Circus, Calliope & Mechanical Music Festival brings national crowd to Peru

Jun. 16—PERU — Dark clouds loomed over the International Circus Hall of Fame on Friday, threatening to rain on the whistling instruments that gathered around the grounds. Plumes of steam billowed from a couple of the instruments, hiding the people operating them behind a misty curtain.

Some people, like Jim Seibert, mayor of Fredonia, Kentucky, drove for several hours to take part in the spectacle, dubbed the Circus, Calliope & Mechanical Music Festival. It was advertised, after all, as the largest gathering of calliopes in the world.

Calliopes are similar to organs but operate with high pressure wind (traditionally in the form of steam) and can be heard for miles. The instruments once advertised steam boat rides and circuses.

Seibert explained his calliope is loud enough for people to hear three miles away from the instrument. His calliope also happens to make ice cream via a steam powered engine. He joked it can also time travel.

The Kentuckian mayor said it was the first time his steam-powered instrument traveled. He's owned it for three years and has only been able to play it about three times.

In lieu of a keyboard, his calliope plays notes dictated via Wi-Fi. The absence of a keyboard left him room to install several throw switches — the type you might imagine in Frankenstine's laboratory — that control a Jacob's ladder and lights on the large wooden base that supports the instrument's whistles.

Seibert said he decided to buy a calliope during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was sitting at home and looking for strange things to do.

"This is probably the weirdest one I came up with," Seibert said. "This is what happens when you lay in bed watching YouTube videos."

The project started with two steam-powered ice cream makers, Seibert noted. He decided later to add the instrument that sounds like it could advertise ice cream.

A steam-powered boat sat on a trailer near Seibert's setup. The ship's captain, Ken Griffard, made Seibert's calliope.

The boat, which was named S.S. Norman G., usually rides around Clear Lake near Three Rivers, Michigan. Calliope whistles decorate the bow of the watercraft. The ship's entire crew wore earmuffs to protect their hearing.

The crowd that had gathered around the boat took several steps back once the music started because of the loud, piercing noise the instrument makes.

Although Griffard builds calliopes, he doesn't play them. That honor was left for Linda Anderson-Mauser, who sat outside the boat to operate an electronic keyboard hooked up to the wood-fired instrument.

Anderson-Mauser explained she lives on Clear Lake. She would watch Griffard take the boat out on coffee runs and listen to the occasional tune he would play through Wi-Fi. Eventually, she asked whether she could try playing a keyboard through the steam whistles.

Anderson-Mauser has a background playing organ music. The mechanical differences between organs and calliopes are vastly different, she said, especially with steam calliopes.

The temperature, humidity and pressure of steam running through a calliope affect the instrument's tone and tuning. The environment's temperature and humidity also play a role.

"It's kind of like a giant science experiment," Anderson-Mauser said.

Griffard later explained he originally installed a 21-note calliope on the boat. It can play 38 notes now.

He started building the instruments a decade ago because he wanted to install one on a previous boat. By his estimation, Griffard has sent about a dozen calliopes around the world, including Canada, Vietnam and France.

The calliope world is small, Griffard said. He doesn't really advertise his work as a calliope maker, but people who want one are able to find him.

Jacob Minns didn't have to travel far to join the world of calliopes. The Peru native started as an organ player and, given his hometown's nickname "Circus City," was soon introduced to the former circus instrument.

He played the Gentry Bros. Calliope, which is owned by the Peru Amateur Circus. The bulky instrument is housed in a 1903 wagon that sits on a 1951 Ford V8 Flathead.

Steam from the calliope frequently fogged his glasses and he had to use a wooden ladder to get in and out of the wagon. A crew surrounding the calliope had to keep an eye on a pressure gauge and performances had to be quick so they could preserve the instrument's pressure.

Despite the inconveniences, Minn said the experience was thrilling.

Calliopes were invented in 1855 for steam boat advertisements before circuses got ahold of the instruments.

"You're playing history," Minn said. "This was an advertisement 150 years ago."

Bob Cline, treasurer for the Circus Hall of Fame, said there were five steam-powered calliopes, four air-powered calliopes, two band organs and a street grinder organ at the festival Friday afternoon. The instruments came from places like California, Louisiana and New Hampshire.

"This is the only place in the world where you'll find five steam calliopes, let alone hear them," Cline said.

Other visitors came from Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Vancouver, Canada, to volunteer at the festival.

"I think everybody's having a ball," Cline said. Pointing to an impromptu performance that formed around a band organ, he added, "I think that tells you everything you need to know."

James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or james.bennett@kokomotribune.com.