A review by John Rutoskey of Arthur A. Reblitz' new book, "The Golden Age
of Automatic Musical Instruments / Remarkable Music Machines and Their
Stories," edited by Q. David Bowers.

  Hard Cover, 9" x 12" x 1.6", 448 pages.
  First Edition
  ISBN: 0-9705951-0-7

Price: $120 plus shipping & handling.

Available exclusively from:

  Mechanical Music Press - D
  70 Wild Ammonoosuc Road
  Woodsville NH 03785
  tel.: 603-747-2636 or 877-760-8243
  email: mechmusprs@aol.com

It is NOT available directly from the author.

In short:

An unprecedented and splendid work of color and information.
"The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments" sets a new standard
of design quality to which all future literary works in this field will
now be compared, being inspired by the top-notch, extremely comprehensive
collections of Jasper Sanfilippo, Bob Gilson and Jim Krughoff.  Mr.
Reblitz has taken tremendous steps in assuring that this new volume has
significant appeal to the established collector, the skilled technician
and musician, as well as those who are now only somewhat familiar with
these rare mechanical collectibles and desire to learn more about them.

Lavishly illustrated in breathtaking full color on most of its 448
pages, it is unrivaled in the field of books on the subject of
automatic musical instruments.  Not only are the various instruments
depicted, but also extreme detail is given about how much they
originally cost, and more.  The photography is very high quality, and
often includes rare interior views.  "The Golden Age of Automatic
Musical Instruments" is a lasting tribute to three of the finest
collections of these wonderful instruments in existence and is destined
to become a collectors' item in itself.

Detailed comments:

Color -- not just color, but beautiful color, and lots of it!  This is
the first thing you will notice upon opening the pages of Arthur A.
Reblitz' new work.  Never before has there been a book that so
beautifully illustrates and tells the stories of these wonderful
instruments.  Full color is one aspect that has been lacking in books
on this subject, and now finally many of the rarest and most beautiful
examples of automatic instruments can be viewed as works of art, just
like paintings hanging in a gallery.

A large project of impressive scope, "The Golden Age" was written as a
tribute to three of the finest private collections of automatic musical
instruments in the world: the Jasper Sanfilippo, Bob Gilson, and Jim
Krughoff collections, all in the Midwestern United States.  The scale
and quality of these collections is remarkable, and after experiencing
them, it is easy to see how Mr.  Reblitz could have been inspired to
dedicate a complete volume to them.

The book is massive, weighing in at a hefty five and a quarter pounds
[2.4 kg].  A beautiful high gloss dust jacket with raised gold and
silver foil embossing shows the main staircase of the Sanfilippo home
with the large and impressive Imhof & Mukle barrel orchestrion looming
above.  Inside the cover, the paper stock is an extremely heavy, smooth
and very opaque white archival quality sheet that takes the photographs
perfectly.  In fact, the quality of lithography of the photographs is
among the finest I have ever seen -- and I am rather experienced in
layout, design and printing.

The clarity of the photography is nothing less than stunning, and what
is so amazing is that the smallest details are extremely clear.  The
large majority of the images were printed from new photographs in which
the backgrounds were carefully edited out, resulting in very clean
looking pages, with each instrument presented very prominently and
brilliantly.  Silhouetting photographs like this is painstaking, time
consuming work, but the result is well worth it.  Each page seems to
burst out at you in a way that has never previously been seen in
publications on this topic.

The book itself is divided into two basic parts with a total of eleven
chapters plus four appendices.

Part One describes the instruments of the various collections, broken
down into nine chapters.  A delightful overview-style Chapter One,
entitled "Why Automatic Music?", provides a brief introduction, with
each of the subsequent eight chapters in Part One detailing groups of
a specific genre of music machine.

Instruments are examined in fine detail, including small detail boxes
off to the side that reveal each machine's history.  Where applicable,
these little boxes tell the reader when each instrument was most
popular, its dimensions, the type of media used to play it, and who
restored it.  In many instances these details include the original cost
when the instrument was new, that information contrasted by a new and
complete conversion table in Appendix II that shows what a particular
instrument would cost in today's dollars.

Copious footnotes in screened boxes at the bottom of selected pages
provide further details, and guide the reader to additional references
within the book itself concerning topics being discussed in the text.

Beginning with music boxes in Chapter Two, Mr. Reblitz describes in
exquisite detail some of the rarest and most beautiful specimens known
to the world.  From the first cylinder boxes to the later American-made
Regina disc boxes, no item of interest is left unexplained, and there
is a surprising amount of technical information here also.  Mr. Reblitz
goes into detail about the different types of music boxes, explaining
to the reader the differences, for instance, between a vox celeste box,
an orchestra box, a helicoidal box, or a plerodienique box, among
others.  I myself learned a great deal from this chapter, not being
an expert in music boxes by any stretch of the imagination!

