Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 20, 1980, edition 1 / Page 13
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Weekender Pcge 3 Antique village provides return to music machines X 57 Thursday, March 20, 1S30 ylWKWWWMIMiW .1 i svs By JOHN BEHM No, you haven't seen it all. Or heard it all. But now you can, thanks to a dozen years of hard work by Priscilla and Doyle Lane. From all over the world, the Lanes have collected and restored a showcase of mechanical musical marvels and have put it on display at the Daniel Boone Antique Village off I-85 near H illsborough. It's the Wonderful World of Self-Playing Instruments. Your grandfather would remember easily (put a little nickel inin the nickelodeon!) The predecessor to the jukebox took a nickel to play one melody. Right? But what about those other musical novelties from the turn of the century? When was the last time you listened to a favorite tune on the harmoniphan or triola? Or invited a friend to the apartment to examine your etchings and listen to the latest on your Regina Changer? Thought so. The names for these self-operating music makers are as colorful as the age they represent. Tournaphone. Triola. Celestina. Made in Chicago, built in New York, hand-crafted in Switzerland these music boxes range in size from the very small (the familiar wind-up variety, great ' for a dressing table) to the very large (somewhat uncommon, a mahoghany leviathan powered by an electric motor, weighing more than two tons and containing a small orchestra). Mrs. Lane herself exhibits the collection. "It's more than just a museum," says Lane,"lt's a show. There's a little history behind every piece in the collection, but the music they make tells you more about them than I ever could." Weeiieacter is the feature magazine published each Thursday by The Daily Tar Heel. Melanie Sill Editor James Alexander Jr., Assistant Editor Elliott Warnock, Columnist ahr Qailii aar Urrl George Shadroui, Editor Dinita James, Managing Editor Mark Murrell, Features Editor Laura Elliott, Arts Editor Bill Fields, Sports Editor Andy James, Photography Editor n One of the first musical wonders to entertain a visitor is the "Encore" Automatic Banjo. An ingenious arrangement of metal buttons (fingertips) and claws (picks) plunks out tunes on this contraption as well as any North Carolina picker. Thousands of these coin-operated machines were constructed in 1896, but the success of the "Encore" was eclipsed by the builder's inability to keep up with repairs. Not a banjo enthusiast? Featured in the same room is a Swiss-made music box with no less than 110 teeth. Let it play you an affectuoso. In an adjoining room, a dance-halt organ from Fairbanks, Alaska, plays "Que sara, sara" from a player-piano type punched paper roll. For 25 cents a shot, ghostly f ingers play a tune on a piano that once entertained patrons of the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virginia City. For another quarter, listen to melodies provided by a self-playing Wurlitzer Harp taken from the Six Mile House, a famous brothel outside Butte, Montana. But that's not all. For the discriminating ear, the Violano Virtuoso (designated by the U.S. government as one of the "Eight Great Inventions of the Decade") sings a song to piano accompaniment. That's quite a jot to see and hear. They are only a small part of an exhibit which the Smithsonian Institution says far surpasses its own collection of music machines. "Some of the items we bought, some we traded for," says Doyle Lane, standing in the museum workshop where he restores the music-makers. "There is a Music Box Society Convention that meets once a year for workshops, but the best information comes from people like the junkman who tells us about a wheezy old pipe organ going up for sale at a church auction." V V 1' Y Htit i OTHJay Mymn Memorabilia at the Daniel Boone Antique Village in Hillsborough Lane's shop resembles the childhood fantasies of Santa's workshop meshed with a cabinet maker's and a production line for Steinway pianos. It is there that he brings the dilapidated remains of old melodistas, polyphons and orchestrions back to life. It is no easy job. "The parts of an instrument to be restored need to be cleaned, filed, refitted . . . and often replaced with hand tooled copies," says Lane. The mechanical song boxes are on display and open to the public 8:30 a.m. 5: 30 p.m. daily. But don't let your oj riosity stop there. Leaving the world of mechanical banjos 2nd automatic orchestras behind, the visitor to Antique Music and Wheels can dream or reminisce in the company of a 1933 Kissel, a 1923 Studebaker Speedster and a 1930 Packard; These automobiles and an assortment of 19th-century carriages belong to Hillsborough's own Freeland collection. Horseless buggies of some note include an 1893 Roof Seat Brake (formerly used for hunting parties) and an 1880 model Brougham (the official limousine used by President Benjamin Harrison). If you don't feel quite at ease in the 1800s, then "Dr. Koch's Remedies Wagon" (circa 1885) may have the answer in terms of stock and poultry tonic. Antique music machines and cars from great granddad's day. It's a trip around the world and a trip into the past. A boxful of bellows, belts, gears and pulleys agree in song . . . post-frontier coaches and jazz age autos pose in quiet dignity. See and hear it all. The distant past has never been so close. 