In connection with the upcoming celebration of the centennial of the
Glen Echo Park Dentzel carousel in 2020 and 2021, I have been mulling
over this unanswered question that has been on my mind for years:
Why was the beautiful Glen Echo Wurlitzer 165 band organ converted in
1941 from playing its natural Style 165 rolls to playing Caliola rolls?

David Reidy's copy of Wurlitzer's Shipping Dock Ledger has an entry
for the Glen Echo band organ (serial #3779) dated 11/27/1941 noting:
"Style 165 organ changed to play Caliola rolls."  (An earlier entry
dated 6/4/1934 showed a still earlier conversion of the Glen Echo
organ: "changed to play 65 note piano rolls")

The conversion to Caliola seems to me to have need needless, since new
165 rolls were still available on the market and the conversion must
have cost a hefty sum in the 1940's.  Wurlitzer designed the organ to
play Style 165 rolls, not Caliola rolls, and fortunately Baltimore
mechanical music expert Durward Center re-converted the organ back to
playing style 165 rolls in 1978.

Does anyone know the motivation for forcing Wurlitzer band organs
to play Caliola rolls?  It seemed to have been all the rage in the post-
war era, and I just don't understand why.  Was it just Wurlitzer wanting
to get out of the 165 organ business and hoping to make some extra money
while doing that?

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York