Artizan Military Band Organ - Ye Olde Curiosity Shop - Seattle, WA
N 47° 36.261 W 122° 20.402
10T E 549605 N 5272537
A band organ that visitors can pay $1 to play.
Waymark Code: WMVCBM
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 03/31/2017
Views: 1
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop's website highlights this musical instrument:
Go ahead drop some change into our military band organ…and step back! The full, brass-band blast of the mechanized music machine was designed to be LOUD. The sound had to be heard over the noise of a circus, carousel, carnival, or roller skating rink.
Why a military band?
John Philip Sousa, America’s “March King,“ made military band music so immensely popular that by the turn of the twentieth century, nearly every small town boasted a band of its own. The craze had not cooled by the 1920s, when our organ was built by Artizan Factories, Inc. The advent of amplified music coupled with the Great Depression signaled the end of the band organ’s day in the sun. But you can still tap your toes to the sounds of yesteryear just out-side our shop (in July of 2015).
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop is both a gift shop and oddball museum full of freaks of nature.