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MMD > Archives > September 1999 > 1999.09.02 > 03Prev  Next


Mystery Orchestrion at Disneyland & Coinola C2
By Andrew Barrett

Hello everybody,  I just got back from a trip to San Diego.  It was
fun and I got to see a couple instruments.  The first one was a North
Tonawanda 188 at the Balboa Park carousel by the entrance to the San
Diego zoo.  The second was a Bruder 107 with a new key frame at the
Seaport Village carousel.

They both played well, but the memory I'm going to have most is
walking into the Seaport Village carousel building while both the
Bruder and the carousel were running and everyone was singing along
-- even the teenagers! -- as the organ played "Let's Go Fly a Kite"
from "Mary Poppins."

Changing the subject, when I heard people were talking on MMD about
Coinola CO's and C2's I remembered a mystery instrument (X?, C2?) at
Disneyland a year or two ago.  It was in the upstairs balcony of the
Golden Horseshoe Revue, and appeared to be an orchestrion!  It was a
keyboard-style piano (with the key cover shut) and had art glass (not
glass domes) on the top panel.  Through unusual clover-shaped holes
in the bottom board I could see what appeared to be drums and either
xylophone or pipes!  (I could only see the tops of the instruments.)

I know most of what was at Disneyland in automatic music, e.g., a
Universal Piano Co. nickelodeon with xylophone, a gutted Wurlitzer 157
organ on the carousel, a half-working Gavioli organ in one of the tents
outside the Dumbo ride, a Peerless style F with flutes in the Bear
country arcade, and the huge Welte orchestrion now in the penny arcade.

I had never played this mystery instrument before and couldn't, because
there wasn't any coin slot!  Anyway, I consider this instrument either
a Coinola C2, or an X with new glass, but could someone please provide
more information?  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Andrew Barrett


(Message sent Thu 2 Sep 1999, 19:47:32 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  C2, Coinola, Disneyland, Mystery, Orchestrion

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