What is it?

Judy,

Here is a good link with information on the old Una Fon.

UNA-FON Circus Musical Instrument

Here is a loaded question....does anyone know of any other application of a Una Fon on a steamboat?

I know of uses of Tangley Calliaphones (The original instrument, not the Dave Miner Excursion Boat Special he designed for the casino boat industry) with bands aboard excursion boats. However, other than the DELTA QUEEN, I have never heard of a Una Fon on any other vessel.

Professor Myroni (Myron Duffield) has a Una Fon on his air calliope circus wagon. I played it at Marietta,OH at the rededication of the Str. W.P. SNYDER Jr a few years back. Having a calliope and Una Fon together again brought back memories.

I'd love to have heard Dan playing the Una Fon on the UMR...the only recording other than "Carefree Calliope" I have heard with the Una Fon bells was "Sounds of the DELTA QUEEN" (QCA Records #5 Cincinnati, OH) recorded in 1971, with Vic Tooker at the console.

~Travis~

Travis, you mention "The Sounds of the DELTA QUEEN", and excellent recording where the unafon and calliope are both in evidence.

Also on this recording are the original "Riverboat Ramblers" (Vic, Guy and Alice Tooker and maybe Pete Eveland), engine room sounds, "Cappy" Louden and First Mate Capt. Jim Blum as well as some other neat sounds from the early 1970's. A good recording that I have transferred to CD.

If they were, at one time, on a steamboat, I would guess the President. I seem to remember something like those kind of handles for the searchlights.

Miss Patsch is undoubtedly away from her computer today, as she prepares for this evening's open house at her Upper Mississippi River Museum - a prelude event to the trip on the TWILIGHT tomorrow.

Steamboat Buffs and Buffettes from this part of the river who will be in attendance are Kenny Howe, Jim Reising, their spouses and the inimitable Mary Bill Bauer!

Let it gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Bob,

It was from that recording I learned how to play "Here Comes The Showboat" in the key of Eb major (Thanks, Vic Tooker!)...for that is the key he played it in on the recording.

Strangely enough, the verse he uses in that recording I had found nowhere on sheet music. Always wondered (and never thought to ask) where he got that from. The only sheet music I have seen for the song has a nice smooth major keyed verse which has no relation to his styling. So anymore when I play "Here Comes The Showboat" and need to fill more time I play both verses!

When I first got my copy of "Sounds of the DELTA QUEEN" I wore it out in less than a year. I have 4 copies (in various stages of decay) on vinyl and have digitized it (as you have) for my collection. I remember sitting at the family piano in 1976 playing that recording on the hifi stereo turn table I had moved right up to the piano (with cords I bought from Radio Shack with my allowance to extend the reach from the amplifier to the piano) and playing it over and over and over and over with Vic, in his key, till I got it right.

To this day I have to thank my family for putting up with all that cacophony! The first few years I was at the keyboard almost non-stop learning things all winter for the spring to come.

Some of the tracks on that album are priceless snippets of a time on the river I was blessed to have come in on towards the end of the era. I remember many of the old timers from the river in that recording...Cappy Louden, Vic Tooker, Mariam Edgar (who I met on the MQ years later)....what a wonderful peek in to the past that one is...I think I will pull it out and listen to it today and refresh all the memories!

Ah, the memories of youth!

~Travis~

Travis Vasconcelos;12275 wrote:

Ah, the memories of youth!

Ah, the memories of first meeting the young Travis at 12 years old hanging out on the sun deck with his paper bag that contained his portable tape recorder. He introduced himself as Travis and then some long last name I took a long time to remember! But, I knew instantly this kid was a total calliopehead.

This talk about the Unafon brings up an interesting point, and that is the difference between circus and river pronunciations when it comes to instrumental ballyhoo. Most people appreciate that on the river, a calliope is a cal-EYE-o-pe, and in a circus it is a CAL-ly-ope (or also rhyming with alley-oop).

The Unafon is no different. On the river, most people learned to pronounce the chimed noisemaker as YOU-na-phone. At the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, at least, this contraption is called the OO-na-fahn.

Jazzou,

Of course, I was wondering why Tooker wasn't at the calliope console when we met on the 1979 steamboat race cruise at Louisville. Remember that cruise...I will never forget Betty Blake being aboard on that cruise. She hosted a special cocktail party on the bow of the Cabin Deck (long before the ice room and storage closet was added in that area) with a number of the river fans in attendance. I believe it was Captain Ernest Wagners last steamboat race if memory serves me correctly.

You were doing double duty that day, playing the calliope and running back to the Texas Lounge to play with Vic Tooker and the Riverboat Ramblers.

