Thanks to D. L. Bullock for the URLs of mechanical music videos on
YouTube! Here are a few nice ones I found featuring carousels with
live band organs playing.
This is taken by a rider on the Glen Echo, Maryland, Dentzel carousel,
with its Wurlitzer 165 band organ playing some of the tune "Nola."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE6FI4RNPsc
Here's the Griffith Park Spillman carousel in Los Angeles, Calif., with
its Stinson 165 (model 87) band organ playing "Charley My Boy." The
whole tune is here -- except for the last note! (The organ playing
is the one outside the carousel, not the North Tonawanda organ in the
center.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snWrTShcR8g
This one is the newly-carved Coolidge Park carousel in Chattanooga,
Tenn., with its Stinson 165 (model 57) playing some of "We Must Have
A Song To Remember." (Next to the organ is a small mock-up facade
resembling a Wurlitzer 165.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wuC95rKBNE
Here is the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (Calif.) Looff carousel with its
Ruth organ (165 rolls or MIDI of same) playing part of "I Went To Your
Wedding." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZc09qDZarg
This is taken on the Bushnell Park Stein & Goldstein carousel in
Hartford, Conn., with its Wurlitzer 153 playing the end of "While
Strolling Through The Park One Day" and some of "In The Good Old
Summertime." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRhhFR5OLjU&NR
And here's a short clip of the Prospect Park Carmel carousel in
Brooklyn, N.Y., with its Wurlitzer 153 playing "Wedding Of The Winds."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MXHBI-lrpM
With the exception of Santa Cruz, the band organs are visible in all
of these videos.
Also, it's not a band organ, but here's an Aeolian Pianola playing
"Blue Skies" (complete). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG-i652novo
On YouTube there are also numerous videos of other carousels (some
hand-carved and some fiberglass) that are using recorded music at them.
In several, recognizable recordings from Carrousel Music, Marion Roehl
Recordings, and Klavier Recordings can be heard.
And how about that YouTube? A couple of guys started a web site where
people can post videos, and now the guys are billionaires because the
site was bought by Google! (Well, maybe that's oversimplifying it a bit.)
Dan Robinson
Rochester, New York
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