New YouTube calliope video

Jon,

So what is the trick? What are you using...cause all of mine are grainy and seem to have the video slightly off speed with the audio (sound is faster than light, he, he, he!).

I just put this one up yesterday ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKbD3OUIEGY ) and I know the grainy part is that it was at 9pm at night. However, in this one even the audio suffers a bit in the transition.

~Travis~

I now encode my videos like this: QuickTime, MPEG4, any audio codec, 640x480, 30 fps. I was doing WMV 256 kbps, which was pixelated beyond recognition, as evidenced by most of my YouTube videos prior to this one.

Jonathan: WOW! How good of you to feature old "Uncle Keith" at the NATCHEZ callyope in 2005. Other than pecking out a tune or two now and then when on the BELLE, I hadn't really played a full concert on a calliope in years, having traded calliopes for the pipe organ. Capt. Kevin Mullen asked me to come out of retirement and "substitoot" on the BELLE over Labor Day weekend that year and I reluctantly agreed to do it. Little did I know that it was a "rehearsal" for playing on the NATCHEZ when she came to town on the hurricane relief trip in November. It certainly isn't stellar playing by any means, but thanks to a little help from "Aleve" I managed to coax some tunes out of that fine steam organ, it was for a good cause, great fun (especially to have your dad here) and I'm glad to have the video for posterity! Thanks!

Attached are several photos from the archives of yours truly on the BELLE in the early 1970's.

Keith,

These are the first pics I have seen of the old Wilde Instrument that show the electrical compliment and hint at the valve gear. By the time I got there the keyboard was already in the metal box that PVI/Audiolore put it in in 1975. When I took over as Calliopist (1981) we already had the new Frisbee manifold (added in 1978).

Since I have been in contact with crewmembers of the Str. ALASKA QUEEN about their Wilde instrument I have learned alot about what Ernest did to make his calliopes I never knew. One thing was the whistle construction. On the BELLE I had heard from several sources (especially in the Engine Room) the whistle bells were spent mortar shells and the rest of the fittings were stock pipe. I have now discerned the whistle bells are infact stock pipe as well and the mortar shell casing stuff was legend.

Do you perhaps have any close up pics of the calliope keyboard from this era and/or associated electronics you would care to share?

Strangely enough, the ALASKA QUEEN does not have the Wilde brass keyboard, hers is typical plastic with metal key shanks.

~Travis~

Travis,

I'll look through my "dusty boxes" of photos and slides to see what might be lurking in the archives. If anything turns up, I'll be happy to share it with you.

Another possible source for early pictures of the Wilde instrument on the BELLE would be Shirley Burwinkle, who was calliopist from circa 1965-1971.

KN

Keith,

I bet Shirley has a cashe of historic steamboat photographs from the early days of the BELLE that we would all be jealous of!

One of these days we need to try and get together with her and see what she would be willing to share...specially with the Howard Museum!

~Travis~

Miss Shirley, who is a longtime member of the Howard Museum, is now 79, and since Cal passed on a few years ago, is a frequent traveler. It just occurred to me that it was in August of 1968 when she kindly permitted me, as a 14 year old steamboat geek, to play the calliope on the BELLE for the first time. Another 40 year milestone! Good grief! I'll have to dig up the photos of that event! I do recall that my first tune was "In the Good Old Summertime"!

Keith,

My first tune on a steam calliope was aboard the same boat, about 8 years later, and was "Daisy, Daisy"..or "Bicycle Built for Two". My hands weren't trembling...but, I didn't shut up about it for about 30 years!

Hal Whitley was the calliope player and I took a picture of the instrument and Mr. Whitley that day. Unfortunatley, I didn't get a picture of myself at the event of my first performance. I did make a cassette recording and it is pretty bad!

Just so you feel better, this April 30th I celebrated 30 years since the first paying gig I had on a calliope. 1978 aboard the PA DENNY here at Louisville while she was chartered to First National Bank of Louisville for the Derby Festival. Two days later (2,May 08) I was coming up for breakfast on the DELTA QUEEN and looked out the Officers Mess window and was face to face with the DENNY. 30 years never felt so long ago!

~Travis~

Travis: In 1975, Hal Whitley was my successor as "Perfessor" on the BELLE, and after four summers of standing up there on that HOT tarpaper roof, I was more than happy to become Assistant Purser, although I still played from time to time. Hal was a grad student working on his Master's in Church Music at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and was also the choir director of the First Presbyterian Church in Jeffersonville.

I started digging into photo files last night and here are a few of them. The one of me playing in the rain was taken August 24, 1973. We had a big charter that day of some foreign organization and they really wanted to hear the calliope, so I played, despite the downpour. A photographer suddenly appeared and this photo was on the front page of the newspaper the next morning! It also appears in the BELLE history book, Legendary Lady by Anne Jewell and Capt. Kevin Mullen, published in 1999. Capt. Lexie Palmore later did one of her great river art renderings from this image and it hangs in my home. The other pictures were taken in October of 1972.