I still have the tape I made that day at Louisville of you playing the calliope. One of these days, I need to digitize that one along with the rest of my collection.

Back in those days you could buy a ticket just to ride the boat for the race. It was $75.00. I still have mine from that day in a scrap book. And all the river fans who were on the boat for the entire cruise who are not with us now...I remember Delly Robertson, Ann Zeiger, Pat Sullivan, Ann Hodson (sp?), and quite a few others were there.

Once again, I have tripped down memory lane.

Maybe someday Jazzou, we can talk you into a blog of memories....or perhaps a book. For you have alot of memories I am sure many of us would love to hear of on cruises many of us were not aboard for.

Just an idea...hint, hint, hint, hint....

~Travis~

Judy,

It's been a couple of days since I've been on here, but I'll ask my dad what happened to the plaque since it seems like he would be the one who would know all about it and its whereabouts.

Jon,

I find the reasoning for some of the differences in pronunciation are the socio-economic situations of the people who are present at the different venues.

In many cases the circus people were vagabond folk who noticed a particular talent which the circus was able to market to both persons success. However, most circus performers were paid very low wages...they worked for the appreciation of the crowd...rather than monitary satisfaction. Hence, many were ill-educated to the nuances of the english language and many creative pronounciations came of this.

On the river we also had people of this ilk about. However, most Mud Clerks were highly educated because of their position as not only the person who was responsible for the financial work of the boat but, their position as the "Front of the House" person to the passengers. Hence their education and knowledge permiated the boat.

When it comes to the pronunciation of the calliope I have a story I have probably told a million times...but, it fits well here, so I will repeat it!

In 1985 I met David Morecraft and traveled that September to his home in Peru, IN. to see his first calliope (the calliope today aboard the steam barge ANNA MARIE, Indiana Steam Music Opus ISM 30-001...the name of Morecraft Manufacturing back in those days). Meeting him was my first exposure to true Circus people and Circus instruments. I had read of them but had only been around riverboat calliopes to that point. He called it a call-ee-oap.

I brought this new word home with me and the next weekend was aboard the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE where I was Calliopist (aka: Calliope Player and/or Perfessor). In those days we played the calliope at boarding and again at the turn around in the middle of the cruise. As we were preparing to make the turn I came to the Pilothouse and before I took to the keyboard, I asked the Pilot if it we had any traffic or better put, if it was okay with him. When he gave me the affirmative sign, I said, "Cap I am off to play the call-ee-oap!" Captain C.W. Stoll was our Pilot that day...he was entertaining guests in the Pilothouse and looked at me with a stern look and said "what did you say?" I repeated, "I am off to play the call-ee-oap."

He said, "Young man, come back in here (in a very stern and commanding tone)". I imediately stepped back into the Pilothouse and Captain Stoll explained my verbal error to me.

The explaination went like this...."On an high class excursion boat, showboat or packet boat it is called call-I-O Pee...on a low class showboat or carnival or in the circus it is called a Call-ee-oap....aboard the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE we have a (he left a dramatic pause and then said with great emphasis) Call-I-O Pee!"

I never made that mistake again!

~Travis~

Jon, something else that may factor in to this is regional ways of speaking. Imagine a boat that may have run up into Pennsylvania (ever notice how they talk funny up there?) down to , oh, Memphis (they talk funny there) or New Orleans (some people there talk kinda funny....) -- well, you get the idea!

Ruth Ferris told me that she asked Capt. J.W. Menke about the pronunciation. The Menke brothers, over a period of time, operated 7 showboats and Capt. Bill said they always pronounced it "cally-ope"!

Keith,

On the Upper Mississippi they usually say cally-ope. I have heard E.J.Quinby did, too.

~Travis~

WELL ,,,I better get in on this one !!! a TRAVIS

I play my steam calliope at the Circus Hall of Fame and Musuem, all the month of JULY ,,
and do a talk on its history and I explain it like this,,
The circus has it own from of terminology,, just as
a restroom is called a (doniker)
the calliope is called a (call-ee-oap) it's called circus ,,slang,,,..
While i'm around all the circus fans i do say call-ee-oap but for the most I say calliope,,,
Lets see what I say in Louisville on SUNDAY ,,LOL

Geez, Travis, that's awfully nice of you to suggest, but most of my stuff probably wouldn't get past the censors 🙂

One of the books I hope to read one day is one that would be written by Toots. Her river experience has been long and varied with so many interesting twists and turns. She has had an amazing career and filled many different capacities in her association with the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen, American Queen. And now, as a certified Alaska Guide and her work in the Pacific Northwest - that woman never stops! Plus, she can sure weave a yarn in a most entertaining fashion. Of course, whatever she writes about me, I will probably have to censor. Like the time when...oh, never mind.

