When I first arrived in Washington, D.C., in 1962, Glen Echo Park was
still operating as a full-fledged amusement park and was in its second
year of integration, having dropped its whites-only policy when it
opened for the 1961 season.
I remember that the park's Wurlitzer 165 band organ was wheezing
along playing Caliola rolls. The organ had been returned twice to the
Wurlitzer factory since its purchase in April 1926, once in 1934 for
remodeling to play 65-note APP rolls, then again in the winter of 1941
to play Caliola rolls. While my recollection is a bit foggy today,
I seem to recall that the tunes on the Caliola rolls were rather
strangely grouped in pairs, in some way, tunes 1 and 2 forming a pair,
then tunes 3 and 4, and so on.
Can someone refresh or correct my memory in this regard and explain why
the tunes were grouped that way?
Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York
|