Topic starter
28/08/2007 5:22 pm
I've been one of the 2 players on the calliope since Travis moved on. I'm in my second season and love it! I've met a few fellow players and enthusiasts over the past months and it's fun sharing stories. I also play keyboards and sing with my husband and we play some lunches on the Belle as well as in many venues throughout the city of Louisville. Some of my favorite comments while playing the calliope:
1) Can you turn that thing down?
2) Are you playing that or is it a recording?
3) Will you stop and get me a beer?
4) How much water is in that river?
5) How often do you practice on that? ( like that would happen, LOL!)
6) Are you the one who's making all that noise?
28/08/2007 5:36 pm
Welcome Linda! I was the calliope player on the BELLE eons ago - in the early 1970's. Capt. Kevin Mullen, steamboat captain extraordinaire and my good friend of 35 years, asked me to "substi-toot" for you a couple of years ago (I think it was for the Labor Day weekend cruises) and it was nice to be back at the brass keyboard again. Fortunately, it gave me some good practice time, as shortly thereafter, I was asked to be a guest calliopist on the Str. NATCHEZ when she was here on the hurricane relief tour. Something's always happening on the river!
Happy Steam Music Making!
29/08/2007 4:18 pm
Linda,
Were you the player on last Saturday's lunch cruise?
Wonderful stuff, really! Very nicely done...
B.
29/08/2007 7:45 pm
Linda,
Welcome to the message boards. I wish I could say I moved on...that is not exactly how it happened. To say Capt. Mullen and I have something in common would be more correct. However, I still keep an eye on things! Too bad you weren't there for our Calliope Duel on race day. It would have been good to have had both boats participate!
Either way...I am glad to hear you are enjoying my old girl as much as I have for well over 30+ years! If I weren't so busy on the Majestic America Line boats, I would have come down to see you and Martha during the season this summer. Perhaps next summer or if you all are still running anything public after I get home near the end of October?
You have found probably the single largest group of former BELLE calliope players in the world here...for I know of 3 (including myself) who post here on a regular basis! Please, keep us up to date on that great gal, the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE!
~Travis~
29/08/2007 7:56 pm
Linda,
My favourite question when i was playing on there was "Wheres the bathroom?" Usually, it would come from an older gentleman who was starting to dance a little gig as he asked it. If he didn't look to particularly anxious I would say "we don't have one...that is why we installed the wire mesh railings...just stand there"...
Of course, I would imediately point towards the stern and advise him of the true location there on the port side.
The beauty of the BELLE calliope is you can giggle after you start back up playing and no one knows you are!
True Confessions......
It was I who came up with the remote keyboard on the stern of the Texas Cabin on the BELLE. In the fall of 1987 I had all but given up on getting the new calliope whistles (which we ultimately got the next spring) and said, "if we can't have the calliope we need, can't we at least put the keyboard downstairs so people can see part of it?" before 3, April 1988 the keyboard was always on the roof with the instrument.
Be careful what you ask for, you might get it!
The original request was for the keyboard to be mounted in something akin to a rolltop desk mounted in the middle of the Skylight Roof aft (just under the calliope). The next option was on the stern mounted to the aft end of the Skylight Trunk....right at the wheel. I got the stern of the Texas Cabin in a little closet Ernie Wortz designed for me over the winter of 1988-1989. The first season with it downstairs (1988), Mark Doty mounted the keyboard on a sliding drawer-style tray which hid behind a door exactly where it is now.
As much as people enjoy seeing some part of it downstairs....I think glass panel on the roof under it (so you could see it) would be better and take the keyboard back upstairs to preserve the historical intregity of the boat.
Okay...back to work!
~Travis~
Topic starter
29/08/2007 8:15 pm
Bruno....yes, that was me playing Saturday. Thanks for the compliment! I think I've improved over the first few weeks when I started..it takes a little time to get the technique down.
Travis, so good to hear from you. I had no idea about you and Kevin, none at all, sorry. I miss him very much and thought he had the greatest "people skills." A real renaissance man. People ask about you, too. I tell them you may be back if you can make parole.
Tee hee....you and I both have the same wicked sense of humor, we could certainly get in lots of trouble.
Our music director at church, Phil "Pip" Hines played the calliope at one time when it was by the pipes. He told me someone played a trick on him and shot up a lot of hot water/steam and soaked him. I rather like the location, especially with this summer's heat! Martha installed a small fan (genius) and
it's helped us endure this season.
I don't know anything about the calliope duel. I've never been asked to play. As far as October goes, I'm singing with my hubby for the Red Hat luncheon on Oct 19 (12-2), so please come by and say "hi" if you're here.
29/08/2007 9:59 pm
Linda,
I know "Pip"...I met him thru Bill and Mary Bill Bauer back in 1977 on the DELTA QUEEN at New Albany, IN. The boat had to land there because the Conrail Bridge lift mechanism had failed. Somewhere I have a cassette recording of him playing the calliope on the DELTA QUEEN on that day. If memory serves me right he played season of 1976 on the BELLE. Be sure and tell him I said, "Hi" as I haven't seen him in at least a couple of years or more!
A couple of years ago I turned Martha onto the fan idea, as there is an A/C leak in the ceiling tiles in the Captains Quarters and sometimes if they leave it on in there you get a little A/C from the small opening which appeared somehow in this exact area. I have no idea (winking) as to how that came about.
Sorry, I won't be there till after the 29th of October. Maybe next year 🙁
~Travis~
Topic starter
29/08/2007 10:52 pm
Travis!! I wondered where that cool air came from...I have never been able to figure it out, but it very definitely helps. ps...my lips are sealed!!