All information for the story of the King family
(originally written in German) was provided courtesy of Siegfried Wendel.
The German text was translated into English by my Danish friend Anders
Christopherson, and then edited, commented, and re-phrased by me, Terry
Hathaway.
Leopold and His Revolver-Mechanik
Ever
since my first glimpse of a Wurlitzer PianOrchestra in the early 1940s -- a
large Philipps Pianella Model 30 (Monopol-Xylophon) orchestrion branded with
the Wurlitzer logo -- I have been fascinated by large orchestrions, and the
people who designed and made them. One of the features I admired most in the
big Philipps instruments was the roll changer. Its elegantly simple design
made it an exceptionally rugged and durable device, capable of operating
almost flawlessly over many years of continuous commercial use. It was, in
my opinion, the most reliable and trouble free of all the various roll
changers designs I have seen and worked with. Modified forms of the basic
plan accommodated variations capable of holding three, six, ten, or twelve
music rolls, providing a wide selection of music without repeats. When
properly regulated, with all external latching devices properly adjusted, it
was nearly foolproof and friendly to even the most timeworn of music rolls.
Having enjoyed the trouble free roll changer in the many large Philipps
machines I have owned, this one component occupies a special place in my
memories. At the time of my total immersion into automatic music, however, I
never imagined that I would someday get to know, if only a little bit,
something about the man responsible for inventing it. Thus, when I received
the King family story from Siegfried Wendel I was delighted to learn about
the man whose inventions I had admired so much.
There were other roll changers on the market, too, including a
beautifully designed, but less rugged, inverted, or upright style also made
by Philipps. I have no idea who designed this "other" later vintage model,
which was used in the keyboard style instruments where interior space was at
a premium. Although it was mechanically similar in functionality to its
older brother, it sat upright on top of the main chest, whereas the old
model hung from a special back-frame that could only be used in the big,
much more spacious cabinet orchestrions.
Probably the most intricately complex of all roll changers commercially
available were those made by Hupfeld. They were used primarily in Hupfeld's
top-of-the-line Pan orchestrions, as well as, for instance, in a some
special Phonoliszt-Violina models. The Hupfeld changers were beautifully
crafted pieces of machinery, but somewhat delicate, requiring careful
regulation. Some were even fitted with electrical contacts and controls that
allowed patrons to select a specific roll from remote wall boxes. Although
the Hupfeld roll changers were admirably constructed, they were often
troublesome, especially when it came to playing old, tired music rolls.
In America, the National Automatic Music Company / National Piano Mfg.
Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan devised a roll changer that held eight
music rolls, each roll having its own take-up spool, and that were rewound
automatically after playing by means of a special spring mechanism. Like
Hupfeld’s two-roll Kipp mechanism, the individual rolls never disengaged
their individual take-up spools, thereby eliminating the problem of
threading a new roll onto a common take-up spool, as was the case with all
other commercial roll changers. Wurlitzer, on the other hand, appears to
have more or less copied the upright Philipps roll changer design, making
its own six-roll automatic changer, which was patented on September 8, 1914.
This changer was installed in most of Wurlitzer's American made keyboard
style pianos. Although the Wurlitzer changer was functionally and
mechanically similar to the upright Philipps model, it was comparatively
crude, its power drives more complicated and the whole arrangement of the
earlier models somewhat prone to misthreading of music rolls, making it seem
like a distant stepchild to its precision made and highly polished German
counterpart.
The King Family ...
What follows now is a story of mechanical music instruments in Germany as
the family of Leopold King experienced it. Regrettably, there is little
known about Herkunft Leopold King’s early years, other than he was born in
Niederschach in Schwarzwald on November 17, 1863, and that he became an
orphan when he was six years old. A guardian was appointed, a carpenter by
trade, who saw that Herkunft was schooled as a carpenter in the small hamlet
of Waldkirch.
At the end of his schooling as a carpenter, Leopold, as he came to be
called, was given a sack of second quality lumber for his final test. He was
instructed that when he finished building an acceptable night-closet out of
the supplied wood he would pass the test, and then be a bona-fide carpenter.
It is important to keep in mind that Leopold had to build the closet after
his regular working hours. Then, upon its completion, a master painter and
master carpenter would inspect his work. Leopold King passed the test with a
good grade.
Fortunately for Leopold, Waldkirch was the site of a blooming mechanical
music industry at the time, a fortuitous happenstance for talented
carpenters. Thus, Leopold, the newly qualified carpenter was able to get a
job right away at the Wilhelm Bruder factory. He began his new job building
twelve small street-organs, all of the same kind. He built everything
himself, right from the mainhause (case), airmechanism (pneumatic
mechanisms) and windbarns (feeders and reservoirs) to the pipes. Then,
having successfully completed this initial job assignment he went on to
build larger and larger organs thereafter.
