“This one-of-a-kind masterpiece manufactured by the Ruth firm of Waldkirch is one of the finest German fairground organs ever built! It was a custom order by Wilhelm A. Meissner who specifically requested an animated orchestra to outshine his competitors, previously having released patents for putting animated figures on carousels.
The organ eventually ended up in the hands of William Nunley, responsible for Nunley’s Happyland on Long Island. The organ played at the park until its closing in the late 70’s when it was acquired by organ restorer Gavin McDonough who has painstakingly restored the organ to its beautiful original condition.
The organ was converted to Wurlitzer 165 rolls in 1948 but still retained all of its original pipework and wind-operated action. With the addition of MIDI, the organ is once again able to play its complete 78 key scale!” (from a YouTube description of the same organ playing a rendition of “Hello, Dolly” on YouTube)
Not only do I love that march – it is one of the greats – but I love that organ. The extraordinary craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail required to build something like that, or to repair and rebuild it, is so rare it has to be admired. And so time-consuming. Which partly explains their scarcity. To do it all without the aid of any electronics or computer ….
We humans are very quick to forget the bad old days with their bad old ways once a task has been automated.
Consider the original Fantasia, from Disney. Every single frame of a full-length, animated motion picture had to be hand drawn and colored, with changes so subtle that the motion of hippos dancing ballet looked plausible. It is an awe-inspiring piece of work, and so is that organ.
I agree with you wholeheartedly! Hand-crafted things were truly works of art way back when…..all done without the benefit of computers, 3-D copiers, and power tools! I’m constantly amazed!
You know, I just tried… briefly, cos it’s very late… to find a pic of the whole organ, preferably next to a person or something else of reasonably recognisable size.
The only ones I found were like this or even closer.
I’d like to know whether this is the whole instrument, or just the top of it, and the approximate size of the “musicians”.
With no point of reference, they could be 6″ tall or 3 feet!
2: Drop the “Our Library” menu
3: Move down to “Our Archive”
4: Move to “Historical Photos” and click on it
5: Click on “Click here to view our collection” (it’s immediately below “Plainedge Public Library…usage.”)
6: In the “Search gallery” (upper right) box type in “organ” and then hit your “Enter” key (all being well, you will have six photographs / the third one is the one you want).
7: Click on the third photograph; it zooms up for a clear view, and can be made bigger still.
This is, to the best of my knowledge, the current roster of the Canadian Brass. I saw them a couple of years pre-pandemic in Worcester. The lone remaining original member is Charles Daellenbach on the tuba. The others have all changed multiple times, but this present lineup is superb. Their arrangements really demand A LOT of the trumpet players and these two young men appear to be up to the challenge. One of them is here playing the typical band instrument, the b-flat trumpet. The curly haired one is playing a piccolo trumpet, also pitched in b-flat but an octave higher.
I was hoping that you would comment on this rendition! I thought it was fantastic, but I really appreciate what you, as a professional, think.
That last (voiced) high note was incredible, too!
BTW, Worcester Massachusetts? You live near me, don’t you? (Western Mass)
Or, do I have that wrong?
For the rest of my life I will associate this song with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, & John Candy in Stripes. It may not be fair to the original, but that’s how it has to be.
You piqued my curiosity (if I had ever heard of the attack before today I didn’t remember anything about it).
The following quote….
“An animal encounter of a very different kind was had by Ray
in September 1963 when he was filming a scene for My Favorite Martian in the backseat of a car along with a trained chimpanzee
named Jimmy. Well, for some reason Jimmy went crazy and attacked
Ray viciously, biting him around the eye, behind his ears on the left
jaw and both hands. He underwent extensive surgery to fix the
damage. In January 1964 he filed a lawsuit against the chimp’s
owner, Ralph Helfner, in the amount of $150,000. The case
was settled out of court in January 1969 for $10,000.”
….comes from HERE. The article is a detailed history of Ray Walston’s acting career.
It has 26 (sadly uncaptioned) pictures accompanying it (but if you do an image search of some kind all can be found captioned somewhere).
As I said in my “Little Rascals” comment I don’t like chimpanzees, and never have. I’ve seen fewer than my fingers (and yes, I’ve got 10) in real life, but from the first time I saw one in the movies as a kid, my reaction was… “no.” Why? Who knows, they’re just….yech!
As near as I can tell, what you’ve pictured, while containing whiskey, is called a Stone Sour or Whiskey O.J..
These two recipes are a lot closer together, an orange slice is used only as a garnish.
From:
“The Bartender’s Bible” by Gary Regan
Published by: Harper Collins 1991
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 91-55104
In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the whiskey,
lemon juice, and sugar. Shake Well. Treain into a sour glass.
Garnish with the orange slice and the cherry.
From: “The Calvert Party Encyclopedia” Your Complete Guide to Home Entertaining
Compiled and edited by Calvert Distillers Company
(Best guess: 1960)
Whiskey Sour
1 1/2 Oz. Calvert Reserve
Juice 1/2 Lemon
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Pour ingredients in shaker
with ice. Shake well. Strain.
