Admiral Caliope?

Answer to ques 1) Yes, the Admiral did have a calliope. It was played on every day trip. Usually by the band leader. The day trips ALWAYS carried a BIG BAND. The number of band members was dictated by Musicians Union Rules. Size of dance floor and possibly other factors that I am not privy to.

2) None of the Admiral Calliope remains on the stuffed and mounted version. Except for some of the exterior Port and Starboard and forward cabin, and a bit of the aft cabin exterior the entire top deck is ENTIRELY post excursion vessel.

3) Popeye and Wimpy are from the Str. Admiral.

Admiral's calliope

and the Admiral's calliope, which is no longer there - nor in my home or Keith's - came from the earlier Streckfus boat CAPITOL. (the PRESIDENT's came from the JS DELUXE)
Here is the calliope being played predeparture in Aug. 1961.

whatever happened to the President's calliope? Obviously, it's not there anymore right?

The pilotwheel from the Streckfus Str. CAPITOL is also at the Transportation Museum. Last time I was there, with Judy Patsch in the summer of 1995, it was mounted on the outside of one of the buildings. Here's a photo of Judy posing with the revered relic!

the PRESIDENT's calliope

First of all, it was 'rebuilt' for the casino in 1991 by Kim Graham. It got the automated capability besides the manual playing. Dan Forman made a tape while the MQ was on a shore stop in Davenport, and he slipped in a song for me. That was great to hear almost every time the PREZ 'played' her calliope. So the calliope that was on when the PREZ quit running wasn't completely the JS version. The PREZ was stored in a barge fleet at Andalusia Ill., several miles downriver from here, and during this time many of her accoutrements 'disappeared', including portions of the calliope. She was easily accessible by motorboat and was unguarded. When she arrived at McKellar Lake in Memphis, after a stay on the Yazoo River in Vicksburg, Bob Reynolds and I found her and from the great distance we viewed her, it appeared that some of the calliope was still there, on its perch overhanging the stern. From there she was towed up to Mike's at Wood River and once again stored in a barge fleet unguarded. It was there that the final whistles were removed. As previously mentioned, I have none of them, I just have knowledge that they have been removed bit by bit over the years....

Judy,

I have tried, in vein, to get you to slip up and admit you have one or more of them and you have proven you do not in several attempts! So I know you don't have any of them! And for this fact I am proud of you...for I know how much you want one in your collection and who knows, some day you may get one!

~Travis~

"acquiring/liberating"

Travis, the CAPITOL pilotwheel is still affixed to the MOT wall too! The only calliope items I have are a pair of keys from the original NATCHEZ keyboard and a colored lightbulb from the same... both acquired legally! You can bet if I had a calliope, I'd be using it in the summertime to combat the bass booms from the passing cars - wouldn't that calm them down a bit?

Annie Blum here. I have learned so much in this thread and I am enjoying it. My little piece of information pales by comparison. I can write that "the" keyboard or "a " keyboard from the President calliope is at Mercantile Library in St. Louis. As far as I know, there is nothing else there but the keyboard unit.

Is there more than one keyboard out there somewhere?

Judy,

I have had the distinct pleasure of playing CD's of various and sundry calliope music from the HiFi sound system in my Hyundai (at credible volumes the amout as such to replicate the original in the recording, I might add), much to the distain of the younger creatures in the vehicle beside me at traffic lights. You see, their booming bass may make my rear view mirror do a step unknown to even modern dancing. However, the treble of my stentoran din over powers their basso-abominatio and the unfortunate reality to them is they have been invaded by an excursion boat.

I do not do this, however in troublesome neighbourhoods....for I do not want to incite riot!

Just another way to pass the word, I suppose!

Perhaps Dave Morecraft can build us all a small, portable air-operated calliopes which could run with a player unit and be mounted on our car roofs for a more productive usage of this theory? I should think we could create some compressor source from the serpentine belts employed in modern car engines.

