I bought my first band organ recordings back in the early 1950's,
and they were hard to find.  They came  from  the  late  Ross  R.
Davis,  owner  of  the Griffith Park, Lincoln  Park,  and  Tilden
Regional Park merry-go-rounds in California, and  from  the Allan
Herschell  Company   in   North  Tonawanda,   N.Y.    They   were
reel-to-reel 7  1-2  ips tapes.  Today there are  many band organ
recordings available both as cassettes and CD's.

If  you want CD's of Wurlitzer 165  band organs, Klavier Records,
P.O. Box  177,  San  Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 has  a couple, the
latest  being recorded  from  an  organ  in  the  private  Gilson
collection in Wisconsin.  Several  CD's  of  the  Seabreeze  Park
Wurlitzer 165, destroyed by  fire March 31,  1994,  are available
from Dynamic Recording, 2844  Dewey Avenue, Rochester, NY  14616.
CD's  of smaller Wurlitzer organs are available from Marion Roehl
Recordings, 3533 Stratford Drive, Vestal, NY 13850.

The Roehls also  sell cassette recordings of  other  band organs,
calliopes,  and  other  mechanical musical instruments.  Artacus,
Box 284, State College, PA 16804, has, inter alia, a recording of
a  nice DeKleist band  organ playing 165 rolls.  But  the biggest
selection of band organ tapes of  both American and European band
organs is issued by Carrousel Music, P.O. Box  231, Chambersburg,
PA 17201.   These cassettes are  always well-recorded from organs
that  are  in  top shape.  A personal favorite of mine, aside  of
course  from  the Wurlitzer 165 recordings,  is  the cassette  of
Elise Roenigk's Richter organ, a European band organ playing book
music.

This  is simply  a mention of  recent  and readily available band
organ recordings.  Many  others  have appeared on  the commercial
market since the 1950's.  It is fun to track them down and try to
identify the mystery organs that sometimes are heard there.  Fred
Dahlinger, historian at Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisc.,  has
a  pretty extensive  list.   George  Karpel,  in  Burnaby,  B.C.,
Canada,  has   a  personal  (not-for-sale)  cassette  archive  of
recordings of  every Wurlitzer 165  band organ roll  known (about
150 rolls in all).