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Royal American Shows Band Organ
By Stephen Lewin

Hi everyone,  In the late 1960s, as I recall, I met a gentleman who
was finishing up a huge band organ he was building for Royal American
Shows.  He was traveling with the carnival, still working and tuning
the organ pipes here in Minnesota.  At that time I was working for
Arthur Fellows, who was a church organ builder and rebuilder.

The organ was built on a very large wooden wheel circus wagon.  If the
organ is still out there, who has it?  I have thought about it from
time to time.  The organ sounded quite bad when I first listened to it;
the pipes were just being tuned on the road from town to town.

I believe the next year the organ was still with the carnival at the
Minnesota State Fair and it really did not sound much better.  It was
really out of tune and the gentleman that built it was not with the
organ.  I think the constant moving and transporting by rail car
probably knocked it out of tune.

Where is it now?

Thanks,
Steve Lewin



(Message sent Mon, 07 Oct 2002 23:29:24 -0500 , from time zone -0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  American, Band, Organ, Royal, Shows

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