Next, Chapter Three describes the early mechanical organs and pianos
that play pinned cylinders or read music rolls mechanically rather than
pneumatically.  The chapter begins with the large and beautiful barrel
operated orchestrions, showing splendid examples made by Welte and
Imhof & Mukle.  Following these are the small barrel organs, and then
mechanically-operated pianos such as the Piano Melodico, and those
intended for commercial use like the Regina Sublima Mandolin Orchestra
coin piano.  An example of the author's attention to detail is shown in
the rare DeBain mechanical piano with its ornate candle holders on the
front panel.  Not only do the photos illustrate the beautiful cabinet
and mechanisms inside, but the candleholders even have candles which
were lit for the photograph!

Chapter Four treats the reader to a discussion of some of the most
fabulous automatic musical instruments ever produced, in my opinion:
European orchestrions.  These wonderfully large, refined and impressive
orchestrions such as the Weber Maesto and Hupfeld Helios are perhaps
the most engaging of all.  Works of art and craftsmanship in
themselves, and the fact that they are capable of amazing musical
renditions, make them the centerpieces of the large collections
represented in this book.

It starts with the earlier roll operated Welte orchestrions, showing
some of the nicest examples of these organs known to exist.  Following
this are the Hupfeld Helios, and the incomparable Pan and Super Pan
orchestrions.  The obviously huge amount of time and labor within this
chapter is staggering.  Page after page shows incredible interior
mechanism shots alongside perfectly lit exterior views.  A beautiful
page spread shows in fascinating detail the interior areas of the
Hupfeld Pan, and many others are also shown throughout this chapter.
Equally well photographed and described instruments such as the
Philipps, Popper and Weber orchestrions are represented here.  Also
shown is a very rare orchestrion manufactured by Pierre Eich, the
largest such model Solophone known to exist.

This chapter can keep the serious reader enraptured for hours, without
exaggeration.  When one ponders the time involved in disassembling
these enormous machines in order to take the first-class photographs
presented here, it seems incredible that it was possible to accomplish
on any type of reasonable budget.  Orchestrion after orchestrion is
described and explained, then closing with the Welte Brisgovia
piano-based orchestrions.  A fascinating story about the "just in the
nick of time" rescue of the Brisgovia in the Gilson collection is told
here.

A large part of these collections is the amazing array of American coin
pianos and orchestrions, the topic of Chapter Five.  In the early 1900s
through the mid-1920s in America, coin pianos were nearly as
commonplace as the jukeboxes were in the following era.  Now they are
only found in collections such as the ones presented here.  Mr. Reblitz
shows the reader a vast number of rare coin operated pianos, many of
which have never had their images published for the appreciation of
this field before.  As with all other parts of this book, the reader
will not be disappointed in what is shown.

Marvelous examples of Seeburg, Wurlitzer, Link, Berry-Wood, Coinola,
Nelson-Wiggen, Cremona instruments and many more jump right from the
pages.  Rarer, wonderful machines like the Capitol Bluebird Orchestra
and the Resotone Grand, as well as the extremely rare 1915
BanjOrchestra are shown.  Dozens of different instruments are discussed
here, including the massive Wurlitzer PianOrchestras, the earlier ones
which were made in Europe, and, as the book relates, developed serious
problems shortly after arrival in the United States due to our more
extreme climate.

The latest of the Wurlitzer PianOrchestras were the largest
American-made orchestrions ever produced.  Vast amounts of interesting
text and pictures are included in this chapter as well.  Earlier pianos
are compared to late ones, such as an early Seeburg G shown in
comparison to a later style.  In another part, two collectors relate
unfortunate events that resulted in the loss of two groups of fine
Seeburg H orchestrions, which were destroyed just before the collectors
arrived on the scene.  In a group photograph, competing cabinet-model
(keyboardless) coin pianos have their interiors contrasted with each
other.

If you have ever wondered why many of the different coin pianos have
their own individual musical "personality," you will find the answers
here.  Mr. Reblitz put his musical acumen to work here to explain why a
Peerless sounds like a Peerless, why a Link sounds so snappy, and what
makes the Seeburg G the quintessential American orchestrion.  Also,
there is a short essay on the Chicago coin piano and orchestrion roll
business.

Mr. Reblitz' gift of musical abilities and his uncanny way of
describing in words how music sounds, make this chapter extremely
informative to someone who wants to understand why music roll
arrangements can seem similar, but also sound so different.  Wrapping
up this chapter are discussions of the later style racehorse and
greyhound gambling pianos, and also photographs of a large collection
of wall boxes from the Krughoff collection.