It was not long before Leopold had mastered the construction and
regulation of organ pipes, whereupon he moved on, going to work for the
Gebruder Bruder company as a pipe master. Here he met his future wife to be,
Katharina Muller. But more work changes were soon to be for the young
Leopold. When the big Karusselorgan factory Ruth, also in Waldkirch, became
united with the Gebruder Weber firm, Leopold went to work there, in order to
gain more knowledge in building orchestrions, and also because the Gebruder
Weber factory paid higher wages. Noteworthy, it was during his time with
Gebruder Weber that the first orchestrion was built using note-rolls made
out of thin paper.
It was in 1889 that Leopold King finally married Katharina Muller. Then,
in 1890, she gave birth to a daughter, Berta. Five years later, on the 18th
of November, 1895, the twins Leopold and Ernst were born.
The Daniel Philipps Orchestrion-Fabrik
Johann
Daniel Philipps, who owned a small carpenter-factory in Frankfurt, was
searching for a highly skilled orchestrion builder, so that he could build
up the production and quality of his line of paper roll operated
instruments. It was in 1897 when Daniel offered Leopold King the position of
"master of production." The King family moved from Waldkirch to Frankfurt,
occupying a house right next door to the factory, with the King children
playing and growing up in the Philipps orchestrion factory.
In what was probably considered to be an unusual business decision for
the time, Daniel Philips had a restaurant built. In the restaurant he had
prominently featured a large dance orchestrion. On Sundays Leopold worked as
the dance master, controlling the orchestrion and selling dance cards.
Whenever the restaurant patrons wanted to hear music or dance it was the
men’s obligation to buy a dance card. Then, Leopold would cause a tune to be
performed on the mighty orchestrion.
Although Daniel Philipps was a carpenter-factory owner, he enjoyed good
connections in the restaurant trade, something that enabled him to place his
orchestrions in many eating establishments throughout the Frankfurt area,
using coin-slides in the instruments to collect money. Many people started
to take notice and buy Philipps orchestrions as soon as they realized the
profit they made. Soon the Philipps factory had to be expanded. Leopold King
would work all day at his workbench constructing pneumatic windloader and
release mechanisms for large instruments, then working into the evening and
nighttime sitting behind his drawing board he would devise new designs. Now
and then, when he would come up with something new or make a major
improvement, he would get a raise in his salary. Additionally, both of
Daniel Philipps’ sons, August and Oswald, who would later take over the
business, were being trained by Leopold King in the fine art of orchestrion
building.
Always
interested in making technical improvements, Leopold early on in his career
with Philipps began working with an abstract problem. He wanted to construct
a note-roll changer (music roll changer) that would make it possible for
note-rolls to be played continuously, one after the other, without having to
use an additional music roll player. Daniel Philipps was very interested in
the idea and its commercial application, but when the revolver-mechanik was
completed, he would not pay anything extra for the idea. The reason being
that Philipps owned the pattern rights for everything that was developed in
the factory, and therefore the company owned the rights to Leopold King’s
wonderful invention. Thus, it was Daniel Philipps who announced the
noteroll-changer to the pattern office in 1905.
Disappointed, Master King did not give up. He was soon at work
constructing a better and more advanced roll changing device, one that
worked so that when one music roll had finished playing the next roll was
able to play immediately, eliminating the awkward rewind break that would
otherwise interrupt the flow of music. But before his designs on the new
mechanism were complete, King left Philipps and went to work in a small
orchestrion factory nearby in Frankfurt-AM-Main. This is where he completed
the work on his improved note-roll invention. His new boss liked his pattern
drawings so much so that he took them and removed Leopold King’s name,
selling the idea as his own. Leopold King, the genius inventor was once
again deceived, losing control of his invention. In desperation he took his
new employer to court and won a small settlement, while other people got the
profit from his ideas.
Hupfeld's Helios Department
A beaten man, King left Frankfurt in 1909 and moved his household to
Leipzig, where there was a flourishing and steadily growing metropolis
devoted to the manufacture of mechanical music-instruments. King went to
work for Hupfeld, who paid him 18 marks more per month than Philipps had
done on his last paycheck, after all the raises Leopold had earned. Hupfeld
was on its way to becoming the largest factory for mechanical music
instruments in Europe, and in the World, for that matter, and the company
was about to commence building its immense new Bohlitz-Ehrenberg factory.
