AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS’ ASSOCIATION MAY…rh609yk4450/may_june-00.pdf · the...

The AMICA BULLETINAUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS’ ASSOCIATION

MAY/JUNE 2000 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3

Entire contents © 2000 AMICA International 137

VOLUME 37, Number 3 May/June 2000

FEATURESA History of the Player Piano Co. - Durrell Armstrong— 143Ampico Performances with Disc Counterparts - David Wallis— 151Famous Dance Organs - Maarten van der Vlugt— 156Southern California Band Organ Rally - Shirley Nix— 160The Pianist in the Patent Office - Joseph Rossman— 162Bird Repertoires - Archie A. Mumma — 167Master Discs - Peter Hugh Reed— 170Crossword Puzzle — 174

DEPARTMENTSAMICA International — 138

President’s Message — 139From the Publisher’s Desk — 139Calendar of Events — 140Letters — 141Chapter News — 176Classified Ads — 188

Front Cover: From Caricature - The Wit & Humor of a Nation in Picture, Song & Story

Inside Front: Original Cleveland, Ohio factory photograph of a factory custom-madeStudebaker delivery truck ca. 1909

Inside Back Cover: Tel-Electric piano player advertisementfrom “Everybody’s Magazine”, undated

Back Cover: Durrell Armstrong somewhere between 1952-1959, contributed by Harvey Roehl

THE AMICA BULLETINAUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS' ASSOCIATION

Published by the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association, a non-profit, tax exempt group devoted to the restoration, distributionand enjoyment of musical instruments using perforated paper music rolls and perforated music books. AMICA was founded in San Francisco, California in 1963.

ROBIN PRATT, PUBLISHER, 630 EAST MONROE ST., SANDUSKY, OH 44870-3708 -- Phone 419-626-1903, e-mail: [email protected] the AMICA Web page at: http://www.amica.org

Associate Editor: Mr. Larry Givens Contributing Editor: Mr. Emmett M. Ford

AMICA BULLETINDisplay and Classified AdsArticles for PublicationLetters to the PublisherChapter News

UPCOMING PUBLICATIONDEADLINESThe ads and articles must be receivedby the Publisher on the 1st of theOdd number months:

January JulyMarch SeptemberMay November

Bulletins will be mailed on the 1st weekof the even months.

Robin Pratt, Publisher630 East Monroe StreetSandusky, Ohio 44870-3708Phone: 419-626-1903e-mail: [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES

New Memberships . . . . . . . . . . $37.00

Renewals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $37.00

Address changes and corrections

Directory information updates

Additional copies ofMember Directory . . . . $25.00

Single copies of back issues($6.00 per issue - basedupon availability)

William Chapman (Bill)2150 Hastings CourtSanta Rosa, CA 95405-8377707-570-2258e-mail: [email protected]

To ensure timely delivery of yourBULLETIN, please allow 6-weeksadvance notice of address changes.

AMICA Publications reserves the right to accept, reject, or edit any and all submitted articles and advertising.

138

AAMMIICCAA IINNTTEERRNNAATTIIOONNAALL

INTERNATIONAL OFFICERSPRESIDENT Linda Bird

3300 Robinson PikeGrandview, MO 64030-2275

Phone/Fax 816-767-8246e-mail: OGM [email protected]

PAST PRESIDENT Maurice Willyard1988 NW Palmer LaneBremerton, WA 98311

360-692-8885VICE PRESIDENT Dan C. Brown

Chapter Coordinator N. 4828 Monroe StreetSpokane, WA 99205-5354

509-325-2626e-mail: [email protected]

SECRETARY Shirley NixAMICA Headquarters 6030 Oakdale Avenue

Woodland Hills, CA 91367818-884-6849

e-mail: [email protected] Robert DeLand

Registered agent for legal matters 485 Gatewood LaneGrayslake, IL 60030

847-548-6416 - Fax 847-548-8615e-mail: [email protected]

PUBLISHER Robin Pratt630 E. Monroe Street

Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708419-626-1903

e-mail: [email protected] SECRETARY William Chapman (Bill)

2150 Hastings CourtSanta Rosa, CA 95405-8377

707-570-2258e-mail: [email protected]

— COMMITTEES —TECHNICAL Harold Malakinian

2345 Forest Trail Dr., Troy, MI 48098PUBLICATIONS Robin Pratt

630 E. Monroe St., Sandusky, OH 44870-3708AMICA ARCHIVES Shawn Fox

1319 Pearl St., Sandusky, OH 44870419-621-9758

AUDIO-VISUAL Harold Malakinian2345 Forest Trail Dr., Troy, MI 48098

CONVENTION COORDINATOR Liz Barnhart919 Lantern Glow Trail, Dayton, OH 45431

HONORARY MEMBERS Mike Walter65 Running Brook Dr., Lancaster, NY 14086-3314

716-656-9583WEB MASTER Terry Smythe

55 Rowand Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J 2N6204-832-3982 — e-mail: [email protected]

BOSTON AREAPres. Ken VolkVice Pres: Dorothy BromageSec: Ginger ChristiansenTreas: Alan JayneReporter: Don BrownBoard Rep: Sandy Libman

CHICAGO AREAPres: Richard VanMetre - (847) 402-5391Vice Pres: George WilderSec: Curt CliffordTreas: Joe PekarekReporter: Kathy Stone SeptonBoard Rep: Marty Persky

FOUNDING CHAPTERPres: Bing Gibbs - (408) 253-1866Vice Pres: Mark PopeSec: Lyle Merithew & Sandy SwirskyTreas: Richard ReutlingerReporter: Tom McWayBoard Rep: Richard Reutlinger

GATEWAY CHAPTERPres: Dorothy Crowley (314) 843-2140Vice Pres: Yousuf WilsonSec: Mary WilsonTreas: Mary WilsonReporter: Cynthia CraigHistorian: Larry HollenbergBoard Rep: Gary Craig

HEART OF AMERICAPres: Ron Bopp - (918) 786-4988Vice Pres: Tom McAuleySec/Treas: Linda KoehlerReporter: Joyce BriteBoard Rep: Ron Connor

LADY LIBERTYPres: Keith Bigger - (718) 528-9443Vice Pres. & Reporter: Bill Maguire

(516) 261-6799Sec: Richard KarlssonTreas: Ron KilfoilBoard Rep: Marvin & Dianne Polan

- (631) 673-0388

MIDWEST (OH, MI, IN, KY)Pres: Judy ChisnellVice Pres: Stuart GriggSec: Judy WulfekuhlTreas: Alvin WulfekuhlReporter: Christy CountermanBoard Rep: Liz Barnhart

NORTHERN LIGHTSPres: Dave KemmerVice Pres: Jerrilyn Boehland -

(612) 780-5699Sec: Jason E. Beyer - (507) 454-3124Treas: Terry GoepelReporters: Paul & Barbara WatkinsBoard Rep: Dorothy Olds

PACIFIC CAN-AMPres: Mark Smithberg - (206) 763-9468Vice Pres: Kurt MorrisonSec: Halie DodrillTreas: Ward FolsomReporter: Dan Brown Board Rep: Fran Willyard

SIERRA NEVADAPres: John Motto-Ros - (209) 267-9252Vice Pres: Sonja LemonSec/Treas: Tom & Virginia HawthornReporter: Doug & Vicki MahrBoard Rep: John Motto-Ros

SOWNY (Southern Ontario,Western New York)

Pres: Anne Lemon - (905) 295-4228Vice Pres: Mike HamannSec/Mem. Sec: John & Diane ThompsonTreas: Holly WalterPhotographer: Garry LemonReporter: Frank WarbisBoard Rep: Mike Walter

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAPres: James WestcottSec./Reporter. Shirley NixTreas: Ken HodgeBoard Rep: Frank Nix

TEXASPres: Jerry Bacon - (214) 328-9369Vice Pres: Tony Palmer (817) 261-1334

Haden VandiverMichael BarisonekBryan Cather

Sec./Treas: Janet TonnesenBoard Rep: Dick MerchantBulletin Reporter: Bryan CatherNewsletter Editor: Bryan Cather

SOUTHERN SKIESPres: Debra Legg - (727) 734-3353Vice Pres: Bill ShriveSec: Howard Wyman (813) 689-6876Treas: Dee Kavouras (352) 527-9390Reporter: Dick & Dixie LeisBoard Rep: Debra Legg

CHAPTER OFFICERS

AFFILIATED SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONSAUSTRALIAN COLLECTORSOF MECHANICAL MUSICALINSTRUMENTS19 Waipori StreetSt. Ives NSW 2075, Australia

DUTCH PIANOLA ASSOC.Nederlandse Pianola VerenigingEikendreef 245342 HR Oss,Netherlands

PIANOLA INSTITUTEClair Cavanagh, Secretary43 Great Percy St., London WC1X 9RAEngland

INTERNATIONAL PIANOARCHIVES AT MARYLANDPerforming Arts Library, Hornbake 3210University of MarylandCollege Park, MD 20742

MUSICAL BOX SOCIETYINTERNATIONALP. O. Box 297Marietta, OH 45750

NETHERLANDS MECHANICALORGAN SOCIETY - KDVA. T. MeijerWilgenstraat 24NL-4462 VS Goes, Netherlands

NORTHWEST PLAYER PIANOASSOCIATIONEverson Whittle, Secretary11 Smiths Road, Darcy Lever,Bolton BL3 2PP, Gt. Manchester, EnglandHome Phone: 01204 529939Business Phone: 01772 208003

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONDivision of Musical HistoryWashington, D.C. 20560

PLAYER PIANO GROUPJulian Dyer, Bulletin Editor5 Richmond Rise, Workingham,Berkshire RG41 3XH, United KingdomPhone: 0118 977 1057Email: [email protected]

SOCIETY FOR SELF-PLAYINGMUSICAL INSTRUMENTSGesellschaft für Selbstspielende Musikinstrumente (GSM) E.V.Jürgen HockerHeiligenstock 46 D-51465 Bergisch Gladbach GermanyPhone: 2202-932524Fax:. 2202-932526

INT. VINTAGE PHONO & MECH.MUSIC SOCIETYC.G. Nijsen, Secretaire General19 Mackaylaan5631 NM EindhovenNetherlands

Hello Everybody!

