People!  Mechanical music hasn't died in the young folk, not too
much, anyway.  Every chance I get I show kids that I baby-sit how
a player piano works and they are fascinated by it.

I am 38 and have been into players since I was 15.  I started out
fixing pianos when I was 10.  Back then I couldn't tune them, but
I could fix them.  When I was about 9-ish I went to this gentleman's
house in Woodstock, Connecticut.  In his huge house he had player
pianos, player organs and very old musical boxes and such.  In his
house you could play the players as long as you were careful.  He
had wall-to-wall player organs and pianos; his collection was vast.
Sadly, he passed away many years ago.  I went back as an adult to see
his collection and his widow told me that she had sold everything;
I was so sad.  She did offer me the chance to take for free a player
church organ that was in her barn.  At the time I didn't have the room,
otherwise I would have taken it.  The thing was monstrous.  Anyway,
if I had the room my place would be filled with player pianos, wall to
wall!

I think that we should all save player pianos for the future generation
and introduce the pianos to other children.  Just yesterday I went into
a five-and-dime store and the owner said that they had a player piano
that was just sitting in a tenant's apartment, because they didn't know
how to move it and they didn't want to cut the door jams again to take
it out.  That's how they got it in, in the first place.  I offered to
help them move it and then restore it.  The wife, needless to say, was
ecstatic.

I currently own a Duo-Art console player that I bought from someone
here on MMD.  Also, I need to bring to everyone's attention: anyone
that lives on the East Coast, please contact me.  The reason is we need
to rally to Six Flags and force them to let us see a piece of history,
the band organ they presumably have stored.  We need to go as a group
of many, and not just one person.  We need to say, "Hey!  Let's see
that band organ and lets hear it play."  If it doesn't play, then let
us as a group find a way to restore it back to playing at the carousel.
We can't let this piece of history get flushed down the hole by a big
corporation.  We need to take pictures and post them here.  Do you
realize that when Six Flags was Riverside Park that band organ used
to play everyday.  Now it just sits somewhere collecting dust.

Anyway, I have rambled on here.  I have not lost the beat of a player
And I will introduce a player to my god-son when the time is right.
So collecting is not just for old people (sorry), its also for people
who have an interest on how they work.

Sincerely, Jeff Bridges