Until recently when the Disney collection was sold, I was responsible for
maintaining the automatic music machine collection for Walt Disney World in
Orlando, Florida. During that time I had a lot of time to examine the
machines and I am now convinced that there is good reason to question the
belief that Sadie Mae, the large trumpet organ formerly owned by Paul Eakins,
is a Gavioli.

I was going through Dave Bowers' book Put Another Nickel In and was
looking at the photo on page 76. It shows the DeKleist staff posing in front
of a trumpet organ. I was sitting in front of Sadie Mae at the time and as I
looked closer at the photo and then at Sadie Mae, I began to notice that
there was more than just a casual similarity between the two machines.

First was the distribution and number of pipes. Both machines appear to
have the same number of trumpets and trombones and both pipe layouts are the
same. The second thing that caught my eye was the decorative posts on the
front of the DeKleist machine appear to be identical to the ones on Sadie
Mae.

I mentioned these similarities to Tim Trager who is acquainted with the
new owners of Sadie Mae and he called me a few weeks later to tell me that
they also believe the two machines are the same. The DeKleist machine has the
percussion units mounted on top of the organ and Tim tells me that there are
holes in the top of the organ that would correspond to that configuration.

Unfortunately, the female band director statue is missing from Sadie
Mae. The DeKleist photo shows a male military band director.

I feel that there is sufficient evidence to support the theory that the
two machines are the same. So, is Sadie Mae a Gavioli or a DeKleist? If it is
a Gavioli then what is it doing in a DeKleist photo? Was it taken in on trade
for another instrument and DeKleist  claimed it as one of his own? To support
the Gavioli side of the discussion,  Johnny Verbeek examined Sadie Mae
briefly during a tour of the collection several years ago and said he felt it
was a Gavioli. I am not that familiar with Gavioli or DeKleist construction
techniques to say it is definitely one or the other, I will have to leave
that to someone more knowledgable. I think it is possible that since DeKleist
was associated with Limonaire Freres, another French organ manufacturer, he
may have adopted some of the French organ building techniques as his own.
This might explain the confusion in Sadie Mae's parentage.

I would welcome additional comments on this subject.

     Bob Moore