When in Batavia...
By Pete Docter
I just returned from a trip to Chicago Illinois, where I visited a great museum/shop called "Pedals, Pumpers & Rolls." The owner, Roger Dayton, has 130 instruments which he restores to top notch quality. He played me a Seeburg KT special that was probably the finest sounding instrument I've heard.
The high point of the collection for me is an American Fotoplayer Style 45, used to accompany silent films with a large selection of built in sound effects.
Changing gears, there is a wonderful museum/shop in London called Caberet Mechanical Theatre. They feature very clever automatic figures built by Peter Marky, Paul Spooner, and others. Most figures and mechanisms are built of wood and are rather simple, but quite clever and funny. They have a web site too:
http://www.cabaret.co.uk/
Pete Docter
doc@pixar.com |
(Message sent Tue 15 Oct 1996, 00:37:06 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
|
