Chris Carlisle wrote in 021018 MMDigest about his grandparents,
Paul and Laura Eakins.  I'm delighted to know that their Gay 90s
Melody Museum and Village attraction in Sikeston, MO, is still
operating.

I knew those wonderful grandparents well, although I didn't see them
often.  They used to have a second attraction in the ground floor of
the factory where the popular Tums antacid tablets were made in St.
Louis.  Then the owners needed the space, and Paul and Laura had to
clear out.  Difficult for them, but good for me and some other folk
who got some wonderful machines as a result.

I purchased Paul's Tangley CA-43 Calliaphone.  It's the one used on
various of those great Eakins LPs, which I am happy to hear are now
available on CD.  My good friend John Bishop and I stopped in to see
the Eakins on our way back from a west coast MBS meeting.  We didn't
expect to buy anything, except maybe some records.  Our purpose was to
visit with those "good folk and gentle people who lived and loved in
their hometown" of Sikeston, Paul and Laura.

I wound up taking on the calliope and even a small trailer on which it
could be used to parade.  John purchased a nickelodeon.  Paul played
the "Dutch Uncle" to us both.  He spent most of the day showing us the
place and the behind the scenes stuff, and then he and Laura took the
two of us out to dinner, over our strenuous objections that we were the
ones to do the treating!  Paul shipped the Tangley and trailer to me in
New Jersey.  The calliope, of course, was in tip-top, totally restored
condition.

I subsequently purchased a 1909 model Autocar truck to mount the
calliope for parade use, and did hundreds of exhibits, store openings,
and parades in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
Connecticut.

Oddly enough, when I purchased the Autocar, it came with another
Tangley!  This one was not roll operated, and needed restoration.
I sold it and the trailer to the Brooklyn Children's Museum in New
York, which installed it in an exhibit illustrating the uses of moving
air.  The Tangleys, of course, operate with air pressure supplied by a
compressor.  In the case of the CA-43, there is also a vacuum source
for tracking, and we added a Universal motor to move the roll at
whatever speed we chose.

I have amassed a lot of material about the Tangley.  Thinking I would
write a book about its history, a friend and I traveled to Muscatine,
Iowa, to research the Tangley company.  It didn't take long to realize
the real story was a broader one, about Norman Baker, the inventor and
manufacturer.  I'm working on a book about Arthur Godfrey first, but
the next will be about the Tangley entrepreneur.

I shall never forget Paul and Laura, two gentle folk who went out of
their way to share their love and knowledge of mechanical musical
devices.  I am sorry that they have passed on, but I'm pleased that
their rich and warm legacy lives!

Lee Munsick