By Erin O’Neill

The Marietta Times

eoneill@mariettatimes.com

A great form of entertainment from the late 1800s through the 1920s was the fairground — or band — organ, which many times accompanied rotations on a carousel.

Companies like Cincinnati’s own Wurlitzer, founded in 1853, mass manufactured the band organs in the United States due in part to high tariffs placed on imports from Europe, specifically Germany, France and Belgium. The company made its last organ in the 1940s, according to information from the Johnson Organ Company’s history of band organs. The organ is played mechanically by either a rotating barrel with the music pinned on it like a music box, a strip of cards perforated with the musical data and registration controls called book music or interchangeable rolls of paper similarly programmed called music rolls. Most machines are meant to be played without a human performer and operate through wind power generated by bellows.

Organizations like the Carousel Association of America keep the tradition of these musical pieces alive, sharing the history and promoting events that celebrate everything from the behemoth 4-ton Gavioli, replicating a 100-piece concert band, to the portable hand organ that strolling musicians used. Organ grinders, along with their companion monkey performers, were frequently banned in cities like New York, where they were deemed a nuisance.

Bob and Marcia Ebert, of North Ridgeville, will be attending the Band Organ Rally in Marietta and are the proud owners of 25 mechanical musical instruments, including music boxes, a player piano, nickelodeons and organ-grinder organs.

“We became interested in the mechanical music hobby when, 50 years ago, our wedding photographer showed us his antique music box. In 1981, we were able to acquire a fine music box and we joined the Music Box Society International and started going to the MBSI band organ rallies and saw and heard the beautiful band organs and organ-grinder organs,” said Bob Ebert. “By 1989 we were totally infected with what amounted to an incurable band organ and organ-grinder organ virus.”

It was in 1989 that the couple acquired their first organ-grinder organ.

“It was built for us by the Raffin Company of Uberlingen, Germany. It has 20 notes and 31 pipes and it plays paper rolls,” Ebert said. “We totally love the mechanical music hobby. Cranking an organ-grinder organ, listening to band organs or playing a music box are experiences that give us a unique combined form of fun, relaxation and musical excitement.”

Glenshaw, Pa. residents Bob and Diane Yates will be traveling to town for the rally and will be bringing their Tangley Calliope. Calliopes were often used in circus parades in the early 1900s.

“We have played our calliope in everything from parades, shopping center openings, private parties and even for a traveling circus,” said Bob Yates.

The instrument has 43 brass whistles that Yates claims can be heard from up to half a mile away. It can be played by hand from a keyboard or automatically from a paper roll.

“It’s a real attention-getter,” Yates said.