By clicking on the image you are able to learn the history of each piece. You can also listen to an audio file of some of the pieces.
Location: Opera House
A source of endless curiosity and delight for the visitors of Virginia City is our Cremona organ located in the orchestra pit of the Opera House. Newcomers are always asking, "What's the source of all those bells, percussion, and pipe organ sounds?"
In the 1920s, the accompaniment to silent films and vaudeville was provided by live musical instruments. Makers of player pianos and orchestrians (mechanical orchestras) began to create a wide variety of self-contained, theater orchestras (photoplayers), designed for movie houses for an orchestra or full-scale, theater pipe organ.
Most photoplayers consist of an upright player piano unit rigged with organ stops and foot buttons which controlled additional instrumentation housed in one of the two separate cabinets. The photoplayer operator would push buttons or tug on ropes to activate the various sound effects suitable to the screen action. Many photoplayers were equipped with two-player roles, and by switching back and forth, the mood of the music was varied.
This Cremona is a wonderful example of the type, a "Cremona Theatre Orchestra, solo style M-3." It is sixteen feet wide and features two side chests containing flute, violin, bass pipes, xylophone, bass drum, crash cymbal, tom-tom, tympani, snare drum, sleigh bells, tambourine, castanets, cathedral chimes, triangle, and train bell. It was manufactured in Chicago by the Marquette Piano Co., whose wide variety of coin-operated player pianos, orchestrians, and photoplayers were sold under the Cremona trademark and were regarded as "top of the line." No expense was spared in their creation, from the piano keys of genuine ivory to the double-veneered hardwood cases, newborn calfskin bellows, imported felt piano hammers, and overstrung scale (imparting the piano with an extraordinarily rich tone most notably in the mid-bass range).
Photoplayers were advertised to theater owners as late as 1928. Costing as much as six thousand dollars, they were a major investment. Nevertheless, with the advent of talking pictures, photoplayers swiftly became a relic of a past era.
During this initial period of disuse, most of the instruments were destroyed. With a "white elephant" on their hands, theater managers often removed the player mechanism in an effort to sell the piano unit to help offset their enormous purchase cost. (For years following the depression, a piano stripped of its player mechanism had a better market value than one with the mechanism intact.)
The various drums and sound effects were dismantled and sold individually or given to children as playthings. The remaining mechanical parts, rendered useless, were hau1ed off to the city dump. The machines remaining in theaters usually suffered moth, rust, or fire damage over the years. Photoplayers were largely overlooked during the 1940s and the 1950s when private collectors first revived interest in the player pianos and nickelodeons. An instrument of this size and volume wou1d hardly be welcome in a typical suburban rumpus room! Today, of the thousands that were distributed across the United States, only four Cremona photoplayers are known to exist. Only two Cremona photoplayers are still in use in theaters. One is in Virginia City; the other is in Sydney, Australia.
It was discovered in a Deer Lodge, Montana drugstore hidden behind a wall installed when the original movie theater was remodeled for retail use. After its rehabilitation in 1950, it was installed in the Virginia City Opera House. Its music has lent a unique air of merriment to our presentations every summer since.
Location: Music Hall
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This rare piano is one of the first coin-operated pianos still in operating condition. Currently, there are only around a dozen of this model still in existence. It originated in Chicago by the Marquette Piano Co. who made thousands of coin pianos in various cabinet styles, all playing 10-tune style A rolls. This model includes a mandolin attachment, which adds a bright mandolin-like tone periodically during the music. Watching the Cremona play is a treat as the clear glass windows that peer into the machine give you a first-hand look at how the instrument works.
