Prior to my evening rendezvous with my computer a few nights ago,
I was doing some channel surfing and landed on Nick at Nite, which
was showing an episode of their "Laverne and Shirley" marathon.
Okay, so I watch weird stuff on TV.

As is their wont, our nubile heroines found themselves in a difficult
situation.  They were locked in a purportedly haunted house.  One of
the items in the haunted house was an old pump organ that played by
itself.  The organ's manufacturer was not evident but the instrument
bore a worn look (several ivory keytops missing, etc.).  The case
looked fine but it was covered with Hollywood-type dust and cobwebs to
make it look unused.

Of even greater interest to me was a curious-looking wall hanging on
the opposite wall.  The object was a large, flat, shiny metal disc with
pink flowers painted on it.  The disc resembled a Polyphon or similar
disc.  Horrors!  A music box disc painted and hung on the wall?!
That's worse than the haunted house!  I kept hoping for a close-up of
the disc so I could see if it had been purloined from a music box, but
there was none.

I wonder what happened to the organ and the disc wall-hanging after the
episode was filmed.  Is the organ still sitting unrestored in a studio
property department, awaiting its next "haunted house" role?   What
about the disc?  If indeed it is a music box disc, is it also sitting
in a lonely corner of the property department crying out to be reunited
with the appropriate machine and once again produce music?

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of "Tales from the Mechanical
Music Crypt."

Joyce Brite
Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange     * Buy - Sell - Trade *
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~brite/