Regarding the posting by Jim Welty about Paul Eakins and the sale of
the items in his St. Louis museum.  It occupied the ground floor of
a large building owned by the makers of Tums ("Tums for your tummy!").
Tums needed the space, so Paul and Laura had to sell out or otherwise
remove the contents there.

I made arrangements to visit the Eakins while returning from a trip
with my music-box colleague, John LeB. Bishop.  I decided to buy Paul's
beautiful, operating, restored Tangley Calliaphone.  Featured on at
least one of his LP recordings, the Tangley could be played either
manually or with a roll.

Shortly thereafter, my late, dear friend John Bishop located a 1920
Autocar truck, actually the 1909 Autocar model which Autocar continued
making for years.  It was to be sold at auction near his home outside
Philadelphia.  Coincidentally, it also had a Tangley resting on it!
The vehicle was made in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and it worked on the
docks in Philadelphia for years.  In the early 20th century there were
more Autocars in use in the greater Philadelphia market than there were
Fords!   This was when Autocar was its own company; it is now the
marque used on heavy-duty trucks made here by Volvo, which bought out
the big-truck division of GMC.

Antique truck dealer 'Tiny' Gould sold it to one of the Milwaukee beer
companies and they used it for years as a parade piece in Wisconsin
festivities, but then decided to surrender it.  'Tiny' brought it back
to a church fund-raising auction, which featured very expensive classic
cars and this one lone truck.

Although it drove in under its own power, when it came time to sell
they couldn't start it, and I got a good deal!   Subsequently, I sold
the calliope which came with it to the Brooklyn Children's Museum in
New York.  As the Tangleys were operated by compressed air, it became
part of a novel exhibit they presented on things that could be done
with the movement of air.

A bit of air-ey trivia: Circus and riverboat steam-calliope aficionados
pronounce the instrument as "KALL-ee-ope", while carnival and
air-calliope use the correct term for the Muse "Call-EYE-oh-pea".  Go
figure.  The Greek word, by the way, means "beautiful voice".  Yeah!

Shortly after I put the former Eakins Calliaphone on the Autocar, I was
part of a group which opened Yesteryear Museum outside of Morristown,
New Jersey.  This non-profit organization was unique in the western
hemisphere.  It was a museum of sound and communication and mass-
entertainment devices involving sound.  30 rooms of exhibits started
with automata, and chronologically went through working examples and
the history of cylinder and disc music boxes, street pianos, player and
reproducing pianos and organs, cylinder and disc phonographs, early
radio, motion pictures, radio, and television.  Most of this had sprung
forth from the incredible mind of Thomas Alva Edison, whose activities
were prominently featured at Yesteryear.  And most had intimate
histories entwined with that of New Jersey.

During the 1970s, we proudly showed the Autocar/Tangley rig in
hundreds of parades and exhibits in five states.  In more recent times
the Calliaphone was sold.  The Autocar now is part of the exhibits of
the Van Horn Antique Truck Museum in Mason City, Iowa.  The rig is rare,
and possibly the only surviving example of a 1909 model long-chassis
1909 Model Autocar.  Mr. Van Horn is restoring it, probably taking
advantage of the rare extended chassis to make it a bus.  Mason City
was the home town of Meredith Willson, which he immortalized in the
musical show, "The Music Man".

My family and many friends had many years of enjoyment with the
calliope truck. One outgrowth of all this was a research trip to
Muscatine, Iowa, the home of Norman Baker, inventor and manufacturer of
the Tangley units.  I have a great deal of research material, photos
and the like sitting in a box awaiting the opportunity to produce a
book on this most unusual man and the fruits of his quirky mind.

But first I have to complete an earlier project, researching and
writing about radio-television giant Arthur Godfrey!  I'm still
collecting material for that, seeking information and memorabilia from
anyone who can add to this proposed book.

Thanks, Mr. Welty, for bringing this all back!  I hope this has been of
interest to other MMD readers.

Happy holidays one and all!

Lee Munsick