Thus, Hupfeld was searching for talented masters in the field of pneumatics.
Master King started work for Hupfeld in the Helios orchestrion department.
Erich Teichert was department manager. Teichert, originally from Breslau,
had had his own organ factory before he moved to Leipzig and began working
for Hupfeld.
Teichert
and King already knew each other from earlier business associations and
looked upon each other as competitors. Although Teichert was department
manager, and responsible for the production and development of Helios
orchestrions, King was able to contribute some of his own ideas to improve
the Helios line, too. For example, King introduced the idea that made it
easy to clean the air-hole (bleed) mechanism, which would from time to time
get dirty and thereby impair the operation of the machine. By simply
attaching the air-hole assembly with small wing bolts it could be easily
removed and cleaned. The idea of being able to easily and quickly clean the
bleed holes was something King had used to good advantage on Philipps
instruments, combining the bleed holes into an easily removable front
section of an ingeniously designed wooden tracker bar.
When Hupfeld’s new Bohlitz-Ehrenberg factory was ready in 1911, King’s
paycheck was reduced by eight marks. At first, King thought is was just a
clerical error, but he soon discovered it was a pay reduction and not a
calculation error at all. Upon making this unsettling discovery he
immediately went to his boss, Ludwig Hupfeld, who told him that he would get
his money, but only when he was able to bring the Phonola department
production up to a level equal to that of the Helios department. King would
be required to put in a lot of extra and hard work in order to get the same
salary as before, reclaiming the money he thought Hupfeld rightfully owed
him. But Leopold King refused to sink so deep, quitting Hupfeld instead,
going out on his own as an orchestrion repairman. Putting an ad in the
magazine for instrument builders, he was hired by the Symphonion Factory (in
Leipzig).
The Twins Come of Age
The twins Leopold and Ernst King began their schooling in 1910. The young
Leopold wanted to be an orchestrion builder like his father, and began
learning the woodworking trade by working as a carpenter in the furniture
industry, which, at that time, was the best place to start for anyone
wanting to become an orchestrion builder. Ernst also wanted to work with
musical instruments, so he began as a trainee at the harmonica factory
Manborg.
In the course of the King family’s daily life there was a lot of
technical language relating to orchestrions spoken regularly at home. The
family was never far away from talking about or dealing with orchestrions in
some way. Occasionally, when they were playing cards father Leopold would
turn the score sheet over and start drawing outlines of pneumatic devices.
Moreover, when the father King went out to fix orchestrions one of his sons
would often go along.
These varied business excursions provided a good training ground for the
youngsters. It was common that the owner of an orchestrion, who oftentimes
was a restaurant owner, did not treat King or his sons very well. One time
young Leopold had to drive all the way back from Efurt to Leipzig in order
to get a part for an orchestrion. In the meantime, his father tuned and
polished the orchestrion. Together they put in the replacement part. Then
the restaurant owner did not want to pay the six marks asked; saying that
four marks was enough. The son Leopold calmly said, "Oh well, dad, then we
have to remove the part again." The Restaurant owner was furious, but
finally said, "Oh well, here is your money."
The Advent of World War I
Shortly before World War I the Symphonion Factory, where father King was
working, had started to produce metal-plate musical boxes, gramophone disks,
electric pianos and orchestrions. The pneumatic instruments were mostly made
for the South American and Spanish market. They had a very strong tone, did
not have a tuning mechanism and could only be played at two settings: quiet
or loud. A Leipziger note-roll factory made the note-rolls for the
Symphonion Factory.
In 1914, about the time when both of King’s sons had finished their
schooling, World War I broke out. Musical instruments were suddenly
considered to be unimportant. Consequently, both the sons got jobs in a meat
factory helping with supplies for the troops. However, it was not long
before they had to go to the front themselves, with both of them ending up
in French prison camps. Leopold came home from the war in 1919, and Ernst
followed two years later.
Father King had in the meantime lost his job, because in 1918 Symphonion
had gone bankrupt. The word was that they had miscalculated the cost of the
Shrankgrammophone and suffered great losses because of it. Even though the
order book for the pneumatic pianos was full for the next couple of years,
there was no work for the elder Leopold. Thus, father King became
self-employed, opening a little shop just big enough to fit in a single
piano. He would go to the former places where he had once done repair work
and put up small signs offering his repair services for pneumatic
instruments. His two sons worked alongside him upon their return home from
war.
