Big Bertha at 1900 Park Fare

[jlovesee]

My husband and I plus a few friends made plans to dine at 1900 Park Fare about a month ago in January. Soon after I found out the restaurant was home to a very large band organ. Band Organs have been a fascination of mine for many years, so I endeveroued to find more info on this one. Most Band Organs have a very colored history, like their antique carousel counterparts (they usually belong together) they get moved A LOT.

I found some historical info here about Big Bertha from beginning of its history to when it was sold to WDW in 1978..

http://www.bandorganmusic.com/BIGBERTHAVol.1.htm

It does look quite a bit different then the current photos portray it, but that is pretty common with things this old. After all look at the carousel in Magic Kingdom! Nothing like it originally looked. Not that that's bad, at this point in time preservationists such as myself will take survival as a whole as a positive attribute.

Case in point as far as physical changes here is what WDW Magic Kingdom's carousel would have looked like before Disney got ahold of it:

http://nca-usa.org/psp/AtlantaRiverview/006_6.JPG
(this is not it, but it is made by the same company)

Last, having never seen this band organ in person, does it still play? How does it sound? Does it still use all of its brass/wind instrumentation?

Thanks and I hope all find this info interesting. I certainly do.

Jennifer

 

[vicki_c]

Very cool information! We did eat at 1900 PF last year but I didn't notice the organ at all - if we go again, I will make sure to look for it.

Just in trade -- here is my favorite carousel:
http://nca-usa.org/psp/KennywoodDentzel/

And cool place:
http://www.carrouselmuseum.org/

(Neither of which are Disney-related!)

 

[WDWTigger72]

We just had our breakfast at 1900 park fare on Thursday (December 10), and we asked our hostess if the "Big Bertha" organ would be playing at certain times. The hostess then brought the manager over who explained it hasn't been working since about February 2009. I don't remember all the details behind why this organ was down, but they have not come around to fixing it, so as of December 10th, 2009 it was still down.

 

[ScottishMickeyFan]

I was in there last month.. sat at the back of the rest. , i dont think you see it unless you look up.,, is that right?

 

[jlovesee]

Kennywood is a wonderful park! I have been there twice, and my third time will be next summer. Knoebels is another one of my favorites up in that area.

Sad to hear about it, though not terribly surprised. There are very few people that know how to work on a band organ any more. Its not such a simple fact of plugging it in to an electrical outlet. If it hasn't been gutted then its powered by ONLY by air, it has bellows, tubes, wood pipes, brass pipes, etc. Lots of stuff can go wrong, and you can't simply call the manufacturer. In fact they are very similar to steam trains in basic operation.

We used to have (still do but not operational) a Wurtlizer Mammoth Military Band Organ in Wichita at a park called Joyland. It was one of a kind, last of its type left. No one wants to pay to keep it, or its park going. It is for this reason that I hope Disney fixes it at least sometime.

Jennifer