Serve in sour glass. Garnish
with cherry and orange slice.
Calvert Distillers is still around, but its ownership is so complicated I’m not going to be bothered looking at it in detail.
I dont think wp liked it, i sugest go to google and look up Cleveland Indians, you should find the sane article i did, it gives all the names of the team since the start with the dates
Cos sometimes a link is disallowed by the source, not the destination… though I didn’t think Wikipedia cared.
…
I.e. I’ve posted pictures that looked fine, but the next day were gone, or replaced with a message saying something like “Please don’t link to our site.”
Sometimes the issue is copyright, sometimes bandwidth or traffic to the hosting site… or just the author’s desire to have people visit instead of reading their work elsewhere.
…
OTOH, if you copied it and pasted it here… That sounds more like WordPress did it.
Why, I don’t know, since plenty of material is copied here.
Entry of the Gladiators
by Julius Fučik
“This one-of-a-kind masterpiece manufactured by the Ruth firm of Waldkirch is one of the finest German fairground organs ever built! It was a custom order by Wilhelm A. Meissner who specifically requested an animated orchestra to outshine his competitors, previously having released patents for putting animated figures on carousels.
The organ eventually ended up in the hands of William Nunley, responsible for Nunley’s Happyland on Long Island. The organ played at the park until its closing in the late 70’s when it was acquired by organ restorer Gavin McDonough who has painstakingly restored the organ to its beautiful original condition.
The organ was converted to Wurlitzer 165 rolls in 1948 but still retained all of its original pipework and wind-operated action. With the addition of MIDI, the organ is once again able to play its complete 78 key scale!” (from a YouTube description of the same organ playing a rendition of “Hello, Dolly” on YouTube)
Not only do I love that march – it is one of the greats – but I love that organ. The extraordinary craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail required to build something like that, or to repair and rebuild it, is so rare it has to be admired. And so time-consuming. Which partly explains their scarcity. To do it all without the aid of any electronics or computer ….
We humans are very quick to forget the bad old days with their bad old ways once a task has been automated.
Consider the original Fantasia, from Disney. Every single frame of a full-length, animated motion picture had to be hand drawn and colored, with changes so subtle that the motion of hippos dancing ballet looked plausible. It is an awe-inspiring piece of work, and so is that organ.
I agree with you wholeheartedly! Hand-crafted things were truly works of art way back when…..all done without the benefit of computers, 3-D copiers, and power tools! I’m constantly amazed!
Wow.
You know, I just tried… briefly, cos it’s very late… to find a pic of the whole organ, preferably next to a person or something else of reasonably recognisable size.
The only ones I found were like this or even closer.
I’d like to know whether this is the whole instrument, or just the top of it, and the approximate size of the “musicians”.
With no point of reference, they could be 6″ tall or 3 feet!
Due to protection of its copyright your steps — should you choose to accept them 🙂 — are:
1: For ease open this U.R.L. in a separate window
https://www.plainedgeinfo.org/new/
2: Drop the “Our Library” menu
3: Move down to “Our Archive”
4: Move to “Historical Photos” and click on it
5: Click on “Click here to view our collection” (it’s immediately below “Plainedge Public Library…usage.”)
6: In the “Search gallery” (upper right) box type in “organ” and then hit your “Enter” key (all being well, you will have six photographs / the third one is the one you want).
7: Click on the third photograph; it zooms up for a clear view, and can be made bigger still.
Thanks, but….
Does this help, Susan?
opening day, 1951
Oh! They’re bigger than I thought!
And their stage is closer to the ground.
Like a puppet show!
They need a union, so they can get some breaks outside that little box.
Bathroom breaks, at least.
for JP Steve …
Kevin Sawford
As my mother used to say…. “A face only a mother could love.”
Or Steve.
…
(My mother didn’t say the Steve part.
Not cos, you know, well, I mean not for any reason.
She just didn’t know Steve.)
He does look quite friendly.
But who couldn’t love a beautiful damsel(fly?)
Aw! What a cutie!
This is, to the best of my knowledge, the current roster of the Canadian Brass. I saw them a couple of years pre-pandemic in Worcester. The lone remaining original member is Charles Daellenbach on the tuba. The others have all changed multiple times, but this present lineup is superb. Their arrangements really demand A LOT of the trumpet players and these two young men appear to be up to the challenge. One of them is here playing the typical band instrument, the b-flat trumpet. The curly haired one is playing a piccolo trumpet, also pitched in b-flat but an octave higher.
I was hoping that you would comment on this rendition! I thought it was fantastic, but I really appreciate what you, as a professional, think.
That last (voiced) high note was incredible, too!
BTW, Worcester Massachusetts? You live near me, don’t you? (Western Mass)
Or, do I have that wrong?
The two guys on our right have it easy.
Amazing! Such coordination at such a high tempo is mind blowing.
ditto!
very good!
Wow! I’ve tried to play a trumpet on-and-off since I was 15. I didn’t even know you could play a trumpet that fast!
