-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

A friend alerted me to Doug Henderson's comments on the Gabler player
piano on display in the Smithsonian's Piano 300 exhibit [000314 MMD].
Mr. Patrick Rucker's comment [during the CNN interview] of "It doesn't
work..." is wrong, but not entirely.

I personally was involved in putting together the exhibit and was also
called upon to check out the player.  The curator, Cynthia Hoover,
informed me that she couldn't get it to work.  It had been in storage
for several years; before that, it was part of an Italian immigrant's
home display, and originally it was a highlight of the "Music Machines
American Style" exhibit -- 30 years ago!  It was restored for the
exhibit by the late John Farnsworth and it indeed worked perfectly.

My inspection of the piano revealed my best guesses: most of the rubber
hoses had slipped off because they're 30 years old and hard.  Putting
them back in place allowed the piano to operate with vigorous pumping.
Since then they've been replaced and the player works decently enough,
but I suspect the rest of the rubber cloth, being 30 years old, is not
in the best of shape.

I informed Ms. Hoover and she indeed wants it to work well enough for
museum docents to demonstrate to visitors.  To that end I'm hoping to
get the Gabler piano playing well soon, but as in any new exhibit,
there is a long list of other tweaks/fixes/changes that the directors
feel more important for the time being.

It was too bad Mr. Rucker made that off-hand comment on camera; I
suspect the real reason he did not want to demonstrate it was he was
unsure how to operate it.  At any rate, the curator should have checked
out the player well before the exhibit, but she was under the
assumption that once restored it will last forever!   It's on the top
of my list, and should be thrilling our visitors soon.  So far, Piano
300 has been VERY popular, attracting large crowds.

Brian Jensen
Exhibit Specialist
National Museum of American History