0 John Behm is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel. Weekend Fare Life With Father Raleigh's Little Theatre presents this comedy about a Victorian family at 8 p.m. today through Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Little Theatre. Pogue St. in Raleigh. Call 821-3111 for reservations. Music Cinema Campus Love Me Tonight Maurice Chevalier stars as a tailor who falls in love with Jeanette MacOonald. At 8 p.m. today in Carroll Hall. Free with UNC student ID. THX-1138 George Lucas film about a fascist 25th century. With Robert Duvall. At 7 and 9: 30 p.m. F riday in Carroll Hall. Free with UNC student ID. The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek Preston St urges' film, cynical comedy about a small-town girl who marries and gets pregnant by a C.I. and then forgets who he is. At 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday in Carroll Hall. Free with UNC student ID. Multiple Maniact-Hohn Waters' film stars Divine in a tale of debauchery and anarchism. At 7 and 9: 30 p.m. Sunday in Carroll Hall. Free with UNC student ID. Chapel Hill Plaza I Being There. At 2, 4:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Plaza II Breaking Away. Final shows today at 3:15, 5:15, 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. Little Darlings starts Friday. Shows at 3, 5, 7:10 and 9 p.m. Plaza III The Deer Hunter. Final shows today at 3 and 8 p.m. Windows starts Friday. Shows at 3:15, 5:15, 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. Varsity All That Jazz. At 2:15, 4:40, 7:05 and 9:30 p.m. Varsity Lateshow The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At midnight Friday and Saturday. Carolina Blue Chapter Two. At 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. Carolina White Coal Miner's Daughter. At 2:30, 4:45,7 and 9:15 p.m. Carolina Classics Pat And Mike. Final shows today at 3 and 5 p.m. A Night At The Opera starts Friday. Shows at 3 and 5 p.m. Carolina Lateshows The Mouse That Roared at midnight Friday and Saturday and The First Nudie Musical at 11:15 Friday and Saturday. Radio Inside Track The Motors' Tenement Steps at 11 p.m. tonight on WXYC-FM 89.3. Classic Album Feature Pink Floyd at 11 p.m. Friday on WXYC-FM 89.3. In Focus Featured artists are: Bob Seger and Robert Cordon today; and The Aliman Brothers and The Dixie Dregs Friday. Aired both days from 6-11 p.m. on WDSS-FM 107 Recital Allan Ware, clarinet; Barbara McKenzie. piano. At 8 p.m. Friday in Hill Hall Auditorium. Sunday At Four UNC Men's Glee Club. At 4 p.m. Sunday in Hill Hall Auditorium. Greg Smith Singers At 8 p.m. Sunday in Memorial Hall. Organ Recital David McConkey. At 8; 15 Sunda in Duke Chapel on the Duke University campus. Planetarium Easter The Awakening The Planetarium's annual Easter show. At 8 p.m. today and Friday: at 11 a m .1.3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and at 2, 3 and 8 p m. Sunday Laser Fusion A light show with live rock music at 9:15 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Classical Laser A light show performed toctavttcal music at 4:15 p.m. Sunday. Theater Gallery sasssM w m urns Sana CIigcIx n7 yochancos of getting toeast canoor. American Cancer Society Ain't Misbehavin' Broadway on Tour presents this musical revue of Fats Waller songs. At 8 p.m. Friday and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Hall. Tickets available at the Carolina Union box office. An Arabian Tale Banat Bahary will present the story of Aladdin using cabaret and ethnic dances at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Community Church in Chapel Hill, on Mason Farm Rd. Your Own Thing North Carolina State University presents this off-Broadway musical loosely based on Twelfth Night at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Thompson Theatre on the N.C. State campus. Call 737-2405 for reservations. Acktand Art Museum 19th and 20th Centurv Drawings from the Musee Carnavalei in Pans thn.njK1 April 13. Morehead Planetarium Gallery Mexican Indian Textiles through March 31. Nite Life Cat's Cradle Tm Krekle and the Sluer f rlv and Saturday. Eddie Hmton and Rocking Horw Sunday. The Station Sunfire today through Sunday
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 20, 1980, edition 1
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