In response to several comments about the lack of information on the
Musical Box Society Annual Meeting and Convention in Chicago, I am
offering this personal view of some of the happenings there.  This was
such a fabulous convention that one hardly knows where to begin and
much  will be left out.  Perhaps others can fill in some of the
blanks.  This excerpt is from a letter I wrote to my family members as
we were returning from Chicago and will be the basis for a longer
article to be published later in the MBSI Bulletin.

The week before Labor Day, we headed for Chicago to attend the Musical
Box Society International Convention.  Because this convention featured
several major collection tours, it had the biggest attendance ever with
about 769 registrants.  I can't possibly convey the immensity of this
convention for us mechanical music enthusiasts but it was fabulous.  On
Wednesday, I attended the board of trustees meeting while my wife,
Cheri, went on a museum tour.  She visited two sites in the Chicago
area, one was an "old western town" with many artifacts collected in
appropriate buildings such as a barber shop, general store and print
shop.  A feature for the music aspect was a big collection of early
Edison type phonographs.  The second visit was to a clock museum.
There is quite a bit of crossover between the clock collectors and the
music box collectors.  The tour group on Wednesday was quite small,
about 14, but one of the people on the tour was Sir Arthur W.J.G.
Ord-Hume, one of the worlds experts in both music boxes and watches and
clocks.  When they found that he was on the tour the giant red carpet
was rolled out and they were shown things and instruments were played
that the public normally never sees.

The next day we went on the "Chicago Collections Tour".  This included
visits to Pumpers, Pedals and Rolls, a restoration and sales facility
for player pianos and rolls.  They also had a collection to visit which
included a number of rare music boxes, a Regina musical desk, a 9 foot
Weber Duo-Art, a Holl street organ, a large Photoplayer, Wurlitzer 146
B band organ and many other items.  A second stop on the tour was to Al
and Sue Choffnes home where they have a big collection of primarily
disk and cylinder music boxes.  They had some fabulous instruments and
their home was a real mansion.  The third visit was to Jim and Sherrie
Krughoff's home.  We know them from the band organ rallys and it was
interesting to visit their home.  Jim is a developer who has built a
housing development of mansions around a private airport.  Most of the
homes border on the runway and each has its own hanger or two.  The
Krughoffs have a big collection featuring European orchestrions
including 2 Hupfeld Phonolist Violinas (one is a double model with six
violins, a Popper Felix, Hupfeld Helios, Welte Cottage Orchestrion
Style III, and several more, about 12 of these big guys in all.  These
are immense instruments containing many pipes along with piano and
other instruments and with special lighting effects and moving
pictures.  These were used in big dance halls, restaurants and castles
in Europe.  The Krughoffs also have a large theatre organ in one of
their music rooms.  We were given concerts on over 10 of these
instruments and they were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.  In their
"barn" (they have a big garage, an airplane hanger which houses his
workshop and collection of Corvettes, plus this "barn" which looks like
a huge carriage house) they have their Belgian concert organ, a 97 key
Steenput on its trailer, a dance organ, and a fabulous reproducing
piano in a highly carved art case.  They also have stored here a number
of "future projects" to be restored.

There was one more tour offered which I did not take because of time
and because I have been there before.  This was the Wisconsin tour
which included the amazing "House on the Rock", a mind boggling
assemblage of mechanical and musical artifacts and constructions.  Also
included was a visit to Bob Gilson's collection in Madison.  A great
collection which includes photoplayers, orchestrions, nickelodeons and
a Wurlitzer 165 band organ.  Those who went on this tour said that they
had a fabulous time at these places.

Thursday evening, I was commandeered to help with the hospitality tent
which was set up out back of the hotel.  There we had it set up like a
German biergarten and a number of people had brought their monkey
organs to play for the crowd.  There were at least 20 organs both old
and new.  Several European builders had brought organs to display and,
hopefully, to take some orders back home.  This included Wolfgang
Brommer from Waldkirch, Germany, Johnny Verbeek from Belgium, Hal
O'Rourke representing Raffin, and several others.  There was an
electronic Tanzbar automatic accordian, a robot monkey and Freddy Gerer
had brought his much enhanced Hofbauer all the way from Germany also.
This is a large microchip controlled Hofbauer organ with added bass
drum, snare drum and cymbal.  Freddy kept the crowd dancing with his
music all week long.

Back in the hotel, a display was set up in the hospitality room.  On
display were many small music boxes, coin operated pianos and
orchestrions.  Siegfried Wendel from Germany had brought a reproduction
of a Weber Maesto which he is constructing for sale.  This is one of
the largest of the European orchestrions of which only 5 real ones are
known to exist.  It is over 12 feet high and 10 feet wide and has
hundreds of pipes plus piano, drums, bells, swell shutters and much
more.  If anyone is interested, he is selling them, set up in your home
for $360,000.  Coin pianos ranged from a Mills Violano Virtuoso to a
Seeburg H, the most elaborate American orchestrion ever built.  The
Dave's Ramey, both Jr. and Sr., were there with their Banjorchestra.
This replicates, with some improvements, an instrument once offered by
the Encore Automatic Banjo Co. and includes a self playing banjo,
piano, bells, and all the usual percussion.  Also in the hospitality
room was a display of memorabilia from Svoboda's Nickelodeon Tavern
which was located in Chicago from the 1940's to about 1970.  At that
time Al Svoboda had passed away and the collection was broken up.  It
is well remembered because it was one of the pioneers of this type of
collection and many collectors got their first taste of mechanical
music at Svoboda's.

