Back in 1971 I got hooked on band organs and spent a few years
building my own with Ray Thomas. Sometime in 1974, if my memory
serves me, he did work on the Disneyland merry-go-round organ.
Someone got too heavy with a fire hose and there was some water
damage to the organ. Ray was working on the valve chest in his shop.
It was a B.A.B. organ, if I remember right.
Ray was also a friend of Walt Disney's, and had several pictures of
himself, his wife and Walt in the park when it was under construction.
Ray did a lot of work on Walt's mechanical musical instruments that
were in the Ice Cream Shop on Main Street. Ray's father-in-law,
Herbert Vincent, worked with Davis to convert the organ at Griffith
Park to play Artizan as well as Wurlitzer music rolls. I wish I could
have met him.
Les Higger
La Canada, California (near Pasadena)
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