph Wurl- factor, who in turn acquired the goods from a European agent itzer, was born in Schöneck, Saxony, on January 30, 1831, the who dealt with manufacturers. With this chain of middlemen eldest son of Christiane and Christian Gottfried Wurlitzer, a each taking a profit Johnson’s wholesale cost provided only a maker of musical instruments. At the time of his birth the modest profit for the retailer. family was already steeped in tradition of that art, with a fore- Sensing an opportunity, Rudolph contemplated start- bear, Nicholas Wurlitzer, as an honored member of the ing a sideline business of importing instruments directly from Lutemakers’ Guild, a distinction conferred only upon a select- manufacturers while keeping his regular employment. Taking ed few. $700 he had saved from his wages as well as extra work else- Rudolph’s formal education mainly consisted of where, he sent it to his father in Germany, who by this time learning in the schools of Schöneck and Plauen, where his had become somewhat friendlier to him. In time, a shipment spare time was mainly occupied by working with his father, as of band instruments, mostly woodwinds, arrived in Cincinnati. were several years after he left the regional schools. Later he He took the instruments to Johnson’s music store and offered attended the Commercial Institution in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, them for sale. His offer was refused outright. Not knowing if and at the Haendelschule in Leipzig, where he graduated in he had priced them too high, or whether the quality was poor, 1852. In Germany at the time, primogeniture was the general or what the problem was, he asked the merchant for an evalua- rule. Family assets went to the first born, thus preserving tradition of what was wrong. The answer was to the effect, “Young tion. Rudolph, well-schooled, was all set to join the family man, you could not sell these fine musical instruments at this business full time with the intention of fully owning it in time. low price if you had obtained them honestly.” However, Rudolph’s father took the unusual step of selecting a Rudolph then requested time to think the situation favored younger brother, Constantin, to eventually continue over and recalculate his prices. Subsequently, he revisited the family business, never mind that Constantin was only Johnson and told him that he had imported the instruments and about six years old when the decision was made. In the mean- had probably figured his costs incorrectly—a story that time, Rudolph was invited to work for wages, with no owner- seemed plausible while at the same time providing the young ship interest then or prospect of such later. Upon considera- entrepreneur with an even larger margin! At the newly raised tion, Rudolph realized that there was no future in the family prices the storekeeper took the lot, giving Wurlitzer $1,500 trade. As did many of his countrymen who sought success in profit. This incident marked the beginning of the Wurlitzer commerce, he looked toward America as the land of opportu- business in America. The year was 1856. nity offering many advantages to energetic, talented young The Business Grows people. He asked his father for passage money, but was flatly With this auspicious start, Rudolph sent more funds refused. Fortunately an uncle, Wilhelm, provided the $80 to Germany and in return received larger shipments. One suc- required. cess led to another, to the point at which it was more than just In 1853 Rudolph sailed across the Atlantic and likely

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 115 a sideline. To provide inventory space a small upstairs room, March 25, 1890, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company succeeded then two more rooms, were rented in the Masonic Building at its interests, with Rudolph as president. The capital was an 4th and Sycamore streets in Cincinnati. Soon, his employers, impressive $200,000. In the meantime, in 1878 the Wurlitzer recognizing his business ability, suggested he strike out on this business was moved to 115 Main Street, where it would own. With their good wishes, he left the dry-goods store and remain until 1891. From the outset the Wurlitzer business spe- began devoting his full time to his music business. cialized in the retail sales of band and orchestra instruments In 1858, after he returned from a trip to his native along with supplies, repair parts, sheet music, and musical country, he moved to a ground-floor location at 123 Main novelties. Now and again some imported automatic instru- Street. On October 8, 1859, he became an American citizen. ments were added to the line, such as the Automatic Pianista, a Beginning in 1860, Wurlitzer sold drums to the United States mechanical piano that retailed for $450. By 1880, a selection Army. A small factory to make them was set up on the premis- of Swiss music boxes was part of the inventory, and during the es in additional rented rooms. Next came an order for military era various small mechanical organs were sold as well. Such trumpets and bugles which were imported from Germany. instruments were not important in terms of sales volume. Before long the entire building was occupied. Supplying the As each of Rudolph Wurlitzer’s three sons became military became a major part of his business, one that lasted old enough, he went to work with the company in odd hours for many years. From the very beginning of the Civil War in while attending school. It was Rudolph’s plan to educate each April 1861, Union troops marched to the cadence of Wurlitzer in a different branch of the musical trade. Howard, the eldest, music. was to learn business. Rudolph, in the middle, was to train in Early in the 1860s one of Rudolph’s brothers, Franz music theory and practice. Farny, the youngest, was to learn Anton (known as Anton), came to America to assist. Shortly the intricacies of musical instrument manufacturing. In 1891 after his arrival, he saw limited service in the Civil War. Fight- the company relocated to 121 East Fourth Street in Cincinnati ing as part of the Seventh Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers where it would remain into the third quarter of the 20th centu- beginning on June 10, 1861, he sustained a bullet wound in his ry. In time an adjacent building at 117 East Fourth was head in the Battle of Winchester, March 23, 1862. It lodged acquired, giving a total of 11 floors of space. within his skull and was never removed, causing him to have Howard, who as a teenager began his full-time career frequent headaches for the rest of his life. with the company in the late 1880s, was in charge of the busi- In 1865 a branch store was opened at 82 Dearborn ness by a decade later. His strong personality, which some Street in Chicago, the first of many regional outlets that would called aggressive, enabled him to take advantage of many be launched in years to come. John Molter, a Prussian immi- business opportunities in the United States and also during grant who taught music in Chicago, was the managing partner trips to Europe. By the turn of the 20th century, Rudolph had of Molter & Wurlitzer. By 1866 the company was at 110 Ran- turned most of the management over to Howard, while dolph Street. The branch proved profitable and was operated Rudolph the younger also had many responsibilities. Farny until the great fire of 1871, after which it was relocated to was still in school. occupy an entire five-floor building at Coin-Operated Musical 329 to 331 South Wabash Avenue without the involvement of Molter. Instruments For whatever reason, Rudolph’s The Regina Music Box Company, younger brother Constantin, earlier funded and sponsored by Gustav A. favored to take over the family busi- Brachhausen and Ernst Paul Riessner ness in Schöneck, came to America of the Polyphon Musikwerke of and worked with the Wurlitzer Com- Leipzig, Germany, entered the Amer- pany for many years, but he is not ican market in 1893 and was incor- known to have had an ownership porated in 1894. Brachhausen had interest. come to America in September 1892 Rudolph Wurlitzer and Miss to set up the company and make Leonie Farny exchanged marriage arrangements. Using Polyphon vows in September 1868. They mechanisms as well as those devel- became the parents of six children: oped on its own, Regina enjoyed an Sylvia (September 21, 1869, to March excellent business commencing in 10, 1952), Howard Eugene (Septem- 1893, when its first products, table- ber 5, 1871, to October 30, 1928), type music boxes using a 15½ inch Rudolph Henry (December 30, 1873, steel disc, were first offered. These to May 27, 1948), Leonie (December used Polyphon mechanisms fitted 14, 1875, to January 27, 1947), Percy into cases made by F.G. Otto & Sons (November 26, 1877, to July 25, of Jersey City. Such instruments 1878), and Farny Reginald (Decem- made in the United States were not ber 7, 1883, to May 6, 1972). subject to import tariffs and thus The firm of Wurlitzer & Beginning in the late 1890s the Rudolph Wurlitzer Compa- could be sold for less than imported Brother was formed in 1872, with ny sold many coin-operated Regina music boxes, an exam- products. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Rudolph and Anton as partners. On ple of which is shown here.

116 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Company became an agent not long afterward, and soon related organettes and various types of piano-playing devices, became the largest Regina distributor. among other products. At the time coin-operated devices for vending and Considering the potential for profit, Howard Wurlitzer envi- amusement were all the rage in railway stations, saloons, and sioned that Hupfeld instruments, particularly the larger other places. Phonographs that played a tune on a cylinder orchestrions, would sell well in the United States. At the time record for a nickel were especially popular, and many hun- Welte through its office in New York City was continuing to dreds were sold by the Edison Company to various buyers, sell many organ-type orchestrions. Hupfeld orchestrions, many of whom were given exclusive territories. In 1896 which included a piano and played louder music and with Howard Wurlitzer, business head of the Rudolph Wurlitzer more instrumentation and often with animated scenes on the Company, suggested to Regina that a coin-operated music box front, would be ideal for public locations. Already, Wurlitzer be made. This was accomplished in short order, and Wurlitzer had achieved success with the Tonophone, a barrel-operated purchased many for resale though its Cincinnati office. In the same year Regina produced several such models, ranging from table-top size to the new Orchestral Regina that played discs 27 inches in diameter. In 1897 a disc-changing device was patented, and in 1898 the 27-inch model, which stored 12 discs and played them in sequence (or a favorite could be selected individually), began to be sold in large numbers.

Farny Wurlitzer The company’s involvement with J.D. Philipps & Söhne (Sons), also known as the Frankfurter Musikwerke- Fabrik, German manufacturers of automatic musical instruments, centers about Farny Reginald Wurlitzer. Born on December 7, 1883, he was the youngest son of Rudolph. As noted above, is preordained destiny was to learn about manufacturing when he became an adult, while brother Howard took up business and Rudolph, Jr., studied music. The trio The Philipps factory circa 1910 would then be all set to lead the Wurlitzer firm to new heights and achievements. In view of the family heritage and of extensive imports by the firm from German manufacturers, Farny’s father suggested that he become fluent in the German language and gain knowledge of production procedures in that country. In September 1901 at age 17 he sailed for Europe. He went to Hamburg and enrolled in a commercial school to gain advanced education and further his language skills. In 1902 Howard came to Germany and joined Farny in attending a Leipzig Trade Fair, the world’s largest events in the music industry, typically with one held around Easter time and another in late summer. Companies from Germany in particular, but many from other countries, exhibited their new and past products and solicited orders. There Howard and Farny saw several piano orchestrions, a type of instrument they had never heard before. Back home in the United States various organ-based orchestrions were popular, but not including a piano or playing at a volume Farny Wurlitzer years later in 1966 at his office, sharing with and with an instrumental variety to imitate a full human the author original Wurlitzer, Philipps, and other records and orchestra. Most prominent were the organ-type orchestrions photographs. made by M. Welte & Sons of Freiberg im Breisgau, Germany, piano driven by an electric motor and equipped with a coin and sold in America since the 1860s. Welte had a showroom in slot. He approached Hupfeld with the idea that Wurlitzer be New York City. their exclusive representative in America. To date, Hupfeld At the Trade Fair the firm of Ludwig Hupfeld, A.G., was virtually unknown on the other side of the Atlantic, save of Leipzig, dominated the displays with a presentation of sev- for some piano-playing devices that saw a limited sale in the eral impressive orchestrions as well as automatic pianos and 1890s and had since been forgotten. Hupfeld agreed, except to other products. The company dated back to 1892 when the Howard’s request that Farny spend several months in the enthusiastic and innovative Ludwig Hupfeld acquired the Hupfeld factory in Leipzig to gain familiarity with the instru- interests of musical instrument retailer J.M. Grob & Co., ments. This requirement ended the negotiations. which had achieved great success with the sale of Ariston and

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 117 J.D. Philipps & Söhne

Rejected by Hupfeld, Howard Wurlitzer investigated a smaller firm, J.D. Philipps & Söhne, of Bockenheim, Frank- furt-am-Main. The company had been in business for many years and had a line of pianos and orchestrions, including large models. Philipps agreed to the Wurlitzer proposal, and Farny in 1903 went to Frankfurt and immersed himself in every aspect of orchestrion manufacturing, eventually spend- ing six months doing so. In the same year, Philipps registered the Pianella name for its coin pianos and orchestrions.

Wurlitzer’s headquarters building at 117-121 East Fourth Street, Cincinnati, in 1906. The Automatic Musical Instrument Department, Farny Wurlitzer in charge, was on the top floor. The inset shows the Wurlitzer showroom and office at 266 Wabash Avenue in Chicago. With everything in place, Wurlitzer placed its first order, for four orchestrions. Payment was made in advance by a letter of credit. Shipped to Cincinnati beginning in February An early Philipps Pianella imported from Philipps 1903, they were offered in the same year as a new product and sold as the Wurlitzer PianOrchestra Style 19. line, called by Wurlitzer the PianOrchestra. They sold immediately! Anticipating a large business, Howard Wurlitzer requested that Philipps ship on open account, normal trade practice, with payment to be made after receipt. This was not acceptable, as Wurlitzer’s credit status was unknown to them, and Philipps did want to take any chances. A plan was devised. Farny laid the groundwork for his father to come to his native Germany and visit Philipps. A lavish suite was reserved in the Palm Garten, the famous Frankfort society hotel. A coach and fine team of horses was hired for visits to and from the factory. An ample supply of expensive foil-wrapped cigars was purchased. Philipps execu- tives were wined and dined beyond anything they had ever experienced. Business discussions were then held, and the subject of credit was passed over lightly. Of course, Wurlitzer An early PianOrchestra, similar to Style 19, but with visible bells could order on open account, to pay the invoices three months on the front, as used in the waiting room in the Shanahan Broth- after the instruments landed in the United States! ers’ Store in Chicago, 48th and Archer Streets, a depot and ticket In 1903 Farny Wurlitzer returned to America. The agent for the Chicago & Joliet Railroad, an interurban electric PianOrchestras became best sellers, with one of them attract- line, circa 1908. The sign at the top reads “PIANO ORCHESTRA ing much notice at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in FROM THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION. To Operate—Drop Nickel St. Louis that year. Dozens were imported, set up in Cincin- in Slot. Music Changed Daily.” Also on duty to attract coins were nati, tested, and then sold. On November 20 of that year the a Caille slot machine, two vendors, a penny scale, and for good firm’s main building in Cincinnati was heavily damaged by measure, a Multiphone multi-selection cylinder phonograph at the fire. Business continued from other facilities, and in time the right. 118 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 structure was restored and all was back to normal. By 1906 ten different PianOrchestra models were offered. Some of the early instruments soon developed problems when they were in use, as the wood dried out when they were placed in heated rooms. An investigation revealed that Philipps was not season- ing the wood long enough. More extensive kiln-drying was put in place, and the matter was solved. Soon, an automatic roll-changing device became standard, further adding to the appeal of the orchestrions.

