Audiences were dependable, and "the organ man always knew what the monkey would bring back," the article explained. Meanwhile, the monkey, tethered to a leash, would scamper around with a tin cup, collecting change. Apparently, though, the residents enjoyed the monkey's antics, because he left "enriched by numerous coppers."Ī 1906 Post article described how the man-monkey musical teams operated on downtown streets. The organ grinder would set up on a street corner, wearing his instrument on a strap over his shoulder, and then support its weight with a stick while he plaed. The paper, which in those days sometimes sought to entertain readers with mockery of immigrants, related a tale of an Italian organ grinder "and his red-coated monkey" who walked into the old Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Sixth and M streets, not realizing that the inhabitants would be unable to hear his music. The first mention of a local man-and-monkey team was in the Oct. Sometime in the mid-1800s, immigrant organ grinders started showing up in U.S. (The exception was in France, where contrary to the scenario in Return of the Pink Panther, the organ grinders preferred to work with bichons and other small dogs.) But eventually, itinerant Italian street musicians took them to other parts of Europe and to England, and they eventually started using monkeys who would scamper around and collect change from the audience. Street organs started out as the musical accompanyment for puppet theaters in Italy. 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. 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. An organ grinder like you might have seen on the streets of Washington in the late 19th century.
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