Sunday, January 27, 2008

Knott's Nickelodeon Music Souvenir Recordings

Here's an odd little Knott's Berry Farm Souvenir Record. I can assume there was a series of these as this one is "No. 402 - Tunes Unknown" Maybe the other tunes in the series were known! This item is not dated, if I had to guess I would say late 50's/early 60's, does anyone know when these where sold?





The back of the record sleeve has a picture of the "Band Piano". I seem to have a vague memory of there being a player piano at Knotts' around 1969 or 1970 (it's about as vague of a memory as the Chicken that played a song on a tiny piano for 25 cents!) Does anyone know where at Knott's this machine was located (the music hall?) and when was it there or was it even there at all?




Here is the record itself. Yes it's on that famous label "Frank Kappler". I love 45's, I have about 600 of them!!!




I know you are just dying to hear what this gem sounds like, so here is the first half of the record. Fortunately I have an old needle for just such occasions. I couldn't figure out how to post "sound"only so you can amuse yourself and watch the record spin around as you listen.




That was funky indeed. I like little odd collectibles like this, I hope you enjoyed it as well.

13 comments:

outsidetheberm said...

There is indeed quite a series of Nickelodean Music records from Knott's - along with many other types, including a few from Dude Sands one of the more popular 'street characters'. Our collection of Knott's records are currently in storage, but we'll try to get an inventory at some point.
The photo of the band piano may well be taken inside the Music Hall. But there were a number of pianos like this throughout the park.

thepicklebarrel said...

wow, neat!

love the video! all old recordings should have matching visual footage of the actual vinyl.

thanks for posting!

Major Pepperidge said...

Maybe I'm delusional, but I think I remember seeing and hearing this "band piano". There was also a large sort of music box that held a giant metal disc punched with holes, I can't recall if you had to pay anything to make it play, but we did fire it up on a few occasions.

Kevin Kidney said...

That is so fun! I admit I fell into a dreamlike state just now while watching the record spin - yes, I sat here and watched it spin the whole time... The music is great, too. The mechanical music machines were so charming and surprisingly complicated. The last one I remember listening to at Knotts was in about 1999. It was in the Ghost Town Museum (along with Sad Eyed Joe's original wooden head - where did THAT go??) and I was especially amazed that it played an actual violin using little rollers for the "bow." Fascinating!

Anonymous said...

Kevin, they also had a mechanical violin music box at Disneyland, in the General Store on Main Street. I remember playing it. The little rollers had to spin in some rosin before it played.

Loved the spinning record!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

I'm glad someone watched the whole thing! I actually taped all 2 minutes of it, but blogspot wouldn't let me post it all!

Chris Merritt said...

That was very cool! Thanks for sharing it...

Anonymous said...

If you could record it onto your computer, you could reformat it from a wav into an mp3 and post a link to that. Just a suggestion.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful little recording! I didn't know there were any commercial recordings of these instruments at Knott's, let alone a whole series. I remember this piano...it's a Coinola Style X nickelodeon, made by the Operators Piano Company. They usually have a xylophone instead of the flute pipes, so this model was rather rare. I remember this machine from the late 1960s. It was located in the Music Hall, by the entrance. I used to have a homemade cassette recording of it, and a few other mechanical instruments in the Hall. Unfortunately, it's long gone. As far as I know, the Coinola ended up in a private collection.

An interesting thread about the Knotts musical collection can be found on the Mechanical Music Digest: http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/K/knott_s.html

Chernandezstable said...

That is funny I found this I just bought one of these records, with a total of three songs on each side of the record # is 45-404
any info would be great chernandezstable@aol.com

Nick Bearden said...

Hi, does anyone know the value of these records? I have about 4 or 5 of these records, all different NO.'s

Any info would be great! nickbearden (at) gmail dot com

Unknown said...

As I recall from my visits there as a child in the early 1950s, the machines took dimes. I begged my parents for money until I was told there was none left. They were my first influence in my becoming a blues piano player. There's nothing that comes close to that jangle!

downloadcrackpc said...

Thank you for posting. Your post is very interesting. I am visiting for the first time here. Your blog has a lot of interesting information. Please keep posting.
email extractor crack
microsoft-project-crack
icecream-screen-recorder-pro-crack
windows-8-1-product-key

sharepod registration code generator
Avast Antitrack Premium Crack