Brunswick Player-piano and Radio in One
By Karl Ellison
Howdie -
I was at my local restorer's shop Saturday. He showed me something that both he and I don't think we'll ever see again in our lives.
He recently acquired an unrestored Brunswick piano (you know, the bolwing ball people). But wait ... upon walking towards it, I saw what appeared to be a china cabinet. I asked him where the piano was and he pointed to the china cabinet. The front opened to show a 5 octave keyboard. The upper middle opened up to show the spoolbox of a reproducer player unit, and the upper-upper portion of the cabinet opened up to show the 3 dials of the built in radio. The speaker sat atop of the entire unit, which was about 7' tall. The unit was the size and shape of a large roll-top desk. The bottom part contained the pedals and the motor unit, as well as 6 desk drawers on either side for you to keep rolls, etc. in ... just like a roll-top desk. The tubes were removed from the radio, and were in their original cardboard boxes that they arrived in at the time of their purchase ... one of them a QRS red-top.
The unit was unrestored and in okay condition. Of course, time and the mice had ruined the works. Irving (local restorer) sed he's probably sell it for $10,000. The serial number on it was 1061. We both don't think the Brunswick Co. made 1000 of these since neither of us had ever seen or heard of this instrument in our books. This was most likely # 61. He's not going to attempt a restoration on this one, since he's got enough work with current customers, and he's no spring chicken (his words). The player, he figures, would cost him about $6000 of his time/materials because it's a reproducer, plus cabinet work, etc.
It looks to me like a toy piano ... 60 notes ... nothing for the serious player, but a real historical piece put out at the beginning of the depression.
Irving and I would like to know if any of you have ever come across such an instrument in your books or travels. We'd be very interested to hear. Heck, I might just take a few pics, scan them in and post them on a newsgroup. It's really something unique to see. I feel that the present employees of the Brunswick Co. would not know what I was talking about if I called to inquire!
I'm going back to see Irv in a week or two, so I'll try to get more stats and be a bit more specific (like know the maker of the player ... I do know the label on the radio was Brunswick.).
- Karl (KBELLISON@aol.com)
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(Message sent Sun 20 Aug 1995, 15:00:10 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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