Have you let your Chapter person in charge of ordering

know that you need AMICA Brochures and the Brochure Hold-

ers yet? The orders are coming in slowly, but what with the

holiday summer season right here, let me send you all a handful

of AMICA Brochures for you to send out or pass out at a

friendly gathering. I have them here waiting and all you have to

do is call or write or fax or e-mail me and I will get them right

out. Next time you are in an Antique Mall, ask them if you can

put your brochures in one of their big racks that they usually

have there for tourist information. They have never turned me

down yet. In fact, the only criteria that they ask for is that they

NOT be religious materials. That was their only guideline or

criteria for the rack, so you should be able to put a handful in

any of those racks especially since we are dealing with antique

instruments anyway! I want all of these cases of Brochures to

be empty by September. Can you do it? Go for it!

Robin

139

If the elections go as expected at the Convention in Sacra-

mento, I will be your Past President by the time you read this

message. It has been a great experience and honor to serve as

your President for the past four years. Of course there have

been many ups and downs, but AMICA continues to thrive with

very few major problems thanks to a hard working Board and

all of our individual members.

I must mention, again, before signing off one last time, my

pet peeve that continues to plague the organization. It has come

to my attention that there are still many chapter members that

are not members of International. Many excuses are given, but

the bottom line is that the chapter wouldn’t exist if there were

no International organization. This issue will be addressed at

the board meeting. It is the responsibility of the chapter offi-

cers, to make sure International dues are paid by all of their

chapter members.

My thanks go to all of the officers and Board members that

have made my job so much easier by their efficiency. Maury

Willyard, Past President has served as a great advisor and

sounding board. Dan Brown, Vice President has also been an

advisor and has done a great job running the Awards Committee

for four years. Both Ken Vinen and Shirley Nix who both

served two-year terms as Secretary were very efficient and

always prompt at getting their tasks completed. Roy Powlan

and Rob DeLand have served

as treasurer during my term

and have managed to keep

good track of our finances.

Our Membership Secretary,

Bill Chapman continues to do

a great job handling a monu-

mental task that takes count-

less hours of his time.

The real stabilizing force

in AMICA is Robin Pratt, our Publisher. The strength of the

organization continues to be our excellent Publication. Robin

has spent many hours working with me on many issues and he

frequently volunteered to complete tasks even if they weren’t

his responsibility. Thank you, and keep up the good work,

Robin.

My thanks go to all of you who have been so supportive

the past four years. The Board, all the committee chairs and

each of you are what make this organization such a success.

Keep up your enthusiasm, keep selling our organization to the

public and AMICA will continue to thrive for years to come.

Linda

President’s Message

With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan

Sung to the tune of“I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General; from The Pirates of Penzance”

I am the very model of a 53 cyber-netizen

All logic I dispense with, and all taste and manners jettison;

I’m found on TV, radio, and many other “medias”

But cyberspace is where I’m most particularly tedious.

I come in every stripe from the conservative to radical

And know it all except for how to spell or be grammatical.

I haven’t got a clue about the use of logicality

And drivel on with made-up-factoid bargain-bin banality.

I flame opponents hairless from a dozen different pseudonyms,

Each one a ruder, lewder pun on Anglo-Saxon crudonyms,

And where I find civility and hot debate have been at ease

I break it up with spamming, flaming, scrolling and obscenities.

I’m ignorant in every field, poetic to statistical

Which only makes my points of view

more thoroughly sophistical;

My attitude’s aggressive and my tone is sanctimonious,

My facts are bad, conclusions wrong, and arguments erroneous.

My posts are pure unparagraphed expressions of my vanity,

Impossible to parse except perhaps for the profanity.

I’m known for disputatiousness and other sorts of knavery

From purposeful mendacity to things yet more unsavoury.

The places civil reason is accounted most iniquitous

Are places where you’ll find me inescapably ubiquitous.

In short, all logic I reject, all taste and manners jettison

Because I am the model of a modern cyber-netizen!

140

AMICA has received two generous donations in memory of AMICA memberMr. Lynn Guyett of Council Bluffs, Iowa. These were from the AMICA Heart ofAmerica Chapter and also from Galen and Linda Bird.

Please think of AMICA as a place to remember your friends and family witha donation to the AMICA Memorial Fund.

Sincerely,

Judith Chisnell3945 Mission, Box 145Rosebush, Michigan [email protected]

AMICA Memorial Fund Donations

June 22-25, 2000 AMICA Convention, Sacramento, California

February 16-26, 2001 AMICA Convention, Melbourne, Australia

June 26-30, 2002 AMICA Convention, Springdale, Arkansas

Heart of AmericaSeptember 1, 2, 3, 2000

Mt. Pleasant, IowaBand Organ Rally

Heart of AmericaDecember, 2000Joplin, Missouri

Lady Liberty ChapterJuly 30, 2000

Joe Hutter

Pacific Can-AmJuly 22, 2000

Jack & MaryLou Becvar

Sierra Nevada ChapterJuly 16, 2000

Fred and Lori DealSacramento

August 27, 2000Afternoon Meeting of Texas Chapter

at the east Dallas home of our president, Jerry Bacon,

to see and hear his newly restoredphotoplayer and other instruments.

September 23, 2000Sierra Nevada Chapter

John and Nadine Motto-RosSutter Creek

(joint meeting with Founding Chapter)

October 8, 2000Afternoon meeting of Texas Chapter

in Arlington at the home of our Bulletin Reporter/Newsletter Editor,

and Vice-President Bryan Cather for a Mart/Swap Meet

December, 2000Sierra Nevada Christmas Party

Doug and Vicki MahrOrangevale

December 3Texas Chapter

Evening Holiday Dinner at the homeof Myriam and Tony Palmer, Vice President, in Arlington.

CALENDAR OF EVENTSANNUAL CONVENTIONS

CHAPTER MEETINGS

DeBence Antique Music World1261 Liberty StreetFranklin, PA 16323

(814) 432-8350Fax (814) 437-7193

[email protected]

Contact: Lynn M. Zillmer, Executive Director

February,2000

The Melody Lingers!Many of you are familiar with Jake & Elizabeth DeBence and their wonderful collection of mechanical mar-

vels that had a loving home in Franklin, Pennsylvania for many years. And, you know too that we lost Jake in1992. Did you know however, that the DeBence Collection was sold, as a complete collection, to a wonderfulgroup of folks who had the foresight, interest, and love of music to want these instruments to continue to be madeavailable to the public for viewing and listening? The Oil Region Music Preservation Museum, Inc. was formedin early 1993 and funding was sought to purchase the collection and a new home for it. In just seven months,pledges of $1.2 million dollars were received. After many months of hard work remodeling, painting, and soforth, the collection moved to its new home at 1261 Liberty Street in downtown Franklin. It is housed in the oldG.C. Murphy 5 & 10¢ Store. All of downtown is a historic district so what better place for the collection to callhome. Lighting is provided by the DeBences’ collection of over 40 Tiffany-style hanging lamps. Many of theantiques collected by Jake and Elizabeth have places of honor throughout the museum to help set off the musicalinstruments. In addition, several unique items have been added through the generosity of friends. We now have abeautiful parlor organ made by the United Organ Company which was donated by two local families since UnitedOrgan was located for a short time just up the road in Oil City, Pennsylvania. We have also received an interestingpipe organ that was made expressly for the Townville Episcopal Church in Townville, Pennsylvania. This organhas three places from which to be pumped - front, side and rear. Another jewel is the lovely church organ made bythe Carpenter Organ Company of Brattleboro, Vermont, which was housed in a small church in Clarion County.The organ is in perfect condition and church records indicate that the organ has never had any repairs. It washowever, rescued from two church fires. Our more talented tour guides love to play a tune for our guests on thisone. Several phonographs, accordions, brass and reed instruments have also been added to the collection.

DeBence Antique Music World Museum, according to some recent research, houses the largest collection ofmechanical musical instruments that is open to the public on a year-round basis. In addition to showing the instru-ments we also play many of them. Visitors especially enjoy listening to the rollicking melodies of the nick-elodeons and the enormous sounds the Wurlitzer band organs make. Of course, they also get to hear the soft andgentle sound of many cylinder and disc music boxes, including the 27” Regina which seems to be everyone’s alltime favorite. Old standards and comical “talkies” always bring a smile when heard on the phonographs of yester-year.

DeBence Antique Music World is operated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Support for the museum isobtained from admissions, a membership program, general donations, government, and private grant monies.Needless to say there are times when it is tough to keep it all going. Of special concern is repair and refurbish-ment of the instruments. Many of the instruments, though playing, are not playing to capacity. Several need atotal overhaul. We have been fortunate to obtain grant dollars this past year to enable us to restore completely theLink “E”, do needed work on the Wurlitzer Caliola and 153, and tune a few others. Monies have recently beenreceived which will see the Wurlitzer Pianino undergo a total restoration in the next few months.

The Board of Directors has recently adopted a plan which will include restoration of all of the instrumentswithin the next five years. If you would like to help us accomplish this task, a gift to the “Maintain the MelodyFund” would be greatly appreciated.

If you have an item which you would like to add to this wonderful collection, please do not hesitate to callLynn Zillmer, Executive Director of the museum at (814) 432-8350.

141

Letters…

continued on next page

142

Dear Robin,

As a member of AMICA (and an Honorary Member of the PPG in England), I was delighted to seethat you had published a special issue about Reginald Reynolds (AMICA Bulletin Vol. 36, No.2,March/April 1999).

On rereading this I do, however, observe that there is an error that you will surely wish to correct. Onpage 96 you printed a picture subtitled “Eric Korngold,” but the picture is actually of Herbert Fryer, men-tioned on page 97 of your text, who does not in the least resemble Korngold!

As far as Erich Wolfgang Korngold, 1897-1957, is concerned, I enclose the correct picture of him withReginald Reynolds. I also supplied this photograph to Jessica Duchen of the BBC (a distant relation ofEddie Duchin), and it is illustrated in her 1996 book, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, on page 103, withacknowledgement on page 239.

The book in question, which I very highly recom-mend, is published by The Phaidon Press, of Regent’sWharf, All Saints Street, London N1 9PA. Local book-sellers will recognize it by the reference ISBN 0714831557.