Location: Bale of Hay Saloon
Made by the Marquette Piano Co., Chicago, IL; dated 1-8-1914 on the upper side of the left side. Contains piano, mandolin attachment flute pipes, playing from 10-tune style A music rolls. Has original pale green "Prairie School" style art glass. J.P. Seeburg, an employee of the Marquette Piano Co. prior to opening his own company in 1909, studied design at Chicago's Art Institute and pioneered the use of art glass in coin pianos in America
Location: Gypsy Arcade
One of the most recognizable pieces in the collection is the 1906 verbal gypsy teller machine. Anyone who has seen the 1988 movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks will be able to spot it in a heartbeat. Due to the fame from the movie it has been tussled over by private collectors, the state, historians, and citizens. The fortune-telling machine is one of the three remaining that used a recording to "speak" fortunes to whoever was brave enough to ask, and fed it a nickel. Magician and collector of historic Penney arcade games David Copperfield thinks it makes be only one of its kind remaining, and of course, he wants to buy it. However, he's not the only one.
The fortune-telling machine was used by visitors through the early 1970s when its deteriorating condition necessitated its removal to storage. It was put back on display in 1999, but it was for looking only, no touching. Conservators finally began to restore it to functionality in September of 2004, finishing in June 2006. In 2008, the gypsy returned to public display in the Gypsy Arcade, to turn of the century gadgetry museum.
Once it was successfully restored it was brought to the attention of collectors. Around that time, Copperfield approached the Montana Heritage Commission offering a reported $2 million of the machine for display purposes. Yet, they turned him down as well as other collectors that have offered to pay high dollar for the piece.
Since then the Montana Heritage Commission has taken the stand that they do not want to sell the piece as they believe it is more valuable as a piece of history for everyone to see verses it being stashed away in some private collector’s basement hidden to the world. This does not mean that if times get tough the Heritage Commission will not reconsider; however, for now, it is available to the public and those brave enough to hear what their futures may hold.
Location: Music Hall
It is easy to see how the Gavioli 43 Band Organ “The Butterfly” got its name. The beautifully crafted façade has carvings of butterfly and swans. This small European band organ is believed to be a Gavioli but verified origination is unknown. It was one of the many organs of this size that were made, however, only one to two hundred still exist worldwide. Currently, it plays 43-keyless cardboard organ music and was is shown on p. 208 of A Pictorial History of the Carousel by the late Frederick Fried, a historian of band organs and the Coney Island amusement area. (Originally pub. By A.S. Barnes and Co., 1964; later reprinted by the now-defunct Vestal Press, Vestal NY.)
Location: Music Hall
The Gavioli 46 Key Organ with Dolle Façade was another instrument created by famous Gavioli et Cie, of Paris, France. This small European fairground organ has an early version of the cardboard-played keyframe system, but the upper portion of the façade is from a different organ of an unknown origin. There are only 100- 200 or more of its general type that exists worldwide.
The beautifully carved wooden piece above was not original to the organ. This portion of the instrument was later created by Fred Dolle, a Coney Island carousel operator and importer that formerly owned a cake decorating business. The majority of the façade is by him, and his cake decorating experience is obvious. For many years this organ played the song "Barney Goggle" and the happy face was thus named for the song.
Location: Music Hall
The Gavioli 65-Key Organ is another small European fairground organ that was acquired by Charlie Bovey from the B.A.B. Organ Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1958. It was created by Gavioli et Cie, of Paris, France, and perhaps one of the 20 of its kind still in existence. The history of this piece is relatively unknown, however, it is believed to have been used in a carousel or other amusement attraction in the Coney Island area in the early 1900s.
Currently, certain parts of the carved façade are from another organ, however, the piece was modified to play its own property paper music rolls in place of the original Gavioli folding cardboard music. Mass-produced music rolls were less expensive than hand-punched cardboard.
Location: Music Hall
The Gavioli 89 Key Band Organ is definitely an instrument that you must see when visiting the Music Hall, actually, it’s an instrument that you can’t miss. Considering the fact that its width takes up the entire back wall of the museum. Only one hundred or so of its size was ever made and only one of the dozen still exist in its unaltered condition worldwide.