A d v e r t i s e - Exhibit the deKleist exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- ment for the tion (St. Louis World’s Fair) showing some of the styles of W u r l i t z e r coin-operated instruments and band organs made for the Tonophone. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. A Tonophone is shown to the left of the large band organ. permitted multiple rolls (usually six) to be stored by the roll mechanism and played in sequence automatically. By 1906 over 10 styles of Philipps Pianellas were offered as PianOrchestras by Wurlitzer, and within a few years the number tripled. These were usually operated by dropping a nickel into a beckoning slot or a coin into a wall box else- where in the room.

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. showroom of automatic musical instruments in Cincinnati in 1906. Farny Wurlitzer was in charge of this department. At the left is a row of large Philipps Letterhead of the deKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Pianella orchestrions imported from Philipps and sold in Co., North Tonawanda, New York. America as the PianOrchestra. Another Pianella is against the back wall, and to the right are two more. The shorter instruments include, left to right, various models made by By 1905, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, of Cincin- Eugene deKleist: a band organ with brass trumpets, an Auto- nati, was described as “having an immense trade in orchestri- matic Player Piano, a Mandolin Quartette with the front ons and other self-playing pianos.” The pianos, including the removed, two more band organs, and to the right a Mandolin barrel-operated Tonophone and the roll-operated Pianino, were Quartette. made by the deKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co. in North Tonawanda, and large orchestrions continued to be In New York City the E. Böcker Organ & Orchestrion imported from J.D. Philipps & Söhne. In Europe, Philipps was Company of New York City, organized in 1905, began import- achieving great success with the Pianella orchestrions, ranging ing piano orchestrions from Imhof & Mukle, of Vöhrenbach, from keyboard models (not imported by Wurlitzer) to Germany, in 1906, eventually selling dozens of them, mainly immense cabinet instruments. In 1905 the “Revolver” or Auto- in the greater New York City era. Distribution was very limit- matic Roll Changer was introduced, a convenient feature that ed in comparison to Wurlitzer’s PianOrchestra sales.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 119 In the meantime, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company purchased the Eugene deKleist factory, and beginning in Janu- ary 1909 operated it as the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Co., with Farny Wurlitzer in charge. Beginning in 1912 PianOrchestra chassis were imported from Philipps and shipped to North Tonawanda, where they were fitted into American-made cabinets of distinctive designs and equipped with Wurlitzer pianos and certain percussion instruments. Imports of complete Pianellas continued and were routed through Wurlitzer’s New York City office. In 1910 a new type of Philipps orchestrion, the Paganini, was introduced at the Brussels World’s Fair, caused a sensation, and took a gold medal. These contained a reproducing piano, from one to several ranks of pipes, and were in large cabinets of distinctive design. Two larger instruments, the Style 7 and Style 10 Paganini Orchestra being examples, were immense orchestrions that played with more expression and character than did the PianOrchestra models, and contained a xylophone, bells, drums, and other effects beyond pipes. After the World War began in Europe in 1914, imports were curtailed. It is believed that the last instruments were obtained from Philipps in 1915. In the meantime, in North Tonawanda Pianella chassis on hand from earlier times continued to be fitted into new cases. Now, a closer look at the Philipps/Wurlitzer orchestrions.

Pianellas and PianOrchestras

As stated, the first orchestrions from J.D. Philipps & Söhne, of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, were imported by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, of Cincinnati, in 1903. Philipps gave them names such as Pianella Viktoria, Pianella Harmo- nia, Pianella Caecilia, and others. From then through the end of the decade many additional orchestrions were received/ Early instruments were simply called PianOrchestras by Wurl- A particularly large early Philipps Pianella itzer. These were assigned numbers up into the 20s. Whether sold by Wurlitzer as the Style 22 PianOrchestra. all numbers were used is not known today. Most used Philipps Focus on the Pianella / PianOrchestra PM (Pianella Mandoline) rolls, but there were some varia- tions, the extent of which is not known today. Terry Hathaway, The large cabinet-style Pianella orchestrions were who has studied these instruments carefully and for many marketed by Wurlitzer as the PianOrchestra at first, then as the years, offers this as a possible scenario: Mandolin PianOrchestra and Concert PianOrchestra, the Con- When the Mandolin and Concert PianOrchestras cert instruments being the largest in the line. In the early 1910s became part of Wurlitzer’s product line the music rolls for the Mandolin and Concert styles had little serious competition these bore the name of Mandolin PianOrchestra and Concert in the American marketplace, although M. Welte & Sons sold PianOrchestra, as labeled for American customers. At this perhaps a few hundred of its line of large and impressive Bris- point the music rolls for the earlier type machines were proba- govia piano orchestrions and Böcker continued its activities in bly then given the title of “Regular PianOrchestra.” the New York City area with Imhof & Mukle orchestrions Thus, Wurlitzer had three categories of PianOrchestra augmented with some smaller models, such as the Violano, rolls: Regular, Mandolin and Concert. Then, possibly because imported from Gebrüder Bruder of Waldkirch, Germany. In the Style 17 was still in stock and/or being sold alongside the 1911 Böcker achieved something Wurlitzer could not: it newer style machines the Regular PianOrchestra rolls evolved secured the agency for the line of Hupfeld instruments in into the Style 17 PianOrchestra rolls. The Regular and Style l7 America. Emphasis was placed on the Hupfeld Phonoliszt- rolls that I have examined seem to be identical, except for the Violina, which gained much press coverage, including use in category designation. Since the Regular and Style 17 rolls Broadway theatres during a musicians’ strike. Not many have separate tracker bar holes for the bells, it is a logical pro- Hupfeld orchestrions were imported, probably because Böcker gression (if one is to keep the same tracker bar and roll width) was in precarious financial condition. No mention of this was to drop the use of separate bell perforations in favor of using difficulty made in the trade papers until the firm abruptly the same tracker bar positions for additional tonal registers, failed in 1913. i.e., xylophone, bells and various pipe voices never a part of 120 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 the early Regular PianOrchestra musical complement. The bells can still be played in nearly an identical manner, but by incorporating them as a register that is played as part of the normal musical scale, rather than a separate and special scale. Yes, there were some arguable musical tradeoffs, I’m sure, but from a practical point and economy of manufacturing tooling it makes good sense.

Description of the Wurlitzer The Bijou Moving Picture Theatre in San Francisco made Mandolin good use of a PianOrchestra. With its program of lively music PianOrchestra it drew patrons from up and down the street. Style 30A in a 1911 catalog. flute as a solo accompaniment. These are called Mandolin PianOrchestras, and use the same music rolls. The Concert PianOrchestra is a different type and is played by a different music roll. All these different instruments are perfectly regu- A 1911 Wurlitzer lated and brought into play by automatic stops which control catalogue noted this their playing in the same manner in which an orchestra leader concerning the vari- controls his players by the wave of his baton. ous orchestrions, For hotels, the larger cafés, beer gardens, dancing omitting any men- pavilions, ice cream parlors, penny arcades, five-cent theatres, tion of their being and similar amusement resorts, there is nothing equal to the imported from Ger- PianOrchestra as an attraction and money-maker. In large pub- many: lic resorts, where a number of slot boxes can be distributed about the place, connecting with the instrument so that it may The PianOrchestra “King of Automatic Musical Instruments.”

The PianOrchestra is, without question, the most wonderful self-playing musical instrument ever built. It is a com- bination of all the different instruments used in a full symphony orchestra, assem- bled in a single magnificent case, and arranged to play in solo and concert work, exactly the same as a human orchestra. It is next to impossible to convey an idea of the PianOrchestra’s magnifi- cence with printer’s ink. The many handsome styles must be seen and heard to obtain a fair conception of their appearance and musical possibilities. However, a faint idea of their musical possibilities may be had from the following list of instruments they contain: piano; bass, tenor and kettle drums; triangle, cymbals, xylophones, chimes, castanets, tambourine, first and second violin pipes, viola and cello pipes, Double bass pipes, flutes and Clarionets, mandolins, saxo- phones, trombones, flageolets, French horns, oboes, piccolos. and bassoons. Some styles have a mandolin Description of the Pianella Monopol Xylophon in a Philipps catalog, the same attachment, with the piano, using the instrument as sold in America by Wurlitzer as the Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 30A.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 121 be played from any part of the house by dropping a 5-cent piece, the PianOrchestra will take in its cost in nickels within a year or so, besides doubling the volume of business. Construction of the PianOrchestra: The PianOrches- tra is operated by electricity, a small electric motor being placed inside the case, and plays from perforated paper music rolls. The music rolls contain from one to six selections each and are operated by our Automatic Music Roll Rewinding Device. The rolls can be changed in a few seconds. All the parts of the mechanism are made of the very best materials that money can buy, and are so accurately adjusted that the PianOrchestra gives no trouble whatever. In fact, they are built throughout to stand hard wear and tear, and to last a lifetime. The cases are of the most elaborate designs, in hand- somely carved, carefully chosen woods, with rich decorations of gold-leaf and solid brass and art glass fronts. They are indeed magnificent specimens of the cabinet-maker’s art and will greatly enhance the appearance of any place they occupy. President William Howard Taft in a hotel lobby in Atlanta, Special cases are made to order at short notice. Georgia, standing in front of a Wurlitzer Style 31 Concert Typically, Wurlitzer would furnish the bass drum, PianOrchestra. snare drum, cymbal, electrical wiring, and light sockets on imported instruments, these percussion instruments being among the musical merchandise the firm handled in quantity. The electrical additions were to conform to American standards, which were different from European. As time went on, Wurlitzer ordered Pianellas without other instruments they could add themselves, including the foregoing, but also the piano and some or all of the pipe work. With the exception of PianOrchestra Style 21, imported instruments were of the cabinet style without a keyboard. Later, Wurlitzer imported Philipps orchestrions for other locations than Cincinnati, such In 1910 a group of motion picture distributors and theatre as deliveries to New York City. operators gathered for a repast in the Gibson House hotel in PianOrchestra Sales in America Cincinnati, with a Style 31 Concert PianOrchestra in the background. The terms Mandolin PianOrchestra (rarely the alter- native Xylophone PianOrchestra) and Concert Orchestra were used in Wurlitzer publicity. The Mandolin instruments used As noted above, beginning in 1912, in addition to Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra rolls or Philipps PM rolls shipping complete orchestrions to various Wurlitzer depots, interchangeably. These instruments were generally voiced to Philipps sent chassis units to North Tonawanda. These were be loud, with the result that a smaller unit such as the Style 12 self-contained, with the pump, pneumatic stack, pipe chests, produced enough volume to fill a good-sized room. The Con- orchestra bells, automatic roll changer, and certain other com- cert instruments used Wurlitzer Concert PianOrchestra rolls or ponents in place. In the North Tonawanda factory a piano, Philipps PC rolls interchangeably. These instruments were drums, some or all pipes, and certain other items were added. voiced at varying degrees of loudness, depending upon the Cases were built consisting of a wooden shell with a floor or wishes of the purchaser. Concert PianOrchestra rolls were also bottom, sides, top, opalescent art glass, and other decorative used on large Wurlitzer Motion Picture Orchestra (photoplay- features. The chassis units were slipped into the cases and the er) models. instruments were ready to play. For certain of the larger instru- The various PianOrchestras found a ready market ments such as the Style 32A Concert PianOrchestra, the case with the owners of movie houses, as typified by this notice in had no base, and was simply fitted around the chassis which 1910: itself was directly on the floor. It is believed that production of new cases in North Tonawanda ended in 1917, but shipments, Marin & Co., 127 East Main St., Stockton, Cal., feeling par- including old and new Philipps instruments (without Wurlitzer ticularly pleased these days over the sale for cash of the large cases), continued into the early 1920s. In addition to the pre- Wurlitzer concert orchestrion which took the first prize at the ceding, it seems that some intact (including cases) instruments Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, to the Kingston Picture were shipped by Philipps to North Tonawanda, from which Company, who will install in their new Center Street picture point they were distributed. These were a very small percent- theatre which is soon to be opened opposite the Garrick The- age of overall imports. The factory also was a depot for major atre. This is one of the largest cash deals ever closed in this repairs to instruments in service. city. Marin & Co. have been agents here for Kohler & Chase.

122 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 12 with a chassis imported from Philipps fitted into an ornate cabinet made by {{Pianella 2011 qdb 0525 Concert PianOrchestra Style 32A}} the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Co. in North Tonawan- Wurlitzer Concert PianOrchestra Style 32A with Philipps com- da, New York. At least two of this model survive today. ponents housed in a North Tonawanda case. One of these was sold to the Crystal Palace café in Leadville, Colorado, where it remained until the early 1960s, later going into the author’s collection. Still later it was owned by Jerry Cohen and was damaged by fire. Reconstructed, the orchestrion was sold into the Milhous Brothers Collection.

The North Tonawanda version of the Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 30A, Case Design No. 2, incorporating a Philipps chassis and an American case featuring art glass.

Wurlitzer factory scene in North Tonawanda with a Philipps Pianella chassis ready to be enclosed in a cabinet made on the premises.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 123 alike, although all are equally as handsome as the style illustrated. The panels on each side are set with heavy beveled- edge mirrors, and the central panel is of richly colored art glass faced by a brass lattice work screen—an entirely unique treatment, producing a most artistic effect. Set in each of the side panels with mirror background are handsome statues with artificial flowers that are so natural looking that without close inspection they cannot be told from the fresh cut article. Inter- twined with the flowers are small electric globes, which light up when the instrument is playing, producing a most gorgeous appearance. In the center is a much larger figure, standing on a pedestal and holding a vase of drooping flowers interspersed with electric light bulbs which light up when the instrument plays. The reflection in the back mingles the flowers with the lattice work so that it presents a realistic picture suggestive of a summer flower garden. The architecture down to the minut- est feature is lavishly splendid and fit to adorn the handsomest ball room in existence. Naturally, one would expect something extra in the music of so fine an instrument, and on this point there will be no disappointment. 370 musical pipes represent as many different orchestral instruments. These are all under automatic control, more perfect and more rapid than any ever exerted by the director of a human orchestra. The playing of Style 43 so nearly resembles that of a large metropolitan symphony orchestra that unless one sees the instrument it is difficult to

A Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 30A, American case, in the Sanfilippo Victorian Palace Collection, restored by Roy Han- ing and Neal White and earlier owned by Durrell Armstrong. There are also two Style 30A orchestrions in European cases known to exist today and this single example in an American cabinet.