Erich’s son, George, in fact, visited me in Londonon 23rd of April, 1968 and made a recording of hisfather playing Duo Art Roll 080, The Snowman, whichis the subject of the photograph in question.

Yours truly,

Gerald Stonehill

DeBence has become a major attraction in downtown Franklin and has helped spur a renaissance alongthe Victorian-era main street. Since opening at its new location DeBence has hosted upwards of 50,000 visi-tors. Many visitors come from the surrounding region (New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania), however, visitorscome from such far away places as Australia, New Zealand, England, Kenya, Columbia, Canada, and, ofcourse, all of the United States. The museum hosts individual visitors, school and other youth orientedgroups and a large number of group tour bus visitors throughout the year.

In addition to the music museum located on the ground floor, there is an antique and gift mall located onthe downstairs level with numerous vendors offering antiques, crafts and collectible items.

DeBence Music World is open April 1st - November 31st, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Fridayand Saturday and from 12:30-4 p.m. on Sunday. Winter hours (December 1 - March 31) are: Friday and Sat-urday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday 12:30-4 p.m. Special arrangements for viewing the collection at othertimes may be made by calling (814) 432-8350. Special rates are available for groups of 20 or more. Mem-bers of AMICA and MBSI receive a 10% discount on all gift shop purchases when showing their member-ship cards.

Come for a visit!! - you may visit in person or via “the net” at www.debencemusicworld.com. Drop usan e-mail, or a snail mail, if you’d like to be added to our newsletter mailing list.

Lynn Zillmer

Letters continued…

CORRECTIONS: March-April 2000 — “A Trip Back in Time” by Roy Beltz is the correct spelling of theauthor’s name. It was misspelled in editing.Also on page 107, the 1996 St. Louis Pumper Contest was won by Shawn Fox, not Sharon Fox. Ed.

143

A History of The Player Piano CompanyBy Durrell Armstrong

July, 1999

This is true in the evolvement of most businesses. Manyyears ago, someone suggested that Player Piano Com-pany is just an extension of my own personality. I don’t

know how true that is with other businesses, but in my case ithas been true; this requires writing in the first person formatbecause the direction and growth of this business has been soclosely related to my thinking and experiences.

I can’t call it an institution because I believe that infers thatit is carried on by people other than those that started it. Or, itcould be that a number of businesses merge or come togetherin a way to evolve as an institution. Q-R-S Music rolls mightbe a good example of this. In either case, the past becomeshistory. My overview should be the most revealing as to whatactually transpired during the life of a business. The problemwith coming up with history is that there is sparse documenta-tion when those instrumental in it are gone and haven’t both-ered to put it down on paper. This I will attempt to do, at thesame time that I try to keep it interesting.

The thing that makes Player PianoCompany unique is that there is no logicalreason for it’s being from a strict sense ofthinking. That is, from an economic viewof a quick financial return, it should nothave gone the direction it did. That is,there are many situations where I wouldotherwise be tempted to give up and dosomething else. I must have always had ablind faith that there were always bettertimes ahead. Or maybe I just couldn’t giveup on a business that I love. I considermyself very fortunate in finding a lifelongwork that I enjoy doing. In that sense, itisn’t thought of as work. A good definitionof work is: when you’d rather be doingsomething else! That may be why it never occurred to me thatI may be “beating a dead horse”.

I had always had a fascination for the piano. As a child Iwould make a bee line for any piano, to be able to plunk thekeys, which I guess was an annoyance to anyone nearby.When I was five years old, my uncle phoned to say that heknew someone that was taking the player parts out of theirpiano — did we want them? Something for free — of coursewe did! All the player parts from a Gulbransen were laid outon the driveway. I asked my Dad how to get any sound out ofit. He said that you can’t without being attached to the piano.However, to make the best out of the situation, my Dad hookedthe hose up from the pump to the roll motor, and so I was con-tent to shift the gears and wind a length of string back andforth from the take-up spool to the top, while I operated the

foot treadles with my hands. I used the grey tracker tubing toblow air bubbles in my sand-pile-make-believe-lake suppliedwith the garden hose. I can still remember how bitter that oldtubing tasted. The parts finally ended up forgotten in the attic.

When I was twelve years old, I began to take pianolessons. The piano bought for this occasion was a Gulbransenwith the player works removed. I was familiar with the musicof the 1920’s since playing the pile of vintage recordings on awind-up phonograph as far back as I can remember, at firststanding on a foot stool to peek over the top to plop down theold 78 platters of Paul Whiteman or Gene Austin. Within afew months of starting piano lessons, I was asking my teacherto special order the backdated sheet music that corresponded tothese popular songs of the 1920’s that I was familiar with.Many of these pieces of sheet music had notations that “Thissong is also available on player piano roll and Victrolarecords.”

I remember pulling the keyslip of the piano down andmoving the play-reroll or tempo levers,which were the only vestige of the playerparts left in the piano. I wished that it hadthe player parts. Little did I realize that allthe parts were just over my head, stored inthe attic. But how was a thirteen-year-oldboy supposed to know that?

When I was sixteen years old, I boughta player piano for $60. That representedmowing a lot of neighbor’s lawns at 50cents each. With the aid of some rubberpaint, I was able to get the old playerrevived. Then I was at an auction andbought another one for $15. Rubber paintworked on that one too. When a pianotuner offered me a hundred dollars for it, I

started to think like a business person. With moving, I had $25in it, plus a couple hours tinkering. I took the $100 and even-tually used the money to buy several more player pianos. Forthe next ten years my Dad’s car was parked in front of thegarage. I even borrowed space in several of the neighbor’sgarages.

When I was seventeen, I graduated from high school and Iguess that following summer, I officially went into business. I had been working in printing shops for a couple of years and used that as an opportunity to print my own letterhead. I decided to call it “Player Piano Company” That was thesummer of 1951. I still worked in printing shops for anotheryear, before I decided that my earnings from player pianoswere better.

“Experience is:

Knowing all

the things

NOT to do.”

144

In the next year, I was to become a dealer of Q-R-S rolls.At that time they wholesaled for 45 cent each. I also was getting letters from J. Lawrence Cook. About this time, he wasstarting to make nickelodeon rolls on some perforatingmachines in his basement. I was interested in his projectbecause I had just rebuilt a Seeburg G Orchestrion, and therewas only half of a ten-tune roll on it, and up to that time noprospect of getting additional music for it. I decided to offermy help to my friend, Lawrence Cook. I hand-set the type andprinted his first roll catalog of A and G rolls.

In 1952 the quality of tubing and pneumatic cloth and tubing that I bought from a Chicago supply house called Continental Music, was poor. This catalog of piano tuners supplies had evolved form Tonk Brothers. Continental Musiclater evolved into Schaff Piano Supply. About a year afterusing these products in the Seeburg G and other instruments Ihad worked on, I noticed that tubing had inter-reacted with thebrass nipples and became brittle and was falling off. Also therubber coating on the pneumatic cloth was flaking and expos-ing the bare cotton cloth wherever it folded. I wrote a letter ofcomplaint to Continental Music, and got back a very long letterexplaining why the samples I had sent as evidence couldn’tpossibly be any product that they had sold.

Rather than return to the days of rubber paint, I decided toimprove my stock of supplies by researching and writing tovarious rubber companies and having these goods custom-made. I was looking at several years supply, just for my ownuse. Thinking of money tied up for the next twenty years, Idecided to put out a one-page list of these basic supplies andsee if I could sell off some of the surplus. Now, this presents abig problem of how do you contact the people that might wantto buy Pneumatic cloth and tubing?

I ran a small ad in Hobbies Magazine, and I also went tothe library where there were telephone books from every majorcity. Turning to the yellow pages, I could pick out any busi-ness that mentioned player repair. I remember that that searchled to about 20 prospects in the entire U.S. (A few years later Iwent back to the library and it was in the hundreds.)

I was still operating my fledgling mail order business ofselling Q-R-S rolls and restoration supplies out of a garagewhen my name came up for the draft in the Korean War, whenI was nineteen in 1953. I was determined to stay in business inspite of my unwanted military involvement. With the help ofmy parents to fill the incoming orders at home, I did the restfrom Battalion Headquarters in Korea, where, by this time Ihad a desk job as a clear-typist. I had plenty of time after making out routine reports that nobody read, to invoice mycustomers, do the purchasing, and even carry on my correspon-dence with Lawrence Cook and others. After my return to themainland, I was stationed at a base 45 miles west of Ft. Worth,Texas. I rented a building in a little ghost town, just a shortdistance from the military base. I was still running PlayerPiano Company from Battalion Headquarters. But, the building I rented for $10 a month allowed me some workshopspace to get back into tinkering with player stuff. There was

no electricity or running water, and only an old pot-belly woodburning stove. I drilled a hole through the wall and made adeal with the tenant of the adjacent building to tap into hiselectricity. I quickly found junk to start filling up the building.I bought a style 45 Fotoplayer from a closed-up theatre in anearby town for $30, and hauled in player actions from a shopin Dallas that was in the business of producing “cut-downs” orwhat they called “Mirror pianos.” The height was disguised bya mirror in front of the pin-block. The illusion was enhancedby the fat player case. After removing the player stack, the lidcould be repositioned to be just over the top of the piano hammers. Back in those days, players were cheap and guttingthem and converting to cut-downs was a common practice. Italso meant that I could spare this business from going to thecity dump once a week with the accumulation of all the junkedplayer actions, which ended up in my playhouse. After takingthe goodies off the pumps, I had a source for firewood in thewood burning stove. I made the best of my remaining monthsof Army servitude. I even had an old fashioned well in back ofthe building. You know, the kind where you lower a woodenbucket down with a hand crank.

Back at the military base, I didn’t seem to ever find time tostraighten up my locker, and so failed to pass an inspection,consequently received being restrictioned to the barracks for aweek as punishment. I wasn’t able to escape to my playhouseduring this time. As luck would have it, a bridge on the majorhighway washed out, and all traffic was detoured aroundthrough this little ghost town, right past the front door where Ihad hand painted the inscription “Player Piano Company” onthe glass front. When I returned after this incident, all wasquiet, but my neighbor informed me that at least a hundredpeople that drove by on this detour had stopped and inquiredabout why Player Piano Company wasn’t open for business.