The son, Leopold, married in 1921, Ernst in 1922. Leopold was not able to
find any work he liked in Leipzig; therefore, he traveled to Frankfurt
looking for employment. The little, once unprofitable, Daniel Phillips
factory had become Phillips (A/S), a joint stock company. The sons August
and Oswald Phillips had taken over the business and expanded with new
factories. When August Phillips heard that his old teacher’s two sons were
looking for work he immediately offered them jobs. Leopold and his wife
moved to Frankfurt, but Ernst’s wife did not want to leave Leipzig, so they
stayed behind. However, Philipps also had a factory in Leipzig, so Ernst
went there to work.
There was a great resurgence in the mechanical musical instrument
industry after the War. The music from gramophones was not loud enough --
there were no electronic amplifiers yet. The jazz that came from America
required new, more sophisticated machines, plus there was a great hunger for
amusement after Germany’s defeat in World War I. The note-roll factories
delivered new tunes from lively "one-steps" to the "Charleston." Every bar
had an orchestrion, Smart Lola had a Pianola in the Salon and the little
bakery had an electric piano playing softly in the background.
Ernst King was busy demonstrating and installing Philipps musical
instruments in the Leipzig area. He would arrange exhibitions where he would
demonstrate the machines to customers. It was not always easy work.
Oftentimes the exhibition places had terrible acoustics, and exhibition
tents did not even have floors, so Ernst would have to build a stand for the
orchestrion. Once a demonstration was held in the middle of a field. Another
time the acoustics in the room were so bad that Ernst had to make a plywood
sound barrier, before the people in the room could hear the
Paganini-Orchestrion N. 14.
A butcher and restaurant-keeper once threatened to kill Ernst, because of
the orchestrion he was installing. Ernst had unpacked and assembled the
orchestrion all by himself, but then every time he would drop a coin in the
coin slot a fuse would blow. Before long there were no more good fuses left
in the house. To say the least the shopkeeper was annoyed, but Ernst
persisted. He opened the orchestrion and turned two wires, whereupon the
orchestrion began playing, and the delighted butcher began dancing to the
happy Melodie Violin.
Leopold King, on the other hand, worked in the factory in Frankfurt doing
final regulation and testing of the orchestrions. He would check them out
from head to toe, and try them out before they were shipped to the customer.
The people who were actually building individual components and assembling
the orchestrions did not understand the whole pneumatic process. Ever since
Leopold was a child, his father had talked about orchestrions, explaining
the mechanism in great detail. It was therefore quite natural for him to
take on the responsibility of testing the completed orchestrions.
The Boom Ends
The flourishing mechanical music industry stopped suddenly. World-crisis,
inflation, and unemployment upset the prosperous business of automatic
music, and to make it all worse the radio and motion picture was breaking
into and taking over the market. Nobody was buying pneumatic instruments
anymore. The Kino-organs in the light-play houses were all of a sudden
obsolete, too. The small orchestrion factories went out of business quickly,
while the big ones did the best they could to survive. The Phillips branch
in Leipzig, with its enormous workshop and railway connection was given up
in 1933.
Ernst king was now unemployed and the Harmonium factory did not have any
work for him either. Leopold King was also unemployed for a short time. But
then World War II started and the factories for musical instruments were
suitable for important wartime products. Nearly all the old musical
instrument factories were converted to produce parts for airplanes. The
factory in Freiburg was bombed and burned to the ground. Phillips moved
their part of the factory to Aschaffenburg and Leopold King came along with
his family. After the war there was a need for furniture, much more so than
the need for musical instruments, so Philipps started building beds in
Aschaffenburg.
Nobody wanted note-rolls anymore, so three good wagons full of Phillips
note-rolls were burned. What the war had not destroyed was destroyed out of
the conviction that the era of mechanical musical instruments was over. The
Russians dismantled the Hupfeld factory in Leipzig. Note-roll machines were
lying around for years and were finally shipped to Russia as junk. Ernst
King worked with pianos and harmoniums up until his pension, and he is still
working as a harmonium tuner today.
Father
Leopold King died in 1949 at the age of 86 years. His grandson, Horst, was
in training at Philipps A/S at the time. In 1952 (the son) Leopold and his
son, Horst, quit Philipps, as the production of musical instruments had
completely stopped. At the end of the 1950s the Philipps company split up
and was gone.
There was a light shining in Leopold King’s eyes when I (Siegfried
Wendel) first met him back in 1965, and told him that I was interested in
musical instruments. He was immediately ready, together with his son, Horst,
to repair an orchestrion for me. Horst is still working with orchestrions.
His father Leopold died in January of 1978. Ernst lives with his son on the
island Forh. He has this to say about his brother: "Leopold has always been
a step ahead of me, he was first born, first married and died first…"
