Grimes Poznikov (c. 1946 – October 27, 2005), known as "The Human Jukebox," was a fixture of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a street performer, who would wait in a cardboard refrigerator box until a passerby offered him a donation and requested a song. He would then pop out of the box and play the requested song on a trumpet, kazoo, or one of a number of other instruments.
Poznikov, AKA 'Sergeant Grimes'created "THE AMERICAN LOBOTOMY MACHINE" Art/happening/sculpture with sound, with fellow Anti-War Artist Aristedes Philip DuVal for exhibition @ Charlotte Moorman's 9th Avant-Garde Festival October 28, 1972, aboard the Staten Island Ferry Alexander Hamilton, & 'Camp Nixon' in Miami Florida as a protest piece against Richard Nixon & the GOP during the Republican Convention in August 1972.
Poznikov was arrested several times for selling marijuana. His teeth were knocked out by police during the last arrest in the late 1980s, ending his ability to play trumpet. He later suffered from schizophrenia, began abusing drugs heavily, and ended up living on the streets.[1] He died on October 27, 2005, of alcohol poisoning.[2] "He was an original, creative, & funny human being. We miss him."- A.P. DuVal Poznikov attended high school in Neodesha, Kansas.[1]