Bellm's Cars and Music in Sarasota
By Rick Inzero
I just got back from Bellm's Cars & Music of Yesterday in Sarasota, Florida. It was a big disappointment to me. When I was there, ALL the (three) large coin-operated band/jazz organs were inoperative, and the demonstrated pianos were way out of tune, although very clean looking. The cars were kind of dusty. It seems like some maintenance is in order.
We did get to hear a magnificently painted band organ called "Pinkey". There was a violin player, and a Wurlitzer harp. I specifically asked if I could hear these, and I was told that the staff was under strict instructions from Mr. Bellm himself that these instruments were very rare and were *not to be touched*. :-(
Therein lies my disappointment. I had the expectation, after driving 1500 miles, of hearing the violin, and lots of band organs, harp, banjo, etc. I did hear some out-of-tune pianos, a phonograph, a truly sweet sounding monkey organ, a neat whistling bird automaton, and some nice music boxes.
On the subject of the whistling bird, now that I know that the sound is made by a *slide whistle*, I realize there is a toy made on the same principle; it is a clear plastic wind-up train that plays "This Old Man (Knick Knack Paddywhack)". It might be good for tinkering/experimenting if you run across one at a garage sale. It works off a disk with slots to control the slide position; maybe you could make a different disk. It has a plastic bellows. I'd guess it's from the 1970s-80s).
I did get three LPs (4 track recordings maybe from the 1970s) for $9 total, which was a buy, in spite of the not-great recording quality. The inside of the LP cover opens and has photos and a paragraph written of each MM instrument on the record. I would be interested in getting a standard player piano roll of a song I heard on one record, I think it was called "Pretty Redwing".
- - -
Matthew Caulfield recently wrote:
> Dynamic Recording (2844 Dewey Avenue, Rochester, NY 14616),
> recordings of the Seabreeze Park Wurlitzer 165 @ $15 each;
Of note is that this Wurlitzer burned up a couple years ago; I presume Dynamic still has plenty of unreleased music recorded from it, as I just got a newly(?) released CD of Christmas music from it, recorded 2 years ago. This is a really top-notch recording (especially comparing it to the Bellm LPs recorded I would guess in the 1970s -- see above).
The Wurlitzer has been replaced by a new Johnny Verbeeck (Belgium) sound- alike band organ. I heard yesterday that this past Fall they recorded over 12 hours of music from the Verbeeck organ; I suppose it might be available next year sometime.
[ The new organ is supposed to be an _exact replica_! -- Robbie ]
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Oh yes, new (old)/first player piano status: Hooray! It's alive!! My newly-acquired 1923 Jesse French player piano woke up at 12:05 AM yesterday! (I had Alan Mueller rebuild my air motor. Before, the bellows cloth was so old and stiff it would barely turn even when using a vacuum cleaner, now it can turn by mouth vacuum on a tracker bar tube!) Now if only it were in tune. :-)
Rick Inzero
Northern Telecom, Inc.
Rochester, NY
rdi@cci.com |
(Message sent Wed 4 Dec 1996, 20:59:14 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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