Finally, at the age of 22 I was relieved of my militaryobligation, and could devote full time again to my businessback home, in Wichita, Kansas. I soon acquired an old pick-uptruck and had a sign painter paint “Player Piano Company” onthe doors. I wanted to see the world, and so I started traveling,stopping frequently on the way to do spot player piano repairs.I had heard about a place in Chicago, called Valentie’s Houseof Nickelodeons. It was a bar at the intersection of Milwaukeeand Armitage, that had a collection of coin operated pianos,most of them on their last dying gasp. I remember that nearthe front door there was a Seeburg KT. Since it was nearest thebar it got the most play. The owner, “Angelo,” would walkover from behind the bar every time the 10th tune came up andopen up and lift up the rewind gear and keep it engaged withhis finger until the roll finished rewinding. He had been goingthrough this ritual for the past ten years, I was later told. Anyway, upon seeing this as a waste of his time, I volunteeredto fix it for him. I instantly became his friend for life.

Angelo Valentie even let me sleep in one of the roomsupstairs from the bar. One day, while sitting at the bar, I struckup a conversation with a person that appeared to be about mysame age, and quickly discovered that we had a lot of common

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interests. His name was Harris Adams. He said that he was onhis way to New York City. Much to my surprise, he revealedthat he had been corresponding with J. Lawrence Cook andhad recently been invited to work with him at the Q-R-S Factory (in the Bronx) as an apprentice roll arranger. I said,“Isn’t that a coincidence - that’s where I’m headed too! I guessI’ll see you again at Q-R-S.”

When I finally arrived (October of 1956), I found that Harris Adams had arrived only a week before me. I was quickly approached by Herman Kortlander (Max Kortlander’sbrother) who managed the office and bought and sold playerpianos on the side, to patch up a couple of the old upright players that he had bought and get them to playing again so hecould sell them. I soon had a small area cleared at one end ofthe shipping table and was covering pneumatics. After gettingHerman’s players in operation, I was asked if I could work onthe pneumatics on one of the perforators. Well, one thing ledto another, and I worked for Q-R-S for the next nine months.Just as I finished one task, there was another. In the end, I hadgone through every piece of machinery in the place. Thisincluded putting the “battery” perforatorback in operation. This was three “twins”all hooked together, running from the samemaster roll. That would be six lines ofpaper, or 96 copies at a time. It had notbeen in operation for ten years.

At this point in time, Lawrence Cookhad a job with the Post Office as a nightsecurity guard for receiving registeredmail. It was an easy job, with plenty oftime to write letters. Lawrence wouldarrive at the Q-R-S factory at 10:00 in themorning, do one arrangement and leave at2:00 in the afternoon. Before and afterthese hours, Harris Adams could make useof the arranging piano. I remember hisfirst assignment was to do an arrangementof “Getting to Know You” (9407 which isstill in the catalog). He spent severalweeks on it, showing Lawrence his progress each day andbeing offered his guidance. I think it was a very good arrange-ment for being his first time effort. Harris made better time onsubsequent arrangements. Harris Adams was the only “realperson” that had contributed to the Q-R-S library since about1939. Between 1939 and 1956 when Harris completed “Getting to Know You” all of the new arrangements had beendone by Lawrence Cook, irregardless of what name was givencredit of the roll label. (There was one possible exception tothis and Frank Milne may have done a few as a guest contribu-tor, but did not work at Q-R-S.)

One day while working in Lawrence Cook’s basement, heasked for a favor of hauling something for him, since I was theone with the pick-up truck. He explained that it was the origi-nal recording machine, the line marker that had been madeback in 1912. Lawrence didn’t need it, but the thought behindmaking sure that it wasn’t lost was that if he suddenly died,

then at least it would make it easier for someone else to carryon with the arranging work. It was stored in a garage that herented for storage a short distance from his home. It was onlya small cabinet, 26” high by 17” x 36”. Inside was a largedrum with a sheet of ordinary carbon paper wrapped around it.It was an idler for the blank paper which was wound up on thetake-up spool, driven by the Melville Clark spring woundmechanism. Poised above the blank paper were seven rows ofminiature pneumatics covered with zephir skin, each row witha longer pin hinged from the front of these pneumatics. Thepin acted as a stylus, marking the position and length of thenote. It was to be tubed in reverse, so that theoretically all onehad to do was turn the paper around, punch through the carbonpaper lines that were recorded and you had a functional pianoroll.

We took the line marker down to the factory in the Bronxand I got it set up ready to record. It wasn’t actually used untilmany years later, when Ramsi Tick initiated the CelebritySeries.

The mail order sales of the Player Piano Company hadn’tamounted to much until about 1960. This had allowed me to do quite a bit oftraveling between catching up back inWichita. I spent a lot of time with BobNelson in Atoka, Oklahoma. He had a museum of coin pianos. Svoboda’s Nickelodeon Tavern in Chicago wasalways good for several weeks of work. I certainly gained a working knowledge ofa wide variety of player instruments duringmy traveling years.

In the early 1960’s things were reallystarting to happen as the opportunitieswere opening up in a revival of interest inplayer pianos. In 1963, the home/garagespace was no longer large enough. Ibought a three story, 25’ x 100’ building indowntown Wichita. I eventually had sev-eral helpers on the payroll. This building

was located at 620 E. Douglas. In the next several years, I alsoacquired adjacent buildings at 622 and 624. This allowed morespace to manufacture parts. The business was growing fast.

More and more items were added to the catalog. It wasstill a mimeographed catalog, hand collated and stapled together. This was in the days before plain paper copymachines. I knew I should put together a more professionallooking catalog, but there never seemed to be time to do it.

I added to the catalog anything I thought would sell. I realized there was a demand for suction boxes. For yearspeople had been improvising their own by cutting down tanktype Electroluxes. Then a company in California started offer-ing a new vacuum motor stuffed into a particle board box. Iadded that to the catalog and began to have them drop-shippedto my customers. They began to sell faster and faster withrepeat business. I was mailing in an order almost every day.

The thing that makes

Player Piano Company unique

is that there is no logical reason

for it’s being

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Then suddenly it stopped; I received a large envelope in themail with a week of unprocessed orders. The owner of LeeMusic Mfg., Jerry Goff, had suddenly died of a heart attack. Ifrantically phoned his widow who had returned the orders.She said that she knew nothing about the business. I asked ifthere were any suction boxes left in stock. There were abouttwenty, and I begged to take them all.

Twenty suction boxes didn’t buy much time. At this timethere was no other source. I decided that the best move was tosimply copy the one I had been selling. It was scary for me tosuddenly invest that much to just produce one item. Or maybeit was the speed with which I got into production. In threeweeks I was turning out anequivalent product. As I wasthen the only manufacturer ofsuction boxes, sales increasedeven more. About a year laterI got a phone call from somepeople in California that hadeventually bought out LeeMusic Mfg. to inform me thatthey were available again,since they noticed that I hadbeen a big customer. My replywas that it was too late, andtheir price couldn’t interest me,since I was all geared up toproduce them myself.

Another item that had greatpotential was a rewind pneu-matic, most likely linked to theinitial surge to adding the suction box. It was the naturalfollow up, but I hadn’t seen theconnection. One day I got acall from Dick Carty, who hada player shop in the Los Angeles area. He asked me toquote on making up a hundredrewind pneuma t i c s . Hedescribed what he needed, andadded that it may seem like alarger pneumatic than neces-sary, but occasionally, he would run across a player that took alot of force to shift the gears, and he wanted it to be powerfulenough for any situation. I designed one that met his require-ments. While making up the one hundred, I decided to makean additional hundred for myself and put them in the catalog.They started selling beyond my expectations, and I was quickly making hundreds more. The #916 rewind pneumatic isstill basically the same thirty years later, and still one of thebest selling items.

By the late 1960’s the player business was really takingoff. It was then that I realized that my fifteen years of experi-ence had put me on the ground floor of something really big.

Although it had not been too profitable in the beginning, theexperience in this build up, in knowing what to offer, was anadvantage.

The disadvantage was in not being able to hire any experi-enced workers. In 1970 I bought the building which is the present location of Player Piano Company (704 E. Douglas).In that year I also incorporated. The reason for adding the“Inc.” was that all my profit was in the form of increasedinventory, rather than being in the form of money in the bank.Paying income tax on this type of profit on a personal basiswas financially difficult. By incorporating, I could pay taxes ata much lower rate.

1969 to 1971 were reces-sion years. It was more of alocal situation. The aircraftindustry was laying off. Ifound I could hire ex-Boeingtool and die craftsmen for$2.00 an hour, by the timetheir unemployment had runout and they found no otherjobs available. I was also ableto buy the five story, 75’ x100’ building for $30,000. Itwas a ridiculous offer, but itworked. A person that I hadbefriended by storing his play-er piano that he had inheritedfrom his mother, rent-free forseveral years, was later in thereal estate business. I toldhim that I had no money tobuy a building that size. Hesaid that if the seller wouldtake the offered price, it couldbe financed on 100% loan.He was right. He had exclu-sive listing on the buildingand just didn’t try to sell itaggressively. After a year ofwaiting, my ridiculous offerwas accepted. Years later, Iturned down a quarter of a

million for the property. It now is in the center of the “OldTown” district, which had previously been sort of a “skid row”.The winos have gone and we are now surrounded by antiqueshops, fine restaurants, and even a number of hotels remodeledfrom former warehouses.

The first printed catalog was in 1973. Shortly before thiscatalog, we had been stocking Aeolian and Melodee rolls alongwith Q-R-S. Both Aeolian and Melodee went out of businessabout the same time. Having a huge inventory of both, I decid-ed to liquidate them by offering what we called a “Grab-bag”special, which was a random assortment of thirteen rolls,priced just a little less than the regular price. I had anticipated

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that it would take several years to liquidate at this price. I got abig surprise. They were all gone three weeks after the catalogcame out, with some customers ordering ten and twenty grabbags at a time. During the life of the catalog, we could havesold out the inventory twenty times over and made a huge profit. After the smoke cleared, I figured out the strange twistwas due to the nature of roll buying customers and their thinking that the catalog of rolls will be available forever, so nohurry to buy. But when it becomes a now or never situation, thepsychology suddenly changes to: last chance-buy all you can.

