In August of 1963 I visited Palace Amusements to make some home
recordings of their organs.  Two organs were located on the carousel,
a standard Wurlitzer 153 and another organ.

The other organ, now owned by Dwayne Steck, seemed to be some sort of
conversion.  It had the usual Wurlitzer Duplex roll system playing the
style 150 roll.  One of the rolls which was playing had the tunes
"Moonbeam Kiss Her For Me" and "I Could Waltz On Forever".  Neither
machine was playing classical music.  They may have had some of
Wurlitzer's classical rolls but they were not on either organ at that
time.

I asked permission to make some recordings and was immediately given
permission.  I don't know if I was talking to Edward Lange or not.
In fact they were so thoughtful that they shut down the scooter ride
alongside the carousel which was making a lot of noise.  This was
a kindness I have never forgotten. I was able to record about one roll
from each machine.

Both machines were in rather fair playing condition.  The original
Wurlitzer 153 machine was playing at a rather fast tempo.  The other
machine had a very pleasing sound -- sort of a softer voicing and
a mellow sound.  I saw no Gavioli but then I didn't look upward and
didn't see it.  Jim Wells, of Fairfax, Virginia, later acquired both
machines.

A friend of mine, Richard Michael, owned a large motel complex several
miles outside of Gettysburg, PA.  He was a very creative businessman
and always looking for opportunities and wanted to install a small
amusement park in the complex.  He asked me where he could find a
carousel.  I told him to contact Jim Wells and he later bought a portable
carousel and the organ with it.  It turned out to be the organ from the
Palace.  He bought several other carnival rides also for the park.

They had stored the organ on a damp pad and the moisture softened the
glue on the bottom pipes and they fell apart.  This was discovered about
a week before opening.  The organ was rushed to Mike Kitner's shop and
he repaired the pipe work.  Mike thought it was of European origin,
perhaps German.  We didn't make an effort to determine the origin.
It was installed on the ride the night before opening.  After it was
placed on the ride I went over it and tuned it.  It took until about
3 o'clock in the morning but it was ready for opening day.

The small park was operated for several years in the summer, but was
apparently a bit too far off the flow of tourists to make a profit and
so it closed.  Over that period I did the maintenance on the organ.

When the park closed I don't know how long they kept the organ before
it was sold to Dwayne Steck.  Mr. Michael (now deceased) had a business
manager who took care of these matters and he didn't follow the sale
matters so I never knew who bought the organ.  I didn't learn 'til
lately where it was.  I still fondly recall the beautiful sound of that
organ.

Bill Black