[ Ref. 190822 MMDigest ]

So, it must have been Mr. Edgerton's Mechanical Music Center that
I visited when I lived in Connecticut in the 1970s and '80s.  If
I'm recalling it correctly, it was a very large building with lots of
open space within, and there was an absolutely monstrous mechanical
-- uh, I guess it was a band organ -- presiding over the place like
a statue of Ramses I.

It probably would have been Mr. Edgerton himself who insisted on
demonstrating a big player organ for me and my friend Marilyn, who had
vaguely heard of player pianos from Western movies but knew nothing of
mechanical music.  I was rather amazed as well, but I actually managed
to impress him with the fact that I knew what a reproducing piano was.

I explained that mine was false expertise, for not long prior to that
I'd worked as a broadcast engineer at WTSO-AM in Madison, Wisconsin,
and the fellow who did his best to teach me the art and mystery and
to not electrocute myself was Chet Kuharski, who also taught me a bit
about mechanical music.  He promised me a substantial finders fee if
I could locate any Duo-Art reproducing pianos.

Mark Kinsler