Tom Fretty, of Kensett, Iowa, the well-known and regarded mechanical
music collector and dealer, died Sunday, May 17, 2015, at the Manly
Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Manly, Iowa.  He was 87 years old.
He is survived by his wife, Helen Jean Fretty, who married him in 1950,
three daughters and several grandchildren.

Tom and Jean owned American Family Amusements, Inc., of Manly, Iowa,
which conducted business since 1966 as Tom's Country Market and
Musical Museum.  It was quite an entertainment draw for North Iowa.
It included a museum full of antique phonographs, band organs and
other old musical instruments. There was an ice cream parlor and gift
shop.  There were old time community buildings which housed animated
characters depicting "life as it was."

Previously Tom and Jean operated as Tom's Damaged and Unclaimed
Freight.  "We would call the telephone operator to send a general
ring out, alerting people that a truck or railroad car had arrived
with a new shipment of canned goods, furniture or carpet," recalled
Jean in a newspaper interview.

Faced with new restrictions on highway advertising signs, plus
competition from television entertainment, the Frettys closed their
roadside business in the summer of 1981 when several dozen mechanical
music items from "Tom's Mechanical Music Wonderland" were sold at
auction.  Many of the instruments are now in the Sanfilippo Collection.

Ref. http://nwa.stparchive.com/Archive/NWA/NWA03272013p01.php  and
http://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/thomas-d-tom-fretty/article_39b79340-899a-5941-ad05-8f21978fa5ed.html 

Robbie Rhodes
Mechanical Music Digest

 [ poster "Tom's Country Market and Musical Museum"
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/14/11/26/141126_175724_Toms%20Country%20Market%20&%20Musical%20Museum.jpg