Last spring at one of the Renninger's Antique Extravaganzas in Kutztown, PA,
there was a man set up selling his own "Nickelodeons." They were pretty
awful...  to my untrained/non-technical eye, what he had done was take
some turn-of-the-century non-players, with decorative cases, and added
a player action of sorts, in addition to a tamborine, drum, and (underneath
the keyboard)...an accordion! It played a large, multi-tune roll,
positioned under keyboard next to the accordion. My guess is that the
accordion was playing the part originally meant for organ pipes.

I lifted up the top of the piano and glanced in, and noticed a
liberal use of plastic valves. The piano action didn't appear to have
been touched...  in fact, the hammers looked positively moth-eaten! If
memory serves, he was asked around $5-6,000 for these creatures. Sorry,
I can't remember where this fellow's name, or where he was from.

What I found amusing was the fact that he was set up directly across
from the fellow from whom I had previously bought my nicely (and properly)
rebuilt Standard 88-note pumper, David Hall of Massachusetts. Mr. Hall
had his rebuilt/refinished players priced around $3,000 or so.  After
folks had heard enough of the faux nickelodeons, they tended to
gravitate across the way towards the "real" player pianos! Go figure....

Jim Canavan
CYBRFLASH@aol.com
Alexandria, VA