Any more ideas we could employ to achieve the rediculous and sublime?

~Travis~

P.S. I do believe this is the most tounge-in-cheek thing I have ever written on here!

Judy alerted Jonathan and me today to this thread about the ADMIRAL's calliope, and after reading the earlier postings, here's one more river rat's "two cents worth" concerning that instrument. As carefully as we are able to document, the ADMIRAL's calliope first appeared on the steamer in her 1951 season. No photos or Streckfus magazines that we examined prior to 1951 show the instrument on the roof. An interesting footnote to this placement of the CAPITOL's calliope on the ADMIRAL occurred in our lengthy interview with Doc Hawley this summer. 1951 was Doc's first summer season on the AVALON after Capt. Wagner hired him to play calliope and pop popcorn. According to Doc, when the boat reached St. Louis two months later, Capt. Roy heard him play the instrument on the AVALON and, with tears in his eyes, remembering the golden years of the Streckfus' tramp excursion boats calliopes, invited him to come over to the ADMIRAL and play (the newly installed?) instrument there, which Doc did. After he'd finished, Capt. Roy offered him the job as full-time calliope player on the ADMIRAL. This would tend to support the idea that 1951 was the calliope's first year, and that Streckfus was still casting about for a good calliopist. Doc mused that had he accepted that offer, his whole career on the river might have turned out differently. But the deciding factor for him was the lure of traveling on all of the inland rivers the AVALON tramped, and that wanderlust was just too hard to turn his back on. One of the great pieces of good fortune in my life is that I had the presence of mind to make a tape recording of the ADMIRAL's calliope being played by bandleader Dick Renna in 1969 while it was still steam operated. That's probably the nearest we'll ever get to what the CAPITOL calliope sounded like in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Strange how some of the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together over the years! Posted below are three thumbnails of this fabled instrument. The first view clearly shows the calliope tootling away on the CAPITOL as the boat makes a landing at Cassville, WI, about 25 miles upstream from Dubuque in the late twenties. The second shot shows calliopist Lovingood at the CAPITOL's keyboard, although the instrument itself cannot be seen from down on the texas deck. This was the unfortunate case with the AVALON/BELLE and NATCHEZ instruments, and any of the many boats which carried them up on the after end of the texas roof. They simply can't be seen by passengers from on board. The final view shows that same calliope over 40 years later on the roof of the ADMIRAL, with yours truly, camera in hand, accompanied by first mate Greg Menke, during our visit while the DQ had a layover in St. Louis enroute to St. Paul in 1971.

Ulp, dare I admit that I've long been wanting to fit something like this to my truck. So far the best I can do is play that Belle CD at full volume with all the windows open--the main whistle blow start is a great way to pull out! On my old truck I had an electronic unit that did train whistles, horns and bells, but I blew it up driving too big a speaker! At least I figure that's what did it in.
OK, now everyone knows I'm crazy.
S'
David D.

I LOVE it. What a wonderful idea!

After a reunion cruise on the DQ in 97 I bought the whistle blowing tape that Fred Way made in WV in 1961 and I would wake my 2 daughters for school everyday by playing a different whistle from that tape. They surely thought I was crazy.

MEL;;; Don't you know,,,.. we're ALL A Little CRAZY,,...:)
"Here's a Long and 2 Shorts" to CRAZY,,,...
DAVE,,,.....

Someone in St Louis a few years back had a diesel locomotive horn mounted on top of a smallish white pick up truck. I don't know who it was, or what size air tank they had in the truck. I heard it from a distance, saw it on the truck, however that's all I know of its existence.

I do have a five chime diesel locomotive whistle-three forward two aft--acquired legally from a scrap dealer--that was hooked up to air from the Belle of Louisville. The horn was placed on the wharf, hose run to it-----it brought people out of the Galt House (the verandas) overlooking the River! Don't know what the air pressure was, but it was, shall we say, LOUD. No, I don't remember the manufacture and I can't get to it easily at the moment.