Barbara Uher, married to Joseph Uher for 65 years, shown here recently with their son Ken Uher. She holds the 15-and-a-half -inch diameter metal disk played in her husband’s 1903 Regina Music Box. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Play Music Box Video Here, created by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com.

By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com

Joseph L. Uher of Los Alamos had a passion for working with wood. That passion turned into a decades long quest to collect, build and restore to original splendor a collection of magnificent music machines.

He was a US Navy Veteran who went on to have careers as a mechanical technician at both Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Before retiring in 1990, Uher served as a liaison traveling the country checking on the precision work done by companies that did business with the Laboratory.

“It was common knowledge at the Lab if you had a problem you couldn’t solve – go see Joe,” Uher’s wife Barbara said.

Ken Uher said his dad had a love of mechanical things and how things worked.

“He had a real knack for fixing things and bringing them back to life,” Ken said. “It was fun helping him and taking old player pianos apart. Sometimes we would find old coins from the 1890s or early 1900s that had fallen somewhere inside like Indianhead pennies and Buffalo nickels.”

Uher passed away last month at the age of 90 in his Los Alamos home. He was surrounded by his family who loved him dearly.

This special man leaves behind an incredible music machine legacy for his wife and their four children, five grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and many friends to enjoy.

“I remember in the 1960s I was a little kid and there was an old player piano in the basement of our home,” Ken said during an interview last week. “My dad got it going and I remember thinking how neat that was … a piano that plays itself.”

Like his father, Ken has a love for mechanical things.

“In high school I had an interest in old jukeboxes from the 1940s and 1950s,” Ken said. “So, my dad and I found an old one and we restored it.”

The Uher music machine collection contains a 1926 Seeburg Style L Player Piano Coin-Operated Nickelodeon. The Seeburg L cabinet piano has 54 notes, according to antiquitymusic.com. The lowest bass note is the third B below middle C, equal to note 15 in an 88-note piano. The highest treble note is the third E above middle C, equal to note 68 in an 88-note piano. With 11 wrapped two-string bass unisons playing from low B up to A, the lowest plain string on the long bridge is the second A# below middle C (note 26 in an 88-note piano). The dimensions are 36 1/2″ x 35 1/4″ x 22 3/4″.

The J.P. Seeburg Piano Company of Chicago, Ill., was one of the two largest makers of coin-operated pianos and orchestrions in the U.S. from 1909 through 1928, second only to the giant Wurlitzer company in the 1910s, and then dominating the industry in the 1920s. Seeburg products are the favorite of many collectors, thanks to their excellent musical performance, beautiful cabinets and art glass, and mechanical durability.

Seeburg produced many styles of coin pianos, orchestrions, photoplayers, and mortuary organs, until the electronic amplifier caused their demise, and the company went on to became one of the major manufacturers of coin-operated phonographs.

“In 1948 Seeburg was the first to create a Model 100 A, one hundred selection Jukebox, which played fifty 78 RPM records with songs on each side,” Ken said. “Over the years Seeburg became the number 1 manufacturer of jukeboxes and reigned in the 1950s.”

Ken said that his father added an Edison Amberola Phonograph from about 1915 to his collection. He also built a replica of a 1920s era Wurlitzer 105 Military Band Organ. He ordered an instruction book and proceeded to build the machine from scratch, Ken said.

Barbara was married to Uher for 65 years. She recalled that he purchased a 1903 Regina Music Box from a private collector in Philadelphia. It plays a 15 and a half inch diameter disk, she said.

The Uher collection also includes a 1916 Hamilton Player Piano and a Princess Aeolian pump organ, a model discontinued in 1891, Ken said. Three other pieces in the Uher collection are a Gem Roller Organ thought to be from the turn of the century. Another music box has two bells and a cylinder. It may be German made, Ken said. The other piece is marked on top with the name “Musical Casket”.

Ken explained that many of these less fancier music boxes were made in Europe and shipped over here – some had American names, but the details are unknown.

Uher’s music machine collection continues to delight family, friends and visitors of all ages and is expected to do so for many years to come.

“My dad would always get a lot of enjoyment out of people seeing and enjoying his music machines,” Ken said.

Ken Uher with the replica of a 1920s era Wurlitzer 105 Military Band Organ his father Joseph Uher built from scratch. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

This is thought to be a Swiss music box made in the late 1800s that Joseph Uher restored. The music box plays 12 songs. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Interior view of the music box that Joseph Uher restored. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

A 1926 Seeburg Style L Player Piano Coin-Operated Nickelodeon in the Joseph Uher collection. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Ken Uher places a 15-and-a-half-inch diameter metal disk on the 1903 Regina Music Box that his father Joseph Uher purchased from a private collector in Philadelphia. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

A hand-cranked cob type organ in the Uher collection with pins on the wooden cob that actuate the valves to sound the individual notes. This organ is thought to be from around the turn of the century. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Another example of a cob type music box in the Uher collection, this one contains bells. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

This machine in the Uher collection is named the Musical Casket and uses a perforated paper roll. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Barbara Uher carved these wooden animals by hand to go on the carousel her husband Joseph Uher built as part of this replica of a 1920s era Wurlitzer 105 Military Band Organ. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Ken Uher demonstrates the Princess Aeolian pump organ, a model discontinued in 1891, that his father Joseph Uher restored. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

A 1916 Hamilton Player Piano that Joseph Uher restored. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

The interior view of the 1916 Hamilton Player Piano that Joseph Uher restored. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

In addition to the many music machines Joseph Uher built or restored over the years, this is a grandfather clock that he designed and built from scratch. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

The side view of the grandfather clock that Joseph Uher designed and built from scratch. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com