Cafesjian's Carousel WurliTzer 153 Band Organ: The High School Cadets

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Cafesjian's Carousel boasts an exceptional Wurlitzer 153 band organ, meticulously rebuilt by Mike Merrick, an Our Fair Carousel volunteer and board member. The Wurlitzer was purchased in 1992 to replace the carousel's original band organ, which was destroyed by fire in 1939. After hundreds of hours of work by Merrick, the band organ was used for a time at the carousel's Town Square Park location. Since April 2000, the band organ has been popular feature of the carousel in its new home in Como Park.

About the Wurlitzer 153... This band organ was built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York, which described it as an "orchestral organ suitable for three-abreast carousels." Judging from the serial number stamped on some of the internal parts, it was built in the 1920s.

This band organ has 164 pipes consisting of trumpet, trombone, flute, violin and cello voices. The melody division has a 13-note glockenspiel, called "bells" in organ parlance. Expression--that is, variation of volume--is provided by swell shutters in the front of the organ and by extra violin and flute ranks; all of these are controlled by register perforations in the paper music roll.

Wind to blow the pipes and to operate the player mechanism and percussions is provided by a 1.5 horsepower blower.

The band organ uses Wurlitzer style 150 paper rolls which are similar to player piano rolls except that these usually have 10 tunes instead of just one. In order to provide continuous music, the band organ uses dual-roll frames. While one roll rewinds, the other plays. Most of the rolls in our collection are recuts from about 10 years ago. They have been punched using original Wurlitzer masters and perforating machinery. Bill Nunn, another board member, has loaned several rolls so riders and volunteers can enjoy a variety of music.

http://www.ourfaircarousel.org/bandor...
http://www.ourfaircarousel.org/index....

Category:

Music

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• 18
• WurliTzer
• 153
• The
• High
• School
• Cadets

[DonaldFranklin67]

I rode the carousel(Philadelphia Tobaggan Co. #85) at what used to be Paragon Park at Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA, last summer. That carousel has a Wurlitzer 153 band organ, which was painted with scenes of Boston Harbor, etc. That one doesn''t have the swell shade in front,like Cafesjian's does.

[tregnier279]

@DonaldFranklin67 Honestly, I've heard very few band organ's in general, but in recordings I've heard (very many), the organs with swell shutters and those without don't sound much different, i.e., the organ's with shutters still have very little variation in volume/expression, as far as I can tell.

[DonaldFranklin67]

@tregnier279 I mentioned this, being that I'm into the theater organ, as these and other pipe organs have swell shades to control the volume coming from the pipes, as I see from your description, that this band organ has the swell shade in front. The front on the Model 153 band organ on the carousel (PTC #85) at Paragon Park was open, so the pipes, xylophone, etc.were visible.

[tregnier279]

@DonaldFranklin67 As a theatre organist and having an interest in band organs, I thin kth essential difference between swell shutters on a large pipe organ is that the shutters represent the only opening to an otherwise closed swell-box. On a band organ, the back is usually not closed and the sound therefore leaves through the back, rendering the swells in front relatively useless. That has always been what I've noticed to be the case but for all I know it could be absolutely wrong.

[whoisthisguy724]

@tregnier279 On a carousel like Kennyood's, I've noticed a big difference in expression when the shutters close, especially in songs like "Christmas in Killarney" (which i have a recording of)

[tregnier279]

@whoisthisguy724 I guess it your mileage may vary, depending on the instrument and its home.