Records exist for many if not all PianOrchestras shipped from North Tonawanda from 1912 onward, including many with Philipps cases that had been imported to that facility, and from there sent to various Wurlitzer offices and customers, as well as those with cases constructed and with pianos and certain instrumentation added by Wurlitzer. All known American-built PianOrchestras have opalescent art glass on the front, and nearly all cases made in Germany do not. Mirrors and frosted glass in German instruments was called art glass in certain catalogs.

The Wurlitzer Style 43 Concert PianOrchestra

The Wurlitzer Style 43 Concert PianOrchestra was one of the largest and most extensively instrumented orchestrions imported from Philipps and was certainly the largest to receive extensive publicity. It was described in a 1911 catalog: The largest and finest style of PianOrchestra built. The case illustrated is a most imposing design, richly hand carved with circular carved pilasters and capitals. In order to Wurlitzer Style 43 Concert PianOrchestra as illustrated in a give every owner of this magnificent style something entirely 1911 catalog. This is the largest Pianella model known to exclusive, the case designs are made different. No two are have been imported from Philipps.

124 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 say whether the music is not made by a skilled human orches- No Style 43 instruments are known to exist today. tra. Our finest PianOrchestra contains all the latest improved Likely, one was once in use in San Francisco. The late Charles Wurlitzer automatic features, especially the Automatic Roll Smallwood of that city had a photograph of such an orchestri- Changing Device which affords a continuous musical program on. of an hour and a half to three hours, without repetition or The Philipps Pianella Orchestra bother of changing the music rolls. Special Dance Rolls containing selections especially arranged for dancing are cut for Recently, in reviewing over 100 different designs of this style. This music is ideal for dancing, as the drum section Philipps Pianellas, ranging from keyboard models upward, marks the correct dance tempo, and when the instrument is set and also Wurlitzer models in North Tonawanda-made cases I to perfect dance time it does not vary a hairsbreadth. took special notice of the Philipps Pianella Orchestra. I had With no other instrument, perhaps, can our nickel-in- overlooked the details of this earlier. At the time the price in the-slot boxes be used to such fine advantage. A liberal num- Germany for PM rolls was 24 Marks each and for PC rolls 28 ber distributed at tables in a restaurant or café would result in Marks. For the Pianella Orchestra the price was higher: 30 a continuous shower of money, for the excellence of the music Marks. is such that patrons would never tire of listening. Furthermore, An approximate translation by Art Reblitz of the cat- numerous coins will be deposited for every tune heard, as the alog description: parties at the numerous tables would each pay to hear the dif- Pneumatic piano orchestrion “Pianella Orchestra” with ferent selections, and while each would receive full value, the electric drive and automatically-rewinding rolls. owners of the instrument receives several coins for each selec- The Pianella Orchestra is a concert orchestrion of the tion played. This refers, of course, to its operation by nickel- first order, great in its execution and music, with an arrange- in-the-slot. Where the music is used as a free attraction it will ment of instrumentation that makes it possible for everything to be divided into main and secondary functions, i.e., that the unquestionably prove the greatest trade magnet ever devised. solo instruments may also be related to the accompaniment, Patrons will flock to listen to a concert by the most magnifi- whereby human performance is imitated exactly. The instru- cent automatic orchestra ever built. Study carefully the fol- ment and the music is provided with all the most modern lowing list of instruments, which PianOrchestra, Style 43, rep- advantages and mechanisms. The tone quality is well-suited, resents. The instrumentation is by far the most ambitious and and the instrument due to its rich instrumentation and sonori- pretentious ever attempted in an automatic musical instru- ty, plays the most difficult symphonies and concert pieces ment. with accomplishment and elegance only now heard. Instrumentation: A high grade piano, 30 violins, 30 Artistically-arranged music. Magnificent, delightful violoncellos, 26 bass beauty of sound. Can also be supplied with a roll changer. violins, 30 flutes, 30 At this time there piccolos, 30 saxo- was a “race” of phones, 30 clari- sorts in progress onets, 30 oboes, 26 between Philipps French horns, 26 fla- and Hupfeld to cre- geolets, 26 bassoons, ate orchestrions 26 bass trombones, that would have xylophone 30 bars, more of a “human” chimes 13 bars, bass than a mechanical and snare drums, sound. The soul of kettle drum and cym- human artistry had bals, triangle, tam- been captured bourine, and cas- effectively with the tanets. Also a tremu- Welte Mignon lant for producing reproducing piano the tremolo effect in in 1906 and the the music and an Hupfeld Phono- automatic swell to liszt-Violina violin produce shading and player in 1908- expression. 1909. Now it was Specifica- time for the tions: Height: 11 orchestrion to fol- feet, 9 inches • low suit. Width: 7 feet, 10½ Accordingly, the inches • Depth: 5 Philipps Orchestra feet, 7½ inches Price seems to have been with Automatic Roll a step in that direc- Changer $7,500, tion, a prelude to without $7,300. The Philipps Pianella Orchestra as illustrated in a Philipps catalog prior to 1910. the Philipps Pagani- None are known to have been imported into America. ni.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 125 The Philipps/Wurlitzer Paganini pianist and violinist, thoroughly accustomed to playing together in concert. The Paganini has been tried out in the J.D. Philipps & Söhne created a line of instruments most exclusive places and in every case it has caused a sensa- using special rolls that featured violin-toned pipes as the solo tion, so different is it in every respect. instrument. Certain of the larger models included percussion A visitor in a fine café or hotel restaurant of today and other instruments and were known as Paganini Orchestri- notices that the music comes drifting in, so to speak, not ons. Produced without public notice, the line made its debut at loud, but in soft, delicate strains that can be plainly heard and enjoyed by those who wish to stop their conversation to lis- the 1910 Brussels World’s Fair where an elegant Style 9 took ten, while it is so soft as not to interfere with low conversa- top honors. Displayed in a special salon it played music for tions by those who wish to talk. hours on end, delighting listeners. This is the exact niche the Paganini fills. It really seems made to order for just such refined places. Put the Paganini in the place of the hidden orchestra and your diners will never know but they are listening to the finest and violinist they ever heard. When they discover that the artist musicians are entirely automatic, their interest deepens. The charm of the music grows with repeated hearings. In a word, the Paganini Violin Piano is a thoroughly dignified, refined musical instrument of the highest grade, suitable for the finest metropolitan hotels and cafés. It will not only make good under the most exacting conditions, but it is no exaggeration to say that it will carry the most critical audience by storm. An excellent assortment of music rolls is ready for the instrument. These include the latest popular music of the day and the classical standards which possess popular favor. The music rolls played by these wonderful Paganini Solo Violin Pianos are the autographed records of the world’s most emi- Catalog description of the Philipps Paganini Orchestrion No. nent artists, who have breathed into them all of their fascinat- 9, the model shown at the 1910 Brussels World’s Fair to intro- ing individuality of touch and fire of temperament, therefore duce this new series of instruments. making the roll an exact duplication of their wonderful genius of mood and technique. This is truly a most remark- able achievement, and it raises the Paganini to the very lofti- Wurlitzer imported certain of these models and listed est plane of refined musical instruments; adding also immea- them in catalogs as the Wurlitzer Solo Paganini Violin Piano, surably to the charm of its appeal. the Wurlitzer Paganini Violin Piano, or simply the Wurlitzer The cases of the Paganini Violin Pianos are supremely Paganini. Larger versions were known as Paganini Orchestras elegant, and dignified lines conform in every particular to the class of music the instrument produces and are quite in keep- or Paganini Orchestrions. Although these are not known to ing with the majesty of the music. have been imported after the war was well underway, unsold instruments remained in Wurlitzer listings as late as 1923. All styles sold by Wurlitzer seem to have had the Philipps Auto- matic Roll Changer, which stored six rolls (occasionally more) and played them in sequence. All were of various cabinet Philipps Paganini styles without keyboard, although at least one keyboard Style Orchestrion No. 3 1 chassis was sent to North Tonawanda to be equipped with a in a European Wurlitzer piano. cabinet. Two are A catalog stated this: known to survive today: in the The Solo Paganini Violin Piano Nethercutt Col- A Wonderful new Musical Instrument lection and in the Ken and Sandy This instrument is the latest Wurlitzer triumph and the Goldman Collec- very highest type of refined musical instrument. The work of tion. This was one the Paganini Solo Violin Piano will be best appreciated by of the models sold musical persons who understand and appreciate refined by Wurlitzer. The music. This instrument reproduces the actual playing of a instruments were piano and violin by artists of the highest rank, the violin lead- made in Frank- ing and the piano playing the accompaniment. The Paganini will play everything in music from the furt-am-Main. popular hits to the big classical numbers with a correctness of technique and musical shading that will positively amaze the listener. Take a position in another room or turn your back on this new musical wonder and you will find it impossible to say that you are not listening to the best work of a finished

126 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 A Philipps Paganini Orchestrion No. 3, Case Design 2, in use furnishing a music background for silent films in a San Fran- cisco theatre circa 1913.

Philipps Paganini styles 1, 2, and 3 were imported in complete form. In addition, chassis for these numbers were imported sent to North Tonawanda, and for each Case Design No. 2 offered a different design of cabinet made at the factory there. The North Tonawanda versions are of distinctive appearance, without glass of any kind, and bear no resem- blance to any known Philipps products. None are known to exist today. In America the Wurlitzer Paganini seems to have found limited use in restaurants, hotel lobbies, and other places that desired music that was not loud, and yet nice to Philipps Paganini Orchestrion No. 3, Case Design 2, with a hear. Most rolls with classical music were made by Philipps in chassis made by Philipps fit into a cabinet made by the Germany. Farny Wurlitzer noted that the West Coast was the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Co. in North Tonawanda, main market for these. He recalled that at least three Style 10 New York. Paganini Violin Orchestras were sold in America, this being In time, other European orchestrions were made with the largest model, and estimated that several hundred various expression mechanisms intended to imitate human playing. Paganini models were sold overall. Hupfeld introduced its Pan Orchestra, which rivaled the Philipps Paganini in sophistication. Gebrüder Bruder’s line of orchestrions included several with exquisite expression mechanisms, topped by the Elite (of which none are known today). Other manufacturers could be mentioned as well.

Credits: Those who helped, present and past, including furnishing illustrations: Eugene DeRoy, Claes O. Friberg, Terry Hathaway, Alice Matthies, Arthur Reblitz, Harvey N. Roehl, Tim Trager, Ken Goldman and Farny Wurlitzer. qdb

Phillips Paganini, model 3, with dual roll changers, in the Goldman collection. Full history of this instrument may be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/7c22tu4

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 127 nickel notes By Matthew Jaro For this issue of Nickel Notes we wander into rural Army looking for antiques, because northeast Pennsylvania, where after traveling along miles of there were rows of player pianos. bucolic lanes we come to the property of h. Barton Off, Jr. We This was the early fifties. Bart loved enter an ordinary building to find a fabulous collection of nick- to go there and tinker with them. He elodeons and a great collection of rolls --- just the sort of things I would find one that would play a lit- like. I have always maintained that it is vital to display a collec- tle bit and he loved to listen to it. Matthew Jaro tion so that visitors can really enjoy the instruments and appreci- Later, once in a while he would see one and get excited all over ate the setting. This is certainly the case with Bart. I have also again. Bart didn’t really know how to go about obtaining one. noted that there are few collectors that REALLY like the music, Finally, in 1970 Bart decided that he wanted a player change rolls often and buy new rolls frequently. This is also the piano. By that time he had a nice collection of battery-operated case with Bart. I think it is important to buy rolls, because if table radios with associated literature. These were all pre-1930 there are no customers then the roll recutters will be out of busi- radios. Bart was living in New Jersey and there was a bi-weekly ness and the hobby will lose an important resource. The rolls are publication “The Want-Ad Press”. An ad appeared that said also inexpensive compared to the value of the machines. “Young medical student desires modest collection of pre-1930 table radios. Bart thought: “Maybe I could sell some radios off Beginnings and figure out how to get a player piano”. He called the number and it happened to be Every time I Dr. Paul Ciancia who interview a collector I was a young medical ask how they got start- student then. Dr. Cian- ed in mechanical music. cia currently has quite This is an important a collection of nick- question because it elodeons and orchestri- gives us insight into ons. Anyway, Bart how we might attract talks about the radios younger members to and Paul knew about our organization. Bart every model he talked Off got his first expo- about. They couldn’t sure to nickelodeons agree upon a price when he was about because Paul was a seven years old. About medical student and three blocks from his Bart was an engineer- house in Philadelphia ing student – so was a Dolly Madison nobody had a lot of Ice Cream Parlor. In the money. Paul asked Bart summer time when why he was selling the strawberries and peach- radios and Bart said es were in season, Bart that he wanted to buy a and his dad would walk player piano. Paul up to the ice cream par- laughed and Bart said lor after dinner and “What’s so funny?” bring home a quart of Then Paul said “I ice cream in a contain- Bart Off rebuild player pianos er. But while they were and this is how I’m there --- guess what? --- there was a nickelodeon. Bart doesn’t paying my way through medical school.” Bart said that he proba- remember exactly what it was. He thinks it was either a Cremona bly couldn’t afford something restored but would settle for a “G” or a Seeburg “F”. It was a tall piano with pipes and his dad piano in clean unrestored condition. Paul said he would look would always give Bart a nickel to play that nickelodeon. Then around but the price would probably be five or six hundred dol- they had to run like hell to get home before the ice cream melted. lars --- and that was the end of the conversation. I suggested that they should have heard the nickelodeon After a few days, Bart reflected on this situation and thought: BEFORE buying the ice cream. They did this for about three “his price is high and my price is high – maybe we could just years when the ice cream parlor closed and there was no more trade”. The following week Bart calls Paul and Paul said: “Bart, nickelodeon. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you --- why don’t we trade?” So Bart’s father and mother were both involved in the they traded and this started a lifelong journey into mechanical antique business from before Bart was born into the early seven- music for Bart. Bart traded a few nice radios and got a nice Aeo- ties. Bart loved it when his mom went down to the Salvation lian foot-pumper.

