Lee Rothrock wrote, "My first attempts to share mechanical music with
the public involved building a carriage frame for a player piano, so
it was easy to roll around, and a special trailer to haul it all."

My brother and I did a similar thing several years ago.  We got an
old player that had a Simplex top action, but the bottom action was
missing.  Just for fun, we hooked it up to a shop vacuum and it worked!
I had the crazy idea to make a "display" piano for educating folks
about the mechanics of a player piano, sort of like the 1970s plastic
model "Visible V8 Engine".

We put the action stack up high and connected plastic rods to the piano
action fingers.  Then we mounted the spoolbox just above the keyboard
on a hinge so it could be tilted forward to view behind it.  We painted
it in "Red, White & Blue": the black keys blue, the white keys red,
every other one.  When it was finished, we called it the "All American
Dis-Player Piano".

We have used it in many public functions, including Independence Day
parade (awarded First Place commercial float award!) on a trailer
towed behind a van, with fake playing and then waving with both hands
as the piano continued playing), a chili cook-off, several organ rallies
in Southern California, Independence Day celebration at Sierra Madre
Park, and others.  I also made a custom tilt-bed trailer to transport
the piano to events.

It has been a while since it has been out so on June 25th I plan to bring
it to the Spring Tractor Show at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum in
Vista, Calif., along with other instruments from our local AMICA chapter.
See http://agsem.com/upcoming-events.php 

Rich Ingram
Southern California