Hi, anyone heard this story?  As a Belgian I'm a member of the Dutch
Pianola Association.  Belgium, as far as I know, doesn't have one.

Anyway, yesterday the association's April/May/June issue arrived and
contained an "Eldorado story" which, if true, I think would have
been mentioned here before.  Here it goes:

At some point, I guess around the First World War, 24 new Ampico
Steinway grands were shipped by train and accidentally ended up in an
mine that was closed and abandoned immediately after arrival of the
train.  The train wagons should have contained mining material.  The
disappeared Steinways remained unfound and the railway company's
insurance paid the owners.

This year the mine was opened again and the train wagons were discovered.
The writer of the article compares it with the opening of the tomb of
King Toet.  Thanks to the dry and cool conditions the Steinways
appeared to be absolutely mint, like new.  The article ends with the
message that the pianos are going to be "distributed" by some kind of
lottery.

An "April Fool" joke?  If so, it's still great story, though.

By the way, I'm also an avid aficionado of stereo photography like
some other people on this list (Hi guys :-).  We also have a stereo
photography list which has a comparable story.

One of the last stereo cameras made and the most beautiful of all was
called the "Contura".  Only 100 cameras were made for the shareholders
of the company.  They occasionally can be found (e.g., eBay) and they
go for a considerable amount of money. The camera never went into
production because of the demise of pianola ... er, stereo photography.

A few years ago a rumor started that an important old/new stock of
non-assembled Conturas was found, someone was going to assemble them
and offer to the anxiously waiting stereo camera collectors market.
So far, no news...

Regards,

Patrick Boeckstijns
Brussels

P.S.: If no one else will, I'll take a Toet-Steinway of your hands just
hoping there's no curse here!

 [ The Dutch and Flemish folk in America are known to love sly jokes...!
 [ Toet! Toet!  ;-)   -- Robbie