How many MMDers remember American International Galleries, Inc.
(AIG), in Irvine, California, from the early to mid 1970s?  Did any
MMDer (other than myself) ever visit this fantastic music machine
wonderland?

Who today owns a great music machine that was once featured in their
spectacular showroom?  In what collections did some of these great
machines sold at AIG end up?  How many of the music machines sold
at AIG are still not restored and playing some 30 years later?
I suspect there are still a few.  (Missing parts, severe water damage,
lack of existing music rolls may be the reasons.)

During a conversation last night with a fellow music machine collector
I explained my first real first-hand exposure to these fantastic music
marvels!  In the mid 70s an American International Galleries catalog
found its way into my hands.  I had just graduated from Drexel
University in Pennsylvania and had little money to spend on anything
at the time.  But I knew I just had to visit AIG

I was a new mechanical engineer and I had always been interested in
great mechanical machines from the past.  Since a young boy I had
always been taking things apart, but unlike most kids I almost always
was able to put them back together and they still worked -- many times
better than before!  I have always said "Anything can be fixed, if you
can find the needed parts."

By chance I had an interview in Southern California, and I knew I just
could not pass up a chance to visit this antique mechanical music
machine wonderland!  I was cheerfully greeted by Bonnie Tekstra who
took me on a guided tour of their wonderland.  (Anyone remember Bonnie?)
Before this visit I had never known that such grand mechanical music
machines had ever existed!  I was like a kid in a giant toy store.
I spent several hours on that visit and vowed to come back one day to
buy one of these great music marvels and bring it back to life .

Sadly, by the time I had enough money and time to do so, American
International Galleries was only a memory.  Still that visit remained
burned into my memory to this very day.  Later I discovered Dave
Bowers' "Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments," as well as
many books by The Vestal Press, that kept my dream alive.  (Thanks
Dave, Art, and Harvey!)

Needless to say I was hooked by these grand mechanical music machines of
the past. Years later I began to search out some machine finds myself.
(Finding them is half the fun!)  Thirty years later, I am still learning
... I am still searching ... And often ... still finding them!

Brad Hunter
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania
tel.: 1-215-947-4676

 [ See Terry Hathaway's article, "Memories of a Collector --
 [ How the idea of collecting begins", reproduced at
 [ http://mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/articles/collmems.htm
 [ -- Robbie