The Unrestored Wurlitzer Style 33 Mandolin PianOrchestra
Philipps Pianella Model Silvana-Xylophon
(Rand Collection, circa 1990)
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) The upper front exterior of the Wurlitzer Style 33 Mandolin PianOrchestra. The extended, decorative center section holds a lighted statuette in the center niche, and there is a Philipps "Fancy Light," a.k.a., Wurlitzer "Wonderlight," at the top. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) The bare, chassis-like, main structure with the side-wings and front and rear panels removed. At top front is the xylophone action, and behind it is the pipe chest. At top right front is the triangle action, and to its rear is the castanet action. At center is the roll changer, and the piano harp and action behind. At bottom is the main stack with vacuum/wind-pressure feeder bellows underneath. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) This beautifully ornate style Wurlitzer decal was applied to early made PianOrchestras up to circa 1920-1912. It was dropped in later years in favor of the much simplified, and probably easier to apply, "WurliTzer" name arranged in a straight line, and with the "T" in the name being a distinctive stylized and capitalized letter. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) Below the access door to the roll changer was additional lettering announcing this machine to be a "Xylophone PianOrchestra." This term was applied to PianOrchestras for only a few years after the xylophone was added to the available instrumentation. As the xylophone became rather commonplace the term was dropped. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) Inscribed inside the case in blue marker is "RKO-A2177." RKO was founded in 1929 from the merger of the Keith Orpheum theater circuit (1882), Joseph P. Kennedy’s Film Booking Office (1917) and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) (1909). It is highly likely that the PianOrchestra, circa 1908, originally belonged to the Keith-Orpheum theater circuit, and was located in one of their Los Angeles, California, theaters. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) The PianOrchestra's three rank pipe chest with only a single wooden violin pipe remaining. In front of the pipe chest is the register control unit, which also contains the vales that operate the trapwork. Notice the wood slider valves at the back of the unit. These sliders are pushed to one side or the other, which then turn on or off the various pipe ranks, orchestra bells and xylophone. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) The bass drum/kettle drum action is at left; the tambourine action at right. This photograph is included to illustrate this very early style Philipps bass drum action. The two kettle drum effect pneumatics (and beaters) have fallen off, but are otherwise intact. A large motor pneumatic on the underside of the drum shelf, via a push-rod, activates the vertical lever arm assembly forcing the beater to strike the bass drum. This is the only surviving PianOrchestra known that utilizes this early type of bass drum action. Later models used an improved mechanism that permitted a larger and more efficient pneumatic motor arrangement. |
(Photograph courtesy of Dana Johnson) The orchestra bell (or chimes) unit is front and center, perched atop the main pneumatic stack, the bell action is wedged between the automatic roll changer and the piano. This early style bell action was connected directly to the secondary valves in the main stack, with no internal control valves of its own, unlike much later models. To turn the bells on a thick felt curtain resting between the bell bars and row of bell strikers was lifted up and out of the way, which then allowed the strikers to impact the bell bars. This clumsy arrangement was soon abandoned in favor of a more effective "blocking" method that completely silenced the bells. |
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