Interest in mechanical music is alive and well!  Mechanical music
machines are just as interesting to the public today as they were years
ago.  Google has recently made available a news archive search whereby
you can key-word search many major newspapers and many small town
newspapers for terms like "orchestrion".  What you find in the old
articles written during the heyday is that mechanical music was an
attraction in public venues!  Ads were placed and articles were written
promoting the fact that this or that location had a music machine.  The
articles generated curiosity.  The public came and were entertained.
The old articles talked about special features of Mills Violanos,
orchestrions, coin pianos, Mandolin Quartettes, Tonophones, PianOr-
chestras, Fotoplayers, Welte Brisgovias with moving scenes, etc.  All
were attractions.  It was even a news event when new rolls arrived!
Robinson Park in Ft. Wayne, Ind., regularly announced in news notes new
roll arrivals for their large Welte Orchestrion.

After the Depression and World War II stopped the world for a time, the
interest started up again in the late 1940's.  The attraction aspect of
these instruments was evident in the 50's through the 70's from small
Mom and Pop tourist spots to major tourist attractions.  For example,
anyone who traveled from Chicago to Glacier National Park during this
period would pass a number of tourist places that featured mechanical
musical instruments, from the Wagon Wheel Resort to Alex Jordan's House
on the Rock, to Frontier Town in the Wisconsin Dells, to Ozzie and
Marie Klavestad's Stagecoach in Shakopee, Minnesota, to the Geisler's
museum in Murdo, to John and Stella Foote's museums in Cody, Billings,
and Pompeys's Pillar, Montana, to the Bovey Collection in Virginia
City, and on to another Frontier Town in Helena.  Along this path they
would see Seeburg H's, Seeburg G's, Mills Violanos, many cabinet
pianos, an Encore Banjo, calliopes, photoplayers, a PianOrchestra, and
many band organs, including two Wurlitzer 180's and large Gavioli
fairground organs!

A winding trip from Chicago to California would take you to Paul and
Laura Eakins displays in St. Louis and Sikeston, Harold Warp's Pioneer
Village, Bob Nelson's Chuckwagon Café in Atoka, Oklahoma, the Stan
Whitehurst display at the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Aker's Ghosttown in
Manitou Springs, Johnson's exhibit in Central City, another Stage Coach
Museum outside of Albuquerque, Jim Hamilton's display in Jerome,
Arizona, and on to the large collections Mechanical Music at Knott's
Berry Farm and Disneyland.  I could list other routes and collections,
but you get the point!  If you traveled and went to public attractions,
you saw music machines!  The owners of these collections knew these
instruments were attractions!  They exposed the public to these old
instruments.  And the public got "cross pollinated."  If they went to
look at antique cars, they saw coin pianos and orchestrions too.  If
they went to a melodrama, they saw a photoplayer.  The public took home
a record or a cassette of mechanical music.

During these years, we traveled with our trailer or by motorhome to
most of these places, got to know the owners as friends, and spent
endless hours enjoying the atmosphere of the exhibits presented.  Most
of the instruments were restored and kept playing by their owners or by
traveling repairmen like Ozzie Wurdeman or Dave Ramey.  To put it
simply, these places were FUN!  They were not stodgy museums where the
items were intellectually fondled with cotton gloves according to
museum association regulations.  They were not on display to enhance
the owner's ego like the latest trophies from hunting in Africa.  They
were there as entertaining antiques from the past, which created a
happy atmosphere and strong interest.  The happy music these instru-
ments played was infectious.  Even though rock-and-roll was the music
of the day, these instruments had a thrill all their own that captured
my interest and the interest of many others during this period.  My own
interest was sparked at age five in Bovey's Log Music Hall in Nevada
City, Montana.  The fair organs and coin pianos located there were
thrilling in their visual and musical appeal!

I have spoken to many enthusiasts over the years who have had a similar
experience as young people from visiting such public displays and
attractions.  For them the bug may have bit while experiencing the
Wurlitzer 153 at Kennywood Park, the Wurlitzer 165 at Seabreeze Park,
the organs on Floyd Gooding's Midway, Clarks Trading Post, Horns
Museum, Zimmerman's Holiday Inn, or Art & Hardie Sanders' Deansboro 
Musical Museum.

Interest during this period was furthered by the movie "The Sting,"
Theresa Brewer's hit song "Music, Music, Music," the "Old Piano Roll
Blues," "Thoroughly Modern Millie", Max Morath on PBS, and Jo Ann
Castle on the Lawrence Welk Show.  The music and the instruments were
in the public eye and ear during these years and the public responded
with interest.

Then the public displays faded quickly in the 80's and 90's as instru-
ments in most of the public collections were sold off to private col-
lectors.  It must be strongly emphasized that these collections were
not sold off because they were not popular.  They were mainly sold
because age caught up with the owners and the time came to move on.

