hosscat

It was a functioning machine, likely built by Allan Stafford who built and still builds similar instruments out of regular pianos. It's beyond me WHY they left it outside, but I can't exactly do anything about it. If it's still in storage, I don't know, but I'd like to know about the other instrument..

Okay, I found something... which probably means it's ruined. The nickelodeon from the restaurant which went to Phantom Theater sat out during the Halloween Haunt display in 2008 at the front entrance with other characters from Phantom Theater... It certainly rained on the instrument and... sigh... At least it wasn't an antique.

Alright folks, I need some help on a mystery I'm trying to solve. I was at a friend's house who loaned me a cassette of the Wurlitzer 157 recorded in 1984 which was apparently the year it was restored by Don Stinson, (and is due for another soon, but that's a topic for another day) but on the other side of the cassette was of a nickelodeon from a restaurant that the park had. It had an accordion, percussion, a piano with exposed keys, and like the band organ played itself. Not only was this instrument in the park though, there was ANOTHER which apparently was just on display and didn't play a note. Later, the first nickelodeon from the restaurant was supposedly used as a prop in the Phantom Theater and didn't play. A few years ago before the band organ was put back into commission, someone who claimed to have worked for the park (I don't know if it's true) also mentioned the nickelodeon although I didn't think any of it then. He said it was thrown away and sat in the employee parking lot before then. I really don't think the park would throw away something like this unless they had no idea what it actually was. It was a modern non-antique machine that may have been made specifically for the park, so even if it was 'trashed', it wouldn't be a tragety. I have no idea what the other one was that didn't play in 1984. Regardless, I'd like to solve this mystery. The park themselves probably has more answers, at least to the one that was used as a prop in 'Phantom', but I thought I'd ask here as well. Thanks!

I have considered bringing headphones to the park because of the pop music, I hear enough of that 'stuff' (to put it nicely) everywhere else. Part of what makes an amusement park special is music. A park needs its own soundtrack as music can get a emotional response that drives people back again and again. Why do you think Disney parks are so popular? Sure, you've got the 'Disney' stuff but you can't tell me that music has nothing to do with it. Seldom do you ever hear 'pop' at Disney. This is really, really good news about International Street though! If the park was wise, they'd bring ragtime music back to Coney Mall, and every time you got near the Festhaus, German beer hall music would play. Have shows with old songs from Broadway like there used to be instead of making everything contemporary. It adds a sense of uniquity to the park as well as charm and pop music does none of that. Here's an old video where you can see and hear some of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo-5h6AY5FI

Any thoughts on the lights on the organ? The carousel had incandescent lights put in again to replace the... 'interesting' LEDs that were on the ride the past 2-3 seasons. (Those were never intended to be a permanent replacement for the record) It's a possibility that the carousel may be bulbed in the same warm white LEDs that are now on the organ in the not too distant future. I also heard the organ wasn't playing Saturday -- must of simply been a miscommunication because it was playing well today. (Sunday)

I don't think it was communicated to play the band organ opening day -- checked with someone and it was playing today. (Sunday) It's sounding pretty good, so I'm sorry you didn't get to hear it!

New Update posted showing the new lightbulbs on the organ. These are LED filament lights which look virtually identical to incandescent lights. The organ hasn't looked like this since the early 1980's!

The organ in theory could play anything with a melody. Broadway tunes work very well - including recent ones. There's 2 rolls that were arranged a few years back with semi-modern tunes such as "Rock Around the Clock", "9 To 5", "Down at the Twist and Shout", and "Bad Moon Rising". Neither I or the park has a copy of those rolls though. Here's an arrangement I just finished yesterday that the band organ could play. It's not on a roll yet, but it shows it can do a lot!

Thank you! That truly means a lot to hear that. I've seen several kids and adults (including myself of course!) Just sit and listen to the organ for quite a while. There was one child in particular 2 years ago who's father told me he came "JUST to hear the organ". As for what's new on the organ, you'll likely notice it before you even get on!

You'd be surprised how versatile the band organ actually is. It can do quite a bit with the right arrangement. 6 bass notes covers 4 different keys the organ can play in comfortably. Kind of a funny fact, but the recording that plays when the real organ isn't working is of a band organ about half the size (I've seen and heard that particular organ in person) and much more limited. I've been arranging rolls for these, including quite a few for organs like at Kings Island for 5 years and that tune would work very nicely! A Phantom of the Opera medley is another that comes to my mind.