128 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 The Player Piano Business When Bart was relocated to Denver, the relocation counselor asked if Bart had any items of unusual weight or bulk. With the help of Player Piano Headquarters in Boonton, He answered, “Yes, I have ten pianos!” the counselor just NJ and Larry Givens’ book on the player piano, Bart was off and laughed and Bart said, “Really! I have ten pianos.” The move in running (no pun intended). The major problem, however, was 1977 cost Bell Laboratories $132,000 (no wonder they are no that Bart lived on the second floor in a one bedroom apartment. longer in business!). They kept relocating Bart and kept moving There was no way to get the piano upstairs. Bart had to take his all the pianos! front door off to get the piano into his little five foot by seven Growing the Collection foot entrance hall. That’s where the player piano was rebuilt! Bart was the only tenant (out of 1200 people in the com- The final move was to Bart’s current area in Pennsylva- plex) that gave his landlord a Christmas gift (a bottle of Scotch) nia. This is when Bart really started growing his collection. He every year. One day, his landlord said “Why don’t you move that had a home about five miles away from his current location and piano upstairs?” he also had a shop there. The house was a lovely farmhouse and when the state wanted to widen the road, he would only have Bart said, “I can’t do that.” three feet from the road to his kitchen window. He ended up get- The landlord replied “I can do it.” ting the state to condemn the property and to buy the house. This left him with the land having a shop and a garage which would So, the landlord shows up with a big front-end loader. be very difficult to sell. He finally subdivided the land for build- They unbolted the railing on the second floor patio, lowered the ing lots and sold them. He then moved to his current property rail to the ground with ropes, put the player piano in the bucket which has much acreage and built a new shop with a display area of his loader, and brought the piano up to the second floor, where erected in 2002. they pulled it off of the bucket and into Bart’s room. They did Now Bart thinks his current abode is too small and he this seven times! Bart started rebuilding player pianos to help pay will move again. He is designing a new house. He wants to stay his way through college. The landlord loved doing this. He in the immediate area, however. would come over to Bart’s and listen to the pianos. Bart tells a wonderful story, and every machine in his Bart graduated, got married and moved into a house and collection has a great story behind it. Here are some samples. things started blossoming. Player Piano Headquarters provided Bart with an introduction to nickelodeons. Teddy Spangenberg The Seeburg KT Sp and Carl Thomsen owned the company. lee Munsick and The current shop and display area comprise 3000 square Frank himpsl wrote notes about Player Piano Headquarters in feet. In the piano room, Bart has seventeen coin pianos currently. the Mechanical Music Digest (search under “Boonton”). In addi- It’s full. There are pianos out in his waiting room – waiting for tion, Bart knew about the Player Piano Company in Wichita (Durrell Armstrong) and the American Piano Supply Company in Clifton, NJ. American Piano Supply would sell primarily to dealers, but if you went there on Saturday before lunch you could buy anything you wanted over-the-counter. They closed and eventually Schaff took over their business. Through Carl Thomsen, Bart bought his first nickelodeon, a Coinola “C”. This was an “A” roll machine with nice three dimensional glass. It didn’t have a xylophone in it, so Bart built one! That was Bart’s first attempt at doing anything like that and it came out wonderfully. He installed the xylophone and had this machine for over twenty years. Career Bart has a degree in mechanical engineering and worked for Bell Laboratories for most of his life. His first house was in Morris Plains, New Jersey, near to his work in Whippany where he worked on a number of missile systems. After the missile projects, Bart ended up in a group within Bell Laboratories that did plant design and construction. They would go to other Bell Labs locations that needed modifications to their facilities. They would do the design, estimate the cost and monitor the construction. This organization grew until they were designing entire research laboratory and manufacturing facilities and building them. These were, or course, long term projects. The first such project was in Denver and Bart got relocated there for a couple of years, then back to New Jersey, then to Florida in the early eighties to do a large manufacturing facility in Orlando. Then he was up in the Boston area for about a year.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 129 130 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 131 restoration. Bart just has to figure out where they are going to go when they’re done! Bart is currently working on what Joe hilferty affectionately calls a “KT Sp.” This is because, as completed, it has a little more instrumentation than a KT but somewhat less instrumentation than a KT Special. The machine started out as a Seeburg KT. It has a triangle, tambourine and castanets. Bart put in a bass drum. He did this because in that particular KT, the tambourine and castanets play in unison so that there is nothing to keep the beat (hence the addition of a bass drum). Additional- ly, Bart “supersized” the xylophone to 25 notes (G to G) to match the scale of the piano. Seeburg traditionally used a 22 note xylophone (G to E) and Bart states that when you are playing those red hot 4X and G blues rolls, the extra three notes in the treble end make all the difference in the world. It should be noted here that both the bass drum with the beater assembly and the supersized xylophone were built by Dave Ramey, Jr. Dave enjoys the challenge of building custom coin piano parts. I am sure there On the positive side, the piano was very strong struc- was considerable communication between Bart and Dave during turally, however, there were a number of issues. It had a lot of the fabrication process since both the drum and the xylophone nicks, dings, etc. in the veneer. The bottom four inches of the appear as factory installed originals! piano was once in extremely damp or wet conditions and was I commented that often the bass drum and the snare pretty much rotted. Bart replaced thirty ivory keys to maintain an drums on a KT Special are overwhelming. Bart mentioned that ivory key bed. The glass was completely destroyed. There was a he had many discussions with Art Reblitz cursing the restora- big hole about 15 inches in the middle. Collectors that had these tions of G’s, H’s and KT Specials that aren’t properly voiced. machines sent Bart pictures of the glass. He had six examples of The drums have to be balanced—not just with one another, but the “sun burst” glass to examine. From that, Bart made his mas- with the whole piano. Also important is expression. The rolls ter. He got the last of the green glass that was available. Bart calls have the capability of providing expression and Bart believes you this the Seeburg lollipop glass, because all Seeburg trees look can really bring the expression out of the piano by very careful like lollipops. Bart did all of the stained glass himself, maintain- work. ing the very thin line work that Seeburg used. You could see what a wonderful job he did by looking at the pictures. The lanterns The Seeburg “F” are reproductions that Don Teach had made. Bart put the green glass in the lanterns to match the original emerald glass on top. The Seeburg “F” is a very rare machine. This one came The “F” originally had 25 violin pipes. Most F’s had 32 from Tim Trager. Bart asked Tim for a picture and three hours flute pipes. Bruce newman of Oregon made the additional 7 later Bart made a commitment. This instrument came from what pipes, so now the machine has 32 violin pipes. Tim calls “The House That Keeps on Giving”. As Tim and his partner removed one layer of pianos from this house, there would be another layer that they never saw before. Then when all the pianos were removed, they realized how many rolls were there.

The Double Mills Violano Bart has a beautiful double Mills Violano (having two violins instead of the usual one). Bart knew about this machine for about 25 years from talking to Frank Zygmunt, Sr. over the years. He had it in storage for at least that amount of time. It came from an ice cream parlor in the metropolitan Minneapolis area which closed around 1948. The heirs to the ice cream parlor sold the Mills at a public auction in 1952. Frank Zygmunt pur-

132 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 chased the machine later. It was a very clean, low mileage, unmolested, Mills Double. Bart got a call from Tim Trager about three years ago. Tim said it came from Frank Zygmunt, Sr. and immediately Bart was interested since he knew the machine. He purchased it and immediately had to perform eighty years’ worth of maintenance on it --- cleaning, lubrication, redoing the piano action (since hammers would get hard over time). The original strings are still in the machine and they are bright and shiny. It must have been kept in really wonderful conditions. The case has some crazing. This is because the original owners must have loved it to death – they waxed it and waxed it and waxed it! This closes the pores in the wood and the finish gets all “alligatored” (or “crazed”).

“Dancing Girl” Seeburg K

I commented that I wish the AMICA Bulletin had links The Western electric Style “X” to music files, so the reader could hear the music, but alas, this is print media and not the Internet. The machine is a gem because This machine was bought in 1988 on eBay, from Sacramento, the violins have never been molested, never been refinished and California. Bart looked on eBay, saw the machine and noticed that the never been repaired. Remember that above all it is a violin auction had ended. The seller’s phone number was part of the description, machine and that’s what’s important. so Bart called. The seller said that his secretary listed the item improperly so he removed the listing. The “Dancing Girl” Seeburg K Bart asks, “Do you want to sell it?” The seller said, “Well, Yes, but there are some things you should Bart has a beautiful Seeburg K with a Dancing Girl know. I bought it from a rebuilder who went out of business, kind of stained glass front. I noticed that the controls for “mandolin”, etc. skipped town and abandoned his shop. So I purchased this and another were on the side instead of the front like my Seeburg K. Bart said that this was an early K (around 1917) with pipes. Bart bought the machine from Wolfgang Schweppe. It was missing the pipes, the glass and the doors but the lid was there. The sides were loose and had to be strapped together to move it. It had many coats of ugly green paint, but there was enough of it there and the price was good enough so Bart dragged it home and turned it into something really nice. Under the lid, Bart could see that it was originally a black oak Seeburg – which is really unusual. It took Bart quite a while to replicate the black oak where you could see the grain through the finish. He has a lot of work to do. Ultimately he had to replace the lid. Jerry Biasella had a set of doors. Bart had to do all the sound board work, the down-bearing, etc. The machine was done in 1987. Originally, Bart put a set of flute pipes in, and just this last year, Bart had a set of piccolo pipes made by Bruce newman in Oregon.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 133 machine at a sheriff’s sale. It was pretty much disassembled. So I put all the parts together that I thought would go with it into big boxes, but some- body has to put it together. This amounted to two cartons of stuff (each carton was one cubic yard).” Bart says, “I’m in Pennsylvania, you’re in California. You have two cubic yard cartons each weighing about 200 pounds. We got a big expense there. How much do you want for the machine?” He wanted $6500. Bart said, “I can’t give you $6500 and move all that stuff from California.” The seller responded, “Would you give me $5500?” After pro- tracted negotiations, Bart paid $4000 for the machine and all the stuff and the seller included the delivery. Coinola Midget style “O” When Bart opened up the two cubic yard boxes, he found parts for the Western Electric in there, but they were mostly Durrell Armstrong a sheet metal lid on it with a drip edge to keep the rain out. The build-your-own nickelodeon parts which Bart sold on the day they arrived entire piano had to be rebuilt and new doors had to be made. The for $1000. The piano turned out to be so clean that it only needed what entire cabinet was re-veenered. It constituted 1100 hours of work Bart calls “a straight player piano restoration”. He put new bass strings so far and there is more work to be done. and a new piano action in it. The Seeburg “C” I always wondered about the name “Western Electric”. The famous “Western Electric” that is well known was part of the In 1980, Bart got a Seeburg Style C machine from Art Bell Telephone System. The nickelodeon company was a sub- Reblitz. It has a piano and mandolin. It’s a very early machine, sidiary of Seeburg. I couldn’t imagine how Seeburg would be around 1910 or 11. It had the clear beveled glass in it and Bart allowed to use that name. It turns out that the full name for the made the “Swan Glass” for it, copying from an original “C”. It nickelodeon company was the “Western Electric Piano Compa- needs a total restoration. Bart says he’ll get to it one of these ny” because it was in the west (Chicago). Therefore, it’s the days. Western --- Electric Piano Company. When the Seeburg-owned Western Electric Piano Company suspended operations in 1931 The link Style “2” the Bell Western Electric Company came to the auction and The Link Style 2 is basically a piano and mandolin. Bart bought the name for like $35 – just to get it off the record. located an original marimbaphone for a Link. This plays one The Coinola Midget Orchestrion Style “O” octave lower than the Link xylophones that are the most com- monly found. This is in the waiting room! It will really have a This machine has xylophone, mandolin, bass drum, nifty sound with the marimbaphone. snare drum, triangle, tambourine, wood block and piano. It was bought from Wolfgang Schweppe. Before that, it was purchased The link Style “C” from the “A.C. Ramey Company” in 1953 by Walt Disney. It was used in Disneyland when the park opened. It sat outside in Fron- This machine was Bart’s first purchase ever on eBay. It tierland until 1962. The front panels of the machine were has 28 open flute pipes, which are voiced at ten inches of pres- veneered in eighth inch tempered Masonite and covered with sure (almost like a band organ if you pull the front off). The exte- body filler and finally wood grained. The side panels were rior was gorgeous but the interior was a mess. They used green stripped to wood and epoxied over and wood-grained. There was aquarium tubing, the pneumatics were covered in pouch leather.

134 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 By talking for a while, Bart determined that it was a Link 2E. Mike then says, “Here’s the guy’s phone number, he owns a flower shop in Cleveland.” So Bart gave the man a call and agreed upon a price. This was a good price. Bart thinks he was too quick to agree, because the man called back and demanded another thousand dollars. The man said, “I quoted you too little.” Bart agreed, since it was still affordable, drove up to the flower shop in Cleveland and picked it up. Bart had to do a total restoration on the machine, including the sound board, the down-bearing; some of the roll frame pieces were broken; new xylophone beaters; whole new pneumatic assembly. Bart said “But it’s a joy. It belongs here and I love it.” The nelson-Wiggen Casino “X” This machine was in Tim Trager’s office for years when he sold it to Bart. The xylophone was restored but all of the controls had rotted pouches. So Bart spent an afternoon and put all new pouches in, and son-of-a-gun it just took off! It has the xylo- This machine came from the Milhaus collection. Bart was the phone lying horizontally on the underside of the lid. only bidder. Nelson-Wiggen was a spin-off company of Seeburg. Two employees: Oscar Nelson and Peter Wiggen, quit Seeburg The link “2e” and started their own company. They were the chief design engi- Bart got a call from Mike Gorski in Cleveland. Mike neers for Seeburg. Bart reflects that it is interesting to ask your- mainly collects arcade and slot machines. Mike says “Are you self, when restoring a Nelson-Wiggen machine – “Why would still buying nickelodeons, Bart?” they do something like this?” He continues by saying that See- burg must have been infuriated that these two should not only Bart says, “Occasionally, when I can afford them.” leave the company but they would go into competition with See- Mike says, “Is a Link a good one?” burg in the coin piano business. Bart could imagine the number of patent infringement threats there must have been. Bart says that if you look at their cabinet machines, everything below the

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 135 shelf has brass fasteners: brass screws, brass nuts and bolts. There must have been some verbiage somewhere that allowed them to build a machine only if it had brass fasteners. The spool frame is noticeably quite different from the Seeburg mechanism. Even with all these differences, the sound of these machines is fabulous. Bart says that the Seeburg K, KT, KT Spe- cial, the Link 2, 2E and the Nelson-Wiggen cabinet pianos all used exactly the same piano plate. Bart has restored 20 of these cabinet style machines. In the Seeburg, which has the same plate and same stringing scale, they only used four or five different wire sizes. Link used five or six. The Nelson-Wiggen used about ten wire sizes. The nice brightness of a Nelson-Wiggen machine comes from better stringing of the piano. Nelson-Wiggen took the time to use ten different wire sizes rather than the four or five. Bart uses 14 sizes on pianos he restores. The Cremona “G” The Cremona Style “G” machine plays “A” rolls. Did you expect that they would play “G” rolls? This is one of the few known with the clear beveled glass. It has unusual pink and blue glass and has 32 open flutes. The cabinet of this machine is really extraordinary in the high craftsman style. It is an extremely diffi-

