Arlington couple has large, vintage music box collection
By Jamey Rosenau
What do you picture when you hear “music box collection?” If you’re like most, you imagine a small wooden box with a little ballerina that twirls once the lid is opened, or possibly a snow globe that also plays music when wound.
Loren Crawford’s music box collection isn’t anything like that. A grand 26x40 foot studio they affectionately call “Crystal Homewood Studio” was added on to the Crawford’s existing farmhouse near Arlington to accommodate the collection of 30+ music boxes, several clocks, and an exquisite pipe organ.
These particular music boxes create music when a series of metal “fingers” drag across the textured surface of either a disc, sleeve, or cylinder. The size of the boxes ranges from 12x16x9 inches to over six feet high. All cylinders were crafted in Switzerland and discs in Germany. The beautiful wood cases protecting the intricate mechanics comes from the good ‘ol USA.
“They don’t have good wood in Europe,” explained Crawford.
As impressive as the mechanics and as beautiful as the woodwork is, it’s the sound that is most captivating. Each of the music boxes easily create a rich sound that fills the entire spacious studio and the clarity rivals that of today’s technology.
Loren’s father, Richard, built the collection during the 1930s and 1940s.
“My brother got his (dad’s) house and I got the music boxes. That is basically how it went. My dad liked the movements and the intricacies of them and, of course, the sound, and that was that.”
Most people preferred the phonograph at that time since it was the first method used to reproduce the human voice – almost seemed like magic at that time. That led to music boxes like Loren’s being cast aside. He said most people didn’t want them anymore.
“The phonograph was the big thing back then, and the music boxes were passe,” he said.
Richard and Loren both shared a love of music boxes, but they had one major difference. The elder Crawford was content to only display the collection while Loren always felt strongly about keeping every box fully operational. Once you hear any of the music boxes in person, you immediately understand why Loren holds this value so dearly.
“Dad always said, ‘Oh people know what they sound like,’ and I said, ‘No they don’t.’”
Although Loren has only added a couple pieces to his father’s original collection, he has spent much time, effort, and money maintaining and repairing them to ensure they can be enjoyed to their fullest.
“I don’t ship any boxes. They get driven to where they gotta go and I pick them up when they’re done,” he said. “A friend of mine had one and he shipped it. Well the shipping company had a deal where you gotta pack ‘em good because they’re supposed to withstand a five-foot drop. Well they dropped it and they sheared the shaft on it so then they had to make a new shaft and oh, God, it got nasty quick.”
Most music box songs have Grand Opera roots, with the most recognizable likely being the William Tell Overture, also known as the theme from the popular Lone Ranger television series.
Loren’s favorite music box is the French-made Pierodienique. This is the most unique piece of the collection due to its split sleeve (cylinder) design. Only 18 of these were ever produced.
The star of the show in Loren’s collection is the massive console of the 2/6 Wurlitzer Opus 916 theatre pipe organ. Loren went on to explain how he came to love the sound of this unique item. “Eddie Dunstedter, who is an old theatre organist who played at the Old Minneapolis Auditorium way back in the 1920s and 1930s, played his farewell concert in 1971, on my mother’s birthday. That sounded great and I said, ‘this is for me!’”
The organs were originally designed to accompany silent movies. This particular console came from the Homewood Theatre in Minneapolis before passing on to a pizza parlor in Dallas, Texas. From there, the “rings” or sets of pipes were separated from the console never to be seen again.
“This console became available, this is originally out of the Saint George Theatre in Staten Island, New York,” he said. This organ originally had six rings, but Loren had aspirations of making it even bigger. Today there are 24 sets totaling a whopping 1,700 pipes.
The best way to describe this organ might be “an absolute beast!” The organ itself is impressively large with hundreds of buttons, many pedals, and a flawless high-gloss white finish with gold trim. The most impressive part of this entire collection is one you cannot easily see. Behind an ordinary door are two large utility rooms that contain all the power and instrumentation needed to give the organ life. Two blowers (one 5-horsepower, one 10-horsepower) provide the air pressure or “wind” needed to operate the organ along with an entire wall of electrical circuitry. Loren explained these motors are the same style used to blow silage up into a silo. There are also dozens of auxiliary instruments including drums, horns, and cymbals.
The future of the collection has already been planned; Loren intends to keep it in the family. “Like my dad said, he and I talked it over a few times and he said ‘Well, when you’re done with it, who cares?’ and I said, ‘Yeah that’s really basically what it is, you know.’ And I told him if you sell it, it’s never coming back so that’s the way it is.”
It’s common for organs to have a nickname and the Crawfords chose “Esther” for this organ after Loren’s mother since she got him started in theatre organs all those years ago. She insisted he join her for that first concert to celebrate her birthday.
It’s hard to imagine the amazing sounds of this collection while reading words on a paper so if you ever find yourself in the cornfields of Sibley County, Loren and his wife, Phyllis, always welcome curious visitors at “Crystal Homewood Studio” and they make great hosts!