6/1/2008

Carved & painted beauties

By Britt Aamodt

HAMEL, MINN.-In today's world of 24-hour radio broadcasts, downloaded music, iPods and Internet radio, it's hard to imagine a time when music was confined to live musicians and mechanical contraptions that worked off cranks, belts, wheels and piped air.

The world of mechanical music, which had its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is Bill Nunn's world. To date, Nunn has collected nearly a dozen mechanical music organs. Not your church organs either, but the exquisitely carved and painted beauties that provided a musical soundscape for many turn-of-the-century dance halls, restaurants and fair rides.

"You say band organ and people don't know what you're talking about," says Nunn of his organs, which he houses in a pole barn built specifically for the collection. "But when you say carousel or fair organ they go, 'Oh, I know what that is.'"

Like a player piano, a fair organ feeds a series of folded sheets of cardboard, called a music book, over a tracker bar. The bar translates the punched holes into music by opening valves to allow compressed air through pipes and activating the percussion section, including bass drum, snare drum and triangle.

What comes out has been called the happiest music on earth - those tinkling, tremolo melodies that call up muggy summer nights suffused by the glow of carnival light. It is also the music that blared over skating rinks and dance halls before the advent of sound systems and tape decks.

Nunn and wife Diane never intended to let their collection outgrow their house. "We started out with the figurines and the collection took off from there," says Nunn, referring to the small carousel animals that inhabit the rooms of their house and several shelves of the barn.

Eventually the animals grew. The Nunns bought life-size carousel animals and then an entire carousel unit from Mission Creek Theme Park in Hinckley, Minn.

"When the park closed, the carousel was dismantled. The creditors took what they could, so we ended up buying animals to restore the piece," explains Nunn.

With a flick of a switch, the carousel spins to life. Carved horses rise and fall. Lights dance. But a carousel just isn't a carousel without the music. Over against one wall, a Wurlitzer Marching Band organ vibrates as a spinning belt turns the music roll. The sound is enormous and fills the space.

Nunn raises his voice to talk over the music. "They built the fair organs so the sound would carry. This one's called a Marching Band because touring military bands were very popular back then. The organ is supposed to sound like one of those bands."

With locations in Cincinnati, New York and Chicago, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company was a latecomer to fair and dance organs. European houses like Gavioli had been manufacturing self-playing musical instruments since the early part of the 19th century.

"American carousel makers used to import organs from France, Germany and Belgium - the principal areas of organ manufacturing," says Nunn. "But then a 45 percent import tax was passed. So the carousel makers began to import parts and assemble them here or make copies of European organs."

Another of Nunn's Wurlitzers is a copy of a German dance organ. Dance organs, unlike their big-voiced fair organ cousins, produce a mellower sound. They also tend to be larger and less portable, like the Charles Marenghi organ from France or the Hooghuys from Belgium.

Nunn's 1897 Gavioli is one of the oldest in his collection, and one of the most derelict.

"I buy them derelict because that's how I can afford them," he says. Fully restored organs price at thousands of dollars. Yet Nun enjoys the restoration process, which can last months or years, and the thrill of hearing an organ play once more after decades of silence.

At his website www.skyrockfarm.com, Nunn provides a link for parties interested in a private collection tour.

Bill Nunn and a detail from one of his Richter fair organs
Nunn takes calls from parties interested in seeing his carousel and organ collection. In the background are a Richter fair organ and Hooghuys dance organ. (Photos by Britt Aamodt)

Britt Aamodt is a full-time marketing and freelance writer living in Minneapolis who gets her best ideas while sitting over coffee at her local coffee shop.

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