The Orchestron that is located in the back of the arcade contains over 300 pipes, triangles, bass drum and cymbal.
It was built in 1905 in Frieburg Germany and originally sold for $2,400.00.
It uses an electric motor which was developed around 1900 for power.
The Orgestron was purchased by Walt Disney in 1953.
It has been in the Penny Arcade since opening day.
In 1956 the phone extension for the Penny Arcade was 392
From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968
Includes penny hand-crank moviolas and antique fun machines of every description.
From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:
Even that Cadillac among arcades-Tomorrowland's blipping, bleeping, and squeaking Starcade is no match for this turn-of- the-century version with its blinking chaser lights. Among the quainter of the antique amusements found here are the World Soccer mechanical foot- ball game, the recently restored Kentucky Derby, and the Electric Shock (circa 1920), which delivers a reduced version of the jolt with which the brave were zapped before Disney engineers modified the mechanisms. The Uncle Sam strength test used to bear the picture of a scantily clad female, but the arcade wizards took care of that one, too. The funniest is the one with the Egyptian theme, to the left as you face the large band organ at the arcade's entrance, and the best surprises are the vibrating machines two Massage-o-Matic chairs, found widely in old penny arcades and along boardwalks, and the early 1940s Vibrant Foot-Ease, which sets the body to tingling from feet to eyeballs when a feet to eyeballs when dime is deposited.
In general, the machines closest to the street cost a penny and date from 1900 to 1920, while those in the rear of the room to the left are of the 1920-to-1960 vintage; the ones in the rear wing to the right (including a Pac-Man game) are more modern. Occupying center stage in the street area of the arcade are the Mutascopes and the Cail-o- Scopes. The former, first introduced around 1900, require a penny and feature moving hand-cranked pictures such as Miracle Rider, in which Tom Mix is shot off his horse by a truck driver; the Absent- Minded Janitor, which depicts a balletic Charlie Chaplin, an artist, and a pretty dancing model; Out- laws Getaway, featuring a gun battle and an am- bush; In the Bag, an exercise in animation that conveys some impression of just how sophisticated the Main Street Cinema's Steamboat Willie really was; Bounced on the Bean, featuring Chaplin's Tramp as baker; The New Sheriff, a vignette featuring the lawman, the lawman's daughter, and the handsome bandito; more Chaplin, in The Dough Fight; Stage Coach, about an attempted abduction; still more Chaplin, in Dizzy Racket, and Gal- loping Fury, perhaps the best of all, in which the cowboy with the white hat gets the girl and gallops off into the sunset. The Cail-o-Scopes, which came about a decade after the Mutascopes, give a slightly three-dimensional picture that moves mechanically. All of them offer a few minutes' pleasant diversion, but some are really good. For example, there's the Painless Dentist, featuring a hammer, saw, pliers and a very sorry young boy; Big Beauty Buster, starring Bull Montana, which tells of a ruffian and a weakling boxer who is caught hiding a hammer in his glove; Forbidden Sweets, which has a terrific sequence in which father catches son pigging out on stolen pie, and smashes it in his face, and A Wee Bit O' Scotch, in which a Playmate of yesteryear takes a nip. While you're looking, you can be feeding dimes to the arcade's big music boxes. There are two. The Wurlitzer Orchestrion Style L, introduced around 1921 and probably used to entertain guests in a restaurant or speakeasy until the jukebox came along in the 1930s, combines a piano with 38 violin pipes (21 of them first violins, plus 17 violas) and an equal number of flute pipes, orchestra bells, a bass drum, a snare drum, and a triangle. Purchased by Walt Disney in 1953, it occupied a place on the Mark Twain dock until 1973 when it was restored and moved to the Penny Arcade. The larger Welte Style 4 Concert Orchestrion, which has called the Penny Arcade home since 1955, was built around 1905 in the German city of Freiburg. Its more than 300 pipes, plus a triangle, bass drum, and cymbals, are activated by an electric motor developed around the turn of the century. Change for all these diversions is available in a booth at the rear of the arcade.
ESMERALDA The Fortune Teller's Story:
To Main Street Hostess and Fortune Teller ESMERALDA meeting new people and predicting futures is a common occurrence.
Esmeralda is the resident teller of future truths on Main Street. She sits in front of the Penny Arcade, providing knowledge to hundreds of curious guests each day.
She began her fortune-telling career as a young girl. Her family used to manage a traveling gypsy show. To make ends meet during the off-seasons, she began dealing cards during village poker games.
Now, she has developed her skill with cards to such an extent that she can predict people's futures with one shuffling of the deck. One might think, however, that sitting in a booth (the same one everyday) reading fortunes might get a little boring . "Not so," she says. "I meet a lot of interesting men with bright futures." She also adds, "lost of the guests who approach me are quite respectable."
Those who know Esmeralda can attest to the fact that she's a solid citizen. As she puts it, 'My mother always told me I came from good stock."
Besides enjoying her work here, she has had the good fortune to travel extensively, to act (she was once a contestant on the game show "Cardsharks") and write books on the subject of Fortune Tel ling. In fact, her latest, Lotsa Luck... You'll Need It, was a best-seller, just as she cooly predicted.
Clad in her green and pink bandanna, the lovely Esmeralda, with her jet-black hair and sensuous smile, continues to greet those who enter the Penny Arcade. She enjoys having a hand in people' s futures. And hopefully, remaining at Disneyland is In her future, but only she knows.
