Images from the Tea Room Orchestrion by the Seeburg Company, ca. 1913 "Nobody Can Listen to it Without Smiling!" Note:  Click on any image to see an enlargement NMM 6022. Orchestrion by J. P. Seeburg Company, Chicago, ca. 1913. Serial no. 7165. Style G. AAA-c5 (7+ octaves). Includes the following instruments: piano, two ranks of organ pipes (flute and violin), mandolin, snare drum, bass drum, timpani, cymbal, and triangle. Torch-style art glass. Coin-operated, electric. Douglas and Phyllis Adam of Yankton, South Dakota, who donated this valuable piece of Americana to the NMM in 1996, promised that "nobody can listen to it without smiling," and they were right. Click here to hear a lively excerpt from Verdi's "Anvil Chorus." A Nickel's Worth of Entertainment Nickel Insertion Slot and Coin Collection Box Often called nickelodeons, because they play automatically each time a nickel is dropped into the slot, orchestrions were popular in restaurants, hotel lobbies, and saloons. The Orchestrion's Instruments The instruments inside, many of which can be seen when the doors are opened with a key, include a piano, two ranks of organ pipes (flute and violin), snare drum, bass drum, cymbal, and triangle. Click here to hear an excerpt from Offenbach's opera, "The Tales of Hoffman." Close-up Views of Individual Instruments Organ Pipes Snare Drum Triangle Cymbal Bass Drum Piano Keyboard Shown as Orchestrion is Playing Decorative Art Glass Seeburg's famous Model G features Torch-Style, leaded art-glass windows set into an oak case. The leaded art-glass panel includes, on the left, a pastoral scene with a cabin under some trees on the shore of a lake with a mountain in the background. A windmill and a large barn silhouetted against trees can be seen on the right side of the panel, illuminated from behind by two incandescent light bulbs located inside the orchestrion. The Orchestrion's Mechanism Using a pneumatic action powered by an electric motor, the instrument is operated by changeable perforated paper rolls that each contain ten different tunes, many of them melodies from the 19th-century operatic and orchestral repertoire.         Bellows, Flywheel, and Motor     Wind Mechanism and Music Roll Each music roll includes 10 selections    Technologically advanced for their time, such instruments remind us of the many revolutionary inventions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries—the light bulb, the internal-combustion engine, the telephone, motion pictures, and the list goes on and on—that changed lives then perhaps even more dramatically than the new technologies of today. Valves and Hoses Activate Organ Pipes Lit.:  André P. Larson, "Nobody Can Listen to It Without Smiling!," America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, 24, No. 2 (January 1997), pp. 1-2. André P. Larson, "Orchestrion by J. P. Seeburg," The South Dakota Musician (Winter 1997), cover and p. 18.   Click arrow to continue Tour of Exhibits in Lobby, Hallways, Concert Hall, and Tea Room Go to Exhibits in Lobby, Hallways, Concert Hall, and Tea Room Tour Index Go to Virtual Tour Index Go to Checklist of Keyboard Instruments A postcard of the orchestrion is available from the Gift Shop National Music Museum The University of South Dakota 414 East Clark Street Vermillion, SD   57069 ©National Music Museum, 2001-2008 Most recent update:   February 4, 2009 This page was visited 23,101st times between February 6, 2001-February 20, 2008. You are the 5,916th visitor to this page since February 20, 2008. The University of South Dakota Return to Top of Page