The instrument was created by Gavioli et Cie, of Paris, France who was one of the first major builders of fairground organs. He created these instruments as a way to entertain the public primarily while they were on amusement rides, midways, and in skating rings.
The huge organ was originally played by folding cardboard book music and a keyframe with metal “key” levers that read the rectangular holes in the folding cardboard music books. It was later converted to a “keyless” frame in 1959 by Ozzie Wurdeman to play B.A.B. 87 note rolls. This process involved substituting the keyframe with a keyless frame that still exists in the cabinet behind the organ.
It is believed that this item was collected during World War I, it was traded to the USA by the French Government in an attempt to prevent starvation throughout their country. They traded the instrument for a carload (railroad) of flour.
Once the instrument was in the USA it was used in various indoor locations that can be compared to “Coney Island” before it was moved to the shops of the Molinari Organ Works in Brooklyn, NY where it stood entertaining crowns for years.
The Gavioli 89 Key Band Organ was among the many instruments purchased from the B.A.B. Organ Co. and added to Charlie Bovey collection in July 1958. At that time it was the largest and most important organ within the collection. Later, quoted by Art Reblitz, a world-famous automatic musical instrument restoration expert, that this instrument was "One of America's greatest European fairground organs.”
Location: Music Hall
Made by the Mills Novelty Co., Chicago, IL, circa 1923. The only commercially successful violin-playing machine made in America. From 1912 to 1929, about 4,500 were made; 1,000 or more probably exist, mostly in private collections. Its high survival rate is due to its being operated electrically, rather than pneumatically; it has no pouches, valves, pneumatics, or bellows with perishable rubber cloth or leather. It plays Mills Violano-Virtuoso music rolls. Visually enticing, it is one of the first instruments in any collection to attract the attention of visitors, and most people who walk through the Music Hall play it even if they don't play anything else. The ownership of this example prior to Charles Bovey is unknown.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office had a display of several significant inventions at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Washington in 1909, including an early Violano-Virtuoso. The company used this event to promote the Violano-Virtuoso as "Designated by the U.S. Government as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade" on all subsequent machines.
Plays violin and a 44 note piano. Machines with two violins are known as the Deluxe model Violano Virtuoso, or nickname the "Double Mills Violano" They made about 4,000 to 5,000 of these. Estimate around thousands of the Violano Virtuoso still and 100 of the Double Mills are still exist today.
The Violano Virtuoso was all-electric and all the moving parts were set in motion by electric motors or electromagnets. A company catalog states that they ran on "any electric lighting current'' and used "no more than one 16-candle power light''. They were designed to operate on 110 volts direct current. In locations that had 110 volts alternating current {or other voltages, the instruments were used with a unique converter unit.
The Violano Virtuoso is a heavy object, weighing about 1100 pounds. The first page of the Violano Virtuoso manual started that to lift the instrument from the delivery wagon would need "3 good Man".
Location: Gypsy Arcade
The United States Patent and Trademark Office had a display of several significant inventions at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Washington in 1909, including an early Violano-Virtuoso. The company used this event to promote the Violano-Virtuoso as "Designated by the U.S. Government as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade" on all subsequent machines.
Plays violin and a 44 note piano. Machines with two violins are known as the De Luxe model Violano Virtuoso, or nickname the "Double Mills Violano" They made about 4,000 to 5,000 of these. Estimate around thousand of the Violano Virtuoso still and 100 of the Double Mills are still exist today.
The Violano Virtuoso was all-electric and all the moving parts were set in motion by electric motors or electromagnets. A company catalog states that they ran on "any electric lighting current'' and used "no more than one 16-candle power light''. They were designed to operate on 110 volts direct current. In locations that had 110 volts alternating current {or other voltages, the instruments were used with a unique converter unit. The Violano Virtuoso is a heavy object, weighing about 1100 pounds. The first page of the Violano Virtuoso manual started that to lift the instrument from the delivery wagon would need "3 good Man".
