It took Leon Berry six years to assemble "the beast in the basement," a modified Wurlitzer pipe organ with physical add-ons that reproduce the sound of everything from chirping birds to machine guns, so as to add versatility to live movie accompaniment in the ’60s. It’s essentially the physical embodiment of a sampler.
From the organ’s keyboard, Berry was able to control a slide whistle, train whistle, wind simulator, gong, mechanical bird, castanets, tambourines, xylophone, glockenspiel and car horn. Drums included snare, bass and a wooden block instrument that one of Berry’s Coast Guard buddies picked up in China.
The 16mm film that originally contained this video, believed to be from a television series called "Face and Place’"was transferred to DVD by the Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts group and then uploaded to YouTube by Steve Rabb, an organ hobbyist who himself plays a ’60s-era Hammond with MIDI modules — the modern descendant of Berry’s apparatus. Rabb says the "beast in the basement" apparently now resides somewhere in Arizona.
He uploaded another video featuring songs recorded by Berry and the beast set to still images and biographical information from his life:
(Make via Boing Boing)
