Organ Man

After centuries of development, in the 19^th century, the organ finally got street smart. This was accomplished thanks to the efforts of a new breed of novelty performers known as organ grinders. The particular type of organ used by these players was called, quite sensibly, the street organalthough the organs themselves were usually anything but sensible. Some organs were small enough to carry by hand, while others weighed in at hundreds of pounds and were carried along in a cart. Organs might be decorated with a mechanical figure or even moving automata.Unlike other organists, the early organ grinders seemed to have little actual interest in music. The organs were generally out of tune, and the performance was often overshadowed by the presence of a Capuchin monkey, parrot, dancing bear, or dancing humans. The main goal was to make money, and literature from the period often refers to organ grinders as charlatans or extortionists. However, in hindsight people began to view the grinders as romantic characters, and realized that some performers actually did take care of their instruments.In 1936, New York Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia banned street organs, saying they caused traffic congestion and begging, and also claiming that many of the organs were rented from organized crime families. In 1976, the ban was repealed, but by then it was too latethe organ grinder had all but disappeared (to be fair, the introduction of copyright laws at the turn of the 19^th century also limited the music organ grinders could play).However, some modern organ grinders do still exist. Joe Bush continues to perform as the last organ grinder in New York City. Bush started performing with his monkey George in 1975 and hasn’t stopped since. Both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News have featured articles on the performer. A variety of organ grinding also survives in Denmark, where it’s considered lucky for a couple to have a barrel organ playing on the morning of their 25^th wedding anniversary. Other modern organ players perform on the street using organs with paper rolls, perforated book music, or electronic devices, as opposed to the original pinned barrels.