Many original advertisements for commercially-used automatic pianos and
organs bragged that they sounded like an orchestra of five musicians
(or ten, or thirty...).  These numbers were usually just picked out of
a hat, as in the example of the Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ,
"equal to a band of from 12 to 15 pieces," or the Seeburg H, which
supposedly "was equal to seven-man orchestra," containing piano,
xylophone, 68 pipes, mandolin attachment, bass drum, snare drum,
tympani, cymbal, triangle and castanets.

An original ad for the Sextrola describes that it includes 44-note
piano, 44 pipes (representing first and second violins, viola and
"cello") and bells.  This does sort of add up to six representations
of instruments, but the ad doesn't say it "represents six musicians."

'Way back in the collecting days of the 1960s, it was well-known that
houses of ill repute in the 'teens and 'twenties were among the best
customers for coin pianos, something which doesn't seem to have been
discussed very much lately.  The Sextrola was only advertised in trade
publications, never to the general public.  In the same era, certain
coin-operated stereo card viewers were made and advertised specifically
for "adults only" locations, containing mechanisms that took additional
coins to see the whole set of pictures.

Still, there has never been any other confirmation of the "Sextrola"
name one way or the other.

Art Reblitz

 [ In reply, Matthew Caulfield suggests: "Maybe, then, a double
 [ entendre?"  I think Paul Eakins (Gay 90s Village) would agree!
 [ -- Robbie