Original Catalogue Specifications:
-
Wurlitzer
#23204 stamped on chassis above roll changer.
- Philipps Chassis Nr. 4906.
- Revolver Mechanism (roll changer) Nr. 329.
- Unit chassis with separate wrap-around case (with integral floor)
format.
- Standard 6 station, friction drive revolver mechanism (roll
changer).
- Round belt/chain & sprocket reduction for feeder (pump) crankshaft.
- Wurlitzer pneumatic lock and cancel controls.
- Manual on-off control for violin pipes.
- Uses Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra or Philipps Pianella
Mandolinen (P.M.) rolls.
- Tracker Scale: Pianella Mandolinen (P.M.)
- Height: 8 ft. 6 in.
Width: 5 ft. 6 in.
Depth: 3 ft.
Shipping weight: 1,500 lbs.
61 Note Musical Scale:
- Piano (Wurlitzer 56-note), with Mandolin attachment
- 37 Violin and Violoncello Pipes (30 wood violins + 7 wood
violoncellos)
- Chimes, 13 bars (orchestra bells)
- Tenor drum (reiterating action)
- Bass drum, with cymbal
Special Lighting Effects:
- In addition to interior lighting to illuminate the colorful art
glass panels, atop the PianOrchestra sits a Peacock type "Wonderlight."
The large, circular peacock's tail consists of a reflective metal
shroud, bent to form many individual reflective "facets". Behind the
peacock's decoratively painted cast metal body is a tapered glass tube,
with an electric light bulb inside. The glass tube is painted with
transparent pigments in a design representing peacock tail feathers.
When the PianOrchestra is operational, the glass tube rotates, driven by
a pulley on the backside, which is connected via a round leather belt to
another, smaller pulley located on the pump crankshaft. As the painted
tube rotates, colorful tail feathers are projected onto the reflective
metal shroud's facets, producing a striking, moving kaleidoscopic
effect.
Notes:
- The piano bass is strung with two unison strings, with a third
string an octave lower, for a total of three strings for each bass note.
- The eight rectangular sections in the lower parts of the roll case
door, situated just below the glass music roll viewing window, are for
holding tune-cards, which were individually printed cards somewhat like
the standard music roll labels. These cards could be easily slipped into
an appropriate slot by removing the holder assembly from the backside of
the roll case door. Six music rolls per changer load, six tune cards.
So, then, why eight slots? Many early Wurlitzer instruments had the
ability to display up to eight tune-cards, even though only six rolls
could be loaded on a machine at any one time. The two "extra" slots were
used for instructional cards, i.e., how to use certain aspects of an
instrument. Different styles of Wurlitzer instruction cards have been
observed explaining things like (1) how to use the coin accumulator,
i.e., you get one tune for each nickel deposited, up to about twenty,
and (2) how to select a specific music roll on a roll changer equipped
instrument. However, for the PianOrchestra there is no provision for
selecting a specific music roll, as with many of the Wurlitzer 65-note
coin-pianos, so perhaps there were other kinds of instruction cards
unknown to this author.
Chronological History:
Circa 1912/14
Chassis and the majority of its components manufactured by J.D. Philipps &
Sons, Bockenheim, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.
Circa 1912/14
Chassis components imported by Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, New York.
The chassis is basically Philipps, with components added by Wurlitzer.
The piano, mandolin attachment, pipes and pipe chest, lock and cancel
controls, drums and associated actions, and the free-standing, wrap-around
furniture case appear to all be Wurlitzer designed and manufactured
components. The coin-accumulator and all associated electricals were added
by Wurlitzer.
1915
Original Location in Galveston, Texas, is unknown.
The original shipping destination as per the Wurlitzer factory shipping
records was Galveston, Texas, September, 27, 1915.
Circa 19??
Ice Cream Factory in the Fresno area (Fountain?), California).
Circa 1961/62
Jim Main, Nickelodeon House Antiques, Monrovia, California.
Circa 1962/63
Otto Carlsen collection, Monrovia, California.