That same psychology would probably work with theinventory of the Player Piano Company if I decided to go outof business. Inventories of items that would take 20 years toget rid of, would probablybe gone within a year. Ihave no plans to ever go outof business, but if I sudden-ly died, that would be some-thing else. I am 67 now andhopefully I can keep goinganother twenty years, butwho knows? I must be subconsciously planning onit, because I notice I stillrestock some items that Iknow may last twenty years.However, maybe that’s oneof the secrets of my success,in always thinking in thelong-term, rather than theshort-term. However, it iscertainly tempting to discon-tinue some slow-sellingitems when they finally runout. Usually it is becausethey are no longer available.

The years 1973 to 1975were probably the moststressful for me. You mightsay that business was toogood. What I mean by thatis that the demand wasthere, and it seemed that nomatter how fast the expansion occurred, we couldn’t keep up.During this time, the skilled workers that had been laid off byBoeing and other big businesses were hired back at a wage wecouldn’t compete with. The reaction was to replace them withwhatever labor could be hired, which was the young and theunskilled. This was especially true in the making of parts inthe production department. In hindsight I was just throwingmoney at the problem, by hiring even more people to make upthe difference. Finally the 10% of the catalog items producedin-house were taking the profit away from the other 90%. Bythis time in 1975 there were 31 people on the payroll, and a lotof them were just spinning their wheels and without goodsupervision.

This situation was compounded by the wild inflation. Bythe fall of 1974, our suppliers were not even able to quoteprices. It was just “price at time of delivery”. I saw wholesaleprices jump 20% per month. Costs doubled when it came timefor replacement. This had been a result of previous price con-trols and then suddenly dropping them and allowing everyoneto catch up.

It seemed like inflation and ever-higher prices were goingto be a fact of life, but I kept printing the prices in the catalogsanyway. During the 1970’s, a lot of businesses solved theproblem by just including a separate price sheet, instead ofreprinting the whole catalog.

In 1978 Player PianoCompany switched the coat-ing on all bellows cloth fromNeoprene to Natural Rubber,because by that time therewere indications that theNeoprene coatings, eventhough of the best quality,would last no longer thanthirty years. By that time itwas in evidence that the nat-ural rubber coatings used inthe 1920’s were still goodafter fifty years.

One big mistake madewas to participate in thepolyurethane pouch replace-ment. It seemed to be thegreatest technology advanceto ever come along. It wasinexpensive, compared tothe traditional leather, and it was super thin and completely air-tight. We cataloged all the differentreplacement sizes, with thedip captured by an outerlaminated paper ring, as wellas the center lifter disc. Thepolyurethane film was made

by both Union Carbide and Goodrich. About ten years afterthis “revolutionary” product was introduced, it started to self-destruct (like the fabric in the movie, “The Man in the WhiteSuit”). It was also widely used in the pipe organ trade.Rumors swept through the industry and everyone dropped itabruptly, with one exception: Universal Player Pianos. Themanufacturer claimed to have an improved, second generationformula that they called “Tuftane II” which was supposed toovercome the biodegradable shortcomings of the former. Suchassurances were totally ignored, except by the Universal player, which by that time had been bought out and moved toSeneca, Pennsylvania, and renamed Classic Player Pianos.Player Piano Company abandoned the polyurethane pouch.

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I remember when we dumped our stock, it filled up a 55 gallonbarrel. It represented a lot of investment; the material stilllooked perfectly alright . . . but we knew what would happen.

One of the problems with returning to the exclusive use ofthe traditional tan pouch leather for pouches was that it wasbecoming impossible to buy the skins of thin leather that wereoriginally used. It appeared that there was no prospect of bettering that situation, because tanning methods had changed.Going back to the “old days”: the sheep skin hides weresoaked in a brine for nine months, before attempting to separate the thin outer layer on the hair side, which was usedfor pouches. Instead, the tanning industry modernized andaccelerated the whole process to take place in 48 hours. Theresulting split of leather was much thicker. This is still truetoday, but unless the supplyof thinnest pouch leatherdries up, I don’t think restor-ers would willingly try anunproven substitute.

I tried a substitute in the1983 catalog, which was asilk cloth coated with naturalrubber. The dip of the pouchwas again held by a paperouter ring, but the attachmentto the ring was done beforethe rubber went through thecuring process. Otherwisematerial that had alreadybeen cured could not havebeen reshapen with the dip.Special forming dies neededto be made for each size ofthese silk cloth pouches.Furthermore, the small quan-tity of uncured material usedfor the project needed to beused up within six months,otherwise the natural curingwould have set in by thattime. Small quantities couldnot just be made up as need-ed. Based upon the successof the ill fated polyurethanepouch, it never occurred to me that the time tested natural rubber and silk would meet with any doubt of its longevity.So, I ordered $50,000 worth of the new pouches. Deliveryseemed eminent and so they were listed in the 1983 catalog.The catalog was circulated and there were no orders forthcom-ing for the new pouches. I learned later the proposed manufac-turer hadn’t even started on the project, and I was able to cancel. A financial disaster was averted. I still believe it wouldhave been the ultimate solution to the pouch problem. What Ihadn’t known, was the feeling there was, after being burnedonce. It was as though the word “preformed” had become a

dirty word. It seemed that any confidence in anything with theuse of polyurethane was gone. Sales for the polyurethanepneumatic cloths also plummeted, although there was no closesimilarity between the two products in the polyurethane family.Therefore, when inventory of the polyurethane coated Nylonpneumatic cloths ran out, it was dropped.

In the mid 1960’s, I began offering recuts of the ten-tunestyle “O” Nickelodeon rolls and a spool frame to play them,which was a copy of the original Coinola Mechanism. Thiswas in response to many that wanted to do what is called a“build-up” which was using an ordinary foot-pump player as abasis to start. We then added percussion and instruments suchas xylophone, pipes, or accordion, and in some cases, enlargedthe piano case to accommodate the components.

I chose the style “O” rollbecause it had a better variety of percussion instruments in the scale.The musical arrangementswere better than the average,being Capitol arrangements.I could have chosen to offerthe style “M” Cremona rolls,I suppose, because they wereequally as good (made byClark). Both types, O andM, were not easy to find. Inorder to be able to copythem, the problem was infinding good original rolls.It was probably the fact thatgood originals of “O” musicturned up first, and thus perpetuated the trend oforchestrion build-ups tofavor the “O” format. TheCoinola “O” spoolframe was more compact (paper traveling over the back likeWurlitzer, rather than overthe front like G and M rolls).That may have been anotherfactor.

The ten-tune O rolls werecopied on John Malone’s perforator and shipped in bulk (allwound together). When they arrived at Player Piano Company,the cut of rolls was strung over a ladder laying horizontally atwork bench height, and spooled up individually on 3” cores,then labeled and boxed. I printed the labels and catalog on myprinting press. Simultaneously, Ed Freyer in Flemington, NewJersey, was offering recuts of Link and style A5 rolls. TheLink-A roll was an orchestrion roll not being offered as a “reelto reel” roll, but only as an endless loop roll, and could only beplayed on original instruments.

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Player Piano Company made up and sold hundreds of theseO-roll spool frames, referring to them as “Coinola” spoolframes. One of these was sold to Don MacDonald when hewas living in St. Louis (now living in Winter Haven, Florida).It was in a Beckwith piano and was eventually sold to his nextdoor neighbor. It turned out that this individual had a verynasty streak in him, and he entered a law suit on the pretensethat the build-up instrument was misrepresented in the transac-tion, and that had it truly been original (such as Coinola “X”),it would have been worth a lot of money. Don was sued for$25,000 even though the bill of sale denoted “Beckwith-Coinola.” The legal claim was that this was a fraud; that it wasnot a “Coinola.” It was shaky ground for a legal claim, but thefact was that if Don MacDonald didn’t defend himself, hestood to loose by default.This legal harassment wenton for years, starting in1971, and before it wasover, Don had spent $50,000to win his case.

Don MacDonald askedme if I had owned copyrightor trade-mark registering forthe Coinola name. I hadn’tof course, as there seemedto be no need to go to thatexpense. However, if I had,it would have helped inDon’s case, and perhapssaved him some lawyers’fees. I decided to go aheadwith registering the Coinolatrademark anyway, althoughit was too late to help inDon’s legal fight; it wouldprotect any future customerof Player Piano Company ifthey ever fell into such atrap, although highly unlike-ly. But, as the old sayinggoes: “Truth is strangerthan fiction.”

By the late 1970’s, oth-ers wanted to get into the actof selling the O roll recutsand spool frames to play them. Harold Powell of Los Angeleswanted to take over the production of recuts that John Malonehad been producing for Player Piano Company. Powellaccomplished this by entering into frivolous lawsuits. I quickly found myself in the same spot as my friend, Don MacDonald; forced to defend myself or lose by default. Whenthe smoke finally cleared, I had $20,000 in lawyers fees andother losses and was out of the Nickelodeon roll business.

Someone came up with the idea of using small gear motorsfor play and rewind power on the ten-tune spool frames,

instead of the original power drive off the large motor thatdrove the pump, as was the case with all original instruments.Noble Stidham, George Cooper, and others had initiated a newadvance in technology. I realized that what I was offering wasobsolete, inasmuch, very few were sold as original replace-ments, but rather for the purpose in newly engineered build-ups. The extra motor required to drive the Coinola spoolframewas an anachronism. In most cases, the vacuum for the systemwas supplied by one of my own vacuum motors in a particleboard box.

Player Piano Company has been manufacturing the newCoinola spoolframe of the Brougher design for twenty yearsnow. Only one revision was made in the otherwise perfectdesign, since the first one. That was the cancel pneumatic. It

wasn’t quite powerfulenough to work at low vac-uum and so the pneumaticwas made an inch longer togive it more power. Otherthan that it is the same, withno other improvements nec-essary. Over a twenty-yearproduction span, we haveproduced about 1600 ofthem, both O and A models,which has the tracker barout front. In the past sever-al years, there has beenmore of the type playing theA roll made.

In the early 1980’s, itoccurred to me that it wouldbe an economical advantageto design compatible partsfor orchestrion build-ups, sothat extra sets of pipes orxylophone could be addedinto the system later, in apiggy back fashion, just byreplacing a cap with theextra instrument and a set oflonger bolts. I introducedthis in the 1983 catalog withgreat expectations. Unfor-tunately, the timing was

bad. Another economic recession had already started to set in.It was all over. No one had the incentive to build up elaborateand expensive orchestrions. The ones that were already inexistence found no buyers. The business entered an era of dis-inflation. Times were bad in the player piano business. PlayerPiano Company was receiving infrequent and much smallerorders from the customers.

