I'm new to this list, and mainly interested in antique or obscure
musical instruments, such as the calliope and Theremin. I'm more
interested in recordings of them, rather than actually buying an
instrument or the technical details of how to automate them.

There's also something called a Chamberlin (Chamberlain?) that I'm
interested in, but I'm not sure it's antique. Apparently, though, it's
obscure and I can't find any information about it, but I believe it was
used in some of the music for (of all things) Boogie Nights.

However, I do have a question about a mechanical thingus [instrument]
that I saw several times at the Brockton Fair as a kid. For all I know,
maybe they still bring it to the fair; I think they were a travelling
family who brought this thing to fairs all over the country (or at least
all over the northeast) and sold tapes of it. I'm not sure if the tapes
were named after the family or the gizmo; it was long and looked German
or Eastern European, which probably doesn't narrow it down at all. It
included a steam organ and several other instruments. I would really
like to get my hands on these tapes, but not knowing what the thing is
called makes it quite difficult...

Even if you have never been to the Brockton Fair up in MA and have no
idea what specific thing I'm talking about, maybe you could throw out
a few names and one of them will ring a bell. I didn't recognize
anything in the archives, though.

jalandry@digital.net * Orlando, FL * julie@landry.net

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"The world's gone crazy. I think it's the spray cans."
                                    -- Louie dePalma