Nelson-Wiggen 4X

The Barber Shop There is a Seeburg “K” that was restored in 1966 by a man named Willis Snyder. This machine was in a Kutztown, Pennsylvania barber shop owned by Clarence Dysher, who committed suicide in 1972. That ended the barber shop. His home was right across the street. The widow brought the nickelodeon to her house and that’s where it sat. So one day, Bart opens up the phone book, and finds Anna Dysher. Bart says that he only lives five miles from her and would like to come over to see the Seeburg “K”. For years he had been meaning to visit the cult restoration to do properly. It’s currently awaiting restoration. barber shop but never did. Mrs. Dysher enthusiastically invited Bart said that it has been finished once before and it’s fortunate Bart to see the machine. One thing led to another and Bart never that the prior owner didn’t own sandpaper. This machine also visited. Five years later, Bart is going through his stuff and he came from the “House that keeps on giving.” sees Anna Dysher’s phone number. He called several times – no answer. This was in January of 2011. The nelson-Wiggen “4X” Bart asked a realtor friend in Kutztown if he knows This machine was on eBay. It came out of Denver. Bart Anna Dysher. The realtor said he knew her very well but she died could see that it wasn’t entirely correct. He warns: “don’t buy last year. The realtor said: “Hey, she has one of those things like anything on eBay if it has fuzzy pictures”. This was the only you have.” (This is the same realtor that told Bart “Your place is thing Bart purchased on eBay that he refused to leave feedback lousy with them”). for. When it showed up, it was painted blue, the sides were Bart said, “Yes, I know she had one of those things like falling off of it, the xylophone was incorrect, the drum was incor- I have; that’s why I’m trying to locate her.” rect, the motor was incorrect and the cabinet was so bad that it The realtor said “Well you can’t, she’s dead”. had to be entirely re-veneered. Bart made a new lid. The shelves, Bart asked the realtor if he knew where it ended up. The the doors and the front panel all had to be re-veneered. realtor said they had no heirs or sons or daughters, but a young

136 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 lad took the widow in during the last years of her life and took care of her. She left the home and everything to him. Bart asked, “You wouldn’t know his name, would you?” The realtor said “Yep” and gave Bart the fellow’s name. Incredible! The fellow lives three miles down the road from Bart. Then Bart said, “What’s his phone number?” The realtor said, “Don’t push me!” Bart opened up the trusty phone book and there was his name and number. “Drunk Monk”, for a Seeburg B The fellow said “no, no, it’s not for sale, it’s worth $57,000, I had it appraised … “. Bart said, “This conversation really can’t continue, but I’d like to come over and see it sometime.” After two weeks the fellow calls Bart and says, “I was really messing with you when I said $57,000 and I really would like to sell the machine.” Bart asks if the fellow has any idea of what he wants for “Land of the Midnight Sun” for a Seeburg B the machine. He says “I’d like to get $10,000 for it” Bart replies that he is not sure he would give him $10,000 for it but would like to come and look at it. Bart expect- More Machines ed to see a machine that really needed restoration. What Bart saw There is a late Seeburg “K” machine (1921) with violin was a machine that didn’t have a nick or a scratch on it any- pipes that Bart purchased from the collection of Dave Ramey, where, with the original finish, perfect glass and that played rea- Sr. after he passed away. There was a big demand for this sonably well. The fellow wanted to see Bart’s collection before machine, but Bart had asked first. opening any negotiations, and he was awestruck when he walked There is a late Seeburg “KT” with violin pipes from Tim into Bart’s display area. After the third glass of wine, Bart makes Trager. The late machines with violin pipes are pretty rare. Also, him an offer, sets cash on the table right in front of him and he this machine has a silver fox finish which Bart really liked. says “fine”. Bart moved it the next day. Bart has the original invoice from the restorer (Willis Snyder), in 1966 for $571.50 Cinco de Mayo including $15 sales tax and $15 cartage fee. Bart has a well-known get-together which he calls Art Glass Panels “Cinco de Mayo”. Bart says this evolved quite naturally. He has been involved in the hobby for over forty years, doing restorations and collecting all that time. There were so many people that Bart came to know over the years, (whether they were collectors, restorers or just down-right enthusiasts), that about eight “Swan” art years ago, Bart decided to pull everybody together. He would glass for the ask, but it would always be the wrong time of the year. Winter Seeburg C weather would make travelling difficult; the summertime would conflict with people’s vacations plans. So Bart said, “All right, how about the first weekend in May, before the summer plans but after the bad weather? It’s the perfect time to make a break.” Bart just wanted to get the collectors, restorers and enthusiasts together with no agenda at all. No meeting, no people sitting on couches eating crumpets, no old business, no new business, nobody falling asleep. Just nickelodeons. It was a smash- ing success. The first year there was about a dozen people. They

Center Bart enjoying a panel for moment of good the fellowship in the Seeburg F company of Dave Ramey Jr., Paul Manganaro and Ray Scheffy.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 137 would listen to nickelodeon music, swap stories and learn from one another. People got to know each other. So many people in this hobby just have blinders on and don’t go out and introduce themselves to other people. It worked out so well and it was on the fifth of May, that Bart named it the Cinco de Mayo get- Glenn Thomas together and has repeated it each year since. His scheduling for- mula is simple; it’s the first closest weekend to the fifth that doesn’t interfere with Mother’s Day weekend. The get-together has grown to about twenty to twenty- two people, which is basically all Bart can accommodate. Each year, Bart tries to invite a couple of newbies. At about six-thirty everybody goes out to a restaurant to have a wonderful dinner. Bart wishes he had more room for more folks, but currently it is limited. Bart looks at the automatic musical instrument hobby as a big salad bowl. You got tomatoes, onions, artichoke hearts, and hard-boiled eggs all in there. The collectors might be the tomatoes; the restorers might be the artichoke hearts, and the onions might be enthusiasts. The tomatoes never talk to the artichoke Ray Scheffy hearts and the onions never talk to the hard-boiled eggs. So Bart puts everybody together in the salad bowl and it’s been a rip- roaring success. Enough of this “salad bowl” metaphor for now. Suffice it to say that Bart’s thrust is to just increase the communication between people that he knows. Bart wishes he could just reach out to others and open the flood gates to everybody. He just doesn’t have the space to do it. The Cinco de Mayo get-together for the few folks that Bart can invite is his contribution to AMICA. It’s his way of paying back for all of the wonderful Paul Horgan experiences the organization has provided.

Joe Hilferty

Matt Jaro

Dave Ramey Jr.

Tom Hundermark

Paul Manganaro Bart Off can be reached at [email protected] Matt Jaro can be reached at [email protected] As always, comments, suggestions and questions are always welcome.

138 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 AMICAn On The Road picked up a few German words and tried to read body language. Darryl Coe Looks like they don't know where they are wanting to go next year. Could be Bondamunda. We returned to the wine court and This is my second trip to Speyer Germany. Remember I had a nice dinner with a band playing. Sunday was only a good- was there last month to buy a hand made monkey, and scope out by day. I did go back into the Museum for a little more looking the place of the next Drehorgel ( crank Organ) festival. Well the at the mechanical music machines. So now I am here writing festival starts in about 3 hours. So I will start this and finish it on this and will get up at dawn and head for home tomorrow. Sunday when the event is finished. I probably won't emphasize I think the event was great as far as meeting some old the Technic Museum as it was in the last travel account. friends and making new ones. I was disappointed in not being I left exactly one week ago and arrived in Frankfurt on Fri- able to play in town .I might call it a knife and fork meeting. But day. I drove a hour up the Rhine to Rudesheim a very old and that was how it went this year. And every year is different. I have neat wine and tourist town. There is a large Mechanical Music Berlin to look forward to in July. I can then play in the streets or Machine Museum. I enjoyed the tour thru and listened to many plaza as much as I want to. of the organs. I bought a CD and a book, which I will open on the Here are the rest of some of my pictures. I hope you long trip home. (12 hours). I have ridden along the Rhine many enjoyed this short account. The main thing you have missed was times and stopped at Rudesheim many times but never went into the terrific sounds that these large and small organs can make. the heart of the small town. While I was there I also went into Thanks for your attention...... Auf Wiedershen the Ausbach factory visitor center. They make the famous Aus- Leirerkastenmann Darryl Coe bach Uralt which is a Cognac used for drinks and candies. The day before I said my goodbye to my host, I went 14 miles North to pick up Joseph my monkey. He had suffered a broken leg. I brought him to his maker and he was repaired. Franz and his wife are very delightful people and they are both Entrance to very cleaver people with there crafts. They make their living Siegfried with the drehorgel's. He doesn't make the monkeys anymore and Wendel’s stopped after 100 were made. He did agree to fix Joseph and he Mechanical had his first monkey for a complete overhaul. Music Friday night was the first night of the event. We met in a Museum in facility called the wine cellar. It was very nice inside as you can Rudesheim. see. Not what I expected from the old sandstone building. Food was brought by the participants and it was bountiful. A few midi file organs were played outside and inside. One thing that I found very interesting was a midi file controlled accordion. You act like you are keying it but all you are is squeezing it to make the air. After dinner a small group was offered a tour of the organs in the Organ building and also the very large organs in the main part of the museum. Saturday was the main day and it started out by register- ing,(I joined CDD) in the German based Drehorgel club. I then had my badge to enter the museum where a flea market by the members were as were some of the organ builders. I picked up a fly wheel and extra crank but the real find was a old doctor's leather bag for 20 Euros. That's about 30 dollars. The down side was by getting the best buys, I missed out on the one hour Weber drehorgel concert in the church. The church is about a 20 minute orchestrion walk away. And because of a dual event in the town the city fathers only allowed about 8 free playing grinders in town for a couple of hours. So most of the individual playing was in or around the wine court, back at the museum. I lugged my small Stuber organ all the way to Speyer and so I decided I couldn't leave it in the aluminum box back in my room. So I got it and played in the wine courtyard as a large number of members ate left overs from the day before. (Still very good). My small hand puppet "Affe" was in demand to come to their tables. One lady gave Affe a 5 euro bill ($8). After a couple of hours I returned my organ to my room and got ready for the dinner party. But first was a the Club planning and business meeting. We filled up the I-Max theater. I understood about nothing at the meeting. I

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 139 Franz and Lenchen Fischer creator of my monkey, Joseph, only 100 ever made.

Bruder 80 keyless Grand Orchestra band organ 104.

Gotthard Arnold curator of the mechanical music machines at Speyer museum.

Gebruder Wellerhaus, Muhleim/Saarn 1912 Holland.

Darryl cranking a small barrell organ.

1922 Mortier Dance Organ made in Belgium. 12.5 meters wide makes it the widest dance organ in the world. It weighs 2.8 tons, and is 10 meters deep.

Welte Phil- Organ builder harmonic from Berlin, pipe organ, Axel Stuber 1916, 2500 displaying his pipes. new organs.

140 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Chapter News Founding Chapter About Our host and hostess March 31, 2012 John ulrich and his companion, Blanche Korfmacher, hosted this very successful AMICA meeting. John is President President - John Ulrich of the Founding Chapter, and besides keeping the AMICA chap- Reporter - Bob & Bonnie Gonzalez ter working beautifully, he and Blanche host several house concerts throughout the year. Needless to say, John’s pianos get a Our Chapter loss workout!

A 1917 Coinola X was John’s first instrument. On the nan Bostick was a valued member of our chapter and day that he picked it up from Mike Argain he found a Haines she was our friend. On March 26 we lost this talented member of Bros. Ampico upright. John was inspired by Richard Reut- our group. Nan was an accomplished ragtime pianist and com- linger’s house concert so he knocked out the walls of his house so there would be room to host concerts. He obtained his Knabe grand Amico from Margaret Wilcox and concerts were on their way. In his design, he lengthened the space between two door- ways to accommodate his next acquisition, the Violano that Dave Reedy led him to. His Violino is one of the first to play midi files. While at the Los Angeles convention, he saw the E-Roll system and has installed one on the Knabe. Now the Knabe plays along with the violano

poser. She appreciated and encouraged vintage American music John’s first and had great respect for the instruments that played it. Nan was instrument, a an historian. Her great Uncle Charlie , Charles N. Daniels (also 1917 Coinola X Neil Moret) wrote standards such as Chlo-e: Song of the Swamp, She's Funny That Way, Sweet and Lovely, and You Tell Me Your Dream, I'll Tell You Mine. We will miss you, Nan. If you would like to know more about Nan, access the website, WestCoastRagtime.com Ed Note: See Nan playing one of her own compositions on YouTube at: http://tinyurl.com/burpjrv

Our Chapter Gain 1928 Mills We must thank John Kiszla and Jim Finley for adding Violano-Virtuoso, some balance to our chapter’s loss. John Kiszla is a fine piano equipped with a player from Vallejo, CA. He owned a pumper and then was able midi interface. to acquire a Chickering Ampico. The pianos needed some repair, so he send messages out on MMD and the next thing you know, he found access to all the parts he needed and Voila! He and his friend Jim found AMICA. We are so happy these two musicians found us!

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 141 Oh yes, there’s a spinet in his guest house and two vintage Packards in his garage. And a word about Blanche – she should be paid for the outstanding food and catering that she pro- vides at these musical events. What A Team!

Listening in the living room are Richard Reutlinger, Darryl Coe, Lyle Merithew, Bob and Bonnie Gonzalez and Sandy Swirsky

1940 Packard Club Coupe, and a 1932 Packard 900 Roadster.

New members John Kiszla and Jim Finley, with Chapter President John Ulrich.

The 2013 Convention Committee met before the Chapter meeting.

Jack Edwards, John Ulrich and Bob Gonzalez watch and listening to John Kiszla playing on the Knabe.

Sandy Swirsky, Dianne Edwards and Richard Reutlinger

142 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Southern California Chapter ures? When they exchanged the mermaid on the submarine ride Acting Reporter - Diane Minzey for Nemo, where did the mermaid go? As you wander through Photographer - Ed Cooley the festinating collection of treasures, you will find these answers as well as many other Disneyland memories. The Disney All AMICA meetings are wonderful and lots of fun, but collection is happily intermingled with the musical instruments the April 2012 meeting just might take home an Oscar. Held at and together they make up an incredible display. Other collec- the home of Rosemary West and Jack Janzen in Fallbrook, it tions such as skulls and handmade castles (ceramic) add to the was, as Jack Nichollson would say, "as good as it gets!" If you fun. Instruments include a Wurlitzer Pianino, a Mills Violono, a were one of the 75 or more lucky people who attended, you Weber Duo Art grand and an 88 note player. might try to describe the dreamlike setting where Disneyland A short business meeting was held at 3:00, and then on merges with a wild animal park. If you missed it, their "fantasy- to the real business at hand, the highlight of the afternoon and land" is hard to imagine.

