I just visited the "World of Mechanical Music" exhibit at the
Orlando Science Center in Florida.  The display of mechanical music
started yesterday and runs through the holidays.  If anyone wants
to know how to excite others about restoring and enjoying these
instruments, this exhibit shows how it is done.

The exhibit has several guided tours daily which walk small groups
past Regina changer musical boxes, a player piano, a Seeburg coin
piano, a Polyphon upright musical box, a Wurlitzer military band organ,
automatons, phonographs and many other beautiful instruments.  The
docent plays six or seven different instruments during each tour.

In the entry area are example mechanisms which show how these
instruments work: the inner workings of a bird box, organ pipes, etc.
You can even punch holes in a strip of cardboard and make your own
music for a music box.  Afterwards there is an MBSI video showing all
the various music machines our hobby is interested in.

The exhibit is thoughtfully arranged and the set backgrounds (designed
by Richard Bair) include turn of the century scenes, enlarged to near
life size.  As a mechanical music hobbyist, I was impressed.  However,
what really made my day was watching some of the tours today because
people who had never seen a self-playing machine before were also
impressed.  The tours at 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. were led by Mary Ellen
and Wayne Myers.

At 4:00 p.m. about 24 people had waited patiently for the 3:30 p.m.
tour to finish.  These people (16 kids, 6 adults and 2 seniors)
_loved_ the machines and the music.  They quietly listened to every
word and note.  The seniors would comment to the young how their
parents had such machines when they were growing up.  The kids were
excited about the loud Wurlitzer organ.  The parents had never seen
anything like it.  Later the kids could be seen out front of the
exhibit punching holes in the cardboard strips to make their own music.

Between now and January 9th, 2011, over 5,000 people could be
introduced to mechanical music at this exhibit.

The exhibit was funded by the MBSI Southeast Chapter and the MBSI
National.  It was put together by Mary Ellen and Wayne Myers and
their dedicated team of volunteers.  It is tremendous amount of work
by each member of the team.  The result is outstanding.

I believe this example can be replicated at other communities with
a "Science Museum".  The music machines are "on loan" from local
collectors.  The sets are already built and are modular, the general
planning is done, the legal paperwork to lend instruments is already
drafted.  All a community needs is for a local organization chapter
(like MBSI, AMICA, etc.) to borrow the sets and re-deploy them with
instruments on loan from their own community at their science museum.

Apparently, the first big hurdle was convincing the Orlando museum to
provide time and space for the exhibit because it had never been done
before.  Now that there is a successful example, it will be easy for
other science museums to verify with Orlando that the exhibit is well
worth it.

The exhibit got a very complementary half page article in the Orlando
Sentinel:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_arts_letter/2010/11/orlando-science-center-opens-world-of-mechanical-music.html 

I urge others to visit this exhibit and consider if their group will
similarly share their instruments with the uninformed public in this
generous and effective way.

Wayne Finger