I started laying off employees, and finally went to a four-day week to cut overhead. I came to the office on Friday, theoff-day, to catch any phone orders. I remember it was in

September, when normally the busy season has already started;I was able to lay down on the office sofa and take a three-hournap before being interrupted by a phone call.

I thought to myself that things would eventually get better,but I needed to survive the hard times to realize it. It was scarywith companies, some of them, my suppliers, going out ofbusiness, merging, or going bankrupt.

It was 1985, and it looked like the player piano businesswas all but over. Dust was gathering on the specialty items,and most of the sales were for only the most basic items. Istarted discontinuing things. The pri-ority was to survive and not tosquander money on replacing slowselling items. I vowed, that if it gotso bad that I had to run the companyby myself, that I would.

I re-evaluated the advantage ofhaving a computer to keep track ofthe business. I figured that the com-puter yearly added on $100,000 ofoverhead expense, when I consideredthe depreciation/obsolescence factor,maintenance, property tax, insurance,the paper and ribbons it devoured, inaddition to paying the several peopleto operate it. I figured out a way torun the business without a computer,so I junked it.

In 1985 I started a new filingsystem - one file for each customergiven an alpha-numerical number, sothat the file could be found alphabeti-cally if they didn’t remember theirnumber. Then I did the accountingon the block of the invoice, so thecustomer would know if they had adebit or credit, just by looking at thelast invoice. This did away withmonthly statements and also separateinvoicing after the package of supplies had been mailed. I had25,000 window envelopes on hand at the time. I now use themvery slowly, in fact probably have enough to last the rest of mylife.

Every three months, we manually go through the activefiles, and if there is no debit or credit, or the customer hasn’tordered in four months, it is transferred to the inactive files.The whole operation is streamlined and simplified. The cus-tomer gets back their original order and we have two plainpaper copy machine copies in the file: one as it left for theshipping department, and the other as it came back with thepostage added and the amount owing forwarded, or a record ofthe credit card transaction. Nowadays, customers phone inadditions to their order twenty minutes after they initially

phoned it, wanting to add another item to it, and we have tosay “sorry, the order is already processed.”

A business that uses a computer has to allow at least anoth-er day to process an order and sometimes another day or so tomail the invoice.

I had originally thought that one of the big advantages tohaving a computer was inventory control. That is, tell thecomputer when you add stock to the inventory and back it outas each order is processed. It doesn’t work that way. Thecomputer may operate perfectly, but people that operate it,

don’t check whatthey’re doing, and it issoon inaccurate enoughthat it is no reliableguide to reordering. Ifound that my memoryis a better computer. Ican take a walk throughthe stockroom everycouple of days. It takesabout twenty minutes tomentally up-date. Ifsomeone on the phoneasks if we have two ofsome item in stock, Ican immediately switchon my mental computerand see four laying inthe stock bin. I find iteven works when I scanthe orders that go overmy desk. I am mentallysubtracting items fromthe inventory. I agreethat a larger businesscan’t use the same systems that I use, butthere are advantages tonow being a small business with five

employees and without the fast turnover in employees like itwas 25 years ago. Present employees altogether average 18years on the job at Player Piano Company. I’m not countingmyself; I have nearly half a century, or half as long as Q-R-Shas been in business.

Sometimes a customer comes from the distant past, sayingthey have just gotten another player piano and they need a cur-rent catalog, because the one they have is dated 1975. It’s anice feeling to realize that some of the people in the inactivefiles for many years will come back on their own and reorderwhen they’re ready.

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Ampico Performances With Disc CounterpartsApril, 1984 - AMICA Bulletin

By David H. Wallis

For a long while now I havethought of compiling a list-

ing of all Ampico rolls of whichthe exact same musical compo-sitions and pianists can be heardon disc-version performances.This listing contains 77 rolls(and almost that many individ-ual musical selections, althougha few pieces required two- orthree-roll sets) played by 21 dif-ferent pianists. In the columnnext to the Ampico roll number,I have listed the phonographdisc make and record number ofthe same music by thesepianists. I cannot say this is acomplete listing, although Iwould guess it is about 95% so.Obviously there may be recordsof whose existence I amunaware, either because I do nothave the records themselves inmy own library or because I donot have the catalogues listingthem. I leave it to someone elseto fill in the gaps, and I wouldwelcome any additions or cor-rections. Also, I challengesomeone else out thereto take up a similarproject, listingDuo-Art andWelte pianistswhose perfor-mances can alsobe found ondiscs. Such alisting would beboth useful andinformative tomany people. Also, ayet more comprehensiveproject comes to mind: a list-ing of all rolls of the pianists. Certainly such research wouldyield some interesting inter-connections, e/g/, the titles of Fer-dinand Himmelreich’s one Ampico roll, his many Angelusrolls, his 10 acoustic Victor sides, and his (at least) one

acoustic Okeh side. How inter-esting to have such completelistings on all the pianists whomade rolls! However, such aproject is a broad one andbeyond the resources, thoughnot the imagination, of thisresearcher.

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONSAND EXPLANATIONS OF

RECORD NUMBERS

El.: electric recording

Ac.: acoustic recording

Vic.: Victor

Col.: Columbia

Brun.: Brunswick

HMV.: His Master’s Voice

The number 10- or 12-before the designation “Ac” or“El” indicates the record size.The numbers in parenthesesafter acoustic Victor and a few

Brunswicks indicates thedouble-sided number. If

only one number isgiven, the record wasissued only in thatform. Five-digit,ten-inch acousticVictors beginning18000, 19000, and

electric Victorsbeginning 20000 are

all black label; Victoracoustic 45000 series is

blue label; all other Victorsare red label except 12-inch

acoustic 31000 series, which is black. Five-digit Victorsbeginning 64000 and 66000 are 10-inch, single-faced; 74000and 88000 are 12-inch, single-faced. Except as noted, all otherrecords are double-faced except Brunswick 10000 series,which is single-faced.

PIANIST PIECE AMPICO ROLL # DISC RECORD #

Bargy, Roy Pianoflage (Bargy) 68751E 10 Ac Vic 18969

Rufenreddy (Bargy) 68641E 10 Ac Vic 19320

Barth, (Richard) Hans Narcissus (Nevin) 68171F 10 El Vic 20121

Bauer, Harold Waldesrauschen (Liszt) 54814H 12 El Vic 11-9113

Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 4, A Flat (Schubert) 51517M 12 Ac Vic 6468

Copeland, George Gnossienne (Satie) 57323H 10 El Vic 1629

Igualada (Zuera) 62113H 12 El Vic 7781

Cortot, Alfred Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Liszt) 59263H 12 Ac Vic 74670; 74822, (6335) OR

12 El Vic 6626

Variations Serieuses, Op. 54, D Minor (Mendelssohn) 66033H 12 El Vic 15173;

15174

Friml, Rudolph Amour Coquet (Friml) 66513H 12 El Vic 9649 (with “Improvisation” on same side)

Godowsky, Leopold Ballade, Op. 47, No. 3, A Flat (Chopin) 51126M 12 Ac Brun 50042

Berceuse, Op. 57, D Flat (Chopin) 50214H 12 Ac Col A5597

Campanella, La (Liszt) (Stoddard) 5285K 12 Ac Col A5484

Mes Joise - Chant Polonaise, Op. 74, No. 5, G Flat (Chopin) 64051H 10 Ac Brun 15042

Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 2 (Chopin) 56834K 12 El Col 67567D

Polonaise Op 53, A Flat (Chopin) 56336P 12 Ac Col A5550 or (Stoddard 6566M) 12 Ac Brun 50024 or

12 El Brun 50078

Waltz, E Minor (Chopin) 54944H 12 Ac Col A5858

Waltz, Op 42, A Flat (Chopin) 51554J 12 Ac Col A5791

Waltz, Op. 64, No. 2 C Sharp Minor (Chopin) 54954H 10 Ac Brun 10031 (15018)

Waltz, Op 70. No. 1, G Flat (Chopin) 50482F 12 Ac Col A5791 (later No. 7024M)

Grunfeld, Alfred Fruhlingsstimmen (Strauss-Grunfeld) 68573H 12 Ac Vic 31784

Hambourg, Mark Etude, Op. 10, No. 5 (Chopin) 55502F 12 Ac HMV D71

Etude in D Flat (Liszt) 55574H 12 Ac HMV D692

152


Horowitz, Vladimir Carmen-Variations (Bizet-Horowitz) 72504 (from Duo-Art) 10 El Vic 1327

LaForge, Frank Danse Creole (Chaminade) 52572E 10 Ac Vic 45050

Levitzki, Mischa Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 (Liszt) 57437H 12 El Vic 7276

Rondo Capriccioso in E (Mendelssohn) 70263H 10 El Vic 1651

Sonata, Op. 22, G Minor (Schumann) 61163H (Pt.1), 12 El Vic 8363 (Pts. 1,2); 61323H (Pt. 2), 12 El Vic 8364 (Pts. 3,4)61693H (Pt. 3)

Valse in A Major (Levitzki) 61051G 10 El Vic 2008

Lhevinne, Josef An den schonen blauen Donau 67563H 12 El Vic 6840(Strauss-Schulz-Evler)

Etude, 68001H 12 El Vic 8868 Op. 10, No.11, E Flat (Chopin) (with Op. 25, (with Etudes, Op. 25,

No. 9, G Flat) No. 6, G Minor;Op. 25, No. 11 A Minor)

Polonaise, Op. 53, A Flat (Chopin) 69833H 10 El Vic 1765

153

An aural comparison of Ampico music roll #206171 “My Sugar”, played by Vincent Lopez and Victor record #19705 seems toconfirm that the artist on the roll is probably Frank Banta who also recorded for ampico. Ed.


