Michael McNamara asked about American band organs in Europe.  When
Disney built Disneyland Paris, an Artizan organ was shipped over from
Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  This is the same instrument known as
"Big Nelly", a 61-key Artizan from the former Paul Eakins collection.
It is my understanding that it is only being used as a prop on the
carousel and is not being played.  What a waste!

I think that with the large number of high quality organs already
available in Europe, it is highly unlikely that organs would be
imported from the U.S.  Only a dedicated collector would go through
the expense and trouble to do this.

Prior to WW1 a large number of organs were brought over to the U.S.
to fill the needs of the amusement operators, because the output of the
existing organ manufacturers were just starting to get up to speed and
the organs offered were not as spectacular as what was available from
Europe.  I believe that some imports continued after the war but I'm
sure their numbers were much smaller, since Wurlitzer and others were
now making organs of high enough quality to satisfy most needs of the
amusement industry.  It would be interesting to see just what the
import figures were compared to before WW1 and after.

Bob Moore, Orlando, Florida