Nope - I'm not talking about music. I can tell you now that the two rolls I put on are: 6625 and 6621. Something's different that hasn't been this way since at least the early 1980's.

Thank you so much! I put 2 snappy rolls on and will put new music on at least monthly. There *may* even be a special roll for Halloween Haunt as I've been looking to arrange a Halloween roll. (Any tune requests?) The park already does have a Christmas roll for Winterfest from years past.

Uploaded it to Soundcloud - try this

Update (6/21/17) Rolls playing: 6617 and 6627 I think I've finally got a temporary fix on the speed control. No more funeral march tempo! (Original Post) Hi Everyone! Opening day is approaching and there's a BUNCH to be excited about. As a wooden coaster fan - I'm itching to ride the new coaster, and Winterfest is going to be truly specacular... Trust me, you won't want to miss it! Anyways, I was at the park today and 2 weeks ago with a band organ restorer to diagnose some issues and between those two days - I'm pretty happy with the result. Today was a tuning day and I've now got all of the ranks of pipes playing, including the trombones which were not operating properly the past few years. Update (4/12/17) Take a look at the new lightbulbs on the organ! This pays homage to the way it looked in the Paul Eakins collection back in the 1960's. Attached below is a short audio file showing how it sounds as of today (3/24) W157 2017.mp3

That's what I was afraid of. It may not play for the rest of the season due to the gaskets. In my eyes though, Mystic Timbers will be a close second to how good this will sound in 2017! I am planning to go through the entire organ as well as do some cosmetic work.

I am looking to have the organ sent to me over the winter to do a significant amount of work on it. What you've heard so far is great, but if this goes through, the organ will sound better than it has in decades! I'm unsure if the organ is playing right now either, one of the gaskets are worn and causes the roll to jam up.

It's my pleasure! It's an ongoing process that has been fun, exciting, and a great learning experience. It's also been a rare opportunity to meet some of the people who make the park the wonderful place it is! I am hoping that working with Kings Island can become a springboard to other parks such as Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, and Knott's Berry Farm having their band organs restored. I likely won't be able to do the work myself as I want to devote my time to KI's organ, but I have friends who could do terrific restorations and live close by to these locations. Of all of these though, Kings Island will always be my favorite!

No, the bells are currently not working I believe due to a broken lock and cancel valve. I'll keep you posted!

5/11/16 -- Just updated this post with today's work

Not sure what happened as I haven't been to the park since the 18th of April. I'm returning with the fixed snare drum action the 11th of this month, and am also going to do a long awaited tuning. The maintenance department will likely have it playing next weekend if there's anything wrong with it!

I can't say that this is exactly a restoration, but I am wanting to get it playing well again. If I had to give you a percentage - maybe 1%. It played pretty nicely in July of last year, but I'm going for the best its been in a LONG time! The staff at KI are also enthusiastic about getting the organ 'up to snuff'. It's simply a matter of effort and time!

