In MMDigests of 1997, Bill Finch mentioned a firm in San Francisco
called Bacigalupi and Sons.  I wrote him yesterday asking if he had
any more information.  The account following is Bill's reply plus
pertinent material from his 1997 articles.

The Bacigalupi referred to might be Louis Bacigalupi (Sr.), born in
Berlin in 1872, who had four sons and settled in America circa 1916
and is known to have dealt with carousel builders and showmen such
as C.W. Parker.  But we don't know for sure if it's Louis (Sr.), and
there is much confusion with the unrelated family of Peter Bacigalupi,
of San Francisco, who imported organs from Europe in 1906 and sold
Edison phonographs.

Has anyone more information about "Bacigalupi and Sons" of the 1920s?

Robbie Rhodes
Etiwanda, Calif.
Mechanical Music Digest

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In 1952 I worked at Playland Park in San Antonio, Texas.  The park had
purchased the 1917 Parker 4-row "Grand Jubilee" carousel in 1940 from
Ralph Balaban, who was a former manufacturing supervisor at C.W. Parker
in Leavenworth, Kansas.  Ralph had worked at Parker from the 1920's
until Parker folded in about 1933.

The Wurlitzer 146 band organ at Playland Park had about 75 Style 150
rolls.  Some were labeled Wurlitzer, some Parker, and several had an
imprint reading "Bacigalupi and Sons, San Francisco".  This is where
I first heard that name.

Ralph Balaban maintained the equipment twice a year and in 1953 I asked
him about the source of the rolls.  He said that when C.W. Parker
folded, Francis Bacigalupi, of Oakland, California, bought the master
rolls and production perforator.  Bacigalupi set up the perforator and
produced rolls under the Bacigalupi label.

A later conversation with Harvey Roehl suggested that Parker had
business dealings with a firm with the name "Bacigalupi and Sons" in
San Francisco.  They acted as a distribution and maintenance resource
until about 1925.  I believe he learned this information from David
Bowers.  Harvey had seen rolls with the Bacigalupi name.

The Bacigalupi references are mostly anecdotal, based on what
anthropologists call the verbal tradition.  The only thing I know
for sure is that I have seen "Bacigalupi and Sons San Francisco"
stamped on a band organ roll.

Bill Finch