The MBSI (Musical Box Society International) has the original Regina
manufacturing records. The keeper of the records is MBSI member
Bob Yates.
You can obtain a copy of the original Regina factory shipping record
for this particular Regina, showing the date it was shipped and to
whom, by sending the serial number of the machine, together with a
check for $5 made out to the M.B.S.I., to Bob Yates, 901 Glenshaw
Avenue, Glenshaw, PA 15116.
According to a rough table of Regina serial numbers found on page 177
of Q. David Bowers' "Encyclopedia Of Automatic Musical Instruments,"
Regina 46437 was probably made in the fall of 1899, around September
of that year. But Bob Yates can give you the exact information.
Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York
P.S.: A Regina disc music box can hardly be called a nickelodeon,
even though that term has been used very loosely since the 1940s.
Originally nickelodeons were early movie theaters which charged five
cents [one 'nickel'] admission.
Regina made no orchestrions or similar instruments that might today
be termed "nickelodeons." Regina made only disc music boxes (sometimes
incorporated into clocks), albeit late in its corporate life Regina
did make a combination disc music box/phonograph, as a sop to the
blooming phonograph record market. But that was not enough to save
the company.
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