Alan Mueller of Rochester, New York, reported to me the following:

 "Rochester's Strong museum opened it's new three-story-high atrium
  this week.  It not only houses a 1950's Sky-liner diner, but a 1918
  Allen Hershall Carnival-type Carousel and Stinson Band Organ.  The
  organ plays Wurlitzer 165 rolls and special Stinson Rolls adapted
  from European Book music."

The organ is a scaled down version of a Wurlitzer 165, using a single
tracker.  The organ is on a movable cart so that it may be transported
throughout the museum and out-of-doors if required.  Don Stinson
brought the organ to the museum himself, Friday, November 7, 1997.

The Carousel has been carefully restored and repainted with scenes
from Rochester, nicely-painted on the rounding boards.

In addition, Alan informs us that the information on Wurlitzer
perforators written a short time ago was somewhat inaccurate.
Wurlitzer may have sold a perforator or two to the Parker Co.;
however, Wurlitzer had at least 15 perforators running at one time.
Mr. Long, of Rochester's Seebreeze amusement park, always purchased
style 165 rolls from North Tonawanda and all organ repairs were handled
out of North Tonawanda.

Allen Hershall bought the roll division from Wurlitzer about 1945 or
1946, but he produced only *one* roll of 165 music.  They may have
produced a few other style 125 & 150 rolls, but shortly thereafter they
sold the perforators and masters rolls to Ralph Tussing of North
Tonawanda, New York.

Mr. Tussing cut new roll arrangements and utilized old master rolls
until about 1966.  He also cut new arrangements and old tunes for the
Wurlitzer automatic player (a 5-tune changer Nickelodeon player).

As far as Mr. Mueller knows, no band organ roll of any style had the
name Parker Co. mentioned on the label.  Wurlitzer was very proud of
their name and no one was to use it.

Mr. Tussing carefully removed any trace of the Wurlitzer name on rolls
he made, using only: "Issued for use on style (whatever) organ."

After Mr. Tussing died, his family sold all the perforators, masters
and remaining supply parts to Doyle Lane.  Again, little was done other
than selling a few parts.

Play-Rite, in turn, purchased the perforators, and reportedly never set
them up.  All of the band organ music apparently was copied from existing
rolls.  The Wurlitzer master rolls, and the Wurlitzer perforators were
never used.

In early 1994 two of the Wurlitzer perforators were purchased by Don
Rand of Thomaston, Maine.  Again nothing was done to utilize them,
until they were again sold in late 1994 to The Allen Hershall Carousel
museum!  There the perforators are presently being carefully restored,
and hopefully will be producing rolls again.

According to factory records, Wurlitzer still shipped band organs from
North Tonawanda, New York, after 1930, the last being shipped in 1939.

Mr. Mueller goes on to say that it is amazing how garbled stories can
become at times.  We certainly know how tangled they became about
reproducing pianos.  Hopefully this will shed some truth to the
perforator stories.

Bruce Clark

 [ Thanks for the report, Bruce.  Mr. Mueller is rightfully proud of
 [ the history he has assembled, but there may be other information
 [ elsewhere which hasn't yet reached him.  I hesitate to believe
 [ "truth" until it is also acknowledged by other scholars.  I'm
 [ happy the old perforators will be in use once again.  -- Robbie