Dave Haibach wrote:

    "Player pianos, and mechanical music in general, may not ever
    return  to the heyday they once enjoyed.  But they do not have to
    die out, if  we can take the instruments to the people (or the
    people to the  instruments) and play things that grab their fancy,
    even if those aren't our favorite melodies."

We have been running our mechanical music museum in British Columbia,
Canada, for a little over a year now.  We find that many children from
age seven upwards are enthralled by the instruments.  The one that
excites most comment, perhaps, is a simple push-up piano player (actu-
ally a Simplex).  Practically no one has ever seen one of these at all,
and those who have, have never seen one working.  Kids pump it delight-
edly, adults admire it, because it is in beautiful re-finished mahogany
and looks like new, and they can hardly believe it plays a piano key-
board!

Our 24 1/2" autochange Polyphon excites comment too.  "Wow! It's just
like a juke box!"  We play everything on our tours: early nineteenth
century barrel organs, organettes, Belgian dance organ, barrel pianos,
music boxes, Edison phonographs, and 1930s-50s juke boxes.  Practically
everyone leaves a big smile on his face.

We are trying to bring the people to the instruments!

Ingmar Krause is right: these are the ancestors of the iPod, and we
often make that connection for people.

David Evans, Director
Revelstoke Nickelodeon Museum
www.revelstokenickelodeon.com