Business meeting conducted by President Jerry Pell.

evening, a 2 or 2 & ½ hour concert by Carl Sonny Leyland! (Sonny specializes in boogie woogie piano and has actually been inducted into the Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame) I think everyone

Jack Janzen and Rosemary West

From scraps of conversation I overheard, it seems that Jack and Rosemary found the home that no one wanted, painted pink inside and out, but sitting on the most gorgeous tree covered hills. They've been improving on their estate for 5 years by adding a barn and wooden decks both upstairs and down. The house itself is beyond most of our wildest dreams. It's certainly a nice place to hang out for an afternoon. As we sat on the deck munching fruits, cheese, chips and dips (many unique and deli- cious flavors here!), we looked out over a lush green landscape as far as the eye could see. Some walked down to visit the lla- there will agree that it was some of the best playing we've ever mas, the alpaca, and goats. They also have birds (doves, I heard.. and so much variety- not just boogie! It was one fabu- believe) as well as cats, and a dog that is so unique he alone is lous concert! Robbie Rhodes was also in attendance and he and worth a trip to Fallbrook. Later as we tried to leave, a peacock Sonny played some great 4-hand piano. In the middle of the con- blocked our way. cert a dozen or so boxes of pizza arrived, and after the concert 4 Jack and his brother spent 23 years publishing their boxes of wonderful home made pies from Julian were put out, magazine, "The E Ticket" on Disneyland, which is apparent in with assorted cookies. (The pies were to die for.) Ok, Rosemary every room of the house, as well as outside. When they remod- and Jack spoiled us badly. This was a very special day/evening eled "It's a Small World," what did they do with the older fig- and we thank them ever so much. It was quite a treat for all in attendance.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 143 Texas Chapter President - Rich Clayton Reporter - Ken Long The Texas chapter held their spring meeting in Wichita The Pianino Falls on Saturday, April 21st. It was hosted by Jim & Kathy Quashnock and activities commenced with a visit to the campus of Midwestern State University to experience a carillon recital and carillon tower tour.

Kathy and Jim Quashnock

The true Amican “Texas Rangers” sat out in the spa- cious tree-shaded lawns of MSU to hear the performance all played by another Texas Amican Ranger, Jim Quashnock. Jim performs on the Redwine Carillon weekly and has continued to Hitting the play church services for 45 years. Works by D. Scarlatti, A. Dia- pizza table. belli, F. Couperin, and J. Knox were played on the restored carillon console as well as two pieces arranged by Leen ‘t Hart and R. Barns.

Robbie Rhodes and Sonny Ley- land duet.

Our hosts, Jack Jansen AMICAn Jim Quashnock Playing Carillon and Rose- The carillon in the Hardin Hall Tower at Midwestern mary West setting sale in State University was an early installation in the state of Texas. a former Dis- The bells in the carillon were cast by Royal Petit and Fritsen Bell ney ride. Foundry of Aarle in Rixtel, The Netherlands, and installed in 1952. There are 37 bells and they range in weight from 640 pounds for the largest and lowest pitched bell to 24 pounds for the smallest and highest pitched. The carillon was completely renovated in 2002-2003. It is equipped to automatically play the Westminster chime on the quarter hour and strike the hour but is not equipped to play other music pieces automatically.

144 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 It was a relaxing and refreshing spring afternoon and the events were absolutely enjoyable. This meeting, carillon event, and tour were very well appreciated by all in attendance. We thank Jim and Kathy for the splendid meeting at their home including musical performances and restoration demonstrations. It was a fine day and evening, too, since the last depart- ing Texas Rangers hit the trail at 8:00 p.m. taking with them on their journey great memories of bells and beautiful music machines.

Jim and Kathy's O-Roll Build Up

Following the carillon recital, members toured the tower after climbing 120 steps from ground level to the top of the tower. Then the group traveled more steps across Wichita Falls to Jim and Kathy’s home for food and refreshments and a view of Jim’s collection of mechanical musical instruments. Jim and Kathy’s interest in musical instruments started in the early 1970’s when Jim was stationed in the military at Rome, NY. Jim and Kathy visited the nearby Musical Museum in Jim and Deansboro many times and gained a great appreciation for the Kathy's Frati instruments. Then continuing into the 1980’s, Jim acquired his Organ from first instrument, a fine six foot George Steck Duo-Art grand. It the Milhous was all original and Jim has restored it to playing condition. Auction. Their next acquisition was a cylinder music box which then led Steck to a Regina disc music box. Next they located and purchased a Duo-Art custom O-roll upright player with drums, cymbals and other per- Grand cussion instruments. Since then Jim and Kathy have found disc in the back. music boxes, a 24” Polyphon, a Seeburg-L, a Broderip & Wilkin- son residential barrel organ, a Reproduco Mortuary Organ, and a street barrel organ. Having just completed a 3 year project of restoring his Music Box Wurlitzer 105 band organ, Jim gave a slide presentation of the Collection Wurlitzer 105 restoration and the discovery of multiple layers of and other paintings on the case. He wrote an article on this and it is fea- collectibles tured in the upcoming MBSI bulletin. Jim is most proud of his in Living new Milhous auction purchase—a wonderful Frati organ. Then Room to add to the fun of it all, everyone also viewed the slot machine, a few organettes, and a pinball machine.

Vicki Brady Taking in Jim's and Kathy's Collection. Harp made by Jim.

Jim and Kathy's Wonderful Sounding and Beautifully Restored Wurlitzer 105 Band Organ AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 145 Boston Area Chapter President – Kirk Russell Dorothy’s Photographers – Phyllis Konop and Bill Koenigsberg Theremin, Our chapter’s annual meeting was held Sunday, April made by 22, at the home of Dick and eileen DeVito. They have a beauti- Moog. ful house and gardens situated in Weston, Massachusets. This was our “Winter” meeting even though we missed it by a month. Prior to our meeting we enjoyed a wonderful spread of sandwiches and munchies provided by the DeVitos, and Dorothy Bromage showed a 3 minute video about the Theremin. The Theremin is an interesting musical instrument made popular in the 1940’s in the movies and over the radio, although it was invented earlier in the 1920’s. It is named for its Russian inventor and is played without making physical contact with the instrument. Dorothy had just acquired a working Theremin and was anxious to tell us all about it. For more informaton, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin The business meeting commenced at 2:00 p.m. and the following slate of officers was voted into office.

Kirk Russell – President Phil Konop – Vice President Phyllis Konop – Secretary Dorothy Bromage - Treasurer Following induction Kirk Russell took over as President and conducted the rest of the meeting. Kirk Russell, Bob Cordier, Bob Hunt, Allan Jayne, Norm Daly, After the meeting we enjoyed seeing and hearing the John Buscemi, Claire Bowerman, and David Kay DiVito’s Duo Art Steinway grand model XR. The piano and Duo-Art mechanism were completely rebuilt in 1996, and at the time of the restoration, a Broadmore Research “PowerRoll” built in e-valve system was installed by Bob Hunt. The piano and the “PowerRoll” performed beautifully as it has for the past 16 years. Bob is the manufacturer of the VirtualRoll e-valve system that can play scanned paper rolls from files stored on a computer. These are very enjoyable additions especially to reproducing pianos because they eliminate the need to reroll and reload musical selections.

New Officers - Kirk Russell, Phyllis Konop, Phil Konop, and Dorothy Bromage

Our hosts, Dick and Eileen DeVito

Dorothy showing the theremin video

Bill Koenigsberg admiring and listening to the computer controlled Steinway Duo-Art

146 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Midwest Chapter Saturday morning after breakfast we held a mini-mart at President Don Johnson the hotel, Bennet leedy reported brisk sales of his roll inventory Reporter Christy Counterman there. Our group went to lunch at several nearby destinations, then a few of us visited the National Park Service’s Huffman Dayton, Ohio was the destination for members of both Prairie Field, where we learned of the history of the Wright the Musical Box Society and AMICA’s Midwest Chapter on May brothers and their business endeavors in addition to flying. 4, 5 and 6, 2012. Attendees arriving on Friday afternoon checked in at the Hope Hotel, which is just inside the gate of the Wright-

MBSI and AMICA members Barb Schumacher, Liz Barnhart, Tana Otto, Sandra Herr and Wilbur Herr on their tour of the National Museum of the Air Force. The highlight of Saturday was a visit to the national Museum of the Air Force, a massive museum housing hundreds of aircraft from the U.S. and other countries, along with exhibits Patterson Air Force Base. The Hope Hotel is named after enter- on flight, rockets and space travel, and military history. It takes tainer Bob Hope, commemorating his devotion to the armed hours to walk the museum, and it would be hard to see every- forces. thing. Some of the vintage airplanes and gliders were suspended Friday evening we gathered at the home of Mike and from the ceilings in the massive buildings. An upper level lets liz Barnhart for an open house. They shared their collections visitors have a bird’s eye view of the rocket and missile collec- with us, playing the 1926 Double Violano-Virtuoso, 1922 Chick- tion as well as planes on the lower level floor. ering Ampico, 1916 Weber Ortero and the 2003 Treveris Stinson- Barnhart band organ, among others. We always have a good time

Dave Van Oost- en looks on as Mike Barnhart changes a roll on the 1916 Weber Otero orchestrion.

Our banquet was held at the Hope Hotel, where Mike Perry presided over the MBSI business meeting after dinner. It was fun to visit with people we don’t see very often. We were treated to a view of the Super Moon as we departed, 30% larger and 14% brighter than usual, as it was 31,000 miles closer to earth that night. Sunday morning the Barnharts hosted breakfast and the AMICA business meeting before we departed for a 45-minute listening to their instruments. A new addition to their garden journey north to St. Paris, Ohio and the home of Mary Pollock. railway is a stone castle that is lighted at night, complete with a This wonderful historic home was built in two eras, and featured drawbridge. gorgeous details throughout. She showed us the first Regina music box she and her husband purchased, and the many instru-

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 147 ments and music machines acquired since. We had fun admiring her other collections on the house tour – quilts, antique framed verses, vintage folding cameras and lots of authentic furniture Taking a and décor. She told us about restoring the porch after finding sal- turn at cranking vaged antique columns, adding brick to the curbside to welcome Mary's visitors, recreating vintage tile patterns and fun projects from roller organ throughout the years. It was truly a wonderful visit. is Dave Van The Chapter thanks our hosts for their hospitality and Oosten. hard work planning this fun weekend in Dayton with lots to see and do.

Hilda Mer- Some of chant and Mary Pollock's Mary Pollock miniature enjoy the view mechanical from Mary's music toys, restored wrap- including a around porch. Q.R.S. Playasax in the original box.

Liz Barnhart shows off the inner work- ings of the Treveris Stinson band organ, mod- eled after a favorite Warren Merchant place of enjoys Mary Pollock's Mike's in "Piano Room". Note Trier, Ger- the pianos on both many from sides, the Christmas the year 180 Tree musicbox stand, A.D. and the fantastic stick-style woodwork trim.

In another of Mike’s tribute to Germany, this Pell organ Mary Pollock displays a demonstrated painting of these beautiful Waldkirch. bird boxes for the group.

148 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 New A/V Discs Remembering Frederick MeMu Collected

A charming, unusual DVD came my way unexpectedly MeMu Collected is a good quality audio CD containing while on the ‘net searching for original literature for our on-line musical performances by 32 automatic musical instruments. Put research library. Pamela Howland has prepared a first rate doc- together by a group of accomplished collectors/restorers in Bel- umentary about her journey into Chopin’s world. Chopin’s gium, all members of a sister society, MechaMusica. I thor- tragic life story unfolds through beautiful footage about the Pol- oughly enjoyed listening to the whole of it, and recommend it to ish and French sites of his life. Her performance of his composi- all members. ts tions weave in and out of the background. Also featured is Rosemary Harris, who played the part of George Sand in the 1975 seven-part series, Notorious Woman. This unique mix creates a fine view of Chopin’s life and music, transporting us back to the 19th century, to better understand and appreciate his genius and his impact on us today. I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD, and recommend it to all lovers of Chopin’s beloved music. Available through Pamela’s website. ts http://www.pamelahowland.com/

Ed Note: This fine audio CD is available off the Mechamusica web site ts Ed Note: If by chance there is someone out there who happened to record that 1975 seven-part series, Notorious Woman, I sure- www.mechamusica.be ly would appreciate seeing it. Notwithstanding that, those among us who might be inclined to acquire it, please contact PBS Click on: “webshop” and voice your interest in seeing this released in DVD format. Add your voice to a growing chorus. ts