The instrument being in generally excellent condition, the pump was
releathered and other relatively minor restoration work was done by Otto
Carlsen, putting the instrument in good playing condition. No substantial
cosmetic work was done to the instrument.
The
peacock "wonderlight" attachment atop the case was complete, although
slightly damaged. The original lighted, tapered glass "peacock tail" tube,
which was painted with a peacock feather design, was broken at the small
end, near the area where a brass collar and drive shaft assembly was
attached. Not knowing how to make a new glass tube like the original, Otto
Carlsen made a new, hollow tube of similar proportions out of a resin based
composite material. Like the original, the new tube housed an electric light
bulb. In small holes cut into the tube an assortment of colorful glass gems
were fitted, similar to those used in a regular Wurlitzer "Wonderlight."
Although the effect was quite different than what was originally intended,
it did provide a very pleasing and colorful display, as the various colored
prisms of projected light danced against the multi-faceted peacock's
reflective metal tail shroud.
Circa 1965
David Bowers collection, Vestal, New York.
The PianOrchestra was set up in Dave Bowers hillside home in Vestal, New
York. The Instrument was next moved to Kettering, Ohio, were Dave Bowers
lived, for about one year. Then, in 1967, the PianOrchestra was moved to
Santa Fe Springs, California, along with Dave Bowers' many other personal
possessions.
1971
Bill Allen collection, Santa Ana, California.
I
remember Bill Allen visiting the Hathaway & Bowers, Inc., Santa Fe Springs,
California, showrooms many times, standing in front of the style 12
PianOrchestra, his mouth watering. One day, Bill showed up with a friend,
Rudy Edwards, who had recently begun collecting coin-pianos and who also had
become an avid admirer of the style 12 PianOrchestra. As usual, upon his
arrival, Bill stood in front of the little PianOrchestra, paying little or
no attention to anything else, but still unable to make up his mind as to
whether to buy the instrument, or not. After these visitations to admire the
PianOrchestra had been going on for quite a while, one day Dave Bowers
telephoned Bill, telling him that he needed to sell the PianOrchestra, and
that if he would come right over he would give him a special price. It was
May 26, 1971, when Rudy Edwards drove Bill Allen to Santa Fe Springs, where
the two of them inspected the PianOrchestra. It played beautifully, and both
Bill and Rudy liked it very much. Bill Allen was obviously desiring to
possess the PianOrchestra. But he still wavered, unable to make a definite
decision to buy, finally rationalizing, "I'm too old to put that much money
into a machine. So, I think we had better go home."
So Rudy Edwards and Bill Allen walked out of Hathaway & Bowers, Inc.,
with Bill still acting like a person in love with the PianOrchestra. Rudy
was driving, all the while thinking to himself, carefully deliberating,
whether he wanted to get involved in the PianOrchestra with Bill Allen, or
not. Rudy had driven several miles from Santa Fe Springs when he finally
turned to Bill Allen and made him a proposition. Rudy offered, "if you want
to buy the machine, I'll pay half and you can keep it as long as you desire.
Then, when you are ready to part with it I'll pay the balance." Bill
immediately responded with, "that's a deal." Rudy turned the car around and
drove back to Santa Fe Springs, whereupon Bill Allen bought the style 12
PianOrchestra.
The
instrument was hauled to Bill Allen's beautiful hillside residence, "Allen
Acres," and set up in his poolside music room. He affectionately called the
machine "my big Wurlitzer Mandolin Peacock Piano." Bill was a fanatic of
perfection when it came to the appearance of his collectibles. Everything he
had looked stunning, always sparkling clean and deliciously fresh, although,
when it came to his coin-pianos, which were generally for sale, he would
usually skimp on the inside. I can remember wanting to look inside several
of his coin-pianos. He would hesitate, fidgeting, jingling the change and
keys in his pockets, and try to divert my attention, pointing out some
exterior feature Bill thought worthy of attention. But if I persisted, he
might, almost grudgingly, tilt open a removable service panel just a crack,
and then snap it shut before I really had a chance to notice much, if
anything.
