Manufacture Date: 1916

Song Title: Winter

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Manufactured by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York around 1916, this tiny coin-operated piano is the smallest nickelodeon in the world. Like larger Wurlitzer models these machines entertained people in ice cream parlors, candy shops, saloons, roadhouses, hotel lobbies, and other public places all over the United States.

Its name in the old sales catalogs was “Pianino” or baby piano. Automatic pianos or nickelodeons as we know them today were popular over a 30 year period from 1895-1925. In the mid-1920s, record play jukeboxes appeared on the scene and many of these old machines were then scrapped in the name of progress.