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 149 In The News The Plain Dealer 4. The original CAT logo remains. Cleveland, OH 5. Cole fabricated new engine housing plates, missing 25 March 2012 from the original machine, and “stressed” them with chains, torches and other tools to make them look old. Dave Cole's 'Music Box' installation 6. Seams and bolts throughout the piece indicate how it at Cleveland Institute of Art turns a can be disassembled and moved in pieces. 7. Ghostly decals indicate that the compactor once compactor into a musical instrument belonged to McAllister Construction Co. Inc. in Yardley, Pa., and By Steven Litt Titusville, N.J. 8. Cole removed the entire engine from the machine, CLEVELAND, ohio -- Artist Dave Cole from Provi- cutting its weight substantially. dence, R.I., teaches old machines new tricks. For the national debut of his “Music Box” installation, Ed. note: Story may be seen at: opening Friday at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cole turned a http://tinyurl.com/7hxmq6s vintage 1980s CAT Model CS-553 smooth drum vibrator soil compactor, donated by Ohio CAT President Ken Taylor, into a Irish Times colossal music box. Dublin, Ireland 23 April 2012 Why player pianos have a role to play by MICHAEL DERVAN YOU MIGHT NOT ever have seen or heard one in the flesh, but you’ve probably seen a player piano in a movie. Even in this age of digital wizardry, there’s a special aura attached to watching a piano, as if by magic, playing itself, the keys going up and down and the music pouring out without any direct human intervention. Of course, that’s not always how it was intended to be. Yes, you could buy piano rolls – long, perforated rolls of paper that activated the instruments’ pneumatic mechanism – to play popular pieces from Haydn and Mozart to Chopin and Liszt. You could also buy performances that had been recorded on piano rolls by the great players of the day, many of whom provided When a viewer’s presence triggers a sensor in the glowing testimonials to the companies marketing player pianos. gallery, the contraption plays the opening melody of “The Star You could also learn how to manipulate levers governing dynam- Spangled Banner.” ics and speed, so that you could create your own, tailor-made Commissioned by the art institute, the work communi- performances. In fact, so big was this idea at one time that major cates everything from the notion of steamrolling political oppo- orchestras occasionally performed piano concertos with player nents with aggressive patriotism to the idea that prosaic machines pianos – the soloist provided their individual interpretation by can be repurposed for poetic uses. controlling the player piano’s output. What’s less obvious is that to squeeze the compactor So, why did a system using real pianos fade from histo- into the school’s Reinberger Galleries, Cole had to reduce its ry while the apparently far-less perfect, scratchy-sounding weight from 11 tons to 1 ton and carve it into roughly 35 individ- recordings of the 78rpm era continued to hold sway? Well, sim- ual pieces, each of which could fit through standard double doors ply put, the music-making on a player piano almost never sound- in the building. ed like the work of a human performer. The big-name testimoni- here’s a closer look at how Cole, 36, got the job done: als were given after the stars had heard their rolls played back on the instruments they used when the rolls were being cut. No two 1. Cole visited the Musical Wonder House in Wiscasset, pianos feel the same to play, so to get the same results on a dif- Maine, to study traditional music-box construction. He then cre- ferent instrument, the performer has to make adjustments. Even if ated a giant music box on the front end of the compactor with you were able to mimic, with 100 per cent accuracy, the physical machined steel tines mounted on brass plates attached to a res- movements of someone playing on instrument A and apply them onating chamber made of varnished cherry wood. to instrument B, the results could sound spectacularly different. If 2. Cole removed the original 2-inch-thick steel arms you also make allowance for the fact that performers adjust to the from the compactor, weighing 1,600 pounds apiece, and replaced acoustic feedback from a particular room or hall as well as the them with hollow sheet-metal replicas. instrument, you can clearly see why the reproducing piano roll 3. A motor drives a 19th-century pulley attached to a died even when audio recording was still in its infancy. thick leather belt, which turns the big drum. The player piano was of interest to composers, and

150 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 Stravinsky and Hindemith were among those who wrote for it. relationships would sound and kept other aspects of his music But it was the American Conlon Nancarrow (1912-97) whose pared back. His favourite device was canon, where melodic lines imitate each other, in his case using ratios that could involve square roots or even pi. Most lines in his counterpoint are either loud or soft, so that volume becomes more a matter of the density of the writing than anything else. The sustaining pedal is remark- able by its absence. His melodic style is gangly and fractured, unpredictable in step, direction and speed. The style, you could say, is black and white, as if drawn in fine, crazily independent lines. But those lines can explode, or cascade, or simply run riot. Energy is a big part of the Nancarrow experience, energy which the composer was fond of switching off at the end of a piece with the most unlikely of twists. Nancarrow’s is, more than most, a take it or leave it kind of music. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Its rigour and determination are of a rare order. It really has no natural forum apart from the recordings that have been made of it. Finding and preparing an instrument of the kind Nancar- Conlon Nancarrow using his piano roll punching machine. row owned was a major undertaking. The two full days of Nan- Photograph: Phillip Makanna, courtesy of Eva Soltes carrow on the player piano, with fascinating supplementary concerts by the London Sinfonietta and the Arditti Quartet, were as name has become indelibly linked with the composition of origi- wild and exhilarating, if sometimes disconcerting a musical ride nal music for player piano. Nancarrow, born in Texarkana, Texas, as I’ve ever experienced. learnt the trumpet, studied in Cincinnati and Boston, joined the Communist party and fought against Franco in the Spanish civil Ed Note: Story may be seen at: war. When, after his return, he was denied a passport, he moved http://tinyurl.com/brwzm93 to Mexico (for which he did not need a passport) and lived there for the rest of his life. It was in self-imposed exile in Mexico that he started writing studies for player piano, a project he carried PRWeb through without any apparent regard to career success or acclaim. Lexington, KY Although he had won the respect of Aaron Copland, John Cage 17 May, 2012 and Elliott Carter at an early stage, it was only from the 1970s onwards that his work began to achieve any real acknowledge- university of Kentucky Opera Theatre ment – György Ligeti discovered his music by accident, and Acquires Record number of Yamaha secured a major international publisher for Nancarrow. The composer wasn’t interested in the interpretative Disklavier Pianos possibilities of the player piano. He was obsessed by the idea that if he punched the holes in the piano rolls, he could investigate Dedication ceremony marks largest one-time university complexities of rhythm beyond the reach of any performer’s con- acquisition of award-winning performance reproducing pianos. trol, and he could juxtapose patterns using more layers than any Marked by a dynamic ceremony celebrating the delivery 10-fingered being could ever deliver. In rhythmic terms, he could of an exquisite new fleet of Yamaha pianos, The School of Music have a slavishly perfect performer. Mechanical perfection was in The University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts has procured what he wanted, and he even hardened the hammers of his pianos the largest, one-time acquisition of Disklavier performance so that the sound was sharp, immediate, and extremely loud. reproducing pianos in academia anywhere in the world. The cere- Not loud enough, though, for even a small concert hall – mony took place on Monday, May 14, 2012 at the Schmidt Vocal the models he used were uprights, not grands. Impossible Bril- Arts Center. liance: the Music of Conlon Nancarrow, the first ever concert Other institutions of higher learning that own survey of the composer’s complete player piano studies, at Lon- Disklaviers include: Brigham Young University, The Juilliard don’s South Bank Centre last weekend, used amplification for School, Southern Methodist University, Louisiana State Univer- performances in the Purcell Room, the idea being to reproduce sity, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Kansas, the volume levels that would have been heard in the composer’s Yale University, Oberlin College, The University of Miami, own studio in Mexico City. Wayne State College, Texas Christian University and The Uni- The studies are works which move from hyperactive versity of Georgia. boogie woogie into worlds of simply astonishing complexity. The UK’s acquisition consists of 18 new Yamaha pianos, supercharged upright player piano may be unbelievably rigid in including two AvantGrand N3 hybrid pianos, two T118 47” terms of conventional musical expression, but it can stream lay- acoustic upright studio pianos, three T 121 48” acoustic upright ers of metrically-independent counterpoint of a complexity and studio pianos and 11 DC2E3 5’8” Disklavier conservatory grand density that can challenge both brain and ear. pianos. The instruments will support the program’s demanding Nancarrow wanted to explore how particular metrical performance, practice and rehearsal needs.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 151 “With this purchase of Disklavier and AvantGrand KMEG 14 News pianos, The University of Kentucky will be propelled onto the Orange City, IA international stage as a major institutional user of these remark- 17 May 2012 able instruments,” said Mike Bates, Senior Consultant for Yama- ha Corporation of America’s Institutional Solutions Group. Tulip Festival's Famous The Disklavier is a special acoustic piano fitted with a Dutch Organ Restored sophisticated system of sensors that record every aspect of a performance, including pitch, dynamics, phrasing and pedaling. The By Heather Leigh performance information can be stored on a hard drive and [email protected] recalled for a later performance. The latest model of Disklaviers can be connected to one another via the Internet. Once connect- ORANGE CITY, IA - The annual tulip festival kicked ed, the performance information can be transmitted from one off in Orange City today, and one of the stars of the show is the instrument to the others – and be immediately reproduced with Tulip Time Street Organ, whose owner has spent the last year perfect precision, even on the other side of the globe. restoring the antique instrument to its former glory. The dedication included spirited performances by the The organ has been a staple of the Tulip Festival since students and faculty of UK Opera Theatre. Students serenaded 1950, and for the last twenty years Stan Vandersall has played it. their new Disklavier grands with a performance of “It’s A Grand He spent the last year restoring this antique organ, and says that Night for Singing,” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, now, there are pipes playing that he'd never heard before. State Fair. “Think of Me,” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phan- "It was not playing very well, it broke down regularly. I tom of the Opera, showcased the Disklavier’s “player piano” can't remember a tulip time, when it wasn't breaking down for capabilities, in essence, providing a “phantom accompanist.” some reason, that something would break. And of course it's a Rebecca Farley, Senior Voice Major at the University of Ken- very old machine, and I'm hoping it doesn't break down this tulip tucky, was the featured Soprano. time after we restored it!" he said. “UK Opera Theatre now joins the pantheon of elite The organ works a lot like an old player piano. The opera programs reconfiguring their curriculum to meet the needs organ player inserts "books" of music, with punch holes on each of students in the 21st century,” said Everett McCorvey, D.M.A. page of the book. The punch holes will force air to go through to Executive Producer, UK Opera Theatre, Professor of Voice and a particular pipe, which then plays a particular note. Once the Lexington Opera Society Endowed Chair in Opera Studies. “This book is situated, the player flips the switch, and voila! exceptional fleet demonstrates our commitment to providing the Stan lost his wife last year, and he says the organ kept finest instruments possible to support and inspire our talented him busy. students and staff.” "I would say it was a time when I had plenty of time to The event also featured captivating demonstrations of put to work." how the instruments’ sophisticated recording and playback capa- Needless to say, this year he is very proud; because the bilities, as well as Internet Connectivity, will enhance the Univer- organ is making its grand debut, shiny and new for the 2012 sity’s collaborative and educational curriculum for music theory Tulip Festival. and harmony and ear training, as well as distance learning, via "We're just thrilled to have it back and in good working Yamaha RemoteLive and Remote Lesson Technology. order." This purchase was made possible thanks to a matching grant by the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation. The Lexington Opera Society secured the grant from the Little Foun- dation and Henderson Music Company of Covington and Lex- ington provided support in facilitating the units. The $300,000 foundation grant was matched by an anonymous donor, resulting in the purchase of the Yamaha pianos totaling $600,000. The project was initiated by the current campaign to raise capital dollars to renovate the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center, home of UK Opera Theatre. To learn more about Yamaha’s Institutional Solutions Group, contact Mike Bates at [email protected] or 714- 522-9210.

Ed Note: Story may be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/88bbxrl Ed Note: Story and video may be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/bmgc36g

152 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 August 19, 1922 THE MUSIC TRADES InVenTS A DeVICe FOR ReCORDInG MuSIC Useful for Transposing, Too-An Arrangement Also Cuts Compo- sition Upon Player Rol

DEALER'S in player rolls, as well as player pianos, are interested in the arrangements being made to manufacture and to market a device for recording improvisations and compositions, or cutting these musical selections upon a player roll, which was invented by Dr. Moriz Stoehr, professor of bacteriology in Mt. St. Vincent College, New York. For a long time past dealers, and publishers of sheet music, too, have been aware of the demand for some means of recording musical numbers as composed by artists and amateurs. Many persons musically inclined wish to compose entire musical selections or mere phrases which they improvise while playing the piano. For these, especially the ones having natural talent, the composing is not as difficult as the recording of their ideas in musical notation. Few of them have either the knowledge or patience to put down on the scale what they render so easily upon the piano keyboard. A "Musie Typewriter" Dr. Stoehr's invention has been termed a "music typewriter.'' The analogy is more apparent when the construction of his device is explained. It comprises a portable keyboard and a typing arrangement. The keys on the keyboard correspond to the alphabetical keys on the typewriter. As the "player'' presses upon How Music Is Recorded the former, the composition is transcribed to paper. On the paper, by means of Dr. Moriz Stoehr's Invention in roll form, is an enlarged reproduction of the musical staves. The Music Trades. 19 August 1922 The device prints on the paper marks proportionate in length to the time-value of the notes. Spaces between marks denote the time value of rests. The scale-lines are spaced according to the number (three or four) of semi-tones included between them. The key signature is entirely dispensed with, as a central line between the staves represents middle C. The upper staff begins at the following E, while the lower staff begins at the A immediately below. Accidentals are calculated by the degree from each line of the paper any note-marking occurs, as the marking-levers are graduated according to the position of the key. The time signature is recorded on the finished record by hand. In this way the proportions of the notes may be calculated. Another part of the invention is a device to cut player rolls. Dealers say that they have calls for a device like Dr. Stoehr's invention largely from amateurs who wish to compose music but are not sufficiently familiar with composition to record their improvisations according to musical notation. In addition, some artists skilled in vocal or instrumental music also like to do The Music Trade Review, 12 August 1922 composing, but dislike the irksome task of writing down the notes in proper sequence and correct positions. Another field for Dr. Stoehr's invention is educational institutions at which music subjects, especially courses in composition, are taught. Teachers and musical coaches often ask manufacturers of pianos as well as dealers if they can recommend a device for recording musical compositions. So, too, do professional accompanists.