Moiseiwitsch, Benno Arabesque in Etude Form, 62791G 12 Ac HMV D588Op. 45, No. 1 (Leschetizky)

Hark! Hark! The Lark! (Schubert-Liszt) 59731H 10 Ac HMV E216

Impromptu, Op. 36, No. 2 F Sharp (Chopin) 69053H 12 Ac HMV D735

Jeux d’Eau (Ravel) 57836H 12 Ac HMV D58

Minstrels - “Prelude” Vol. 1, No. 12 (Debussy) 57973H 10 Ac HMV E216

Nocturne, Op. 72, No. 1, E Minor (Chopin) 67143H 12 Ac HMV D676

Paderewski, Ignace Jan Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Liszt) 71813 12 Ac Vic 74805; 74806 (2 Pts.) (6235)

Minuet in G, Op. 14, No. 1 (Paderewski) 71801 12 Ac Vic 88321 or 12 Ac Vic 74533 (6232) or 12 El Vic 6690, or 12 El Vic 16250

Moonlight sonata (Beethoven) 71773 12 El Vic Album (1st, 2nd Mvts.), M349 (2 records; 3 sides)71783 (3rd. Mvt.) (4th side: Minuet in G)

Rachmaninoff, Sergei Brooklet (Schubert-Rachmaninoff) 65771H 10 El Vic 1196

Das Wandern (Schubert-Liszt) 64561H 10 El Vic 1161

Etude Tableaux, (either No. 4) 69593H 10 El Vic 1184Op. 36, either No. 4 or No. 6(?) or (No. 6) 60891

Hopak (Moussorgsky-Rachmaninoff) 60641K 10 El Vic 1161

Humoresque, Op. 10, No. 5 (Rachmaninoff) 57965H 10 El Vic 2123 (Set 722)

Impromptu, Op 90, No 4, A Flat (Chopin) 69373H 12 El Vic 6621

Liebesfreud (Kreisler-Rachmaninoff) 66143H 10 El Vic 1142 or 12 El Vic 11-8728

Liebeslied (Kreisler-Rachmaninoff) 62103H 12 Ac Vic 74723 (6259)

Lilacs (Rachmaninoff) 61761H 10 Ac Vic 64906 (1051)

Melodie, Op. 3 (Rachmaninoff) 57545 10 El Vic 2123 (set M722)

Minuet in G (Paderewski) 68823H 12 El Vic 6731

Minuet (L’Arlesienne Suite) 61601H 10 Ac Vic 66085 (816)(Rachmaninoff-Bizet)

Polichinelle, Op. 3, No. 4 (Rachmaninoff) 57905H 12 Ac Vic 74807 (6452)

Polka de W.R. (Rachmaninoff) 57275H 12 Ac Vic 74728 (6260) or 12 El Vic 6857

Prelude in C Sharp Minor (Rachmaninoff) 57504H 10 Ac Vic 66016 (814) or 10 El Vic 1326

Prelude in G Minor (Rachmaninoff) 57525H 12 Ac Vic 74628 (6261)

Sarabande, D Major (Bach) 66483H 12 El Vic 6621

Serenade, Op. 3, No. 5 (Rachmaninoff) 62441H 10 Ac Vic 66129 (816) or 10 El Vic 1762

Spinning Song, A Major (Mendelssohn) 59661H 10 Ac Vic 64921 (814) or 10 El Vic 1326

154


Rachmaninoff, Sergei Troika en traineaux (Tschaikowsky) 57914H 12 Ac Vic 74630 (6260) or 12 El Vic 6857

Turkish March (Beethoven-Rachmaninoff) 68771 10 El Vic 1196

Valse, Op. 40, No. 8 A Flat (Tschaikowsky) 62531H 10 Ac Vic 972

Waltz, Op. 18, E Flat (Chopin) 59743H 12 Ac Vic 74679 (6259)

Were I A Bird (Henselt) 62971H 10 Ac Vic 1051

Rosenthal, Moriz Carnaval de Vienne (Strauss-Rosenthal) 65313H 12 El Vic 11-8175

Waltz, Op. 42, A Flat (Chopin) 64123H 12 El Vic 14299(from Set M338) also 12 El HMV DB2772

Samaroff, Olga Turkish March (Beethoven-Rubinstein) 59831G 10 Ac Vic 64965 (825)

Clair de Lune (Debussy) 52305H 12 Ac Vic 6540

Scharwenka, Xaver Polish National Dance, 60001H 12 Ac Col A5260Op. 3, No. 1 (Scharwenka)

Schmitz, E. Robert Cathedrale engloutie (Debussy) 68293 12 El Vic 11-8240

Schnabel, Artur Italian Concerto (Bach) 62721 (Mvt. 1); 12 El Vic Set DM80662733 (Mvt. 2); 62741 (Mvt. 3)

Addenda (January, 2000)

Himmelreich, Ferdinand Believe Me, If All Those Endearing 51663E 10 Ac Edison 51285LYoung Charms (Moore) (Reverse: The Last Hope

Gottschalk-arr. Himmelreich)

Thomas, Harry Classical Spasm-Ragtime One-Step 57533 10 Ac Vic 18229-B (Reverse: Delirious Rag, One-Step)

Echaniz, Jose Rapsodia cubana (Cervantes-Echaniz) 67183 10 El Col 1926-M (Reverse: Pt. 2)

Fairchild and Rainger Queen High-Selections 66913 10 El Vic 20435-B (Reverse: Oh, Kay! Medley Fox Trot)

Bargy, Roy Rufenreddy 68641E 10 Ac Vic 19320B (Reverse: Sunshine Capers)

Pianoflage 68751E 10 Ac Vic 18969A(Reverse: Knice and Knifty) (Bargy-Straight)

Paderewski, Ignace Jan Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10 (Liszt) 30073 (1977 AMR 12 Ac Vic 74788 (6231)conversion from Duo-Art by Wm. Flynt)

155

156

Famous Dance OrgansThe 123 Key Mortier

By Maarten van der Vlugt

In articles about the firm of Th. Mortier, only very little iswritten about the 123 key organs made by this factory. TheBowers Encyclopedia doesn’t mention such instruments at all.Therefore, the publishers of the Pierement were proud to present the first history of a Mortier with 123 keys.

For the past years, some serious lovers of Mortier organsmade a list of every Mortier they could think of, including theproduction number, numbers of keys, year of production andowners names as much as possible. This list shows clearly that

from number 1070 (the Peter Benoit, rebuilt by the DecapBrothers to the 121 key specification, and now owned byDaniel Debie of Belgium) to the last organ number 1092 (TheRambler, also rebuilt to 121 Decap scale, and owned by BillHall in Florida), only two numbers are missing: 1083 and1084. Both of these should have been made in 1939.

In those times the Mortier factory gave out postcards withpictures of their new models. One of these postcards shows abig, modern dance organ, on which we read Mortier Jazz

Orchestra, and below the nameof the first owner: Louis Audenaert-de Cort. On the back-side we read not only the nameand address of the firm, but themost important: Type 1939 (123keys). This proves the existenceof at least one such instrument.

This article was sent to Shirley Nix from Maarten van der Vlugt. It originally appeared in the HetPierement in Dutch, and Maarten translated it into English.

Above: The original Mortier postcard some-what enlarged showing the 123 key Mortiernumber 1084 (from the archives of Piet vanDoorn Tilburg, Holland).

Right: The back side of the original Mortierpostcard. The correspondence concerns a card-board order made by Mr. Marijn de Klerk, adance organ operator at Bergen op Zoom, Hol-land. He could pick up this cardboard May 3,1940, just one week before World War II startedfor Holland and Belgium. The cost was 203Belgium Franks, about $15 U.S.

Kleppensysteem Mortier 1937

Kleppellsysteem Decap

Valve· systemDecap and Mortier 1937

7

6

7. Paper glued to shutthe chest

8. Felt to equalize

9. Spiralspring

10. Leather to shut thelittle hole for 4

1. Air from keyframe

2. Push

3. Valve

4. Valveleader

5. Air outlet

6. Pipeboard

In the papers of the Dutch Mortier Society, there are twooriginal bills for repairing a 123 key organ, owned by VictorFondue, who operated a dance organ rental business inBrussels, which could be another 123 key built in 1939.

~"- In 1964, this writer saw parts of a fa9ade, looking the same-- as the one on the Mortier postcard mentioned earlier, except

for the name below. Louis Audenaert-de Cort was replaced bythe name "Liberator."

In our collection of scale sticks there are two with 123keys, one of them bearing the name Wolfs. This, however,cannot be a new organ, because there are only 8 basses and 10accompaniments, and so this should be a rebuilt 84 key organ.

The scale of the original 123 key Mortier is an extension ofthe 112 key scale, like the 112 key organ number 1078 (fromthe Milhous Collection in Florida).

1. General cancel2. Maracas3. Cymbal4. Bass Drum5. Blank6-25. Countermelody (c-g)26. Snare drum27. Celeste on (countermelody)28. Vibration on (countermelody)29. Cello (countermelody)30. Accordion31. Cello grave32. Snare drum33-44. Accompaniment (c-b)45. Tremolo46. Flute 8' (third Melody)47. Sousaphone (?)48-59. Bass (B-C)60. Hi-hat cymbal61. Vibraton (melody)62. Undamaris (melody)63. Tremolo jazz64. Violin piano65. Jazz-flute66. Violin forte67. Wood Block68-90. Melody (f-g)91. Wood Block92. Bassoon (countermelody)93. Trumpet (third melody)94. Baritone (countermelody)95. Trumpet (melody)96. Trombone97-100. Temple blocks101-120. Third Melody (c-g)121. Saxophone (third Melody)122. Blank123. Key frame key

_ In 1937, the windchest system in Mortier organs was:~1:changedunder pressure of the Decap brothers, who made their''L-first 121 key organs at this time, with much success. The new

123 key organ also used this system. The difference betweenthe systems is shown in the drawing.

157

158

In 1963, Rein van den Broek from Oosterhout, Holland,bought a 123 key Mortier at Koersel - a little village in Belgium. He was starting a dance organ rental business andhad no place to store the instrument, so he took the organ to hisfather Rein van den Broek in Gorinchem, also in Holland. Therelationship between father and son was bad, and the organdidn’t play for some years.

In 1967, however, at the 40th wedding anniversary of Reinvan den Broek, Sr., they decided to make the 123 key playagain. Because getting new music for Mortier organs was difficult in those times, the organ was changed to the 121 keyDecap scale. With the façade cut down and three accordionsand a drum kit, the organ was rented out in the south of Holland into dance halls and cafes during the faires.