Chapter Six focuses on violin playing instruments.  Many different
models of the electromagnetically operated Mills Violano-Virtuoso are
shown, inside and out.  Several different styles of the European
counterpart to the Mills Violano, the Hupfeld Phonoliszt-Violina, are
also shown in a similar way, including the extremely rare Violina
Orchestra, which is the basic Phonoliszt-Violina with added orchestrion
effects.  Only two of these exist, each made partly from original and
partly new components, as no completely original instruments are known
to have survived.  The Mills and Hupfeld machines are contrasted with
each other in an interesting way by Mr. Reblitz.

Chapter Seven covers reproducing pianos, and absolutely first-rate
examples are represented from these collections.  This section casually
explains what a reproducing piano is, and how it differs from a player
piano.  The three major American brands (Ampico, Duo-Art and
Welte-Mignon Licensee) are depicted, and of course these pages feature
photographs of some very beautiful art case grands.  A Duo-Art
Concertola 10-roll automatic changer is also shown with its Steinway
model AY Duo-Art grand.

This chapter features some of the most beautiful photographs of art
case pianos I have ever seen.  These pianos are splendid examples of
true craftsmanship, both in the original design and construction and in
the amazing amount of labor involved in their restoration.  A casual
list of some famous artists who originally recorded rolls for each
major brand of reproducing piano rolls completes this chapter.

One of the most visually appealing sections of the book is Chapter
Eight, which covers fairground organs and dance organs.  These loud,
musically-animated, and sometimes delightfully overwhelming instruments
were familiar fixtures everywhere from skating rinks and carnivals to
beer gardens and dance halls, and other locations catering to large
crowds of people in which a higher volume of sound output was
necessary.  In most commercial locations today these wonderful
instruments sadly have been replaced by modern electronic sound
systems, but in the collections represented here are spectacular
examples of some of the largest and most beautiful such instruments
that were ever made, along with some of the most popular smaller
models.  Magnificently photographed, each machine looks alive and seems
to be right in front of you as you read about its history and
specifications.

There is a lot of important information here too, such as how pipes are
grouped in these organs, and how even the smallest fairground organs
are able to be so loud.  The chapter is very complete, and is separated
into sections by the manufacturer's country of origin, then divided
into the various builders from each country.  Organs made by Gavioli,
Limonaire, the Bruder companies, Ruth, Mortier, Wurlitzer, DeCap, and
others are represented and make full use of the quality of color work
found throughout this book.  Doubtless one of the most breathtaking
photographs in the entire book is the two-page spread of the Ruth style
38 fairground organ in the Gilson collection.

Another section of this chapter chronicles the life history of the one
of the largest and most complete salon carousels in the world, the Eden
Palais in the Sanfilippo collection.  This magnificent salon carousel,
once literally a travelling show in itself, was saved from near ruin in
1987 by Mr. Sanfilippo, and is now nearly completely restored, residing
in a newly constructed building built just for the purpose of
displaying it, together with numerous fairground organs and steam
engines.  It is an awesome sight in person, and the photographs of it
and its beautiful entrance facade are absolutely wonderful.  A portion
of this chapter also shows close detail of many different carved
figures that adorn the facades of certain fair organs.  The end of this
chapter describes and contrasts the National calliope with Wurlitzer's
answer to it, the Caliola.

The final chapter in Part One, Chapter Nine, is very interesting
because it discusses two types of instruments that were used in movie
theatres: photoplayers and theatre pipe organs.  The photoplayer was
used in the early days of silent pictures, as musical accompaniment to
the images on the screen.  Basically, these now extremely rare machines
were hand- and roll-operated orchestrions with the addition of many
various sound effects that could be controlled manually by the
operator.  Photoplayers allowed a larger degree of human control for
better synchronization with the actions on the movie screen than the
typical orchestrion allowed.  Nearly unknown today, photoplayers of all
makes are fascinating instruments.  An impressive example of a large
American Fotoplayer is depicted here, and also the interesting account
of how the largest known Wurlitzer photoplayer, the only existing
example of a style K, was discovered and acquired.

Next is a discussion of theatre organs, illustrated by the largest
Wurlitzer theatre organ in existence, a modern organ in the Sanfilippo
collection built of many parts from original instruments and conceived
by the late organ designer David L. Junchen.  The enormous 5-manual
console controls over 8,000 pipes, 2 pianos, and numerous percussion
instruments and sound effects.  To hear the organ in person in the
lavish surroundings of the Sanfilippo organ room is an emotional
experience, to say the least.  Several photographs depict the console
in the music room setting, and the main pipe chamber.

Part Two of the book begins with Chapter Ten, with a fascinating
discussion of the early pioneer collectors and museums.  Interestingly,
this chapter is among the most fascinating reading to me, because it is
a never before told story of how the earliest public collections were
formed.  The majority of these were started when these machines had
little or no value, generally in the late 1940s or early 1950s.  Also,
it is very entertaining reading because it tells a lot of stories about
how instruments were found and acquired, and how they formed the well
known early collections.

