Dear MMDers, Charles Davis asks about the organs that were owned
by Harvey and Marion Roehl.  I have forgotten where some of the
instruments have gone and perhaps some have been since resold again.
However, I can offer the following comments which may be of some
interest to those who knew the Roehls.

Harvey died of pancreatic cancer so he knew that he was not going to
survive the illness.  He also did not want Marion to have to deal with
their collection after he was gone.  As a consequence, he began to
sell the instruments several months before his death.  I reviewed some
of the sales status with him a couple weeks before he passed away and
I know that he watched many of these instruments as they were removed
from their home and trucked away.

Regarding the organs, the large organ you remember was a 57-key Gavioli
which the Roehls had restored from poor condition.  It was fitted with
a MIDI adapter which clamped onto the keyframe and Harvey had a number
of tunes arranged by noted organ book arrangers in the MIDI format.
A quick removal of the keyframe adapter was all that was needed to permit
the playing of cardboard books.  This organ was sold to Carl and Joyce
Mueller in Ohio and I believe they still have it in their collection.

The North Tonawanda trumpet organ I believe was bought by Don Nielson
in Pennsylvania.  I can't remember who bought the Wurlitzer 146 but
I think it was someone in the Chicago area.  I may have this written
down someplace but can't find it now.

The Tangley Calliaphone, formerly owned by Ringling Brothers, was
separated from "Horace", Harvey's Dodge pickup truck with canopy, and
was sold but I don't remember to whom.  Probably some others on the
MMD remember better than I do where the instruments have gone.

After Harvey's passing, Marion made a concerted effort to clean out
their house and dispose of all the miscellaneous stuff they had
accumulated over many years.  Marion was in her 80s by then and knew
that she would eventually have to move into smaller living quarters.
She had done an amazing job of this but wasn't quite finished when
she died suddenly of complications following a heart operation.

At one time, I knew where most of the major instruments had gone but
it is long enough ago that I no longer remember all of them.  I know
that after the major instrument sales were completed, there were four
instruments remaining: the Standard player piano, the Baldwin Welte,
the Wilcox and White player organ and (I think) the Reproduco.  These
were bought by Mike McKilligan of Johnson City, New York, and are now
in storage.  He expressed a desire to open a musical instrument museum
to go along with the six carousels in Broome County, New York.

After Marion's death, Mr. McKilligan purchased the bulk of the house
contents from Marion's estate.  Although Roehls had a number of
relatives, there were no children and the bulk of the estate was left
to their church.  Very few items were designated to specific legatees
and so even the family members had to purchase items from the estate
if they wanted them.  Not many of the items were bought by the family.

As a result, things visitors might remember -- such as the airplane
wheel plaque Marion had made for Harvey, the oil painting of Harvey
which hung in the piano room, all their personal camcorder tapes,
books, many documents, etc. -- were left in the house.  This included
file cabinets with some of the resource material Harvey used in
producing several books through the Vestal Press.

I was able to identify some music rolls and organ cobs which went with
instruments that had been sold and these were passed on to the proper
owners.  I was fortunate in being able to purchase for myself from the
estate the four roll-around seats/roll storage boxes that were used as
extra seating during Harvey's silent movie Photoplayer demonstration.
Harvey and Marion had built these themselves and did a wonderful job
on them.

My wife, Cheri, and I knew Harvey and Marion for many years and lived
about ten miles from their home.  After Harvey's death, Marion traveled
with us to a number of organ rallies and musical events and we greatly
enjoyed each other's company.  We miss Harvey and Marion very much and
there is hardly a day goes by that I don't think of them.

With kindest regards,

Bob Conant
Bradenton, Florida - formerly of Endicott, New York