Player piano in ice cream parlor

[Squadcar]

Hi all, I have just discovered this great site and have spent several hours reading through the forum.  One thing that I can find no mention of is the coin-operated player piano that used to sit in the ice cream shop around 1974 or so.  You put in a dime and the player piano would begin playing, and an animatronic dummy moved his hands and feet as if he were playing the piano.  As I recall, his name was Piano Pete.  Does anybody remember this?  I think the piano (which almost certainly is no longer operational) may now sit outside near the taffy shop, but without the animatronic dummy.

[Junior]

I, too remember Piano Pete. When I came to work at SDC in 1978 he was already gone. Don't know his fate or the reason why it was removed. It would really be pretty cool if they would put a player piano back in there, don't you think? That player piano is another bit of that romantic history of SDC that likely will never come to pass our way again.

[Ozarks Gal]

Squadcar, welcome to the site!

I feel like I remember a player piano on the park, and the dummy sounds vaguely familiar.  This would have been mid-90s for me, so it might be a false memory. Anybody else out there remember? I will have to be on the look-out for the piano next time I visit; it didn't even occur to me that it might still be on the park.

By the by, "Piano Pete" is part of the advertisement for Hannah's on the newsprint shopping bags.

[okiebluegrass]

I don't remember one at SDC. I know Frontier City in OKC had (has?) one. Never seen it working though. I wish they would invest in bringing back some things like this. The boxing match would work too. I know people are WWWAAAAYYY to sensitive about a lot of things. But there are a bunch of things they could bring back without adding controversy.

[Ozark Outlaw]

I heard Piano Pete got arrested for moonshine, and was sentenced to work the rest of his days in the Flooded Mine! Haha, okay not really, but I do agree with Junior. It's those small touches that really add so much character to the park.

[tinmann620]

I don't know Pete's demise, but the piano still works, privately owned in Ozark...

[Junior]

How does ANYONE know that stuff? Interesting. 

[Old Guy]

Someone find a SDC brown bag and look for the ice cream parlor add. At one time Pete was advertised there.

[History Buff]

Hey, Old Guy!  I haven't heard from you in a while.  I wondered about you when I was in the park, today.

[Old Guy]

I'm still around. Find that reveling in nostalgia can be too dangerous for me.I still feel the need to weigh in every once in awhile. I was reminded of the site here when I came across a box of papers that my mother, Jack's former secretary, salvaged from Marys desk drawers up on cleaning out her office after her death. She(mom) didn't have the heart to throw all that stuff out, so she removed all the personal papers kept all the Silver Dollar City memorabilia. As far as Jack was concerned it was all garbage. So now I have it and I'm not sure what to do with it. It's an odd assortment of extremely rare and sometimes boring research notes on mill wheels, old maps newspaper articles mixed with things like a matchbook from the Silver Dollar City outpost in Leesburg Missouri, Lead sdc coins, publicity photos from The Beverly Hillbillies, even an autographed picture of Marlin Pirkins from the pre  SDC Marlin Perkins zoo era. I've considered eBay, I could certenly use the money, but breaking it all up seems wrong.so in my indecision I ended up here. Mussing again. Sigh....

[Junior, too!]

OLD GUY!!!!! (John)  So glad you checked in! Altough you may not remember my real name...probably too many years...we have known each other since you did the Wally Welch Review at the Vineyard in '78. That's where I worked at the time. In '79 I was at the float trip, and '80 to '84 at the diving bell. Check out my flickr site for many old SDC photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan    Regarding the contents of Mary's desk, consider the Ozarkana Collection at College of the Ozarks at Lyon Memorial Library or the Rrlph Foster Museum. I will also bluntly tell you if you want to to keep it together in a private collection I am interested in preserving it in my collection. I kept everything from my employment days. Please don't sell on ebay...it will be scattered and lost forever. I contribute on this site as JUNIOR (my desktop) and as JUNIOR, TOO (my notebook) so please review my posts. My Junior, Too profile here lists my email account. Feel free to email me. I make it to Branson several times a year and would love to visit in person some time. All best wishes, and God bless!