Some of the collections discussed include the Mangels Museum in Coney
Island, NY; Horn's (later, Bellm's) Cars and Music of Yesterday in
Sarasota, FL; the famous Sutro's and Cliff House of San Francisco, CA;
Paul Eakins and the Gay 90s Village in Sikeston, MO; Svoboda's
Nickelodeon Tavern in Chicago Heights, IL; and the Bovey Restorations
in Virginia City and Nevada City, MT.  Svoboda's incidentally, is where
Mr. Reblitz spent his earlier years repairing and maintaining the many
coin operated pianos and orchestrions, and he recalls his experience
here vividly.  Many other collectors from this early period are
discussed as well, with lots of original photographs being published
here for the first time.  A great deal of gratitude is due these early
collectors; without them, it is certain that most of the large
instruments now in existence would have been lost forever.

Chapter Eleven includes a thorough essay on collecting instruments
today.  Many different areas are covered giving valuable information to
the beginning collector.  Topics include how to educate yourself about
mechanical music, where to find instruments that are available for
sale, how to negotiate their purchase and estimate values, advice for
having them restored, housing a collection, and a discussion of modern
instruments.  The text is illustrated by photographs of various rooms
built specifically for modern private collections.

The back matter of the book includes four Appendices, plus a glossary
of related terminology, an extensive bibliography, and a well laid-out,
comprehensive index of the entire work.  Among the Appendices is a
section of tracker bar scales and key frame layouts, and it will look
familiar to those who recall Mr. Reblitz' previous work, "Treasures of
Mechanical Music" (co-authored with Q. David Bowers).  This appendix
includes the most important musical scales for various coin operated
pianos, orchestrions, violin machines, reproducing pianos, and
fairground organs.  It includes updated information that has surfaced
in the last 20 years since the previous book was published.

Interestingly, a new feature is the presentation of certain scrambled
scales for German Welte and Weber orchestrions and Bruder and Ruth
fairground organs not only in their order of tracker bar hole number,
but also by the order of musical notes.  This finally enables the
reader to compare and contrast a Weber Maesto or a Welte Concert
Orchestrion with a Hupfeld Helios, for example, or a Ruth style 34
fairground organ with a Wurlitzer 165 band organ.  Many interesting
examples have also been added, including a comprehensive scale for the
Hupfeld Violina Orchestra.  The scales are listed in their own separate
index, making each one very easy to find.

There really is no way I can relate with words how fantastic this new
book is.  I feel that it is absolutely important as an addition to any
library on automatic music, and it is without a doubt a mandatory read
for any serious or even casual student of the subject.  It will
undoubtedly quickly become a valuable and lasting source of information
and is certain to be a collectible on its own.

This has already happened with Reblitz' and Bowers' previously
mentioned "Treasures of Mechanical Music," a technical work consisting
of musical scales for automatic instruments which were known at the
time it was published, illustrated in black and white.  This book was
printed in 1981, with the first and only printing selling out in less
than two years.  This was the last major work published in the United
States on all types of automatic instruments, and it has been in demand
ever since, selling for $250 and up, if you can even find one.  (A copy
of "Treasures..." sold at the 1996 MBSI Chicago National Convention
auction for $525!) I am certain this book will follow in the same way.

According to the author, the owners of the modern-day collections
pictured in this book have contributed greatly to the project
themselves, each adding a different dimension to the final product.
The idea of the large format color pictures originated with Jasper
Sanfilippo.  Bob Gilson added the concept of including technical and
historical information. Jim Krughoff stimulated the inclusion of the
most important material from the previous "Treasures..."

The combination of these elements make the current work both a valuable
reference book and a beautiful coffee table book.  Then Q. David Bowers
created colorful introductory vignettes setting the scene for each
chapter, and made many valuable suggestions regarding the organization
of sidebars, footnotes, appendices, and other material.

Mr. Reblitz' own unique element, based on his career of over 30 years
restoring instruments and arranging music for them, was in describing
the musical and mechanical qualities that contribute to each
instrument's unique sound.  The book was certainly a group effort and
Mr.  Reblitz deserves much credit for choreographing the entire
project, and turning it into the incredible volume now available.

I cannot recommend highly enough "The Golden Age of Automatic Musical
Instruments"  to anyone who is interested in this subject on any level.
It is comprehensive, full of entertaining collectors' stories and
anecdotes, beautiful to look at, and a high quality design production
in every respect.  Congratulations to Mr. Reblitz and everyone
associated with this five-year project, for being able to produce such
a wonderful new book on automatic musical instruments that will
certainly be appreciated by anyone who is fond of these wonderful
machines!

John D. Rutoskey