A couple of weeks ago while I was on vacation my wife and I visited
the Musical Wonder House in Wiscasset, Maine.  It was a wonderful,
memorable experience for us and I thought I would tell the MMD readers
about it in case any of you are not familiar with this most interesting
mechanical music museum.

The Musical Wonder House is essentially the collection of one man,
Danilo Konvalinka, displayed in an early nineteenth century former ship
captain's house on a street of similar grand homes in a quaint Maine
coastal town.  Although the house is a very spacious double dwelling
with upwards of thirty rooms, it is packed to the rafters with
mechanical music devices of all types -- cylinder boxes, disc boxes,
reproducing pianos, gramophones, phonographs, organettes, etc., etc.,
including many rare and novel items -- all nicely displayed and all
in beautiful original or restored playing condition.

We opted for the longer of the two available tours -- over three
hours long, with a break for lunch -- and were honored to be conducted
through by Danilo himself, who is now along in years but is as sharp
as a tack concerning the details of his collection.  He is an old-world
gentleman with an encyclopedic knowledge of the classical and operatic
pieces (his favorites), some of them quite obscure, that play on his
music boxes, and he is a most generous and gracious individual.  Danilo
is now assisted by Joe Villani, whose postings I have seen on a few
occasions on MMD.  He is also a wonderful, amiable fellow and we
enjoyed meeting him.

Wiscasset is a beautiful little town not far from Boothbay Harbor,
where we stayed the night before our visit with Danilo and liked so
well that we ended up staying for an additional week!  Boothbay Harbor
is a picture-perfect expanse of bright blue dotted with sailboats and
lobster boats and of course is a magnificent dining spot for lovers of
lobster, chowders, steamers, etc.

Wiscasset itself also has some good restaurants including a terrific
place on the water called Le Garage only a few blocks away from the
museum.  I enthusiastically recommend the experience to all of you!

Best regards,
Richard Dutton