organ grinders
Crank-box street performers
Organ grinders were street musicians who played portable barrel organs by turning a crank, often accompanied by a monkey collecting coins from passersby.
The practice peaked in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is now rare.
Figuratively, an organ grinder is the person in charge, contrasted with the monkey who does the visible work: I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey.
- music boxMechanism playing melodies mechanically
- tunesShort melodic pieces
- buskingPublic performance for donations
- street cornerWhere two roads intersect
- cobblestone streetsRoads surfaced with rounded rocks
musician · performer · subservience · hierarchy · street performance · dependency · exploitation · monkey · capuchin · entertainer · working class · hurdy-gurdy · penny whistle · Victorian era · control · puppet master · player piano · ragtime
- old-time entertainmentcircus, theater, opera, ballet, vaudeville
- Italian DiasporaItalian Americans, Italian immigration, Italian heritage, Italian communities, Little Italy
organ grindersmonkeys
Tailed primates, not apes
underlings · subordinates · lackeys · minions · errand boys
organ, grinder, organs, grinders, organic, organist, organism, organise, organize