(UPDATE 7/14/16) The snare drum mechanism is back on the organ and playing. It has been on for 2 weeks now but a small issue had the organ not playing for a few days. Now it should be playing continuously again! Here's a video I took showing the snare drum in action: The freshly refurbished snare drum mechanism at Kings Island is playing up a storm! pic.twitter.com/JO22dpunhe — Mechanical Music (@mechanicalmusic) July 1, 2016 (UPDATE 5/13/16) Here is a before and after photo of the newly refurbished snare drum mechanism to be installed soon. Not only will it play - but reiterate like a real snare drum would! (UPDATE 5/11/2016) Went back to the park today to do more work on the organ - and left with it sounding pretty good with just a few minor issues! The tempo is fixed now! In other words - no more funeral marches. If anything, one of the rolls I just put on is running a little too fast! The handle that changes the tempo is still broken, but tempo can still easily be adjusted manually inside the organ. New front snare drum head! (the back head was in good shape) The fixed snare mechanism also arrived today.... After I got back from the park. So the reiterating snare drum will be back soon, but not yet. TUNED! (Not perfect, but it's much better) Me and a few guys from maintenance moved the facade forward and the organ back and I went through and tuned about half of the organ with the time that I had. I did not have time to tune the entire organ though, so some ranks of pipes are not on, simply because it wouldn't sound too good! The extra ranks are controlled by 2 draw stops on the side of the organ, so while there are ranks not playing - this could be reversed with just pushing in a stop. A lot of cleaning was also done to the areas around the drums also. The two rolls now playing are 6612 and 6641. Still much work to be done, but most of this is something to be saved for the wintertime. The 'thing' in the pipe, for the record, is to stop the pipe from playing while being tuned. Several ranks play from one note on the roll, so this allows each individual pipe to be tuned. (Original 4/18) Hello everyone! I was at the park 4/18 (Monday after opening weekend) to do work on the band organ and spent around 5 hours on various things. It was absolutely wonderful working with the skilled, friendly people in the maintenance department who helped me a great deal; you never get a real appreciation of a park until you meet the people behind it! First of all, I changed the rolls, the rolls currently playing now are 6681-6682 and my own arranged roll: 6614. Second, new bass drum heads were put on. The old ones were in pretty poor shape, probably being around 30 or so years old. (They were not the originals) I also have new snare drum heads to be put on, but it wasn't practical to put them on yet as the snare drum is currently not in operation. Speaking of the snare drum, I have sent the mechanism out to a specialist in Pennsylvania for repair. The snare drum mechanism has not reiterated for (what I hear) around 25 or more years but will be back sounding great, along with new snare drum heads in a few weeks. Some problems I should address that I wish to fix soon: 1. Again, the snare drum mechanism is not on the organ right now, it is being fixed and will be back soon. 2. The (low bass) trombone pipes have been malfunctioning which is why they have not been on the past 3 years the organ has played. A draw stop on the side of the organ turns them on/off, but when on, one note consistently plays, this is likely due to some small particles blocking the action from moving, which I would like to fix soon. 3. The organ needs a good tuning, I am aware of this! This was what I was going to do Monday, but I got caught up on other things such as the bass drum heads, which took longer to install than I originally thought! 4. The tempo is quite slow and the tempo control is not connected to the mechanism as of right now. At least it gives a longer amount of time before a song repeats! If anyone goes to Kings Island the next few weeks and hears it - let me know what you think! It's going to be a long haul to get the organ back to what it was, but it's one I'm willing to go through! Mikey Mills www.mechanicalmusic.org

Yes, I'm aware of this. I was at the park 2 weeks ago but the park was open so I couldn't exactly get behind the organ. I called the park today to see if I could get up there at some point. Something about playing those Christmas rolls for the Halloween Haunt just sounds like a funny and good idea to me! Any organ by August goes flat because of the changes in humidity and temperature, even at places like Knoebels which has someone on staff specifically for working on the organs. I probably won't have time to tune it until next spring because of the park's busy schedule, which is understandable, but 'out of tune-ness' adds to the creepiness of Haloween Haunt? Right? In terms of the bells not playing, I believe that's a clogged hole. The organ has a blower and suction unit on it instead of a pressure pump, (the original pressure pump is somewhere in storage) so it really sucks the heck out of those rolls - and after a season of small bits of paper also coming through, you could bet it would get clogged. And also, I forgot to answer your question on what rolls the park has... They have a specially designed cabinet that used to be in the center of the carousel that was moved to storage... But I'm going to suggest it be moved back. 6547 playing on the organ is my own copy, not the park's, but they have a very nice collection of rolls, pretty much all in good condition. I'd personally like to sit in the center of the carousel and go through rolls, but that wouldn't make the carousel's insurance provider very happy!

I have a website with over 300 tunes played on various band organs and other mechanical instruments free to listen to on mechanicalmusic.org. CDs of King Island's organ are actually on Google Play. (The rights to those CDs are owned by the former owner's grandson - not Kings Island) The rolls currently playing at Kings Island are 165 rolls 6547 and 6537-B, a complete list of all existing rolls with the titles are on http://wurlitzer-rolls.com/.

The music currently playing is all public domain, the music rolls all having music arranged and composed before 1923. Many other carousels play rolls after 1923, as Wurlitzer made rolls for these until 1945 (and I arrange new rolls today) but there isn't a royalty because the arrangements are completely differing from the song itself, it's like a 'cover' of a modern pop tune. Many carousels, not at Disney play "When You Wish Upon a Star", it being on one of the last original Wurlitzer rolls... I haven't seen any lawsuits from Disney!