The post to MMD about mechanical music in Los Angeles jogged some
old memories for me.

In the mid to later 1970s I was in the Los Angeles area that winter and
I contacted Joseph Tushinsky there.  He had previously purchased from
me a Red Welte Vorsetzer and a Welte Licensee player grand with a side
cabinet that contained a 10-roll changer.  Tushinsky invited my wife
and myself to his home to see his pianos, etc.  He showed me an Ampico
roll collection all displayed on free standing shelves that he said he
had just recently purchased from Phil Hill, the famous race car driver.

Some years later Tushinsky told me he had fully restored the Welte
player grand and roll changer and had it in his office at Sony
Superscope Inc.  I wish I could have heard it play but never did.
I had restored the Red Welte Vorsetzer and have some audio tapes of it
playing on a 9-foot 1920s Mehlin concert grand.  The Mehlin grand is
now owned by Marta Becket, the dance mime, of the Amargosa Opera House
in Death Valley Junction, California.

Ellsworth Johnson
Spokane, WA