On Friday there was an awards breakfast, followed by a number of
seminars and a trading mart, all very popular.  I won't go into a lot
of detail on the workshops but they included the history of the Verbeek
Organ Works by Johnny Verbeek, a presentation on the Mills Violano
Virtuoso by well known expert Don Barr, a fabulous presentation on
music composed especially for automatic instruments and player pianos
with many selections played on a Mason and Hamlin Ampico grand piano.
It featured several selections by Conlon Nancarrow and was presented by
Dr. Jurgen Hocker, the President of the German Musical Box Society.
There were 11 excellent workshops in all, ranging from music boxes to
pianos and organs and including both technical and historical
information.  The Mart was the biggest ever with music boxes, parts,
rolls, organs, and much memorabilia for sale.  The biggest problem here
was that, with such a big crowd and such a big mart, it was fanny to
fanny all the way but still much product changed hands and a lot of
folks found just what they were looking for.

Friday evening there was an auction of musical items.  The auction ran
from 8pm to 11:30pm and many pieces changed hands with the buyers and
sellers fees going into the MBSI treasury.  Those of you who possess
copies of Reblitz and Bowers "Treasures of Mechanical Music" will be
happy to learn that one copy changed hands for $500.00 ! A few other
sold items included: 15 1/2 inch Regina Console model - $7000, bell box
with dragonfly strikers and 13 inch cylinder - $3250,  19th century
hurdy gurdy (a real one with strings) - $1500,  10 Mills Violano rolls
- $500, and much more.  There were over 160 lots (items) offered for
sale.  Some did not sell because they did not reach the reserves but it
was a fun auction and the auctioneer was a real entertainer.

Saturday was the tour to Jasper and Marian Sanfilippo's Victorian
Palace.  This was the premier trip that everyone was waiting for.  The
place defies description.  With over 44000 square feet, it is the
largest private residence in the state of Illinois and has the largest
electric bill !  Jasper has the largest collection of automatic musical
instruments in the world.  He has every model of every manufacturer of
every American coin piano ever made.  He has the finest selection of
European orchestrions, fair organs, music boxes and arcade machines
that exists.  He has built an addition on his house that looks like a
castle.  It houses a full theatre with chandeliers and other
architectural elements salvaged from famous theatres around the
country.  It is 4 stories high and has a victorian etched glass
elevator if you don't want to take the grand staircase.  In the
theatre, in addition to many instruments, is housed the largest theatre
organ in the world with over 80 ranks of pipes.  Here also huge
European orchestrions are dwarfed by the giant Welte Wotan
orchestrion.  Jasper also collects large steam engines and has several
that were formerly in the Henry Ford Museum.  He is currently
constructing a carousel building which will house the most fabulous
European salon carousel left in the world, the Eden Salon Carousel.
The carousel and it's organ are currently under restoration and many
carvings and components could be seen on display throughout his
residence including many life sized figures of people and horses.  Also
in the carousel building are several steam engines plus a full sized
steam locomotive.  The building will also eventually display his
fairground organ collection.  In the house they have an ice cream
parlor, a huge bar, a gaming room, a clock tower, an engine room and
every place is encrusted with fabulous music machines.  I have not
scratched the surface with this description, it was a case of total
musical sensory overload !

On Sunday and Monday, there were a number of open houses around the
Chicago area.  We needed to head back home but, on the way, we went
over to Krughoff's again and had a cook your own hamburger lunch as
well as more concerts on the instruments.  We also looked over his
collection of low mileage Corvettes.  He has seven of them, all Sting
Rays between 1963 and 67.  We looked inside one pristine 67 coupe and
looked at the mileage,,,12 miles on the odometer and original.  We were
told he has been offered $700,000 for this car.  The rest all had less
than 10000 miles on them with several between 1000 and 3000 miles.  He
can't drive these or they won't stay low mileage.

This convention is part of what the Musical Box Society International
is all about.  We greeted many old and new friends from all over the
world including many wearing green dots on their badges (folks who are
subscribers to the Mechanical Music Digest were wearing them).  To say
that a good time was had by all would be an understatement.  Anyone
interested in antique mechanical music should be a part of this group.
It is an opportunity to meet face to face others who are interested in
the subject and it is the only way to gain access to many of the great
collections that are in private residences.  I hope you have enjoyed
this brief tour.

Bob Conant¶
Chairman, East Coast Chapter, MBSI