Location: Molinari Building
Made by Molinari Organ Co., Brooklyn, NY. A small street piano typical of those used by "organ grinders" at the turn of the century (1900). Contains a ratchet-operated mandoline mechanism for the melody section, a desirable feature.
Charles Bovey purchased many assets of the Molinari Organ Co. from the B.A.B. Organ Co. circa 1957. Molinari had been America's foremost maker of barrel organs and barrel pianos (also known as street pianos); its assets and business were acquired by the B.A.B Organ Co., which continued to remodel and service band organs in the Coney Island area from the 1920s through the mid-1950s. Its principal owners were Brugnolotti, Antoniazzi, and Bona; one of them was reputedly married to a daughter of Molinari's. Many tools, supplies, and unfinished parts are displayed in the Molinari Shop in Nevada City. Among the equipment are music arranging, barrel-making, pipe-making, and woodworking tools, two small Molinari barrel organs which were being made when the company went out of business, and two used barrel pianos.
Location: Gypsy Arcade
This Prohibition-era cabinet piano was made by Nelson-Wiggen of Chicago in the mid-1920s. That plays style A rolls and has two extra instruments, xylophone, and bells. During Prohibition, the large key-board style orchestrions fell from favor and small box pianos gained in popularity, possibly, it is said, because they could have a drape thrown over them in case of a raid. With a 65 note piano and alternating xylophone and bells, it makes good music. This one was obtained from Excelsior Park in Minnesota, where the Wurlitzer 180 Organ also came from. Of several hundred made, only about 15 or 20 remain.
Location: Music Hall
The exact origins of this machine remain a mystery but the experts at Virginia City have done their best to uncover its secrets.
Made by the Engelhardt Piano Co., St. Johnsville, NY. This model was one of America's first coin-operated pianos, introduced circa 1902. Only 15-20 examples still exist. Peerless liked the endless roll, which avoided all the problems associated with roll rewind. The "roll" is a continuous paper loop, which allowed pianos similar to this to play from early morning to late at night uninterrupted in saloons and penny arcades. Most of the musical arrangements are true classic ragtime.
This particular piano was "made for A.D. Mitchell, Helena, Montana." Mr. Mitchell, who was a dealer in Mitchell automobiles. The Bovey automobile collection contained several Mitchell's that once stood in his showroom where this piano presumably furnished music. The piano, strangely enough, had made its way to Savage, Minnesota, where Charlie found it years after he bought the cars.
Location: Music Hall
Purchased in 1941 in Great Falls, this non-changer music box is typical of Regina instruments. While cylinder music boxes had been made for hundreds of years in Germany and Switzerland, they were expensive and their musical selections limited by the very tedious pinning of the cylinders. Even the expensive models played only a few - six to ten - songs, and only the wealthiest could afford additional cylinders.
In 1889, a disk-style music box was invented. The disks, made of flat steel, could be pressed, in one quick operation, to form pins, which played the musical comb as in the cylinder music boxes. The interchangeable disks gave huge musical selection; one could easily have any number of pieces of music and change them in a few seconds. Unlike the fragile cylinders, the disks were easy to reproduce, quite durable, and unbreakable.
Despite a huge potential market, the American-made disk music boxes did not appear on the scene until the early 1890s. The tonal quality was outstanding, and the musical selections, despite having to fit a perfectly timed single revolution, were even better. By 1900 many middle-class homes were enjoying the beautiful and calming music of a Regina. The complaint in public places that the same disk was played over and over led to the development of a commercial model that one could select the piece he wanted to hear, or that would play the selections in sequence. The machinery - gears, cams, spring motors -worked silently "like clockwork". The cases were works of art. This was all yet in a time when player pianos and other pneumatic instruments had not yet been well perfected.
