Sigma Alpha Iota

20 Winter 2022 • sai-national.org A Wld of Music By Jayne I. Hanlin O pened in May 1983, the Music House Museum, located just east of Traverse City, Michigan, has an extensive and impressive collection of automated musical instruments. e converted chicken house, granary, and dairy barn on the late 19th-century Stiffler farm display the unique items. Docents lead ninety-minute tours, detailing the history and describing the engineering of the rare instruments and then playing some. Listening to it is fascinating. A chronological exhibit of phonographs begins with the work of omas Edison. Visitors who choose self-guided tours can learn about the colorful morning glory horns as well as artistic phonograph cabinets and various old radios, including very early ones, in these galleries. Even a large wooden Nipper, the trademark for "His Master's Voice" is there! In my youth, I distinctly remember singing the words of the popular 1949 song Music! Music! Music! or Put Another Nickel In: Put another nickel in In the nickelodeon All I want is loving you And music, music, music. At the time, I didn't know what a nickelodeon was. Now I do! e origin of the word comes from "nickel" and "odeon" (or theater entertainment). Oen decorated with leaded- glass inserts, these elaborate mechanical organs had twenty-eight organ flute pipes on a mandolin rail that produce the iconic honky-tonk sound. Operated by punched paper rolls with multiple popular tunes, nickelodeons usually were leased rather than sold. One of the instruments in the museum's authentic setting, the relocated Hurray Back Saloon formerly on East Front Street in Traverse City, had an extraordinary continuous 350-foot loop of perforated paper to play music selections. Musical Treasure Trove in Michigan 1922 dance organ of Theofiel Mortimer that is hand-carved from lime wood 1922 dance organ of Theofiel Mortimer that is hand-carved from lime wood

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