Hello All,  I have been following the declining prices and interest
thread with some interest.  As long as I can remember the instruments
I wanted were always just out of my reach in terms of price.  Now in my
late 40s my income is up and prices are down and I'm buying selectively.

But for what purpose?  In my youth, my goal was to acquire for my own
enjoyment.  If others liked what I collected, great.  If not, so what?

But now I've given the whole thing a lot more thought.  The reason I
enjoy these wonderful old music machines is because I was introduced to
them as a kid at Svoboda's Nickelodeon Tavern on the Southside of
Chicago.  Al himself once showed me around and, even though I couldn't
even drive yet, he offered me a Wurlitzer IX for a thousand bucks.
(He was always looking for new customers and now I wish I had bought
it.)

Today mega-collectors like the Sanfilippos and others occasionally open
their homes for charity events, and the Nethercutt Museum here in Los
Angeles can be viewed by appointment, but the opportunity to hear these
great instruments in public places is almost non-existent.

Although my retirement is some years away, I have decided that my
retirement business will be a restaurant/museum/attraction called
"Gizmos" which will be a living tribute to our mechanical past.
Set up as a foundation, but run as a business, Gizmos will feature
mechanical wonders of all kinds including model trains, cars, clocks,
steam engines and of course lots of mechanical music.  Hell, we might
even bottle our own soda pop in souvenir bottles.

I plan to donate my collection to the foundation and eventually invite
other collectors to do the same.  The foundation will be endowed with
money, but the restaurant/museum/attraction will provide the cash flow
to keep the collection in top shape and prevent the cobwebs from
forming.

I truly believe that we don't need nostalgia to enjoy mechanical music
or any object of beauty or entertainment.  Heck, I wasn't even born
until after all this stuff had long been out of production.  But my
many years in the entertainment industry have shown me that fascinating
machines, filled with color, motion and toe tapping sounds, presented
in a great family friendly context can have a real effect.

While we may not go to the level of hokum that Al Svoboda reached at
his place, I want to provide a place where kids and their parents can
experience the same "Wow!" factor that I felt when I first stepped into
Al's cavernous place almost 40 years ago.

Happy Fourth of July from sunny So. Cal.

Marc J. Sachnoff
Los Angeles, California