Any number of river folks - passengers and crew alike could write their chapters and bring readers everywhere some delightful memories. I always enjoyed hearing stories of the older times on the Delta Queen - such as what Sue and Matt Sisak and their son, Pete, as well as some of the older crew members would tell about Mr. Zahn, whom I never had the pleasure of meeting. As I think about it, others whose memoirs I'd enjoy reading are Captains Doc Hawley and Gabe Chengery. And anything Captain Mike Williams would write. Anyone have any others in mind whose writings they would enjoy?

With a lot of editing a compendium of Delta Queen stories could be made from dot-org. entries. The collector could follow my 8 easy rules for writing:
Step 1. Write it.
Step 2. Set it aside for a month or two.
Step 3. Read it and throw up!
Step 4. Throw out a minimum of 33% of the words.
Step 5. Throw out all of the commas and insert periods and capitals.
Step 6. Check for spelling, grammar, and historical flaws.
Step 7. Chuck the whole idea and go to bed.
Step 8. Con someone else into doing it.

Most of Pete's posts are all gone now. I know he posted something recently about his Grandfather Zahn, but now it's gone.

On a personal note, I did not know Mister Zahn either, but I do know the Sisak family quite well, they are tops in my book.

Jazzou Jones;12316 wrote:

Geez, Travis, that's awfully nice of you to suggest, but most of my stuff probably wouldn't get past the censors 🙂

One of the books I hope to read one day is one that would be written by Toots. Her river experience has been long and varied with so many interesting twists and turns. She has had an amazing career and filled many different capacities in her association with the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen, American Queen. And now, as a certified Alaska Guide and her work in the Pacific Northwest - that woman never stops! Plus, she can sure weave a yarn in a most entertaining fashion. Of course, whatever she writes about me, I will probably have to censor. Like the time when...oh, never mind.

Any number of river folks - passengers and crew alike could write their chapters and bring readers everywhere some delightful memories. I always enjoyed hearing stories of the older times on the Delta Queen - such as what Sue and Matt Sisak and their son, Pete, as well as some of the older crew members would tell about Mr. Zahn, whom I never had the pleasure of meeting. As I think about it, others whose memoirs I'd enjoy reading are Captains Doc Hawley and Gabe Chengery. And anything Captain Mike Williams would write. Anyone have any others in mind whose writings they would enjoy?

Cap,

You know...those are the rules (for the most part) I used when I made my DELTA QUEEN historical Audio book, "DELTA QUEEN-Grande Dame Of The Mississippi" and the music CD "Because I told You I Didn't". I just skipped the Con someone else (Rule #8) into doing it part and wrote, produced, and recorded it myself.

By the way...the DQ Audiobook is still available aboard the DELTA QUEEN and at the Howard Steamboat Museum. I still have a few copies of both CD's at home so if any one is interested...write me at [email protected] and I will tell you more!

~Travis~

~Travis~

And ya done grand, Travis. Just grand!

YOU DID a Wonderful job TRAVIS ,,as ALAN just posted ,,GRAND,,just GRAND...
The copy I got on the DELTA QUEEN, was so riveting we listen to it the whole drive home,,,and learned so much about the DQ I never knew,,!
It may long,, but it's WORTH IT,,,!!!

Proud folks stare after me,
Call me call I o pe.
Tooting joy, tooting hope,
I am the cally ope.

Nothing factual,, but does anyone know where that ditty came from? And this UMR person and my friends call it call I o pe. Perhaps Travis was referring to upper UMR people's pronounciations????

Speaking of Her Nibbs, rumors abound that Miss Jane may be at S&D next month. With Chief Engineer, KPH, Jr. as the guest speaker, who can resist being there? Not I.

Judy Patsch;12334 wrote: Proud folks stare after me,
Call me call I o pe.
Tooting joy, tooting hope,
I am the cally ope.

Nothing factual,, but does anyone know where that ditty came from? And this UMR person and my friends call it call I o pe. Perhaps Travis was referring to upper UMR people's pronounciations????

Hi Judy,

Most versions of the Calliope Capers "script" (yes, folks, it's a script delivered cleverly to sound off the cuff), include the assertion that a "ca-lie'-oh-pee" is an instrument on the water and a "ca-lee-ope' " is an instrument on land.

But the script is a mixture of fact and fiction anyway, often embellished by the presenter, so take it for what it's worth.

Paul

Sounds like an S&D to remember....I just might go, too!

Judy,

The poem you refer to is from Reedys Mirror magazine in 1890. Somewhere, I have the date and author written down. When I find it I will post it here. I have a photocopy of the exact page in my collection somewhere (dusty boxes in the basement somewhere).

~Travis~