Music Roll for Dracula
By Robbie Rhodes
"Dracula - Dead and Loving It" is playing now at your local theater, and if you watch closely you can see the results of my music roll performing "El Choclo" on Dracula's dusty "player organ" in the ballroom scene.
Music director Hummie Mann contacted me last summer and explained that Mel Brooks wanted the keys of the organ to move as it played. With the able assistance of Richard and Janet Tonnesen we created the music roll and had copies back to the studio in only six days.
Mann said that the script called for a close-up showing the roll moving over the tracker-bar, but the set-builders didn't follow directions and so the spool-box was covered up. The "organ" was a disguised Universal Player Piano from the late 70's.
I asked how he made the pedals work, and Mann replied, "I crouched behind the 'organ' and wiggled the stops in and out and pushed the pedals down and up. When the dust went 'pouf' out of the pipes I began sneezing horribly. My nose was running for three days after shooting that scene!"
Watch for my name in the final credits -- in small type and scrolling fast. Ah, show biz...!
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