Alex Jordan and his staff originally created most of the big "fantasy
music machines" at the House on the Rock from old pipe organ parts,
and band and orchestra instruments whose useful life had already come
to an end.

Does anybody out there need a dozen dented metal clarinets?  Boxes of
broken beginner's violins?  An obsolete E-flat helicon?  Alex took
warehouses full of this stuff and made things that entertained the
public.  (He later used synthesizers instead of old pipe organ parts).

It was a real shame when Alex _did_ convert a beautiful antique music
machine into a wild contraption.  "Who cares about originality," he
used to say.  "When those collectors see what I've created, their eye
teeth are going to fall out.  We're going to need an extra janitor with
a bucket just to pick up all those eye teeth."

What about people who convert antique music machines to play from MIDI
equipment today?  I have close friends on both sides of this issue, but
I know exactly what Alex would think.

Alex would be proud of people who are doing this.

He'd be right there in the front row handing out buckets.  ;-)

Art Reblitz