Paul Eakin's Gay Nineties Village
By Karl Ellison
Howdie from Connecticut -
While helping my parents record some of their old 33 1/3 albums to cassette tapes this weekend, I ran into an LP album that I forgot they had:
"Nickel Music - The Sounds of the Nickelodeons at Paul Eakins' Gay Nineties Village".
I remember them getting it in the late '60s, although the tech talk on the back of the album states that it was recorded in 1957, and the disk's copyright is 1962. It contains 13 recordings of instruments such as:
* The WurliTzer Fascinator - designated by the U.S. government as one
of the greatest inventions of the decade 1900-1910. It's an orchetra
piano with mandolin attachment 38 violin pipes, 38 flute pipes,
orchestra bells, bass and snare drums and triangle.
* The Coinola Orchestration - containing solo flute pipes, xylophones,
snare and bass drums, timpani and cymbal, Indian block, castanets
and tambourine.
* The Encore Banjo - patented in 1893 and first used in railroad
passenger stations and restaurants. It plays 4 strings and 10 notes
on each of the strings, for a total of 44 notes. Picks are actuated
by pneumatics rated at 10 cps. It runs on 30" vacuum!
* The Eakins Special - assembled by the owner (Paul) from four different
machines and consisting of 48 8' flute pipes, 37 8' quintadena metal pipe
12 8' diapason, 7 1/3 octaves of piano, a 61-note organ manual, and he
same percussion as the Coinola as described above. It operates on
6 1/2" of pressure.
* The Red K.T. Special - a nickel piano with mandolin attachment plus
xylophone and percussion similar to the Eakin Special and the
orchestration.
* The Memory Lane Special - like the Red above.
The recording was made at the Paul Eakin's Gay Nineties Village in Sikeston, MI, which boasted the world's largest collection of nickelodeons at the time of this recording. The village was a creation of Paul Eakin, a mechanical engineer who used to operate a plumbing and heating business until his doctor ordered him to slow down. Eakins started to collect and repair old-time nickelodeons as a hobby that eventually developed into a near full-time job. His instruments come from 20 countries. The smallest of Eakin's nickelodeons is a `Pianino' measuring 3' wide x 5' high, and the largest is 8' high, weighs 1,800 lbs, and contains a piano, mandolin 17 viola and 21 violin pipes, 38 flute pipes, xylophone, bass, kettle and snare drums, triangle, castanets and cymbals.
Has anyone ever visited this place? Is it still open (I doubt it with Paul's poor health nearly 40 years ago)?
This is an `Audio Fidelity, Inc.' recording SterioDisc # AFSD 5960.
- K a r l B. E l l i s o n
New Britain, Ct. U.S.A.
KBELLISON@aol.com
http://home.aol.com/KBELLISON
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(Message sent Tue 26 Dec 1995, 21:35:47 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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