During these years, band organ rallies in a limited way took over,
especially the ones sponsored by the Mid-America Chapter of MBSI.
These popular rallies swelled the membership of the Mid-Am Chapter into
the largest and most wealthy chapter in MBSI.  Once again these events
exposed the public to mechanical music and created a lot of enthusi-
asts!  Dealers like the late Dan Slack and rally marts helped the
instruments to flow to new enthusiasts and kept the pot of interest
stirred.  Rally exposure was small yet successful.  But rallies did not
give the vast exposure that the public attractions once provided.

Today there are only a few public attractions that feature mechanical
music, and many of the instruments on display are in need of re-res-
toration.  The movie "The Sting" is thirty-five years old and its
star, Paul Newman, now over 80.  The hit "Music, Music, Music" is
almost sixty years old, along with the "Old Piano Roll Blues." Nickel-
odeon is now a kids' cable channel.  And the Lawrence Welk Show reruns,
where played, are being sponsored by funeral parlors.

Does this mean that public interest has vanished?  No!  Absolutely not!
Exposure may have dramatically declined but positive reaction and
interest in what is displayed has not declined.  These instruments have
the same magic touch they have always had regardless of generational
age bracket.  Of course they have to be in respectable playing condi-
tion and playing good musical arrangements.

In recent years I have had positive experience after positive exper-
ience from public exposure of the instruments I have taken out.  I
often take out my large Hofbauer Violin Pan with Percussion.  I have
stocked its musical library with great arrangements.  I had it out two
weekends ago at a Farm Festival in Lake County, Illinois.  The instru-
ment was once again an absolute hit!  All age groups and ethnic groups
liked it and wanted it played again and again.  The people operating
nearby food stands saw their lines swell when the instrument was
played.  And they especially liked the vintage music on the organ, from
medleys of 1920's hits to Harvey Roehl's favorite, "Dodge Brothers
March," by Victor Herbert.  They liked it when I played along with my
Flex-a-tone.  One young person asked about the 1920 song "Whispering,"
after hearing it played several times on the organ.  To this person
this song was a new hit.  He asked to crank the organ, playing "Whis-
pering," while I played the Flex-a-tone!

As a side note, what I and others have discovered is that people today
are starved for a melody line in music.  People respond enthusiasti-
cally when they hear one.  Much of today's modern entertainment is beat
driven and lacks a melody line.  When people hear a good melody -- and
this goes for people of all ages -- they respond to it with applause!

You may think the positive experience applies only to my Hofbauer
Violin Pan.  But, it has also happened recently, when I displayed my
Link E Orchestrion with Xylophone to the public.  In Riverside,
Illinois, there is restoration shop called the Riverside Works that
performs machining on vintage items.  I have a Link in the shop to have
its original drive restored.  The shop owner asked me to display and
operate the Link at open houses held in conjunction with three commun-
ity festivals.  Like the Hofbauer, at each event the Link was an abso-
lute hit with people of all ages!  People crowded around the piano
while I sat in a chair about seven feet away enjoying it all.  It was
great to watch the people being thrilled by the Link!  Kids were espec-
ially captivated, as they dragged their parents back again to the
illuminated piano that played itself.  Of course I had a snappy Ray-
Deyo-arranged roll on the instrument and had the doors open, showing
the endless roll and xylophone in operation.  The Link even stole
attention away from the antique cars and other mechanical antiques on
display!

Exposure to the charms of mechanical music brings forth interest which
creates collectors.  The same holds in England where the Great Dorset
Steam Fair reigns supreme as the premier steam show in the world.  This
show exposes thousands each year to mechanical organs, especially fair
organs.  It is a large event covering five hundred acres and features
all vintage mechanical hobbies from antique cars to carriages to steam
engines to fair organs.  It consistently generates many new enthusi-
asts, including young people who start off by feeding the book music
through the keyframes for the organ owners and then graduate to
ownership of small instruments on their way to larger ones.

The Netherlands also has numerous public events which generate new
enthusiasts, including many young people.  The attraction of mechanical
music is universal.  A new collector with over four thousand pieces of
mechanical music plans a new museum in Moscow.  A friend of mine visit-
ed this Russian collection recently.  He was amazed at seeing room
after room filled with mechanical instruments, from mammoth orches-
trions to fair organs to small music boxes and phonographs!  Twenty-
four restorers were busy at work.  My friend was impressed!

Remember that the magic of mechanical music is still there.  Once 
people are exposed to it, interest develops.  If you think there is
declining interest, then ask yourself what have you done recently to
expose the public to the wonderful world of mechanical music?  What has
your society or chapter done to support public exhibits of mechanical
music?  Get involved!  Don't sit back and be passive.  Don't let your
ego get in the way.  Discover the enjoyment of sharing mechanical music
with others in any way that you can.  You will be amazed at the
interest that you create!

Tim Trager
http://www.timtrager.com