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MMD > Archives > April 1998 > 1998.04.20 > 02Prev  Next


Pianella & PianOrchestra Web Site
By Robbie Rhodes

The J.D. Philipps Pianella and Wurlitzer PianOrchestra projects at
Terry Hathaway's web site are "strictly academic", he says, and are
"committed to acquiring historical information and related stories
about the companies and the people associated with the various auto-
mated instruments, adding to what is already known, and making that
information available to historians and other interested parties."

Included within the Research Center pages are descriptions of 17
different models of Phillips orchestrions, with their corresponding
Wurlitzer designations, plus data on the tracker bars and music roll
scales for Philipps Mandoline, Philipps Caecilia, and Wurlitzer Regular
(Style 17).

Terry has compiled the "life history" for many of these instruments,
including the Style 30A now in the Mike Ames collection, which Terry
purchased in 1971 from the Playland arcade in Newport Beach, CA.
Here's his recollection as he and Dave Bowers disassembled the
instrument for transporting:

 "Over the years clear glass panes had replaced the oak inset panels
  for each of the removable case side-panels. The art glass in both of
  the front doors had also been replaced with clear glass and numerous
  pipes were missing. I presumed that I would be making art glass, wood
  panels and violin pipes to replace what I thought was missing.

 "In the meantime, Bill Allen had finished carrying out the music
  rolls, when I noticed that he and Sandoval began carrying out
  'missing' case parts, art-glass and pipes from the back storage
  room.  Sandoval had carefully saved all the 'missing' parts, the
  pipes having been plucked from the pipe chest when they ciphered and
  stored safely away. I was thrilled, as one by one all the pieces
  I had just minutes before noted as missing were now accounted for."

The Research Center site includes a site by Art Reblitz giving inform-
ation for dating Seeburg & Western Electric instruments, and also a
page, "Roll Projects", about recutting National and Cremona M rolls.

The Hathaway & Associates home page is at

    http://home.earthlink.net/~aware/

(The web browser works best if the final '/' is included.)

Robbie Rhodes


(Message sent Tue 21 Apr 1998, 00:37:06 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Pianella, PianOrchestra, Site, Web

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