Bill had an immense collection of absolutely superb art-glass panels and
shades, collected over many years, before art-glass was generally a popular
item to collect. To enhance the appearance of his art-glass specimens, Bill
had taken the time to groom an electro-plater, who had become very skilled
at gold plating the delicate lead and copper-foil structures that held
together the individually fitted pieces of colored glass, without destroying
or damaging its integrity in the slightest. So, after many, many years of
successful and uneventful electro-plating experience, Bill trusted his
plater with his most delicate plating work. Thus, he didn't think twice when
it came to handing over a delicate item that needed some kind of re-plating.
Bill just delivered it to "his man," and a few days later he would pick up
the job, expecting beforehand that it would be done faultlessly.
 Six-Station
Roll-Changer Detail: Introduced by Philipps, circa
1905, it was maybe 1909 before the automatic roll-changer became the
standard music roll playing device for Wurlitzer PianOrchestras, the
roll-changer replacing the single-roll mechanism almost entirely. In
Europe, however, the situation was different, with the single roll
mechanism remaining popular. This is because it was the custom there
to have an orchestrion operated by an attendant, who would change
rolls and play music requested by the establishment's patrons, as
well as collect any patronage due. In sharp contrast, U.S. customers
tended to want automatic, unattended operation, which eliminated the
necessity of having an attendant. Instead, inexpensive coin-drop
boxes were placed at strategic points to make it easy to collect
money and start the orchestrion remotely.
The most commonly installed roll-changer size was the basic
six-station revolver mechanism, as is pictured above. The Philipps
revolver mechanism was probably the most reliable and trouble free
of any of the various roll changing devices, no matter the brand of
orchestrion or coin piano. Three, ten, and twelve-station
roll-changers were also available, although there are no known
instances of the three-station changer ever being installed in a
large PianOrchestra. These smaller roll-changers seem to have been
reserved for the diminutive keyboard style pianos and orchestrions
manufactured by Philipps. Only one PianOrchestra survives, a style
15, that contains a twelve-station changer.
Note the belt driven, adjustable friction drive tempo speed
regulating device at the right side of the roll changer. Some early
versions used a pair of inverted cones to accomplish the same speed
regulation (see the style 33 PianOrchestra). |
 Chimes
(Orchestra Bells) Detail: What Wurlitzer listed as
chimes are perhaps more appropriately termed orchestra bells --
consisting of 13 metal bar bells. In the style 12, as in most later
vintage PianOrchestras, the bells are located to the right of the
roll-changer, and hang upside down from the wide support shelf
situated just above the roll-changer mechanism. In early
PianOrchestras they are also located to the right of the
roll-changer, but mounted upright on the main valve chest support
shelf, underneath the roll-changer mechanism.
The picture at right was taken looking upward, and it shows the 13
individual metal bell-strikers at left, which hang downward, and the
actual metal bell-bars at right. Each bell is suspended by gut
strings, which are laced through holes drilled at the bell's nodule
points. The strikers are made by attaching a cylindrical metal
hammer to a narrow piece of flat spring steel. The other end of the
spring steel is screwed to a motor pneumatic, which, when activated,
causes the striker to move toward the bell-bar. A felted rail
intentionally limits the travel of the bell strikers, so that when a
striker pneumatic is activated the actual hammer does not rest on
the bell, but rather, due to the momentum of the hammer on the
slender spring steel lever only momentarily strikes the bar, and
then quickly rebounds away. This quick retreat of the relatively
heavy hammer prevents any dampening of the bell's superb tone, which
would otherwise be made to sound dull and short lived. |
In the following case, unfortunately, what happened at the plating
facility did not resemble Bill's usually cheerful expectations. The thin
metal shroud that formed the peacock's tail assembly had originally been
nickel plated, giving a shine and luster to its inner reflective surface.
Over the years, however, the nickel had oxidized and dulled, with bits of
nickel flaking off, leaving an uneven appearance that Bill could not bring
himself to leave alone. He wanted it to shine just like new. So, he had Rudy
Edwards carefully remove the tail shroud, so that he could take it to his
trusted plating vendor for chemical stripping and re-nickeling. Then, a few
days later, when Bill and Rudy went back to pick up the re-plated metal
shroud they were shocked to see that nothing remained but a few shreds of
flimsy metal. The acid stripping process has literally destroyed the
peacock's tail, dissolving all but some minor remnants, which consisted
mostly of the crimped, reinforced edges.
