Hello all,  Although I must admit I am far from an "old-timer" in
the field/hobby who knows and recognizes many names going back decades,
I was interested in hearing the name of Dwayne Steck mentioned [by
Bill Finch in 061014 MMDigest].

For those of you who don't know, I have a little sidelong interest in
build-up orchestrions and mystery band organs; that is, ones that have
been so changed and/or perverted from their original specifications,
that identification of the original maker(s) is uncertain.  I realize
there are few of these around, but I often wonder in these enlightened
times in the hobby, with so many old catalogs and rare instruments
having been discovered, that identification might now be possible.

A few months ago, while reading about Asbury Park and the sorry state it
is in, both the town and former amusement areas, I happened upon this
fairly new and excellent web site: http://www.palaceamusements.com/

There is a whole article on the carousel that used to be in the
(now-demolished) Palace Amusements building, and which at one time had
three band organs: a Wurlitzer 153, the "mystery organ" in question
(which apparently was capable of playing classical music!) and a
Gavioli of unspecified size installed in a loft in the building.
Here is the article: http://www.palaceamusements.com/carousel.html

Quoting from the web site:

  "The Palace had three band organs which provided the musical backdrop
  to the carousel.  Two were installed at the center of the carousel
  itself.  Former Palace employees describe one as a Wurlitzer 153
  created in North Tonawanda, NY.  The second, of unknown origin, played
  classical music and was largely unused from the 1960s onward; organ
  expert Rip Mohl said Edward Lange favored the more upbeat American
  music from the Wurlitzer 153.  The third organ, with hand carved
  wooden figures that were animated to the beat of the music, was
  a Gavioli, one of the finest European fairground organs made.  It was
  installed, unusually, in a loft high above the main floor and provided
  the musical accompaniment to the rest of the Palace until shortly
  after Edward Lange took over the Palace."

and further:

  "The auctioned carousel animals have disappeared into private
  collections, but fans can still experience the Palace's Wurlitzer
  153 organ.  After a restoration at the Durward Center in Baltimore,
  it became part of the permanent collection at the Stone Mountain
  Antique Car and Treasure Museum, located 16 miles east of Atlanta,
  Georgia, on Highway 78 off of the 285 bypass, where it is on display.
  The second Palace organ, which served as a backup into the 1970s,
  later underwent repairs at a shop in Carlisle, PA and was used for
  a time in Gettysburg, PA.  There, it was purchased by Dwayne Steck
  and moved to Dallas, TX.  Steck rebuilt the cabinet, wherever
  possible patching, repairing, and reusing original design work.
  With the lights back in place, Steck said, the organ today would
  almost certainly be familiar to anyone who saw it in the Palace.
  As of early 2006, Steck had the organ up for sale."

I would assume that the "shop in Carlisle, PA" has to be the late Mike
Kitner's shop.  What drives me nuts is that here we have a history of
this second, classical-music playing organ up into the present, and
still, nobody has bothered to say what it is!  Is this just a simple
oversight, or can these experts truly not figure out who made it?
I say to post some pictures of it at the MMD Archives and let all our
readers have a crack at identifying it and they should come up with
a maker & model in no time!

I have been unable to find a clear picture of this instrument.
The closest I can get is this small, old image from the Brass Ring
Entertainment web site (http://www.carousel.com/), which apparently has
the old Palace carousel frame for sale with a "complete set of new
animals".  Here is the photo:

  http://carousel.com/antique/images/Asbury06.jpg

The Wurlitzer 153 is on the right and apparently the mystery organ
is on the left.  From the photo, it appears to be of French or German
origin and, to my eye, the facade bears a resemblance to certain
medium-sized Gavioli organs; however, without some clearer and more
detailed pictures, this is just speculation.

I realize the organ is or was for sale, and I would love to have
a band organ eventually.  However, I currently have neither the money
nor the room.  As a matter of fact, even the few band organs I have
seen for sale in poor or non-operating condition have been priced far
out of my range, so I think if I want to own an organ I may have to
build it myself.

There is another mystery organ which was listed as part of the "Heller
Hoard" in Mike Kitner's 5-part story, "The Saga of Gbr. Bruder #4909"
which was published as a series of online installments in 1999 on the
Carousels.com web site.  Unfortunately, that web site has since been
revamped, and many of the old articles they used to have are no longer
available in their archives.

Anyway, I just thought it would be nice to have these organs identified.

Andrew Barrett