A closer look
Forget Spotify playlists; if you wanted background music at a turn-of-the-century amusement park, you needed a Wurlitzer Style 105 Band Organ. These monstrous, pneumatically driven wooden beasts were designed to drown out the screams of terrifying early roller coasters and the mechanical grinding of the rides themselves. Essentially a giant, aggressive music box reading punched paper rolls, it blasted brass and percussion loud enough to cause permanent tinnitus, all in the name of festive ambiance.
