Thank you, Joyce, for raising the band organ rally issues.  It is about
time the issues were discussed.  First,  a little history is in order.

The first "Band Organ Rally" was held in 1976 in Irish Hills, Michigan,
at the Stagecoach Stop Museum, http://www.stagecoachstop.com .  This
rally was the brainchild of the late band organ enthusiast, Dan Slack,
of Fremont, Ohio, who was impressed with the Great Dorset Steam Fair
and its big display of fairground organs.  Dan wanted to do something
similar in the United States.  Thus in 1976, the "Band Organ Rally" was
born.

The first rally was held under the auspices of the Mid America Chapter
of the Musical Box Society International.  This rally was a great
success!  I attended it and I can still remember Dan's great 89-keyless
Carl Frei organ playing a medley from Mary Poppins.

Dan, the consummate optimistic salesman, was at the time the sales
manager for Cessna Aircraft.  He used his astute promotional skills to
promote the band organ rally concept with advertising, ornate posters,
organ pins, and premiums for those who brought organs.  Each year under
his guidance, with the help of people like the Riders, Freiheits,
Flints, Stotts, Yates, Caporals, and others, the organ rallies grew
bigger and bigger until in the late 1980's they almost eclipsed the
attendance of the MBSI Annual Meeting!

The annual band organ rallies also made the Mid-America chapter the
wealthiest of all chapters with tens of thousands of dollars in the
bank!  The Mid-America Chapter generously sent at least $15,000.00 of
this money back to the MBSI to shore up its finances, which helped
bring smiles to the faces of the elite "tinkleboxers" who were
concerned that the MBSI was about to be overrun by great unwashed
hoards of band organ, street organ, dance organ, crank organ, and
calliope enthusiasts!

In the end, the Mid-Am organ rallies proved to be a valuable asset
to MBSI and resulted in the Mid-America Chapter becoming the largest
chapter in the Musical Box Society, with the consequence of many new
members being added to the Musical Box Society International.

The rallies combined the magic of a tourist location or historic town
with happy music in a picnic or party-like atmosphere.  At the rally,
everyone's ego could be on parade.  The term "The Happiest Music on
Earth" was applied to these family events.  Later the success and fun
of these rallies spread to other associations like the American Band
Organ Association, AMICA, and Carousel Organ Association of America.

In addressing Joyce's concerns, I think it is important to bring up
what caused the success of the rallies that were essentially under
Dan Slack's control or influence.

1.  Rally promotion is key.  Being a salesman, Dan really "pushed"
the rally.  The rally was promoted in various publications which would
reach potential enthusiasts.

This approach can be updated today by promoting the rally in all
mediums from on-line collector magazines in the Internet to Hemmings
Motor News, antique car, antique truck, vintage steam and hit and miss
gas engine journals, the Antique Trader, carousel publications, and
Amusement Business.  Local papers should be fed stories to gin up local
interest in the event.  Dan had posters made up that were placed in
local stores.  These posters promoted the rally and became collector's
items for the rally attendees.

Remember that a rally will never promote itself!  The rally organizer
_must_ promote it heavily!  If the rally is an MBSI Chapter rally, free
ads can be placed in each bulletin.  Promotion can be carried out by an
effective and energetic organ rally committee.  Spread the work and
spread the fun by promoting the rally.

2.  Get great organs lined up for the rally.  Spectacular large organs
are the headliners at rallies.  They _do_ draw crowds!  Large organs,
by their very nature, are VERY musical and entertaining.  At the recent
Waldkirch festival the 96-key Vader Ruth Model 38 and the large De
Grote Gavioli were a success in drawing crowds.  In fact, when the Ruth
was shut down, the enthusiastic crowd started to spontaneously shout
"Ruth! Ruth! Ruth!" for more music!

I would go so far as to say that rally profits should be used do help
defray the high costs of bringing such headlining large organs because
they really are an asset to a rally and are crowd pleasers!

3.  Don't assume people will automatically bring organs to the rally.
The rally organizer has to get on the telephone and "encourage" people
to bring organs.  Dan Slack was a master at this.  He stretched things
a bit but in the end he would get great organ attendance.  He would
call person X and convince him to bring an organ because person Y was
bringing an organ.  Next Dan would call person Y and convince him to
bring an organ because person X was bringing and organ and person X
should not be left out!  Dan would not give up on calling until he
had a _big_ contingent of organs lined up.