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 153 154 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 In Memoriam SOnJA leMOn cal scholarship should be- a balance of entertainment, historical facts, personal charisma and above all- approachability. Nan was Long time AMICAn and force for so many really won- all of these and so much more. derful things, Sonja lemon passed away last September. We are I chided her when I first met her about how she came sorry that we were informed just recently. For years, Sonja was a across as an erudite snob- "well, what about yourself?" she asked faithful member of the Founding Chapter. When membership in me; "what kind of pompous a** uses all three names to-day?" the central valley and gold country grew to considerable size, she she quipped. I answered, "you know the answer to that, Nan. pushed for the founding of the Sierra Nevada Chapter. When Both of us live in another era, except I need all three names for membership there fell, she re-joined the Founding Chapter with identity protection" and both of us had a good laugh. no flagging of enthusiasm. She was as genuine as a human being can become, gen- That enthusiasm filled so much of everything she began. uinely loved the musical genre she championed, and her passing She was a vital force in the Lemons’ piano business in Sacramen- leaves a vacancy in my heart that can never be replaced. I was to. Sonja was the prime mover in re-covering the pneumatics. able to briefly speak with her one last time by telephone when She was also a creative and accomplished wood worker. Regard- she was in the hospital as she was being transported to a proce- less of her accomplishments, she took first place in the lives of dure. I felt it would be the last time and I held on to every word. her son and husband, and she fills a place in the memory of all those who knew her.

from Pneumatic Pneus nAn BOSTICK

I never imagined that attempting to write a remem- brance would be such a hard thing to do, especially for someone I thought would always be here. nan Bostick was one of those people who, by their very presence, their very charisma, was the expression of ragtime itself. Ebullient, full of pep and enthusiasm for just being alive and always ready to share her love of not only the music, but for life itself. That's why when she confided in me weeks before the 2011 West Coast Ragtime Festival her health situation, I found myself denying that anything other than complete healing was in Nan, you will always be that sister I always wanted and her future. I am really missing you,my dear, dear amiga. But I am confident Nan was the sister I never had but wanted, so her pass- you are in a much better place now and that comforts me. Thank ing is more than a personal loss to me. Her love and knowledge you for passing our way. of the music was legendary and only time will tell the emergence of ragtime talent out of the lives of the thousands of young peo- Stephen Kent Goodman ple she touched as a pied piper of the genre. She was what musi- from Pneumatic Pneus

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 155 Web Sites of Interest The late nan Bostick playing her "That Missing You Rag" Historical display of Pleyel piano manufacturing. http://tinyurl.com/burpjrv (contributed by Adam Ramet) http://www.pianosesther.be/Pleyel.htm Chopin: The Women Behind The Music http://tinyurl.com/7bchnez Composing for the Pianola by Adam Ramet http://tinyurl.com/capz4y4 TV Documentary on Rachmaninoff http://tinyurl.com/bufp5mq Construction of a Wurlitzer 105 Band Organ http://tinyurl.com/72g4xn6 Joseph Raffin's 89th Birthday http://tinyurl.com/bp8uf58 Historic Carousel & Museum, Albany, Oregon (contributed by Gerard Dabonot) http://albanycarousel.com

The Beauty of Belaieff Brian lisus, Violine Maker (contributed by Gillian Davis) http://www.lisusviolins.com/ http://www.gclefpublishing.com/videopage.htm Tuning a violin during construction Museum of Music Hosyory http://tinyurl.com/6r3h8j2 (contributed by Gillian Davis) http://www.momh.org.uk/ Mikey Mills' web site http://www.mechanicalmusic.org/ Doctor Jazz http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/ Lego Barrel Organ Plays Star Wars Theme (contributed by Vincent Morgan) My Philosophy on Collecting Antique Mechanical Music http://tinyurl.com/873f68b By: Marty Roenigk http://www.mechantiques.com/philosophy.asp Euclid Park Carousel (contributed by Kelly Goodman) Collecting Music Boxes, Coins, and More http://www.clevelandcarousel.org/ By Q. David Bowers http://www.mechantiques.com/bowers.asp Our Italian affiliate AMMI on YouTube (President Severi Franco narrating) Mechanical Music Museum in Revelstoke, BC, Canada http://tinyurl.com/78epymp http://www.revelstokenickelodeon.com/ Photographs of the past Nationaal Museum Van Speeldoos tot Pierement te Utrecht (contributed by John Motto-Ros) http://tinyurl.com/cpq2dkk http://www.pdxhistory.com/ (contributed by Pieter Cornelis van Aken) John Motto-Ros in his 1934 Ford Mechanical Music Museum in Finland http://tinyurl.com/c4tysgs (contributed by Andrew Barrett) http://tinyurl.com/bpb94dd Music Media Monthly http://musicmediamonthly.com MUSÉE DE LA MUSIQUE MÉCANIQUE, Les Gets, France http://www.musicmecalesgets.org/ Society of American Music http://american-music.org/ Interview with Denis Condon (contributed by Adam Ramet) History in Harmony http://www.facebook.com/groups/21475025830/ http://www.historyinharmony.co.uk/

Interview with Rex lawson and Denis hall New book about Charles lamb, ragtime composer. (contributed by Adam Ramet) http://tinyurl.com/6t2kl5n http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkLjzChz3c Magic Organa (player concertina) by Hohner Ben Model’s silent film collection with music accompaniment (contributed by Hope Rider) (contributed by Keith Bigger) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWV7SHuM-Z0 http://www.youtube.com/silentfilmmusic

156 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 ADVERTISING FoR SALE

GeneRAl InFORMATIOn ABOuT All ADVeRTISInG In The GOlDen AGe of AuTOMATIC MuSICAl InSTRu- The AMICA BulleTIn MenTS By Art Reblitz. Award-winning classic that brings historical, musical, and technical informa- All advertising should be directed to: tion to life with hundreds of large, vivid Terry Smythe color photos. We guarantee you'll find it 55 Rowand Avenue to be one of the most interesting, inspir- Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J2N6 ing, informative books you have in your Phone: (204) 832-3982 (email preferred) library-or your money back. Everyone e-mail:: [email protected] has been delighted, and some readers have ordered several copies. Get your Ad copy must contain text directly related to the product/service being copy today for $99 plus S/H. Mechanical offered. Extraneous text will be deleted at the Editor's discretion. Adver- tisers will be invoiced, with payment to AMICA Treasurer. Telephone Music Press - A, 70 Wild Ammonoosuc ads will not be accepted due to high risk of errors. AMICA reserves the Rd., Woodsville, NH 03785. right to edit or to reject any ad deemed inappropriate or not in keeping 603-747-2636. 2-13 with AMICA'sgoals and objectives http://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com . The BulleTIn accepts advertising without endorsement, implied or Tangley Calliope, manual or automatic, model CA43, mechani- otherwise, of the products or services being offered. Publication of busi- call rebuilt, needs cosmetics, 43 pipes, Bowers page 842, ness advertising in no way implies AMICA's endorsement of any com- $6,000.00. mercial operation. Regina Corona, 27” disc changer, model 34, recent complete restoration, Bowers page 203, $25,000.00. AMICA PuBlICATIOnS ReSeRVeS The RIGhT TO ACCePT, Aeolian Orchestrelle player organ, needs mechanical work, case ReJeCT, OR eDIT AnY AnD All SuBMITTeD ARTICleS in good condition, Bowers page 778, $5,000.00. Contact AnD ADVeRTISInG. Ben hachtel, (440) 951-6069, Cleveland, OH area. 3-12

All items for publication must be submitted directly to the Complete upright player pianos: Palmer #1653 w/Simplex Editor/Publisher for consideration. action # 164478/44:DeRivas & Harris #26904 w/Stan. action #93530; Langdon #36730 w/Stan. action #164460; Cunningham ClASSIFIeD AD RATeS FOR AMICA MeMBeRS: #73516 w/Standard action #282304; Shoninger #72049 w/Stan. 1-100 Words $20.00 action #389742; Bond #17742 w/Otto Higel latest patent Non-member rates are double for all advertising. 11/20/17, all need different areas rebuilt, $150 each piano or $100 for whole player action, some have volume or sustain con- DISPlAY ADVeRTISInG trol. Two suction boxes w/switches and hoses $100 each. Com- Double page color $ 200.00 plete Gulbransen action to rebuild $50; most of Gulb. rebuild kit Full Page color $ 150.00 25 years old $40; complete Simplex action to rebuild $50; com- Double page B&W $ 150.00 plete Simplex rebuild kit 15 years old $200; 2/3 yard light bel- Full page B&W $ 100.00 lows cloth $20; several Stan. Bottom pumps w/pedals $30 each; Half Page B&W $ 75.00 Simplex bottom w/pedals $30; 4 (four) smaller unidentified bot- Quarter Page B&W $ 50.00 tom pumps w/pedals $30; “Werner Piano Co.” spool box area Business Card $ 30.00 (Schulz) $30; partial unidentified spool box area (right side) has Non-member rates are double for all advertising 3 (three) point motor, fishpole tracking, “wipe off w/gasoline” wheel, #53444 stamping $20; many smaller parts tempo levers, Special 6 for 5 Ad Offer - Place any ad, for a full year (6 issues), and brass plates, gears, mandolin cable, brass rods, etc. Make offer pay for only 5 issues. Payable in advance. Photographs or halftones on anything or everything. Sadly what doesn’t sell will likely be $15.00 each. Loose Sheet or Insert Advertising: Inquire scrapped. Parting out many regular uprights also. Call: 717-658- 2551 or write: David hollinger, 14331 Buchanan Trail West, Display advertisers supply camera-ready copy. Copy that is oversized or Mercersburg, Pa. 17236-9404 rf undersized will be changed to correct size. We ordinarily do not prepare advertisements from raw content. Original, complete, unrestored, unmolested instruments: 1. DuOART Stroud, 1928, upright mahogany , very good keys PAYMenT: Advertisers will be invoiced. Make check payable to $2000 AMICA INTERNATIONAL. Typesetting and layout size alterations 2. AMPICO “B” Knabe, harp signed by MET singer Maria Jer- charges will be billed if required by professional services. itza, 5’ 8” grand mahogany, 1932, keys need several tops replaced, never apparently tampered with, $5000 DeADlIneS: Submissions must be received no later than the first of 3. AMPICO “A” haines, 5’ grand mahogany, 1924, good keys, the odd months (January, March, May, July, September, November). $3000 The Bulletin will be mailed not later than the first week of the even 4. WelTe hardman, 5’ 4” grand mahogany, very good condi- months. tion, last tuned 1980s, great keys, includes over 30 original rolls, $2500 5. AeOlIAn push-up Metrostyle Pianola, mahogany, plays both 58 & 65 note rolls, 1910, includes several original 65-note Music is the mediator rolls, $1000 between the spiritual and the sensual life. 6. GulBRAnSen player, mahogany, very good works and case, complete player action from another piano (type that can be Ludwig van Beethoven disassembled), 1921, great keys, $1000

AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 157 7. ChICAGO eleCTRIC orchestrion, “A” rolls, complete, partly disassembled, needs case work, poor keys, includes one original roll, $2500 8. ChICAGO COTTAGe reed organ, walnut, missing upper assembly, otherwise complete, plays but some registers don’t work, $100 Downsizing to move; best offers and package deals encouraged. Won’t get to these; prefer to finish my Knabe “A”. Andy Ott, 757 748-6153 or [email protected] (preferred). Instruments located in Virginia Beach VA. rf

WANTED Information and/or instruction manual for the QRS Play A Sax and the Aeolion 65 note push-up players built before 1910. We are rebuilding the 4th one in our piano shop with in the last year. We can make copies if only we had the manuals. Also need instriction manual for 1909-10 Melville Clark Apollo player piano and Francis Bacon Tom Thumb with a recordo player unit. No number. Contact Owen D. Arnett, 6132 Leland Dr., Nampa, ID 83687, 208-467-4003, [email protected] rf

Welte Mignon rolls played by evelyn howard-Jones C7718 London Bridge (Gardiner) C7673 Ragamuffin (Ireland) C7648 Rondo Op. 51, No.2 (Beethoven) Contact Grahame Code at: [email protected] rf

Seeburg coin operated (nickelodeon) piano parts needed for Seeburg F restoration: 1) complete cast iron coin box and wood coin drawer; 2) sheet metal coin chute; 3) mandolin rail assembly with brackets and pneumatic; 4) top lid lock and catch that mounts to lid; 5) original front panel art glass (country sunset style); 6) 2 brass lamps for front panel with flat top brackets. Also looking for any other Seeburg nickelodeon parts which may be available. Contact: Jeff Williams, 801-710-4286, or [email protected] rf

158 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 AMICA Bulletin - May/Jun 2012 159 PLEASE VISIT THESE SUPPLIERS oF RoLLS

Brian Stahl: Piano Ticklers Music Rolls Joyce Brite: Player Piano and P.O. Box 220, Elizabethville, PA 17023 Mechanical Music Exchange email: [email protected] http://www.mmdigest.com/Exchange/ www.pianoticklers.com http://www.mmdigest.com/Exchange/rollpage.htm Phone: (717) 599-1369 email: [email protected]

Rob Deland: Blues Tone Rolls Dick Hack: Hack Mechanical Music www.bluesrolls.com 2051 Chesapeake Road, Annapolis, MD 21409 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] Phone: (847) 548-6416 (410) 279-5859 Cell Days (410) 757-2164 Home Evenings Bob & Ginny Billings: Sierra Music Rolls 14010 Rim Rock Drive, Reno, NV 89521 Frank L. Himpsl: email: [email protected] Valley Forge Music Roll Company Phone: (775) 853-4659 604 Linnet Road, Audubon, PA 19403 (484)-250-7046 roll shop Leedy Brothers Music Rolls (610)-291-1841 my cell 4660 Hagar Shore Road, Coloma, MI 49038 http://www.valleyforgemusicroll.com www.leedyrolls.com Phone: (269) 468-5986 - Fax: (269) 468-0019 Kukral Collection: Welte-Mignon and 88-Note Rolls Larry Norman: Rollertunes 216 Madison Blvd., Terre Haute, IN 47803 www.home.earthlink.net/~rollertunes Phone: (812) 238-9656 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] Phone: (540) 721-7188 Julian Dyer Don Teach: Shreveport Music Co. 5 Richmond Rise, Wokingham RG41 3XH, 1815 E. 70th Street, Shreveport, LA 71105 United Kingdom email: [email protected] www.pianorolls.co.uk Phone: (318) 798-6000 - Fax: (318) 797-4572 email: [email protected]

Robin Pratt: Artists' Choice Music Rolls John Motto-Ros email: [email protected] “Nickelodeon Rolls” Phone: (419) 626-1903 “A” “G” “o” Rolls & Boxes 516 Pierce Street, Sandusky, OH 44870-4725 110 Allen Ranch Road, Sutter Creek, CA 95685 209-267-9252 Steve Bentley, SB-"o" Rolls series. www.johnnysmusicrolls.com Play-Rite Music Rolls e-mail: [email protected] 1536 N. Palm St., Turlock. CA 95380. U.S.A. Keystone Music Rolls Phone. (209) 632-5784. P.O. Box 650, Bethlehem, PA 18016 Fax. 209) 667-8241. email: [email protected] Gnaw-Vol-ty Rolls Stephen Kent Goodman QRS Music Technologies, Inc. www.gnaw-vol-ty.com 1026 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 1-800-247-6557 - Fax: 1-716-885-7510 Fax: 866-828-2165 www.qrsmusic.com D.C. Ramey Piano Company, LLC. Magic Melodies 17768 Woodview Drive 360 Lawless Road, Jamestown, KY 42629 Marysville OH 43040 Phone: (270) 343-2061 708-602-3961 www.dcramey.com David Saul: Precision Music Rolls email: [email protected] 1043 Eastside Road, El Cajon, CA 92020-1414 email: [email protected] Ed Sprankle Piano Roll Auction Search for my eBay Seller ID:jensprank email: [email protected] Jennifer Sprankle 6114 La Salle Avenue #491 Oakland, CA 94611

160 AMICA Bulletin - Nov/Dec 2011