Here you thought it was the Peerless D in 1898, or the de Kleist
Tonophone that debuted in 1899, that was the first American nickelodeon
piano.  Peter Gruber, the Rattlesnake King, aka Rattlesnake Pete, claims
the prize for the nickelodeon he built in 1894!  Who was Peter P.
Gruber?

Some think he was the founder of the Cracker Barrel Restaurant chain,
which is false.  But he certainly did hang a lot of stuff from old guns
to saddles, rope, old bones, and other oddities from the ornamental tin
ceiling of his eclectic restaurant and museum located at 8 to 10 Mill
Street in Rochester, New York.  The walls too were festooned with
mementos of his rattlesnake hunting days including numerous rattlesnake
skins.  In addition there were mechanical toys, a pipe that belonged to
John Wilkes Booth, a stony corpse of a petrified female, and the
"first" electric chair!

Peter Gruber was born in 1857 in Oil City, Pennsylvania.  His parents
immigrated from Bavaria and his father, Joseph, ran a saloon in Oil
City.  In 1893 Rattlesnake Pete and 25 of his hissing "pets" arrived
in Rochester from Oil City where he opened up a combination restaurant,
although some called it a saloon and a museum of curiosities.  It was
billed as the Greatest Curiosity in the City.

On a regular basis, Rattlesnake Pete would invite the curious to
accompany him on snake hunts.  In later years he would set out dressed
in his rattlesnake skin vest in his red Rambler which featured two
brass snakes as hood ornaments!  He also claimed to treat a number of
ills with snakes from boils to goiters.  The most curious treatment
was performed with a black snake that would curl around the neck of
an unfortunate individual suffering from a goiter.  The constriction
of the snake would massage the goiter and bring relief!

Peter Gruber appreciated mechanical musical instruments and claimed to
own a number of them over his career.  Most important of all, he claimed
in a 1912 Wurlitzer testimonial that in 1894 he constructed the _first_
nickel-in-the-slot piano in the country -- an American mechanical music
milestone!  And how fitting that he be an attraction owner.

Later he purchased a Wurlitzer C Violin-Flute orchestrion and even
touted the fabulous Wurlitzer PianOrchestras; see the attached pictures.
It can be said that Rattlesnake Pete was a pioneer in understanding
that mechanical music enhanced the novelty value of his attraction.
He even advertised the fact that he had a NEW electric piano.  He was
followed later by notable attraction owners such as Walter Knott and
Walt Disney, among others.

Regarding Rattlesnake Pete's claim of the first nickel piano, I am
sure that Peerless may have grumbled.  Wurlitzer certainly did not.
But then who would dare doubt the veracity of a man holding a pair
of hissing and rattling rattlesnakes!

Tim Trager

P.S.  Special thanks to the Rochester Public Library, and take
a look at the Rattlesnake Pete pictures in the MMD Pictures gallery,
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/