An accordion on a tabletop and tons of nostalgia

I was given one of these as a Kindergartner about 150 years ago and played (ironically) the song "Long, Long Ago", which I learned by ear, for my class. (Not an incredibly impressive feat for most, but maybe not bad for a 6 year old 😉). This is the instrument that instilled a lifelong love of making music for me. Sadly, mine broke after 3-4 years...I cried for days. There's not a lot of videos of them or pages with info about them, but I have many vivid memories of it, so here is what I remember....

This style of Magnus organ changed very little from the 1960s to the early 80s, which is when I got mine. It basically is like an electric accordion that sits on a table. Rather than an accordion's manual air bellows, when the Magnus is switched on, a rather noisy fan powers up, and the organ must "warm up" before it is playable. (About 10-15 seconds if I remember correctly.)

My version, at least, was actually sold at a toy store. I can't say for sure but I am nearly positive there are no ports of any kind for recording or amplifying. Not that it needed much amplifying... at full volume it could nearly wake the dead! 😄 There must not have even been a headphone jack, otherwise my mother would have certainly made me use it to preserve her sanity...it was not a subtle instrument at all.

It had it's own unintentional (and kinda funny) manner of "percussion", because the keys were so stiff you could hear a click each time you pressed one of the piano keys. I assume it changed the airflow direction when a key was pressed, and that the air pressure release was why the keys clicked. The volume was controlled with a slide on the front of the organ on the lower left, it slid forward into the organ and backward away from it to control the volume.

Definitely geared toward beginners, Magnus organs have a label above each of the keys. But they are not even music notes, they are numbers. To this day, when I hear the song "Long, Long Ago," I sing along in my head...."1, 1 2 3, 3 4 5.... 6 5 3" 🤣

I played that organ for hundreds of hours. It finally perished when one day instead of "warming up" after the fan was switched on, it just made a continuous loud noise not unlike a whoopee cushion. 😂 I suppose whatever held the air inside ruptured. Because my mom had one as a child in the 60's, and hers broke in the exact same manner mine did, it makes me wonder if they were prone to that problem with extended use. I wish I had been able to disect mine to see for sure what made this thing tick and what was broken, but I was too young.

I collect vintage keyboards, still have the Yamaha I got in about 1986 to replace the broken Magnus. But I haven't gotten another Magnus organ yet. It's a novelty, but it doesn't have a lot of practical uses (for my music, anyway). Recording with a mic would certainly be possible, but it would also pick up the loud clicks of the keys and probably the fan as well. However, I am sure there are many people more clever than I who could find a use for it. I may get another someday simply for the nostalgia. It gets 5 stars from me even with its considerable limitations simply because it is so very unique. This was the instrument that taught me to love creating music, so it will always have a special place in my heart.