The Wurlitzer 153 Then and Now

When comparing these two images, it is easy to see that the Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ on display in the window of the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in East Liverpool, Ohio, today, is the exact model shown at left in 1970 still playing in the center of the Carousel Pavilion in Rock Springs Park. Identical models, yes, but are they the exact same machine?

I reported in my book and on this blog that the band organs pictured are indeed one in the same. On June 22, 2011, I wrote, “Rock Springs Park’s Carousel Band Organ was sold at auction in 1974. It was purchased by Dr. James Smith of Connecticut. Dr. Smith, an East Liverpool High School alum, collected amusement park machines, especially games of chance, and displayed them in his suburban Connecticut barn.” But upon studying the two images above I noticed that the scenes painted on their facades were not the same.

So what might account for this difference? Well, in the September/October 1983 issue of Americana magazine an article on Smith's collection reported that "Unlike some other collectors, devotees of coin-operated machines usually approve of restoration, refinishing, and rebuilding them." Smith, a plastic surgeon by trade, used his skills to restore many of his own machines, but he also "hired a local artist to decorate them," according to the article.

While the two scenes are different, their themes are roughly the same. Each shows a rural setting with trees, waterways, and North American animals. The decorative screens in front of the louvers and bar-bells depict a nighttime scene of a small village, stone bridge and steeple on the Lou Holtz model, but this same area on the Rock Springs Park model is hidden by one of Bill Dentzel’s military horses in the photo above, so we don’t know what it depicts. I’ve yet to find an image of Rock Spring’s organ in which this scene is clearly visible. In all the images I’ve come across it is either blocked from view or too faded to make out. Perhaps this is why the restoration artist chose a similar theme but did not paint an exact duplicate. It might have been so faded that exact replication was not possible.

In all the articles I’ve read about Dr. Smith’s collection, they mention how he began his love for coin-operated machines during the Depression when as a youth he traveled to West Virginia’s Rock Springs Park. We are fortunate that he did, because if it was not for his love of the park and its myriad of machines we would not have the opportunity to hear the band organ play again back home.

Some other related facts:

In a photo caption from the East Liverpool Review dated Saturday, July 4, 1992, titled, “Sounds of Yesterday, Alumni of Tomorrow,” and showing two sisters admiring a Wurlitzer 153, photographer, Fred Fischer, notes “Cara Goodman (left) and her sister Stephanie admire a 153 Wurlitzer band organ on Fourth Street with their cousin Mike Hill Friday. The band organ was originally used in the merry-go-round at Rock Springs Park. All the children are East Liverpool residents.”

Wurlitzer Style #153 Duplex Orchestral Organ. This type was used on three-abreast carousel's, in open dance pavilions, skating rinks, and other amusement areas.
The machine was made by the Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York. It has 54 Keys and plays from paper rolls of music.

Height, with front, 7' 1"; without front, 5' 2".
Width, with front, 8' 8"; without front, 4' 2 1/2".
Depth, with front, 3' 8"; without front, 2' 7 1/2".
Weight, packed for shipment, 1,300 lbs. Requires 1/2 H.P. Motor to operate.
INSTRUMENTATION:
Basses:- 3 Wooden Trombones; three 8-foot Stopped Diapason; three 4-foot Open Diapason; Three 2 foot Stopped Diapason.
Accompaniment:-9 Stopped Flute Pipes; 18 Violin Pipes.
Melody:- 16 Stopped Flute; 16 Octave Violin; 15 Wooden Trumpets; 15 Cello Pipes; 32 Violin; 16 Open Flute; 15 Stopped Pipes; 16 Bell-Bars
Traps:- Bass Drum, Snare Drum, and Cymbal.
Automatic Stops: 1 for Octave Violin; 1 for Open Flute; 1 for Cello Pipes; 1 for Stopped Pipes; 1 for Bell-Bars; 1 for Swell Shutters.

Carousel Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ

Rock Springs Park’s carousel with band organ just visible in the background (Courtesy of Rich Brookes; Photo by Clarence O. Durbin)

Rock Springs Park’s Carousel Band Organ was sold at auction in 1974. It was purchased by Dr. James Smith of Connecticut. Dr. Smith, an East Liverpool High School alum, collected amusement park machines, especially games of chance, and displayed them in his suburban Connecticut barn. The band organ under the title “Truck-a-Tune” was often played at local fairs and parades. When his collection was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for millions, he permitted his children to take their favorite pieces and donated the Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ to the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association. It is now on display in the window of The Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Museum.

Wurlitzer 153 in the window of the Lou Holtz Hall of Fame (Courtesy of Christian Comm)

In 1970, my friend Dick Bowker made a recording of two of his favorite march rolls on the Wurlitzer Band Organ in Rock Springs Park. He and two friends tape-recorded the rolls eight times and a recording company in Cleveland cut three LPs of the best takes. According to Dick, who still has one of the records but has misplaced it in his home, “they did not sound very good because even though the park spent a lot of money to restore the organ in 1969, a leaky roof damaged it in winter.”

