What can anyone tell me about the A. Ruth & Sohn band organ on the
Santa Cruz boardwalk?  I am particularly interested in its model number
and whether it plays book music today or still plays the rolls (Wurli-
tzer 165, I think) that it played years ago.

I am trying to help someone who has some tapes of that organ he is
trying to ready for distribution, and though he worked there in the
1960's when he made the recordings, he turns out to be no band organ
expert.

That reminds me to ask: Do the Santa Cruz folk sell their own
recordings of the Ruth?

Matthew Caulfield

 [ In MMD 970313 and 970722 Rocci Cirone reported that the cassette
 [ recording sold at the carousel is poorly balanced and the organ
 [ is quite out of tune.
 [
 [ James Perkins wrote in MMD 980812 that in the 1960s "the organ roll
 [ frames could be easily seen by the public."  Then he says he thinks
 [ the organ was converted to MIDI control five or six years ago and
 [ that "neither roll frame was operating".  But the sound was quite
 [ muted by the organ enclosure, and a bystander asked James if it
 [ might be a recording making the sound.  The carousel's web site is
 [
 [     http://www.beachboardwalk.com/rides/looff
 [
 [ Steven Phelps, in MMD 990429, said he recently had the chance to
 [ see and hear an 1894 Ruth and Sohn organ at the carousel, but the
 [ source of the music wasn't stated.
 [
 [ So we still don't know if the organ sound is via music roll, via
 [ MIDI, or if it's the out-of-tune cassette recording!  -- Robbie