I do like the idea of renting out the organ in the summer to the parks!
I hope someone can work out a deal with my local park, Kings Island,
with the Wurlitzer 157 (which I eventually want to buy when I get the
money).

Before 2006, the Stinson Organ Company maintained that organ, and kept
it in their shop during the winter.  It was only worked on at most once
a month and the tracker bars got pretty clogged up and I heard that's
what did it for that organ.

The only problem in this is that the mechanical music budget was cut in
2003.  My guess is that in 2005 they had the Winterfest event and the
organ played for an extra long time.  Also, I don't believe the organ
was sent to Don Stinson's shop between winter and April 2006.  The
organ worked but didn't play in the 2006 season due to being worn out
by the extra long season.  This was also the year when Paramount was
working out deals with other companies such as Six Flags and Cedar Fair.

I think Six Flags might have even handled the situation better and just
left the organ playing with the last bit of energy it had, and leaving
it on the carousel, not detaching it from the facade (and I can tell
you, they were anything but careful!) and putting it into storage.

It's quite sad as I even talked to the general manager, if you would
call it a discussion, during the Halloween event.  I asked him if the
organ would ever be fixed and I got an obvious response: "We don't know
where to get the parts."

I told the manager that the Stinson Organ Company supplies parts and
are very familiar with the organ, but the guy just plain walked away
pretending he didn't hear me, a quite terrible attitude.  The managers
have more power than it seems, along with the maintenance team.

At Dorney Park and Valleyfair's either the managers or maintenance
decided that the organs would be maintained.  Still owned by the same
company, but being higher up in the parks can really help the organs.

As I also said, the organ at King's Island should be maintained like
the Conneant Lake Park organ's was.  It's a matter of patience and time.

Mikey Mills