For about ten years the Regina music box reigned supreme in automatic home entertainment, but then an unlikely challenge came to that market from a place barely five miles from the Rahway, New Jersey Regina factory -the Edison laboratories of Menlo Park, and later of East Orange, New Jersey. Edison had envisioned the main use of his invention of the Phonograph as the office machine, but when he was finally convinced about 1902 to introduce the phonograph and cylinders pre-recorded with music to the general public, it became all the rage. Despite the poor quality of the music on the records compared to the fabulously superior quality of the music boxes, the Edison Phonograph quickly took over.
About this time, Eldridge R. Johnson called on the Regina factory and tried to sell them a patent invented by Emile Berliner, the disk record. He was rejected, of course. He next talked to Edison -he too declined. Mr. Johnson went home to Camden, New Jersey, also not far away, and started the Victor Talking Machine Co.
In 1902 Regina "diversified" by introducing a cumbersome and unlikely device related more to pneumatic pianos than their mechanical music boxes -a hand-operated vacuum cleaner. Though their last music box was made in 1919, Regina continued to make a variety of products. Regina is one of the few former music machine makers that are still in business. Today it is well known as the manufacturer of vacuum cleaners.
Location: Music Hall
The Regina Music Box Co. of Rahway, New Jersey, liked purely mechanical things -none of that new-fangled pneumatic stuff for them. This instrument came out quite early in the automatic musical instrument era, probably about 1906. When played, it sounds like the, then, very popular chorus of strumming mandolins. The vibrating "piano" action is controlled by possibly the widest roll made of the heaviest paper ever used in a music machine. It is also interesting that Regina manufactured many of these instruments with a large spring-wound motor (usable in places without electricity) but for those few locations that had electric current, such as the mining camps of Montana, they had an electric version. When automatic pianos became more reliable in the later "oughts," these instruments, along with such novelties as the Wurlitzer harp, declined in popularity. About 3,000 were made, and only a few dozen still exist. This particular one was used in the "Comae" Saloon in Neihart, Montana. There was another in the Bale of Hay Saloon, although it was undamaged by the Bale fire in 1983, it was sold in 1990.
Location: Music Hall
Made by the J. P. Seeburg Piano Co., Chicago, IL, in 1915. Similar to Style KT in Nevada City music hall, but older, and contains different instrumentation: piano, mandolin attachment, and flute pipes. It plays 10-tune style A music rolls. This example features the rare and very desirable art glass with "three dancing girl" motif, and is of local significance as it was originally sold by the Butte Piano Co. The motor is not original
Location: Music Hall
Seeberg quality is well known with collectors. This was one of their most popular models, made between the mid-teens and the late 1920s. The KT is among the most desirable with both collectors and listeners because of the combination of the 65 note piano, toe-tapping percussion instruments, and the excellent arrangements of the "G" rolls it plays. It was probably originally shipped from Chicago to Butte in c. 1926. Thousands were made and hundreds exist, but their great music makes them far more valuable than rarities that play poorly. We have three other Seeberg K's and had more before the scorched Bale instruments were sold.
Location: Music Hall
Made by the J. P. Seeburg Piano Co., Chicago, IL, in 1926. Seeburg's most popular, best-selling keyboardless coin-operated piano from the "Roaring Twenties" era. Thousand were made, and hundreds still exist today. A popular piano with collectors, it takes up little space and plays lively style "A" 10-tune music rolls. These rolls were made circa 1908-1945. The collection includes a good variety of A rolls, probably several dozen, which are in playable condition
Location: Music Hall
The Story and Clark's Player Reed Organ Is a rare self-playing reed organ originally made for home use. It was made by the Story and Clark Co., Chicago, IL. The player reed organs were among the first instruments to use the new pneumatic systems and "piano rolls" beginning in the 1890's. This organ has an especially beautiful inlaid oak case, and was an expensive addition to its original owner's home. Ozzie Wurdeman bought it in Minneapolis and converted it to play A rolls with his own unique combination electrical-pneumatic system in the late 1950's. True to Ozzie's knowledge and love of Mills Violano roll mechanisms, he made the spool frame to "stop rewind" by sensing the number of tums of paper left on the roll, a system that worked better on the Mills Violano than on this organ, thus it seldom stops at the actual beginning of the first son
Location: Music Hall
The exact origins of this machine remain a mystery but the experts at Virginia City have done their best to uncover its secrets.
