Contrary to Bowers' Encyclopedia, a sizable number of North Tonawanda
Musical Instrument Works (NTMIW) band organs played spooled rolls.  Some
organs even had duplex tracker frames.  The spooled-roll frames made by
NTMIW were beautifully machined and engineered and were the same as the
spooled roll frames used in the NTMIW coin pianos and photoplayers.
These roll frames can be seen in the coin piano NTMIW section of Bowers'
Encyclopedia.  The duplex frames were especially well made with small
oilers mounted above the rotating shafts and a cone drive for each roll
frame for independent tempo control.   The heavy-duty gears were extra
wide.  I have yet to see one of these frames with worn gears.

NTMIW spooled rolls had extra holes for registers and controls.  For
example, the spooled version of the 82-key roll is an 87-key roll, not to
be confused with the later 87-key B.A.B. roll.   The later Artizan
Factory formed by former shareholders of NTMIW, expanded on some of these
scales, particularly the 52-key roll which under Artizan became the
61-key style D roll.  The 87-key roll became the Style E Artizan roll.

The North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works was a firm split off from
DeKleist.  In my opinion, it was the progressive and innovative organ
builders of DeKleist who started the NTMIW.  Among them were Frank
Morganti (who came from England with DeKleist) and Louis Maerten.  Their
arranger was Henry Tussing, who led the North Tonawanda town band.  Henry
Tussing also arranged for Artizan.  Another arranger for NTMIW and
probably the last was William Haessler.  He was hired by the Rand Company
after its takeover of NTMIW.  What is interesting is that Mr. Haessler
played piano by ear and was very good!  Rand continued making band organ
rolls using Haessler arrangements.  I was fortunate to have met Mr.
Haessler around 1982.  He was quite elderly but could still play the
piano well!  He later became an AMICA honorary member.  He told me that
he used to date Wurlitzer's band organ roll arranger Sylvia Schultz.
He told me that the biggest use of band organs at the time was providing
music for roller skating.  He would sometimes put his own compositions
on the rolls.  He said that much of the music arranged for band organs
was freely provided for promotional purposes by music publishers such as
Leo Feist, a la "You can't go wrong with a Feist song!"

The use of band organs for roller skating accounted for the strict tempo
of the music, which was necessary for skating.  The organs were usually
placed on elevated platforms so as to play over the heads of the skaters.
This was to cut though the din of all the wooden and fiber wheels of the
skates rolling on the wooden floor.  And nothing would cut the din better
than a powerful band organ with brass trumpets and trombones!   According
to letters I have in my archive from the Artizan Factories files, skating
rinks even into the twenties liked endless roll systems, particularly for
exhibition skating purposes and skating competitions.   Spooled-roll
mechanisms were preferred by carousel operators.

The last time I visited North Tonawanda, the DeKleist factory was still
there at the back side of the Wurlitzer factory.  The Artizan Factory was
still standing, but unused.  The North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works
building still stood, with a used auto parts store inside.  Some of the
old faded NTMIW lettering could still be seen on the NTMIW building.

Regarding a Mando Orchestra, there is only one surviving intact example.
It plays spooled rolls.  Its wealthy owner, whom I have visited, has had
many purchase inquiries over the years but the Mando Orchestra remains
"not for sale" and is a prized part of his large private collection which
also includes the only surviving Niagara "Violinophone" violin pipe
expression piano.

Ed Openshaw of New Hampshire has the only surviving 8-to-the-inch
perforator, once used to cut B.A.B rolls.  He plans on recutting these
rolls in the future.  Others are also looking into cutting 8-to-the-inch
rolls for Artizan and North Tonawanda pianos and band organs and
Wurlitzer Harps.

The largest North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works Band Organ is in my
collection.  It measures nearly 20 feet wide and 15 feet high and is
illuminated with over 90 bulbs.  Although it is styled after an Art
Nouveau Gavioli design, it is 100% NTMIW.  This large band organ has a
duplex roll frame that plays the 87-key spooled North Tonawanda roll.
For many years it played for a carousel in a Michigan amusement park.
The brass version I have is the large Style 316 "Grand Military Band
Organ" with brass trumpets, brass clarinets, brass piccolos, and brass
trombones.  It too plays the 87-key NTMIW roll on a duplex roll frame.
For years it played on the Paul Moore carousel in Irondequoit, New York.
Later it was bought by George Long and moved to his Seabreeze Park (then
called Dreamland Park).

I became interested in large scale NTMIW music when I was ten years old
after acquiring a record of the Big Bertha band organ which for years was
part of the Paul Eakins collection.   Chris Carlisle, Paul Eakins'
grandson, recently reintroduced this music on CD's.

Tim Trager
http://www.timtrager.com