Today, it plays behind a reproduced façade. At Idora it was played behind an ornate front façade, from the previous German organ, but Jake was not interested in the façade at their asking price, so he bought it less the façade, which w as later destroyed in a fire. Jake purchased it from Idora in the early 1980's. In 1916 the selling price was $1500.īuilt about 1919, its location is unknown until it was in use at Idora Park in Youngstown, OH. In good condition, the current value is in the $20,000 range. This model WURLITZER is equipped with two tracker frames which allow it to play continuously, since while one is rewinding the other plays. The vacuum and compressed air are supplied by wood and leather bellow pumps driven by a crankshaft, which is turned by the electric motor mounted on tope of the organ. The punched holes are "read" by a vacuum control system that in turn opens valves allowing the compressed air to enter the selected pipes and play the music. The music is contained on a paper roll with holes punched in it, designated by Wurlizter as style 150, similar to a player piano roll. The DeBence Music Museum has one of each of three other models of Wurlitzer band organs. Wurlitzer made many other models of Band Organs and there are surviving examples of most of them.
As far as we know there are only 3 of this model presently in use in public. We don't really know how many are still in existence, but it must be a small number by now. There were about 169 of this particular model built, the first one in 1916, with the last one in 1936. This model became the standard by which Merry Go Round organs were judged. (Some keys play more than one pipe.) It is equipped with a glockenspiel (the row of small bells on the lower front of the machine). It is a 54 key organ, which plays 46 notes, actuates 6 stops and plays 2 drums and a cymbal.
This is a Wurlizter Model 153 Duplex Orchestral Band Organ, built about 1919 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda, New York.
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