Details Wanted On A Childhood Memory

Attention antique player piano (& related instruments) fans: I'm hoping to get a little information on an instrument from my distant past. My family used to vacation in an area famous for its great fishing and we would frequent the main bait & tackle store in town, At the back of the store was a fascinating machine which combined a player piano, violin and percussion. Every year we would go there, I would always look forward to going to the store again to plug a coin into that wonderful machine and watch its mechanics as it played. That was over 35 years ago and the machine has long since disappeared from the store. I'm not sure if there was more than one manufacturer of such a machine, but I'd love to know what it was and approximately when it would have been manufactured.

They came in all sorts of shapes & sizes. Do a search on youtube for Orchestrion's, and you might find what your looking for.

wand143 wrote:. I'm not sure if there was more than one manufacturer of such a machine, but I'd love to know what it was and approximately when it would have been manufactured.

G'day there

If you could give me some more details in appreance , as in "did it have stain glass on the front ? , could you see all the movements inside? ect.I do have a book in my procession that shows all types of players and pianola's and there is a section on just coin operated mechanical music.....will try and help if i can.

When browsing you-tube , make sure you check out the "Hupfeld Violina" , its a player piano with 3 violins been played by roll.It is just amazing!.

Daniel

Daniel, the Hupfelt was a "phonolist" and Mills made the "Violano"in the USA. The Hupfelt had a circular bow that rotated at various speeds around the violins [each with 1 string] and they moved out slightly to contact the bow, as required. A well set up one can be heard on you-tube [go to Hupfelt]. Mills used rotating disks above the strings and had weights to keep the violin strings in tune.
Hal Klassen

I have seen at least three such machines:

- The Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village MI, had a working one when I was there in 1969. The sign called it a nickelodeon. It had a violin with 4 spinning rosin-covered rollers over the strings and a fingering mechanism, chimes struck by little hammers, a small piano, and drums.

- Karl Frey Orgelfabrik made a playing machine on a wagon for use in carnivals and circuses. It had a pipe organ, metal bar chimes, and drums. The player had long streams of accordion-folded cards (about 12x6 inches each) with holes punched in them to play the notes. The works are pneumatic, with electric motors operating the vacuum pumps and card drive. There are also figurines on the outside of the case that pretend to play instruments. Their movements are also contrtolled by the punched cards.

- I have seen a clock with an elaborate machine with multiple instruments in it, but I don't remember which museum I saw it in. It might be the Clock Museum in Rockford IL.

To give some details to the responses I've received so far (thanks to all, by the way), the machine I remember had a glass front so all the mechanics and instruments were visible, and the violin was played by four small resin wheels. The percussion was at least a snare drum and chimes...that's all I can remember.

Hi Wand, That was a Violano [by Mills] and they had a partial piano [without keys] in behind the violin. [a real bear to tune] Mills even made one with 2 violins, and as they could play all 4 strings simaltaniously, it could sound like a violin quartet. To the best of my knowlege, they never had any other instruments, but maybe a different machine had drums, and the years cause memory blurring [ask me how I know, and I'll try to remember]
Happy New Year to All, Hal Klassen

Thanks for the info, Hal. It would be interesting to learn what became of that machine. Hopefully it found a good home and has been well-preserved.

Google Violano, and you will find a trove of info, including some YouTube recordings of them playing!

The Mills Violano is one of several machines made by the Mills Novelty Co.
- Violano - just a violin
- Violano Virtuoso - violin and piano
- Viol-Xylophone - Violin and xylophone
- Mills String Quartet - violin, viola, cello, bass
- Double Violano - 2 violins and piano
- Jukeboxes

They are still in business, making MIDI drivers for the Violano.

I believe the machine I saw was a Bow-Front Viol-Xylophone.

I spelled the name Carl Frei wrong.

Wurlitzer, Gavioli, and Dickenson also made machines like this, but they do not have violins.

The previous post was mine. The time limit logged me out, but let me finish the poost. I was looking up the Violano links.

Thanks for the help, R-c.