In MMD 981123, Joyce Brite wrote:

> I noted a couple of mechanical music machines while surfing around
> the television this weekend, and would like to know more about them.
>
> The first was a band organ which appeared in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
> The name on the machine was the perennial cartoon brand name, Acme,
> which undoubtedly is not the real manufacturer.  The band organ sounded
> badly out of tune, perhaps intentionally so.

As will be apparent, I am currently a little behind in reading MMD,
but better late than never.

I believe that the organ in Roger Rabbit was an 89-key Gaudin which
usually spends its life travelling the UK in the 3-abreast gallopers
operated by Robert Rawlins.

A number of fake instruments were mounted in front of the instrument
for the film, and I am not sure whether the organ actually plays.  When
I was at the cinema, I seem to recall thinking that what was heard was
not the organ itself, but I could have been wrong.  Sitting in a room
with 1,500 people is not the best place to perform mental comparisons
with the various recordings that I have of this organ.

All too often, it seems to me unfortunately, films and television use
a bad pastiche of what someone thinks a fair organ sounds like, rather
than an actual instrument in good, and tuned, order.

Incidentally, this Gaudin can also be heard, but not seen, in the fair-
ground scene of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and is both seen and heard
in the film version of 'Half a Sixpence'.

Regards,

Douglas Bush
UK