‘The Music Man’s’ collection comes to auction
The esteemed Ken Vinen collection will be sold at Miller & Miller’s Coin-op, Music & Advertising sale on September 19, 2020.
Ken Vinen’s reputation as ‘The Music Man’ began in earnest when he was just 12 and quietly sneaking 78 rpm records into the Edmonton hotel where he was staying with his father, who he knew would disapprove. But to Ken, it was the most natural thing in the world. Born with an irrepressible love of music, his devotion would only deepen over time.
Ken died October 31st at age 79, leaving behind a legacy of music and a world-class collection of music machines, piano rolls and records, which he’d been gathering for more than 60 years. The collection will be sold at Miller & Miller’s Coin-op, Music & Advertising sale on September 19, 2020.
The highlights of Ken’s collection spark awe, both musically and mechanically, which is why some were originally sold as coin-operated investments to shrewd bar owners looking for an attraction to divert patrons from the establishment next door. The answer was nickel, and the nickelodeon. Offered is the rare Seeburg ‘G’ Orchestrion (a player piano with violin and flute pipes, drums, cymbals and more), a 1937 Ampico ‘B’ grand player piano, and an upright coin-operated Orchestral Regina music box with a library of 27-inch discs – a machine Ken boldly bought at age 20 with a loan at 20% interest. There’s also an impressive line-up of Wurlitzer juke boxes: model ‘61’, ‘750’, and the iconic ‘1015’.
Some highlights from the Ken Vinen collection, slated for sale at Miller & Miller Auctions on September 19, 2020.
Ken was a fascinating man, widely known for his generosity of spirit and a love of life that turned him into a jack of all trades – and master of them all.
He became a professional chef at 18, training at Mount Royal College and apprenticing at the Palliser Hotel. His cooking skills would serve him well in later years when he became a caterer, hotel owner, restaurant owner, bed and breakfast operator, and entertainer extraordinaire. He also loved horses, worked at a horse camp, drove a chuck wagon in the Calgary Stampede, and maintained his equestrian interests despite being thrown from the saddle, resulting in two broken legs. During the ‘50s, he volunteered after school to do menial jobs at a Calgary radio station so he could spend hours listening to music. He later went on to write radio ads and read the news. In 1963, he was working at a station in Smith Falls and just happened to be on air the day former U.S. president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Horrified upon reading the newsfeed ticker tape, Ken blurted out the word “shit” on air, which was a huge deal in those days.
His passion for music created many enduring memories and from an early age. During his teen years, a friend invited him over to see the family’s player piano, which was on the fritz. While the family went to church, Ken figured out what was wrong and fixed it. It was a skill he continued to fine-tune, repairing and rebuilding player pianos, not only for himself but for others as well. In fact, he saved a lot of old music machines from ruination over the years. One of them was a huge Wurlitzer band organ out of Quebec purportedly once owned by former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s father. Ken rebuilt it piece by piece back at home in Stratford, Ontario and later sold it.
Ken restoring one of his player pianos in the attic of his Cobourg residence around 1965.
“He was generous with his knowledge and expertise,” says Ken’s surviving spouse John Cockburn. “And he was so talented and inquisitive. He always had to be learning more and doing more. His philosophy was ‘jump in with both feet’ and he did. Ken always had at least 10 interests and business ventures going at any given time. He was a real trailblazer.”
A virtual Renaissance man, Ken was also a gifted, self-taught piano player who at one point performed for $6 a night in bars (or saloons as he called them) in Montreal, Port Hope, Cobourg and London. After 10 p.m. he’d play the more risqué ditties, which he loved.
“Ken knew every tune,” recalls John. “If we were watching a movie he’d sing along. He knew all the words and every song imaginable. He just knew them and could play them – without sheet music.”
Ken loved a party, adored his music and knew how to savour a cigar.
Ken’s love of music, his collection, his membership in multiple musical clubs and organizations – and his irrepressible zest for life – earned him many friends and admirers. During the ‘70s he moved to the Rice Lake area in Ontario and began refurbishing an old schoolhouse. In 1974, he hosted the first of many Ragtime bashes there. Among the guests were well-known Canadian composer and virtuoso Ragtime pianist John Arpin, an American named J. Lawrence Cook, considered the most prolific piano roll artist of all time, and another celebrated American composer and pianist by the name of Eubie Blake. One of the guests recorded the music that evening and put out a record of it. “Those were Ken’s hay days,” says John.
Virtuoso Ragtime pianist John Arpin tinkles the keys at the Ragtime bash Ken threw in 1974 at his converted old school house. Watching him play is the famous American composer and pianist Eubie Blake.
The famous Ragtime pianist John Arpin plays Ken’s piano during a visit to his Cobourg apartment in 1965 while Ken takes it all in.
And there are plenty of stories to prove it.
For example, one day Ken and a bunch of friends were partying on a barge while transporting a piano to his school house. En route, a boat passed by full of bare-breasted women. Everyone ran to one side of the barge to get a closer look and the piano flipped over into the lake.
Ken loved a party, especially when he could share his beloved Ragtime and old jazz music. And it didn’t hurt that he was a gifted storyteller. He loved performing for people and spreading the joy, particularly during the Christmas season and at nursing homes. During one such visit with one of his many music machines, a resident who was blind began gleefully waving her hands in the air as if conducting the music.
“For Ken, it wasn’t about collecting. It was all about the music,” John explains. “He bought the machines so he could play the music he loved.”
And play them he did.
“Most collectors would just leave the same roll on,” says Henry Mazur, a close friend of Ken’s who helped run his Stratford B&B and looked after his collection of large tropical birds. “But Ken changed them and enjoyed them all. I’d say 99 per cent of his are original rolls. He had a library of music for each machine.” That included a library for the Seeburg ‘G’ which was so loud and powerful it would get the birds over excited when they played it.
Ken had a lifetime love of music, including his beloved 78s, which he’s listening to here.
Two weeks before he died Ken was still enjoying playing the piano.
A fellow member of the U.S.-based forum Mechanical Music Digest, who knew Ken for over 45 years, wrote after his death: “He was a real fun-loving, cigar-smoking gentleman who wouldn't take any guff from anyone, though the continuous twinkle in his eye soon let everyone know he was a gentle teddy bear. We're going to miss ya, old pal.”
Ken and J. Lawrence Cook at the 1974 Silver Anniversary Convention of the Musical Box Society International in New Jersey. Cook was credited with creating somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 different piano roll recordings during his lifetime.
Ken and his husband John Cockburn at the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association convention in Seattle this past July.
During his lifetime, Ken made many friends. He knew everyone in the music industry and met hundreds of people in the course of his hospitality work.
He arrived in Stratford in 1987 to manage the infamous Kent Hotel, and soon bought it outright. (It burned to the ground in 2003 after he sold it.) In 1988, he also opened an impressive B&B in Stratford called Woods Villa. The 1870s Italianate Victorian Mansion was 7,500 square feet and sat on over an acre of grounds. There were 12 working fireplaces, and bell pulls in every bedroom which allowed guests to ring for room service. John says Ken “set a new tone in the B&B industry in Stratford,” often cooking a full gourmet breakfast for 12 guests, later treating them to a tune or two on one of his many music machines. “Ken did everything right – full scale,” says John. “He was a stand-up, take no BS, trailblazing, change-the-rules-if-they’re-dumb type of man, a bird and animal lover, a man of so many talents and interests it amazed me.”
By Diane Sewell
Auction Details:
Music Machines, Coin-Op & Advertising
Online Bidding: August 31 - September 19
Lots close via online webcast on September 19, 9am.
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