They believe that this machine façade made circa 1915- 1920, either made by Molinari of Brooklyn NY (per Charles Bovey's notes) or by Gebriider Bruder, Waldkirch, Germany. It was obtained from the B.A.B. Organ Co., it is featured on the c. 1964 record, (as a Marenghi) but has been out of order since 1972 because the special cardboard roll wore out.
The beautiful hand-carved facade of this organ was never painted, probably because it was waiting to be purchased and painted to the specification of the owner.
The organ is perhaps of German origin; it appears to have originated as a barrel organ with an open front, but it has been fitted with a keyless frame for playing cardboard music, and a somewhat later carved façade.
This type of remodeling was standard practice in the 1915-1930 era to provide early barrel-operated organs with a much larger musical repertoire; when done in the factory, it enhances the value today. Hundreds of organs of this size were made by various German firms, and at least several dozen exist worldwide, This example plays 54-keyless cardboard music of unknown scale; preservation of remaining fragments of music is exceptionally important, at least until copies are made or if it is determined that it plays the music of a standardized German scale.
The music of this organ is an outstanding example of the "German fairground organ sound," very different from the other organs in the collection, playing music in an unusually bright, powerful, and cheery style.
Location: Music Hall
The brand name of this particular piece is unnoted but is presumed to have been manufactured in the late 1890s. It is believed that 100 or more of its general type exist in the United States today (in the context of tens or hundreds of thousands of smaller reed organs).
This particular instrument is one of the larger, more impressive reed organs of its type, of more interest to the general public than to mechanical music collectors.
Location: Music Hall
The Wurlitzer band organ, Style 103 was made by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., North Tonawanda, NY. The smallest regular-production band organ in the Wurlitzer line, this little organ is nearly as loud as Wurlitzer's largest model, the 180, and locally called the "loudest," next to it. It was typically used on small portable amusement rides. Plays Wurlitzer 125 rolls. Acquired by Charles Bovey from a priest in Helena and the original shipping crate is still with the organ.
Location: Music Hall
Who doesn’t love something that they can call completely obnoxious, well if that is how you feel then this horn is for you. The Wurlitzer Band Organ has earned the reputation of the "famous and obnoxious horn machine" of the Bale of Hay Saloon and was somewhat symbolic of the beloved "funky" atmosphere of not only the Bale but other aspects of Virginia City as a whole. It was moved to Nevada City in the mid-1970s after Bale patrons threatened to silence it, but its loyal following continued to seek it out. No visit to Virginia City is considered complete without viewing Club Foot George's clubfoot in the Thompson Hickman Museum and experiencing the musical abilities of the Horn Machine. It was originated by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., North Tonawanda, NY; shipped in September 1920, where several hundred were made, but only a few dozen remain today. The 150 was a very popular style of Wurlitzer band organ circa 1912, the early 1920s, used mainly in carousels and roller skating rinks, blasting away at "Red Sails in the Sunset" and "Boots and Saddles," slightly out of tune.
Location: Music Hall
Wurlitzer's largest production model, only five or six were ever made, by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., North Tonawanda, NY and only two complete models of this organ still exist. Originally shipped in 1929 to Spillman Engineering (manufactures of carousels), then it was returned to the factory and reshipped in 1936 to a church. Who apparently really wanted to wake up the congregation!
Charlie Bovey got the 180 from Mr. Cargill of Excelsior Park, Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. It has two-tracker bars so it could play continuously with no delay for rewind. Originally it played Wurlitzer Caliola rolls (APP .rolls); however, currently, it’s been returned to play Wurlitzer 165 band organ rolls.