4.  Encourage a _variety_ of organs at a rally.  A rally of just
Stinson organs or a rally of just Wurlitzer 105 organs or a rally of
just Tangley calliopes would quickly become boring.  Encourage a
diversity of organs at the rally!  Dan would eagerly try to get all
different types of organs to the rally, from Hooghuys to Carl Frei to
Wurlitzer, Artizan, Stinson, cylinder organs, and so on -- the more the
merrier!  This makes for a great rally which holds the interest of the
attendees.

5.  Encourage a great mart at the rally.  The Mid-Am rallies always
had marts.  Remember that most people are driving to the rally or are
bringing an organ so they can carry their mart offerings with them.
The organ rally marts always were great!  I found many valuable items
at these marts from rolls to organ figures to carvings.  And yes there
were many music boxes for sale at the marts, too.

Some people believe that marts make the rallies "too commercial" and
that marts with dealers selling items such as band organs is somehow
bad.  Such thinking is downright wrong!

Dan Slack was an organ dealer.  It is because of his dealing that many
many organs came into the Mid-Am area of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
He would regularly throw well-lubricated parties in his collection
building before a rally so that he could _sell organs!_  This only
resulted in the rallies getting bigger and better.  I still remember
when the bug of 'European band organ' bit him.  This resulted in a
number of Bruder organs being imported along with several street
organs.  The rallies only got better because of his dealing.

6.  Take care of the people who go through the effort of bringing
organs.  These people make the event.  Provide refreshments for the
organ owners.  Dan Slack regularly provided beer and soft drinks to
owners and registrants.  Sometimes there would be pig roasts and
bar-b-ques.  Provide a hospitality area where attendees can get rally
information and refreshments.

7.  Do not put the rally on the same day as a nearby rally sponsored
by another club.  Effective rally committee discussion should prevent
this.  Conflicting rallies on the same weekend only cause undue
conflict and will make the work of the rally organizers that much
harder as they try to get a number of band organ for each event.
They also then compete for the enthusiasts.

There are 52 weekends in the year which is plenty of time to not have
conflicting rallies.  Dan Slack would have _never_ had two nearby organ
rallies on the same weekend -- it would have been bad for business
because customers would have been split and he could not be in both
places at once!

I realize that I have just scratched the surface of the topic of Band
Organ Rallies.  I hope that what I have written will stimulate others
to contribute on this topic.

The time has come to make the "tinkleboxers" jealous again of the
success of the band organ rallies.  The upper structure of any
mechanical music organization must realize that such rallies are an
important source of new members.  They should accord such rallies due
importance.

The hard work of others such as Dan Slack should be studied and built
upon to sustain rally success.  For example, I put a lot of effort into
promoting Frank and Hope Rider's MBSI Mid-Am Rally in Wabash last year.
The result was a great rally.  *It did not just happen!*  It took a lot
of work on the part of the rally organizer and the people that helped
promote it.  It was a _group_ effort.

I firmly believe that the Mid-Am Organ Rally committee be invigorated
to continue such important work.  I also suggest that the committee be
open any member who is intensely interested in the success of such
rallies.  As you can tell, I am dismayed by two nearby rallies on the
same weekend.  I find this counterproductive and unfortunate because
I would like to attend both.

P.S. I don't want the music box collectors to think I have viciously
attacked them by calling them "tinkleboxers".  It is just that hard
core band organ collectors and "big" music machine collectors have
called them that for years.

I first heard the term used over 20 years ago in the shop of Roy Haning
and Neal White.  Haning and White did have music boxes but they also
had mammoth 121-key Decap dance organs, 112-key Mortier dance organs,
and large orchestrions -- and it does not take a Rhodes scholar to
figure out that it is the BIG machines that were the draw!

Just look at the 680+ people who are clamoring to see the BIG machines
of Chicago, at this years MBSI Annual Meeting.  The most popular tours
are those that feature BIG music machines and they are sold out.  I
know, I know, you music box collectors are still grumbling.  But let
me calm you down by saying that my favorite music box is my Lochmann
with tubular bells; but, then if I were to place it on the lawn next
to my 110-key Gavioli, the Gavioli with its 1000+ pipes would steal the
show!

Tim Trager