I grew up in Canandaigua, New York. My father's uncle, William Muar,
owned an amusement park there, the now defunct Roseland Park. My mother and
father worked there from my very beginning, and so I was exposed to the
amusement park life on a daily basis. My mother would put me in one of the
chariots on the carousel when it was my nap time and the band organ would
put me to sleep. I believe it was this early exposure to band organs that
sparked my life long interest in these instruments, which continues unabated
to this day. Since there were exposed belts and pulleys in the machine room
of the carousel, I was not allowed to go inside. Thus, I could only get
occasional peeks at the back of the organ when the door was open. It looked
fascinating to me and I wanted to know how it worked.
When I was older, I was allowed to go inside the machine room of the
carousel and watch the music roll as it passed across the tracker bar. I
would stand for hours watching the holes as the music played. I began to
make some sense of it. Later, around 1961, I started to work as a ride
operator until 1964, when I joined the Navy for four years. I returned to
work at the park for the 1969 season, then moved to Florida. I had learned
how to change the rolls on the organ and I studied the Wurlitzer 150 duplex
roll system, but still more questions than answers remained. I didn't know
how the valves worked and there was nothing I could find in the libraries
that would explain this to me. Back in the late fifties and early sixties
there was little information available to tell the novice how automatic
musical instruments worked. That changed for me when Larry Givens wrote his
book on rebuilding player pianos.
That book sparked my appetite for more information. Soon, I was a regular
customer of the Vestal Press, buying almost everything they had to offer.
This basic information gave me the confidence to try my hand at rebuilding a
player piano. Lots of mistakes were made, of course, but I got it working. I
hadn't learned proper rebuilding techniques yet and a whole lot of white
glue went into that first player piano rebuilding effort. I did more players
and some O-roll conversions and with each completed restoration I got better
and better at what I did, but what I really wanted to work with was a band
organ.
I was fortunate to meet Harold Staie, circa 1973. He had a large
collection of automatic musical machines that needed work and he allowed me
to work on them. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge by working on his
collection. I quickly became very familiar with Seeburg, Wurlitzer,
Nelson-Wiggen and other choice mechanical music machines. Then, about 1975,
another fellow and I partnered together and purchased a Bruder band organ.
It was just what I was looking for. It had been converted to use the
Wurlitzer 165 duplex music roll system (two roll mechanisms placed side by
side). I had developed a real love for 165 band organ music early on when I
would visit Seabreeze Park in Rochester, New York. The Wurlitzer style 165
organ on their carousel blew me away and I wanted one of those magnificent
things. This Bruder would allow me to have the capabilities of the 165
duplex roll system, and since it was not a pristine instrument, I felt I
could make whatever modifications I wanted without messing up an instrument
in original condition.
After about eight-years of work, I had the Bruder organ playing to my
satisfaction. I added castanets, triangle, and a crash cymbal, to fill out
the percussion section. I built a set of orchestra bells and also added
register controls, and additional pipes were built to fill in sections that
were incomplete. Then, my brother bought out my partner's half of the organ,
so together we would rent it out for special events. We sold it in 1999 and
it has been missed ever since.
In 1990 I learned that Disney World was looking for someone to maintain
their music machine collection. I applied for the job and was accepted for
the position. One thing that was impressed upon me from the very start was
that they were not running a museum. They did, however, want the machines to
run properly and to look good, but restoring them to museum quality was not
a high priority. I stressed that in order to maintain the value of their
investment, certain standards in work had to be maintained. I had to balance
the company’s desire to have the instruments out where they could grab
quarters against my desire to preserve valuable pieces of history.
Many of the instruments in the Disney collection came from Paul Eakins. I
owned many of the recordings he made and now I had several of the same
instruments under my care. I considered it a privilege to have this
responsibility and tried to give my best effort when working on them. Some
machines were completely disassembled when I started working there. The
Seeburg H and the Wurlitzer photoplayer both had all of their pneumatic
components removed from their cases and stored on shelves. I had never
worked on either style instrument, so I had a giant puzzle to deal with. The
Mortier organ known as the Emperor was also apart in three main sections.
I had to prioritize my work based upon display value of each instrument.
The mortuary organs in the collection would probably never be displayed in
the park, so they were low on the list. It was my goal to have comparable
instruments in storage ready to go on display to replace those that were in
current use. This way I could, in turn, remove each instrument to the shop
and do a complete overhaul if needed, without a location being without an
instrument. The Seeburg H was a spectacular machine and one of the largest
orchestrions in the collection. I felt that the Seeburg H would be a good
candidate as a replacement for the Wurlitzer PianOrchestra.
Having to maintain what was on public display and in use consumed a lot
of my time. Many of the music rolls also needed repair. I spent a lot of
time repairing rolls for the PianOrchestra. I needed good rolls with snappy
tunes to fill the roll-changer, but a large portion of what we had was of a
classical nature and unsuitable for our use. We also had some music rolls
that were intended for the silent picture theaters, since one song ran into
the next without interruption. They were good songs, rags, two-steps and
marches, so I would cut the roll where one song would end and the next would
start. This I would hand cut the endings and beginnings for each tune and
provide sufficient space in between so they could be used for coin
operation. This was necessary because we had to stretch what we had, since
re-cut rolls for the PianOrchestra were unavailable at the time. My wife had
a cheesecake business and the boxes that the cream cheese came in were just
the right size for a PianOrchestra roll. I painted each box black and made
wooden inserts in each end to center the roll and allow for the wire leader
on the end of the roll. I also tried to identify the tunes on each roll to
the best of my ability and write them on the roll and the box.
I would restore sections of the Seeburg H as time permitted. I had
managed to restore the percussion shelf, pipe chest, xylophone, pneumatic
stack and other components, when I was told that the collection was to be
sold. I was instructed to assemble everything as best I could in preparation
for the sale. I assembled the Wurlitzer photoplayer as best I could using
pictures in books and by matching screw-holes. The Seeburg H was easier to
assemble, since I was already somewhat familiar with its interior layout. It
was a great disappointment for me to never be able to hear the Seeburg H in
person, and it was a sad day for me when the instruments were loaded onto
trucks and shipped away.
We still have a few mechanical musical instruments at Disney World. Big
Bertha from Paul Eakins is at the Grand Floridian Hotel, but sounding
terrible. She needs to come out for a complete rebuild, but it is not likely
to happen soon because of the difficulty of removing her from her present
location. She is mounted in a niche overlooking the Park Fair restaurant and
the only way to remove her would be to bring a fork lift into the dining
room and then lift her out. Even so, to bring her back to full voice would
not be allowed, since even now, in her feeble condition, people complain
that she is too loud.
A Seeburg KT is playing nicely in the Main Street train station, and a
Seeburg E with flute pipes is in Crocket's Tavern in Fort Wilderness and is
played occasionally. A Coinola Midget with flute pipes and a Wurlitzer style
C Orchestra Piano are in storage and in playable condition. Currently, there
are no plans to put these instruments back out on display. I still maintain
what is left on display on an as needed basis, but most of my time is now
devoted to maintaining parade floats as a mechanic.
I have recently purchased (in 2003) a Bruder barrel-organ, which is
compatible with the Wurlitzer 150 scale. I intend to convert it over in such
a way that if the next owner wants to return it to its original state it
will be possible. Soon, I will be able to enjoy the music I loved listening
to long ago, and, who knows, maybe even take a nap.
Bob Moore
September, 2003
