Orange Coast Piano Inc.
Since 1981
2658 SOUTH GRAND AVE. SANTA ANA. CA. 92705
About | Scale Design | Grades | Archives | Ratings | Piano Ages | Player Rolls | Evolution | Chronicle | Contact
NELSON-WIGGENS HISTORY
Players, grand's and automatic pianos designed for private, as well as public use in places of refined entertainment, theaters and other purposes, are the products of The Nelson-Wiggens Piano Co., of Chicago.
These instruments embrace the Pian-O-Grand, the Harp-O-Grand and the Banj-O-Grand all of durable and dependable construction and capable of the musical effects of orchestras. The Pian-O-Grand is equipped with xylophone, or bells and banjo attachment.
Orchestrion's in the 1920's
The coming of Prohibition in 1920 killed off the market for most large orchestrion's. In fact, it played havoc with coin-operated instruments in general. Most firms went out of business or cut back production at that time. A few others fell victim to the 1921 business depression. By 1925 there were only a few makers left.
A sampling of the Orchestrion trade in America in 1925 would have revealed that two makers had the lion's share of the business. Way out in front was the J.P. Seeburg Piano Company. Close behind was a secretly-owned Seeburg subsidiary, the Western Electric Piano Company. Behind these two leaders were several other makers, notably the Nelson-Wiggens Piano Company and the Operators Piano Company.
Orchestrion's of the mid-1920's were different from the earlier styles. The most popular type was the small compact keyboardless style. These instruments were much smaller than the earlier keyboard-style orchestrion's and were more suited for use in cabarets and speakeasies, the private, smoky, and intimate unofficial watering places of the Prohibition era. Indeed, this cabaret use sparked a small revival of the industry for a short time in the 1920's, so that in 1924 and 1925 the music trade papers were full of comments about "good times" in the business.
However, the days of orchestrion's and coin-operated pianos were numbered during the 1920's. The radio, despite the fact that most were played for patrons free, became the star attraction of many public places. In 1927, talking pictures became a commercial reality. This, combined with the popularity of the radio, increased the demand for music as sung by famous personalities. The coin-operated phonograph, which entered service in the 1890's and which co-existed with the coin-operated piano for years, forged ahead. As if this was not enough, the Depression provided the finishing touch. By 1932, the business was, for all practical purposes, dead. The few companies that were still in existence at the time owed their lives to diversification into other fields. Wurlitzer and Seeburg became the two leading makers of juke boxes, or, as the makers preferred to call them, "automatic phonographs." Most other firms simply vanished.
NELSON WIGGENS MODEL 5X
SOLD FOR $17,500.00. RESTORED 02/05/05
NELSON WIGGENS MODEL 3A
SOLD FOR $12,400.00. RESTORED 03/15/05
