Just Give Me That Old Time Rock and Roll Music

As I'm looking around all my various lists of sights to see, I notice that coming up is the little town of Acme. The true definition of the word acme is: the point at which something is best, perfect, or most successful. I've just always thought it some company whose manufactured products lack in anything close to quality control based on Wil E. Coyote's experience in the Roadrunner cartoon series. Anyways, I digress.

Located in Acme is the Music House Museum. I think Forbes listed it as one of the top ten museums in the nation. The museum is on a century farm. The last generation did not care too much for farming but were very much into automated music machines. They sold most of the acreage, refurbished the “new” barn (it was built in 1905) and moved their collection into the barn and the granary. They feature automated music machines from about the 1850s to the 1950s - player pianos to juke boxes.  The really cool thing is that during the tour, the docent plays many of the instruments so you could hear what music was like back in the olden days. This museum was one of the high spots of my trip so far.

If you wish to see and hear more of the museum, go to this link   Music House Museum  which will give you a twenty minute tour of the museum. The video does not do this place justice. Hearing the music, up close and personal is worth a trip to Acme.

The following picture is not only of our docent, but of a player piano.  When player pianos first came out, there was no subtlety - it was all one volume.  They then figured out how to have a piano player come in, play a song and record it on paper rolls.  Engineers would then mark the paper and add in volume differences etc.  The particular paper roll that was in this piano player was created by George Gershwin as he played Rhapsody in Blue.  He then came back and recorded again, accompanying himself.  They then merged the two pieces of paper so as this piano played this roll, it was as if Gershwin was playing Rhapsody in Blue with four hands.  It was sort of spooky but way cool.

This was the first machine where they tried to combine a violin and a piano at the same time. 

This came from an 1800 seat theater in Detroit.  When they played this organ at the museum, they also showed a Laurel and Hardy movie. It was Little Charlie's (age 4, on the tour) first intro to Laurel and Hardy.  It is good to give our youth culture

This is the showpiece of the whole museum.  It is 20 feet tall and 34 feet wide.  It comes from Brussels and is one of only fourteen left in the world.  They played the "Can-Can" and "Rock Around The Clock" on it. 

Al Capone's record player from the Berien estate.  He liked nice things

A pretty jukebox - one of many in the museum

Who knew Rockola was actually a person?