Hello, MMD readers,  John Powers is correct when he says that Danilo
Konvalinka didn't die.  Danilo was put into a nursing home, under the
state's control, by the man to whom he gave the building, collection
and the rest of the 27 rooms of items beyond the seven room that were
open to the public on Guided Tours.  I gave about 95% of more of the
Guided Tours during the years of the active museum, from 1963 to 1986.

A series of strokes around 1980 changed Danilo's personality, which
led to a divorce and subsequent breakup of the partnership in 1986.
Lois and I moved around the corner to an 1837 house where I continued
the Artcraft Music Rolls activity that began in 1982 at the museum as
a separate business.  (Artcraft was my third such enterprise since the
middle 1950s, I might mention.)  Read about the Konvalinka-Henderson
residence and roll studio at http://wiscasset.net/artcraft/16LeeSt.html 

Lois and I went to court over our possessions and lost.  When a judge
writes things into his decision which neither side said, it was a
miscarriage of justice but we had to live with it.

The man who took over the museum died, subsequently, and left it and
several other properties in Portland, Maine, plus elsewhere, to his
friend from South America.  That person engaged a man who worked for
us, briefly, in the 1970s, to be the POA.  The entire contents of the
building -- from chandeliers to Lois' handmade draperies to paintings
and the collection -- were dispersed, some of it shipped to an auction
house in Germany.

At this point I must mention that Danilo had zero mechanical musical
ability.  He could discern good sound but he had no knowledge of
gear trains or anything mechanical.  In fact, he stripped at least
two cylinder boxes in the collection as late as the end of the 1970s.
(One was our Austrian wall clock which had to be repinned.)  He had
charm in abundance and was a good salesman.  Danilo ran fourteen shops
in twenty years, many of them out-of-state, and wasn't on hand for the
daily operations as Lois and I were.

I began the phonograph, player-piano and other elements of the
collection in 1948.  Lois began the cylinder boxes in 1957 with some
choice models including a Variations Box and a Nicole Freres 'Forte
Piano' cylinder box.

We let Danilo be the "expert" while the two of us, being mechanically
inclined (and she was), ran the place.  Danilo's father, Anton, was
the mechanical expert who rebuilt and repaired musical boxes until his
death a number of years later.  Danilo had other rebuilders, ending
with Mike Everett, the genius craftsman who could make brand new Stella
and Nicole Freres combs that rivaled if not surpassed the originals.
When the building was emptied, he was out of his restoration jobs which
pretty much kept the place running after Lois and I were forced out of
the partnership.

I named the enterprise the "Musical Wonder House", over Lois' dining
room table in Kensington, Maryland, just after she bought the building
in 1962.  Danilo came to America penniless, so the museum came into
being with her massive investments and my California collection and
knowledge, while Danilo was around running shops, primarily.  After
we were out he crowned himself "Owner-Founder-Creator".  You won't
see that term before 1987 in any museum literature -- all of which
I composed, printed, designed and in many cases did the 4x5 photography
for screened illustrations.

I hope this clears up the issue.  I am the last lucid person left from
the partnership, with Lois passing away at 95 under my care last year.
I let my roll business slide taking care of her and am happy that I gave
her at least seven more years of life.  She had strokes which eventually
kept me caregiving 24/7 at the Lee Street home around the corner from
the museum building.

If you wish to read about Lois Konvalinka, the unsung "hero" of the
museum, this tribute to her, written by an Australian roll collector
friend of mine, is excellent (scroll down for the pictures and
description of Lois):  http://playerpiano.yolasite.com/mwh.php 

The statement above should clarify everything about the origins and
operation of the museum, which had 23 extremely successful years.

Our page about the museum needs to be updated with the passing of
Lois E. Konvalinka (the Musical Wonder House building suffered years
of neglect after Lois and I left, so does not look like that on the
outside today):  http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/mwh.htm 

Cordially,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, Maine, USA
http://wiscasset.net/artcraft/