[ D. L. Bullock wrote:

> I really don't get this one.  I am told it is Joyland Louie,
> an institution in Wichita:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YwXTQHcuuA

This is about the scariest thing I have ever seen on a computer screen!
I've gotta find somewhere to use it.

From the Wikipedia entry 'Joyland Amusement Park:'

  Joyland also boasts a Mammoth Military Band Organ, also known as
a Wurlitzer Style 160.  It was the largest of the Wurlitzer's early
band organs.  The organ was built around 1905 by the DeKleist Musical
Instrument Works and was sold by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company.  It
contained 486 wood and brass pipes and used two perforated paper music
rolls.  The organ represented the effect of a military brass band of
20 to 25 musicians.  It was the largest available band organ from
Wurlitzer at the time, and was designed primarily for the skating rink
industry.

  In 1915, the organ was taken back to the Wurlitzer factory and
remodifed into a Wurlitzer Style 165.  The organ was sold to W.P. Brown
of Coffeyville, Kansas, who owned and operated the Silurian Springs
Bath House, which also featured a skating rink.  The organ was used to
provide music for the skating rink.  In the 1930s the organ went into
storage.  It was heavily water damaged and some of its brass parts were
stripped off during World War II scrap metal drives.

  In 1948, Jess Gibbs of Parsons, Kansas, purchased the old organ and
began the painstaking work of restoring the instrument.  In 1950 he
sold the refurbished organ to the Ottaway family, who installed it in
Joyland Amusement Park.  The Ottaways added Louis the Clown Organist,
an automated clown who sits before the organ keyboard and "plays"
the instrument.  Louis the Clown and the Mighty Wurlitzer have been
a fixture at Joyland ever since.  It creates a sound that resonates
through the entire park.  The Joyland organ is one of only two Mammoth
Organs still in existence, and the only one in public view.


Wikipedia is beginning to give Google a run for its money as keeper of
all knowledge.  Just amazing.

Happy Halloween
Mark Kinsler