Now Dick has a collection of band organ CDs which we listened to while scanning photographs and postcards for Images of Ameica: Rock Springs Park. His favorite is the “Spiffy” march roll, seen in this photo along with some others.

March rolls including "Spiffy March" (Courtesy of Richard L. Bowker)

You can hear Rock Springs Park’s band organ play again at the Lou Holtz Museum for 25 cents. Until then, get a feel for a breezy summer tune by clicking on the YouTube video below which features Cafesjian's Carousel’s 153 with “164 pipes consisting of trumpet, trombone, flute, violin and cello voices, and a 13-note glockenspiel, called 'bells' in organ parlance.”

Rock Springs Park: My Field of Dreams (Part IV)

In this installment, I digress to tell the story of my visit to the Lou Holtz Hall of Fame in East Liverpool, Ohio, in the fall of 2009. [Spoiler Alert – In the first paragraph I give away the ending to the movie Field of Dreams.]

The Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ in the front window of The Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Museum (Courtesy of Christian Comm)

Since I started this series of blog posts about my experiences with the book Images of America: Rock Springs Park, and how they remind me of my favorite movie, Field of Dreams, I sat down and watched the famous “guy-cry” flick for the hundredth time and, yes, I cried, again. It is the perfect storm of heart-tugging emotions for a guy like me: In the final 10-minutes of the film, the protagonist's daughter nearly chokes to death on a good-old American hot dog, a deceased small-town doctor gets a second chance to fulfill his dream of facing a major league baseball pitcher but then gives it all up to save said daughter, at which point we realize that he can’t play ball in "heaven" anymore because of some weird rule involving the first base line. To top it all off; Ghost Dad returns and has a last “catch” with his son, asking, “Is this heaven?” To which the son replies, “No, it’s Iowa." (dramatic pause) "Is there a heaven?” “Oh yeah,” Ghost Dad says with a smile, “It’s the place where dreams come true.” Son then looks to wife and daughter on their farmhouse porch swing and says, “Then I guess this is heaven.” AND THE WATERWORKS FLOW!!!

Like most guys, I used to be able to hold back all kinds of tears. It is an unwritten part of the "bro-code" that guys are only allowed to get a lump in their throat and maybe the slightest hint of watery eyes, but that’s it! "THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!" Then, I majored in theater and was trained to release all those pent-up emotions, allowing them to surface and flow like the bubbling spring waters of Rock Springs Park. I probably saved thousands of dollars in therapy bills. But now I live life on the edge; trying to avoid embarrassing situations like the time I cried sitting beside my 9-year old daughter and her friends while watching Because of Winn Dixie, and don't even get me started with Toy Story 3!

In the fall of 2009, I was hoping to get such an emotional response from the elderly gentleman who provided me with most of the images for my Images of America book. His name is Richard Bowker, and after many “scanning parties” at his home in Forest Hills near Pittsburgh, I discovered that not only was Rock Springs Park his favorite amusement park, but he was also one of the last fun-seekers to ride the Cyclone on Labor Day night 1970. And, to top it all off, he is a huge fan of Wurlitzer 153 Band Organs, especially the one that was once housed in the carousel pavilion at Rock Springs Park. In fact, during that same summer of 1970, the last season the park was open, Mr. Bowker tried desperately to get a reel-to-reel audio recording of the band organ playing one of his favorite march rolls. He explained that the year before, owner Bob Hand had paid to have the organ totally refurbished, but then, that winter, the antique instrument was ruined by an ice melt and a leaky roof. Like Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams, who offers the aging Doc Graham a chance to fulfill his baseball dream, I saw an opportunity to make a similar offer to Mr. Bowker. “I know a place where that Wurlitzer Band Organ plays again and, if you’d like, I could take you there.”

So in August of 2009, with my book only halfway completed, I took Mr. Bowker to East Liverpool, Ohio, to the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Museum. In the window of the old bank building, rests the Wurlitzer Band Organ from Rock Springs Park, on loan from the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association, donated by Dr. James Smith from his 3.3 million dollar collection of amusement park devices . For 25 cents a visitor to the Lou Holtz Museum can see the old organ light up and play a gay melody from a time gone by.

We were met by museum director, Robin Webster, and a reporter from The Review, Mike McElwain, and his photographer. All were very generous and gracious. As the quarter was dropped in the slot, Mike’s photographer snapped a couple of pictures of Mr. Bowker standing before the Wurlitzer window listening to that beautiful old machine crank out a tune with bells, drums, whistles, and eighty-year old pipes.

This is it! I thought. Mr. Bowker is going to turn to me speechless with wet eyes and nod like Doc Graham after he gets that base hit at the end of the movie. Instead, Mr. Bowker turned to us all and said, “That doesn’t sound very good! I know a guy who could fix that for you.”

That story got the second biggest laugh of the night when I spoke to the Women’s Art Club in Wellsville, Ohio, over a week ago. But it was at that same meeting when Phyllis, who I wrote about in my last blog post, amazed us all with her own Field of Dreams story, one that begins in Rock Springs Park and ends in a television studio in New York in the 1950’s.

Look for the final installment - Coming soon!