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MMD > Archives > January 2008 > 2008.01.15 > 01Prev  Next


Hohner Organa vs. Hohner Magic Organa
By Michael Woolf

There is some room for confusion here.  Hohner made the "Hohner Organa"
-- a pretty basic electronic organ -- but they also made the much more
interesting and confusingly similarly-named "Magic Organa" in which
I believe they had an association with Seebold.

The Magic Organa is a wondrous conceit: a full-size piano accordion,
a bellows producing the wind, a foot pump generating suction for the
action and a clockwork motor made by Thorens moving a paper roll.
Probably intended for use by cabaret and vaudeville performers who
wanted to finish their performance with a musical item but were unable
to play an instrument, these were a latter-day version of the
well-known Tanzbaer mechanical accordion.  Seebold also sold these
attached to a semi-automaton figure modelled on the well-known artist
Tino Rossi.  These have been seen with the name "Accordeo-Boy."

Reading the original MMD report that a Hohner Organa had been obtained
at a yard sale for $15 I was for a moment consumed by a most unseemly
envy.  On reflection that emotion has departed.  I once owned a "Magic
Organa" and I dream of possessing one again in the future.  The model
without the Magic has no magic for me.

Michael Woolf
New Zealand


(Message sent Tue 15 Jan 2008, 09:43:51 GMT, from time zone GMT+1300.)

Key Words in Subject:  Hohner, Magic, Organa, vs

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