For the rest of my life I will associate this song with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, & John Candy in Stripes. It may not be fair to the original, but that’s how it has to be.
Oh, that’s right! How could I have forgotten that scene….?
Wow, Stel, you come with a full bag of musical treats today. Always loved Manfred Mann.
Me, too! Glad you enjoyed it all!
I expect Mr. Chaplin made sure that lion had been well fed before shooting that scene.
….and, also very tired!
Ray Walston (“My Favorite Martian”; the series) wasn’t so lucky…
You piqued my curiosity (if I had ever heard of the attack before today I didn’t remember anything about it).
The following quote….
“An animal encounter of a very different kind was had by Ray
in September 1963 when he was filming a scene for My Favorite
Martian in the backseat of a car along with a trained chimpanzee
named Jimmy. Well, for some reason Jimmy went crazy and attacked
Ray viciously, biting him around the eye, behind his ears on the left
jaw and both hands. He underwent extensive surgery to fix the
damage. In January 1964 he filed a lawsuit against the chimp’s
owner, Ralph Helfner, in the amount of $150,000. The case
was settled out of court in January 1969 for $10,000.”
….comes from HERE. The article is a detailed history of Ray Walston’s acting career.
It has 26 (sadly uncaptioned) pictures accompanying it (but if you do an image search of some kind all can be found captioned somewhere).
As I said in my “Little Rascals” comment I don’t like chimpanzees, and never have. I’ve seen fewer than my fingers (and yes, I’ve got 10) in real life, but from the first time I saw one in the movies as a kid, my reaction was… “no.” Why? Who knows, they’re just….yech!
Oh! Charlie Chapbasset!
The grand master of silent slapstick…
I’ve said it before… and I’ll say it again….
nobody could slap a stick or fetch one like Charlie!
This film is truly funny… in such deft comedic hands, er.. paws… you don’t need words.
…
Inimitable as Chapbasset was, he did have a human imitator….
who called himself Charlie “Chaplin.” Hah!
You can see by the poster Stel brought, he did try to imitate this film….
But his all-human version is merely “Circus” …
I guess cos they couldn’t find any fleas….
Bassets have much better access to them, performing or otherwise.
Ask any basset you know.
…
And it must not have had big co-stars in it like “Flea Circus” did,
cos the poster doesn’t even mention anybody else.
Probably couldn’t find a great human beauty, to take the place of Merna Kennel.
…
A bit of trivia….
Even though Charlie Chapbasset was a much bigger star (measured by fame, not stature),
An adorable puppy, the very young Cleo Clifford, actually played the title role in a film with the human, Charlie Chaplin….”The Basset”.
You may or may not remember that Stel did that poster, too… and I love it!
I won’t post it, in case she wants to run it again herself one day.
banana split
Please tell me that’s not bacon.
OMG I do think it’s bacon.
Now I have to hope that’s caramel sauce, not maple syrup.
whiskey sour
As near as I can tell, what you’ve pictured, while containing whiskey, is called a Stone Sour or Whiskey O.J..
These two recipes are a lot closer together, an orange slice is used only as a garnish.
From:
“The Bartender’s Bible” by Gary Regan
Published by: Harper Collins 1991
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 91-55104
“WHISKEY SOUR”
2 ounces blended whiskey
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
1 orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the whiskey,
lemon juice, and sugar. Shake Well. Treain into a sour glass.
Garnish with the orange slice and the cherry.
From:
“The Calvert Party Encyclopedia”
Your Complete Guide to Home Entertaining
Compiled and edited by Calvert Distillers Company
(Best guess: 1960)
Whiskey Sour
1 1/2 Oz. Calvert Reserve
Juice 1/2 Lemon
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Pour ingredients in shaker
with ice. Shake well. Strain.
Serve in sour glass. Garnish
with cherry and orange slice.
Calvert Distillers is still around, but its ownership is so complicated I’m not going to be bothered looking at it in detail.
..
“Mmmmm. That was tasty! Got any more?”
today’s theme………… must be MUSIC!! thanks stel, for posting ALL kinds of music. fun!!
So WordPress practices censorship, I posted a complete history on the name of the Cleveland Indians from Wikipedia and it was removed!
Try again. I’d like to see that.
I dont think wp liked it, i sugest go to google and look up Cleveland Indians, you should find the sane article i did, it gives all the names of the team since the start with the dates
Was it copy and paste, or a link?
Cos sometimes a link is disallowed by the source, not the destination… though I didn’t think Wikipedia cared.
…
I.e. I’ve posted pictures that looked fine, but the next day were gone, or replaced with a message saying something like “Please don’t link to our site.”
Sometimes the issue is copyright, sometimes bandwidth or traffic to the hosting site… or just the author’s desire to have people visit instead of reading their work elsewhere.
…
OTOH, if you copied it and pasted it here… That sounds more like WordPress did it.
Why, I don’t know, since plenty of material is copied here.
Copy paste
That is very strange.
At some point I’ll try pasting something from Wikipedia and see what happens.
Btw thanks for replying.
Too long maybe?
Try splitting it into two parts.
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