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The Robot Band was imported from Germany to the United States in 1950. It was used as part of a traveling, mechanical music display, from Washington D.C. to Maine, until 1968. A 1957 New York newspaper article shows the Band performing outside the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The Band performed wonderfully in Walt Bellm's "Music and Cars of Yesterday" from 1972 to 1995 when we acquired this one-of-a-kind piece. Walt Bellm sold his museum and the remainder of his world-class mechanical musical items in 1997.
In 1997, the Robot Band was restored in Canada, by Ronald Schmuck - The Great Canadian Nicelodian Company, Ltd., who returned the piece to museum-quality condition (as shown above). The Band's "Beer Garden" enclosure measures 18 feet wide (from street light base to street light base) and 12 feet high (to the top of the turn-of-the-century musical motif art glass filled with cut-glass "jewels"). The band is about 6 feet deep. The street lights are fully functional; adjustable intensity back lighting was added to highlight the three Blessing figures and the beautiful three-piece art glass that is on top.
This rare Band has three "larger than life" figures, each (if standing) would measure almost 7 feet high. The standing , male accordionist "plays" the 41 note keyboard on his full-size instrument. The female piano player has a beautifully restored 1924 Stroud player piano on which she performs. The drummer actually plays the snare drum, bass drum and rhythm cymbal. When appropriate for the music, he also "plays" an Indian block, triangle and large "crash" cymbal. Each automaton figure has up to 12 elements of movement including eyes, head, eye brows, lips and chest (drummer), both arms and both hands, both feet (drummer) and upper body sway (accordionist).
The Band performs with lightening speed from either custom paper rolls or the MIDI system that was installed during the 1997 restoration. Five hours of magnificent custom music was produced by Stephen Kent Goodman to maximize the musical and mechanical movement capability of this rare, one-of-a-kind musical automaton. The tunes include music from countries all over the world such as Germany, Switzerland, France, other Europeon countries, South America and, of course, from the United States.
The movements of the three figures are very life-like. Everyone who sees the figures when they move and "look" straight at them is amazed. The comedy routines with the three figures interacting are outrageous. The drummer actually plays the drums superbly and often whistles along with the melody. (The drummer has 16 flute pipes in his chest.) As he puckers his lips and pushes out his chest ,as if breathing, he produces beautiful melodies to accompany the accordion, piano and drums. The drummer is usually the "trouble maker" by flirting with all the girls and setting the tempo for every tune. Sometimes he insists on fast-tempo music while the others wish to play slower music. The comedy routines are extremely funny without disrupting the beautiful arrangements.
This instrument is in the collection of the Cooley's Olde Tyme Piano Shoppe, Inc. You can visit their Internet Homepage at http://www.cotps.com/ Soon they will have two one-hour videotapes of the Robot Band. One tape will contain Band performances to music from the turn of the century, written in the United States. The second videotape will contain primarily melodies written outside the United States. The performances of the Blessing Robot Band are impossible to describe but the video will assist your imagination.
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