According to Rudy Edwards, when Bill Allen set sight on the few shreds of
frail metal that still remained he was "really upset," as anyone who ever
knew Bill can easily imagine. He was apparently beside himself, not knowing
what to say or how to resolve the situation, something quite unusual for
this normally very opinionated, loudly outspoken and determined man.
Fortunately, the owner of the plating shop seeing the situation came forward
and spoke up, saying, "don't worry, I'll have one made for you." So a new
shroud of gleaming stainless steel was made, approximating the original one
in both size and shape. It was buffed to a high polish and lacquered,
providing the unoriginal spit-shined surface appearance that Bill had wanted
all along.
 Coin
Trip Accumulator Detail: Pictured at right is the standard
Wurlitzer ratchet wheel type of coin accumulator. It replaced the
earlier vertical drop, ratchet slide type, which was sometimes
troublesome to maintain. The accumulator wheel design allowed
patrons to insert up to approximately twenty coins and hear an equal
number of tunes. Each time a coin was dropped through the coin
chute, the wheel would ratchet clockwise one tooth. At the end of a
tune, the small pneumatic motor (upper left corner of the cast metal
enclosure) ratcheted the toothed wheel back, or counterclockwise,
one tooth. This action subtracted one play and, when all accumulated
tunes has been used up, shut the machine off. Cutting off the
electrical power depended upon the position of a small pin that
extended outward from the ratchet wheel, and which contacted the
knife-switch operating lever when the last paid tune was over.
Notice the two-coil electro-magnet assembly, which was used for
tripping the ratchet wheel by means of external, battery powered
remote coin boxes.
Visible directly above the coin accumulator mechanism is the bottom
portion of a standard Wurlitzer coin trap device. The tiny
"horseshoe" magnet (painted red) causes iron slugs to divert and
fall out of the coin chute and into a small collection tray.
Following the magnet trap is another trap, consisting of an
elongated aperture (not visible), which is slightly smaller in width
than a nickel. A delicate lever spring rests behind this e slot,
which causes any coins smaller than a nickel to fall into the
collection tray, too, thus preventing the orchestrion from playing
unless the proper coinage is used. |
In 1975, four years after Bill Allen and Rudy Edwards had jointly bought
the Style 12 PianOrchestra, Bill Allen informed Rudy that he was ready to
part with the PianOrchestra, so Rudy could pay him for his half of the
purchase price and take the machine. Rudy Edwards then became the sole owner
of the mighty little PianOrchestra.
1975
Edwards collection, California.
In 1975 Rudy Edwards took full ownership of the PianOrchestra, paying off
Bill Allen, of Santa Ana, California, for his portion of the joint purchase.
The PianOrchestra was then moved to its present location in Rudy Edward's
music room. As of 1999, since taking possession, the only maintenance of any
consequence has been tuning the instrument on two separate occasions -- an
outstanding achievement for a complicated machine made circa 1912/14, and
built mostly out of wood, cloth, and leather.
Just as remarkable, however, is its large sound. This relatively little,
but "big," style 12 with its single rank of violin pipes (with no on-off
register control) seemed to always sound much bigger and fuller than its
rather limited catalogue specifications might lead someone to believe. With
many collectors tending to consider bigger PianOrchestras with more
instrumentation to be better, notwithstanding the stunning appearance of the
style 12, listening to a nicely restored style 12 provides ample reason to
question the popular bigger is better reasoning. Curiously, when researching
for this project, Rudy Edwards made an interesting comment regarding the
limited nature of the PianOrchestra's pipework: "I always liked this machine
better," he said, "because the bigger PianOrchestras had too many different
instruments always going on."
2003
Nielson collection, Pennsylvania.
In September of 2003 the Wurlitzer Style 12 Mandolin PianOrchestra became
the property of Don Nielson of Pennsylvania.
