In the 080806 MMD R.A. Friedman tells what youthful impressions
fostered his lifelong interest in mechanical music.

For me it was the Stinson band organ at the Griffith Park Spillman
Carousel in Hollywood.  My brother and I went there for our fifth
birthday.  I had already taken to pipe organs from hearing them at
church; so this got me all the more interested.  I can still remember
looking up at the organ and just loving the music and the  moving
statues.  I remember asking myself, "Why is the bandmaster on the
façade not facing the pipes?"

When I was ten years old, with a growing passion for organs in general,
I remembered the Griffith Park band organ and wanted to see it again.
We went to the carousel and had a ride.  My brother and I concluded
that the organ was a custom-made pipe organ from Germany.  So when we
got home we searched the term "Stinson Organ Co" that was lettered on
the façade of the organ.  Thus we found out the truth, and things went
from there: membership in AMICA and  new friends and memories that will
last a lifetime.

Warren Deasy, the owner of the Griffith Park carousel, should put a
sign next to the organ explaining what a band organ is, with some AMICA
or MBSI brochures.

Justin Senneff