Report on Chicago MBSI Convention
By Bob Conant
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 |
(Message sent Sat 21 Sep 1996, 22:34:16 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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