Only about one-third of the original organ remains, many of the missing pipes having been replaced by Ozzie Wurdeman with pipes from the Wurlitzer Organ originally in the Marlow Theatre in Helena
Location: Music Hall
A very sturdy and coin piano with beautiful art glass, made in 1914 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., North Tonawanda, NY, America's largest maker of automatic musical instruments. Includes two ranks of organ pipes-flute and violin-located behind the soundboard, a mandolin attachment, and an automatic music roll changer that plays six five-tune rolls in rotation. Plays 5-tune Wurlitzer 65-note Automatic Player Piano Rolls (APP Rolls). It has regional historic value, as Charles Bovey acquired it through Ozzie Wurdeman from the Five Mile Inn near Butte, Montana. This establishment originally sold Wurlitzer instruments in Butte, among other activities. The piano reputedly was "new old stock" when Bovey bought it, although it might have seen a certain amount of commercial use and then was taken back by the dealership.
Location: Music Hall
Among the earliest automatic musical instruments was the unlikely self-playing harp. Like the Violano, it was perfected by an independent inventor, J.W. "Row'' Whitlock (1871-1935). Whitlock spent six years developing the automatic harp, according to family sources. The patent, issued on September 8, 1900, read as follows:
This invention relates to musical instruments which are automatic in their action, starting upon the introduction of a coin...and stopping automatically when the piece is finished.
In 1905 Wurlitzer established an agreement with Whitlock to sell the harps on an exclusive basis. The two firms signed a contract for 1000 harps, to be delivered in three years, at a rate of 35 per month. The last harp was produced in late 1910 or 1911.
The harp contains sixty fingers (almost human in their operation) and produces a volume of soft, sweet music equal to several Italian harps played by hand. The face of the instrument is covered by large harp-shaped plate glass, showing the interior lit up by electric lights and the wonderful little fingers picking the strings. This feature gives the instrument an exceedingly attractive appearance.
Approximately 1100 style harps were made, of which 4 are known to exist today. The change of case design to a Style B took place in 1906. About 400 Style B harps were made of which 7 are known to survive.
The machine was promoted as soft and sophisticated, the correct music for elegant dining. Except for the electric motor, it is made almost entirely of wood. Another even more attractive model, shaped like a real harp, was designed but few were built. When player pianos were more perfected, the popularity of the soft¬ playing harps waned. Several dozen harps survive nationwide. This harp and the beautiful Wurlitzer DX Roll Changing Piano now in the Nevada City Music Hall were purchased from the Five Mile Inn, which still stands on South Harrison Ave. in Butte, Montana.
Location: Music Hall
Song Title: Winter
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.
Location: Music Hall
The Wurlitzer Theater Organ was made by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., North Tonawanda, NY, and has always been one of the most popular instruments in the Music Hall.
Theatre organs were installed inside the walls of the most expensive and elaborate permanent movie theatres during the silent movie era of the early teens to the beginning of talkies in 1926. A human operator alternately played the organ manually, or automatically by Wurlitzer Concert Organ rolls, adding sound effects coordinated with the action on screen. Today, these rolls are extremely rare. A mechanism also cycles through various sound effects at the end of each tune.
In later years these instruments became unnecessary when talking pictures became popular, and while some theatres continued to have live organists play before the show and at intermission into the 1930s, many more theatre organs fell into disrepair. In the 1970s some were turned into "Pizza Organs" and thus received a few more years of life, but many of these magnificent instruments were unfortunately junked.
Originally installed in the theatre in Dillon, Montana in 1914, this model features a piano with an organ keyboard and pedal organ. There are three theatre organs remaining in playable condition in Montana: The Ellen in Bozeman, the Wihna in Missoula, and this one. Ozzie Wurdeman installed a Coinola spool frame so it can play the wonderful arrangements found on O Rolls.