Bigger street organs needed a cart, but there were also smaller wearable versions. The musician simply turned the crank on the side, which also operated a bellows that pumped air through the organ's pipes. It was a lot like a player piano, in that a paper cylinder with punches inserted into the box told the organ pipes what notes to play. The latter, as described in Douglas Earl Bush's and Richard Kassel's The Organ: An Encyclopedia, was a musical instrument developed in the 1700s in Europe. And in one instance, the nation's First Lady reportedly interceded on an organ grinder's behalf.Īccording to period newspaper accounts, the musicians usually were Italian immigrants, and they usually played what was known as a barrel or street organ. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there actually were street musicians who performed with dancing simians in the streets of the nation's capital, and they actually sometimes got into similar beefs with District police. You may not realize that there's a grain of truth in the comedy. "He doesn't tell me what to play, and I don't tell him what to do with his money.") ("I am a musician and the monkey is a businessman," the accordionist explains.
![what instrument plays the pink panther play what instrument plays the pink panther play](https://static.tomplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PINK_CLAR3_GFL.png)
If you're a Peter Sellers fan, you're probably familiar with this scene in the 1975 film Return of the Pink Panther, in which Inspector Clouseau fails to notice a bank robbery because he is questioning a street accordion player and his chimpanzee companion about whether or not they have the required permit.
![what instrument plays the pink panther play what instrument plays the pink panther play](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/scaled/2015/06/04/16/295A9ADC00000578-0-image-a-49_1433432611146.jpg)
An organ grinder like you might have seen on the streets of Washington in the late 19th century.