[ Ref. Christian Tedesco in 210201 MMDigest ]

Gebr. Decap originally sold its 92-key organ known as "Luxor"
to DeSoepper's Beer Garden in Detroit, Michigan, in 1945. Decap
employees brought it to Detroit and assembled it there. After Mr.
DeSoepper died while dancing to the organ's music at his daughter's
wedding in 1965, she sold it to Svoboda's Nickelodeon Tavern in
Chicago Heights, Illinois.

I began working for Al Svoboda in 1965 while on summer vacation from
the University of Illinois (where I was working toward a degree in
music education, majoring in flute). The Decap was the first large
instrument I ever worked on, under the tutelage of Dave Ramey Sr. and
Tom Sprague. It made such an impression on me that I still remember
many details of that early experience. While Dave and Tom were
experienced rebuilders, my musical background made it easy for me to
analyze the organ, understand how everything was connected, and how
the music was arranged.

The percussion cabinet was indeed hidden behind the right side of the
façade, but at Svoboda's, where the organ was installed on a stage at
one end of the old dance hall, we turned it sideways so the instruments
could be seen working. The key frame is on the left side of the organ.

The bass drum indeed has the usual large beater plus two smaller
tympani beaters instead of a tom-tom.

Four cradles of cardboard music were with the organ, mostly featuring
Albert Decap's excellent arrangements. Hole 75 on the key frame was
devoted to turning the xylophone on, and it was absolutely original;
the music was specifically arranged for the xylophone whenever it was
turned on.

The saxophone doesn't have a reed box. It has 16 saxophone pipes
located right behind the dummy saxophone, providing the illusion that
the sound is coming from its bell.

The organ absolutely never had a pump; it was built with a blower
when delivered to DeSoepper's, and we kept the blower at Svoboda's.
The bottom of the main chassis houses the original large pressure
reservoir, with a wind line running to the externally-mounted blower.

The original key frame layout for this organ may be found on p. 502 of
"Treasures of Mechanical Music" which I co-authored with Dave Bowers
in 1981.

When the original cardboard music books wore out, Dave Ramey built
a roll-player and I copied five original tunes to a paper roll: the
Albert Decap arrangements of "Cry," "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of
Coconuts," ?? (unknown), "Valencia," and an Arthur Prinsen arrangement
of "Music, Music, Music." This was used with the organ through the
duration at the original Svoboda's Nickelodeon Tavern and new Svoboda's
in Lynwood Illinois until that business closed.

Collector Dan Slack then bought the organ and music from Al in 1982.
After Dan passed away, his wife sold the organ to Jasper Sanfilippo
in 1991. John Hovancak restored the organ for Jasper, I restored the
key frame, and the in-house staff restored the façade to like-new
condition. At that time, we put the percussion cabinet back in its
original position behind the façade, the roll player was removed, and
Johnny Verbeeck copied our favorite Albert Decap arrangements on new
cardboard that is still being played today.

Incidentally, when Dave, Tom, and I first repaired the organ for Al
Svoboda, we finished it, installed it on the stage, and played a tune
just before the Friday-night crowd came in. Due to the accordion tubing
being mixed up when the pneumatics were recovered, the accordions just
played noise. We hoisted the dual accordion support frame back down to
a long table in front of the stage and puzzled over what to do. Dave
and Tom decided to go out for dinner, and I stayed at Svoboda's to
reconnect the accordions correctly.

With my musical background, I was fairly certain that straightening out
the tubing would be a simple matter. I immediately removed all of the
tubing, threw it on the floor, and started over running the long tubing
from each accordion to the tee that connected each note to the central
junction block. At one point, Al came up to me and said "You'd better
be wearing track shoes---so you can run fast when I chase you out of
here if the notes are still scrambled."

I proceeded to retube each pneumatic, one after another, to its proper
connection. When Dave and Tom returned from dinner, we lifted the
accordion frame back on top of the organ and held our collective
breaths until we turned the blower on, inserted a book in the key
frame, and it played correctly. After the period of anticipation, the
crowd in Svoboda's dance hall applauded raucously after each tune we
played that night.

This was my first experience at solving a musical puzzle in a large
automatic instrument, and it immediately helped my reputation as
someone who enjoys making automatic pianos and organs sound their best.

One more story about the fine Decap: it became so popular at
Svoboda's that we converted the coin box to take 50 cents per play.
Dave hand-made a special coin entry block that would only take 50-cent
pieces, but it wasn't long before the 50-cent coin was no longer in
circulation, so we discarded the special coin entry and made a counter
that took two quarters per play. It was the only instrument at
Svoboda's that cost 50 cents per tune, but that didn't keep people from
playing it almost constantly during each weekend evening.

Art Reblitz
Colorado Springs, Colorado

 [   Front interior of Decap "Luxor" at Sanfilippo's without the facade.
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/21/02/04/210204_162254_DSC06767.jpg 
 [   Another view showing the percussion cabinet.
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/21/02/04/210204_162254_DSC06765.jpg