Hello MMD readers.  I am project director of the Shelby City Park
Carrousel Restoration project in Shelby, NC.  We have been restoring our
c. 1919 Herschell Spillman Carrousel for several years, and are set to
build our new building and re-open the carrousel by this summer.  For
years we wondered if we would ever be able to find a real band organ,
since the one that went with our carrousel was not brought here, back
in 1951.

About five years ago a man came by a public demonstration we were having
and asked if we had a band organ.  I told him the story and he said that
he had one.  Well, we meant to follow up on that, and finally did, this
summer after we got most of our restoration done.

We found the old defunct dairy that he had told me about, and he (Mr.
Jenkins) was out puttering and he showed us the organ in an old out-
building.  He said he would turn it on and let it play while he worked.

Seems he started looking for an organ about 30 years ago and found an ad
in Billboard Magazine.  The organ was in a park at Balboa, in California.
He got the man to play it for him over the phone.  Anyway he's had the
organ since 1967.

We asked if he wouldn't like to see the organ on a working carrousel
where he could come listen when he liked.  Mr. Jenkins is 87 years old.
He considered for a few days and agreed to sell, and at a reasonable
price.  We've been able to play the Artizan A-2 with a vacuum cleaner and
are in the process of deciding what needs to be done and by whom.

I am interested in any information about Artizan, Wurlitzer 125 rolls
and mechanisms, and other related stuff.  We have a web site for the
Carrousel at

    http://carrousel.shelby.net/

Thanks for those who have already contacted me from a note I sent to
Jody Kravitz.

Tommy Forney