In this time we get to know the organ very well, and wenoticed the name Dries on it, the last name of the former ownerin Koersel, Belgium, who used it in a traveling dance hall.

As a rental organ, the 123 key Mortier was the last Mortierused in this manner in Holland, and also the last big organoperated by Rein van den Broek Sr., who more or less retiredafter this.

About 1969, he sold the organ to Cor Bezems (nicknamedthe Ball) in Geetruidenberg, Holland, who at this time had anAmerican customer buying organs from him. So the 123 KeyMortier went off to the U.S.A. After being stored in a leakingtruck for a couple of years, it was bought by Mr. Paul Dyer ofFortville, Indiana. He not only restored the organ, but alsobuilt a new, spectacular façade for it - a copy of the famous TajMahal Mortier organ, which is now in an Australian collection.

(Note: In checking this article for Maarten, I contacted Mr.Dyer and he said the organ sat in the leaking trailer for TENyears, and what the dampness didn’t ruin, the termites madeuse of. He said the façade was full of termites, dry rot, and justplain damage. Fortunately, the organ itself wasn’t bad. Therewas no choice about keeping the old façade. - Shirley Nix)

In preparing this article, I contacted Mr. Dyer and hechecked some details, such as the production number (which is1084). He also sent us some pictures and one shows the pipework in the main chest. This picture shows clearly that theMortimer people looked at a 121 key Decap, because the pipework is placed just the same. This picture also gives hope thatthe 123 key Mortier is in good playing condition and has founda good home in the U.S.A.

Thanks to:

Rein van den Broek (a son of Gijs van den Broek), Oosterhout, Holland

Mr. Paul Dyer of Fortville, Indiana, U.S.A.

Piet van Doorn, Tilburg, Holland

Above: The 123-key Mortier as it trav-eled around the south of Holland in1967-1969.

Right: Mr. Rene Schwagten (right), hiswife and a friend in front of the 123 keyMortier. He tried to trade the organ in fora big American car. One of his sons ownsa top class collection of dance organs atTilburg, Holland, including the Rupel III,a 121 Decap formerly in the Hanningand White collection in Troy, Ohio.

159

Above: Pipework after the Dyerrestoration.

Right: The 123-key Mortier with the new Taj Mahal façade in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Dyerof Fortville, Indiana.

Below: Paul and Patty Dyer in frontof the Mortier.

160

Southern California has had no winter this year, and therainfall was hovering under an inch. We were being told thatthe year would be completely dry, and we might be starting athirty-year drought . . . gloom and doom. I haven’t heard somany gloomy predictions since Y2K was going to end theworld as we know it. Well, what better way to “bring on therain” than for AMICA to make plans for an outdoor event???

Actually, February became the month when the rains cameout here. We went from no rain at all to almost normal rainfallfor the whole season in just the one month.

Naturally, that’s when we decided to have our organ rally.Actually Gail Alden, an antique dealer in the City of Orange,contacted Lloyd Osmondson about having an organ rally at theCircle in Old Town Orange. Lloyd gave her our phone numberand we planned the outing to coincide with their big AntiqueFair on February 19, 20 and 21.

It was decided that Saturday and Sunday would be best forall of our people, so that’s what we planned. We had to make itbasically a monkey organ rally with only a couple of largeinstruments due to space considerations.

Saturday was the big day, really, with Abe Lincoln himselfin the Circle delivering his Gettysburg Address. There were lotsof other attractions as well. They had a fashion show, walkingtours, antique appraisals and more. There were town-wideantique sales also. Just a fun day - lots of people guaranteed.

There is a traffic circle in the center of this old area, andDave and Darlene Wasson and Charlie and Jackie Porter puttheir lovely organs on the walkways there playing to thecrowds. It was a great site for the large organs.

The rest of us brought monkey organs and wanderedaround town, changing positions and serenading the crowds andthe shopkeepers. There was a good crowd, since what better toattract them than an antique sale? Add to that the lure of theold-time organ rally and they flocked in. We all had a greattime, and the city furnished us with a super lunch at the Abbey,an old church converted to a lovely restaurant.

After the great lunch, we went back on the streets to workoff all that food. Then on to the hotel for most of us to have agood night’s rest so we’d be ready for business in the morning.The city had arranged for us to have good rates at the hotel for Saturday night, too. Everything just really came togethernicely.

Sunday dawned dark and threatening…Worry, worry,worry. Well, the rain came and went all day…we all found outwhich canopies over the shops were the largest… that’s wherewe headed when it rained.

The crowd was much thinner . . I wonder why. Most peo-ple were too smart to risk the weather, but those who came sureseemed to enjoy our music - music lovers with good taste andlots of guts!!!

Southern California Band Organ RallyBy Shirley Nix

See - it’s not all just fun. Here are our So. California officershard at work. Jim Westcott, President, Jackie Porter, our nowvice-president, Frank Nix, Board Rep. and Caroyl Westcott,acting as chaperone! Al and Linda Nielsen and “friend”

Rudy and NormaEdwards with theirHofbauer organ

Joyce Brite, a frequentwriter for the MMDfrom Manhattan, Kansas, Robbie Rhodes,Dave Riedy, and DaveWasson enjoying themusic.

161

Again, the city treated us to a super lunch at one of thelocal restaurants.

In between playing our instruments, many of us found thelure of the antique stores to be quite strong, and you could seeour group wending their way through town . . . often carryingpackages.

One of the stores was going out of business, and Frankfound a box of Tanzibar rolls over in a corner gathering dust.Needless to say, now they are gathering dust in a corner of ourplace instead of theirs.

We had left it up to the individual people as to whetherthey would play on Monday or not, and everyone seemed tofeel they wanted to be on their way home, which turned out tobe a fortunate thing since the skies opened up on Monday and itPOURED all day. Had we still been there it would have beenmiserable, much too wet for us to play, and a much harder triphome for all.

We had people from San Diego to the south and theNielsens came down from Berkeley to the north. That’s a widearea represented, and we sure appreciate all those who partici-pated, as well as the members who just came around to enjoythe music and help when they could. There were a lot offriendly faces from the chapter, and that always makes it nice.

Thanks to Lloyd Osmondson, who not only set us up withthis whole thing, but also loaned his organ to Bob and DianeLloyd to play all day . . . talk about people who go the extramile. Lloyd couldn’t make it himself, but he didn’t want tocompletely miss out . . . I guess the next best thing is to haveyour instrument there, right?

In the same vein, Mary and Ben Lilien loaned us theirJager and Brommer 20-key organ. Leora Sear and Roy Beltzmade music with that one all day Saturday. We decided onSunday that it was just too damp to take a chance with someoneelse’s organ.

It was great to see Rudy and Norma Edwards out with theirorgan. We have been after Rudy to come out for quite a whilenow, and of course, wouldn’t you know he ended up with a hor-rible cold for his trouble.

Jim and Caroyl Westcott planned to bring their Pell organon the golf cart, but Jim decided to play engineer and hook upsome extra equipment, and invoked Murphy’s law . . . blowingsomething out, so they brought their smaller organ. Jim com-plained a lot about how hard it was to pump an organ by handall day, but they still persevered. We sure get spoiled fast!!!

Ralph Schack could only make it Saturday, but he broughthis Brun organ, and looked quite spiffy in his top hat. Bill Blairand Jean Hurley played Bill’s Pell organ in front of an old Victorian house where there were things going on all day. Theymade it only on Saturday, too. Too bad, these two missed allthe wet weather! Maybe they knew something we didn’t?

Robbie Rhodes and Jody Kravitz from the MMD just aboutalways make it to these events, and cover them well for theMMD. They give us a lot of coverage prior to the events, too,and that does help bring in the crowds, as well as people whohave instruments and want to come join the fun. Thanks, guys.

It was really a fun event, and it was made even more so bythe attitude of the shopkeepers who wanted us in front of theirshops. That really makes it nice.

We missed some of our regulars . . . Ed and Dodie Richmond couldn’t make it because Ed had a collapsed lung.How’s that for an excuse? Herb and Rochelle Mercer had tostay home because Rochelle hurt her back and has been in a lotof pain. We wish Ed and Rochelle the best, and hope things areback to normal as soon as possible.

Mike Ames had a commitment to another organization, sohe couldn’t bring his lovely Dutch Street Organ, but he cameout to enjoy the music with the rest of us, coming directly fromthe airport . . . that’s commitment.

Our next rally will be in Temecula the first weekend inMay, and after all the fun we had there last year, we are alllooking forward to that. We’ve had our rain for the year now,so we can look forward to nice weather from here on.

Frank Nixshowing afan the joysof crankingan organ(PerleeOrgan).

Jim and Caroyl Westcott and theirHand-cranked Hofbauer organ

Bob and Diane Lloyd and Jamie,who is a great organ grinder, usingLloyd Osmundson’s HofbauerOrgan.

RalphSchack

The Pianist in the Patent OfficeOdd Mechanical Contrivances Designed to Help Pianist

By JOSEPH ROSSMAN

From The Etude August 1929

NO. 627,646

the forearm and wrist is held in the proper position for fingering the piano, andsufficient freedom is likewise given theplayer to reach conveniently all the partsof the keyboard and to hold the hands-~and wrists in a correct position at allpoints. A correct position can therebysoon be acquired without cramping thepupil or causing undue fatigue. Thelengths of the pendent supports may bereadily adjusted. In order to release thearms of the pupil, when a pause occurs,the wristbands may be readily removedfrom the pendent supports.

In playing of the piano it is essential,in order to get a sharp clear tone, that thehammer strike the tone emitting device orstring a quick blow. This can be doneonly by giving the finger key connected tothe hammer a quick, hammer-like blow.To give the key such a blow it is desirableto have the fingers slightly bent so thattheir extreme tips may strike the key. It isthe tendency of pianists, especially ofpupils or learners, to straighten out thefingers with the result that the keys arestruck with the front of the finger tips,making sharp, hammer-like blows impossible. In patent No. 1,126,938 there is provided a finger trainer consisting of a wristband and, adjustably connected thereto, \~preferably by means of a perforated platecarried by the band, a series of elasticbands or tapes, one for each finger. Thesetapes have adjustable loops adapted to

7

NO. 1,092,173

s

The publisher of The Etude MusicMagazine cannot attempt to give furtherinformation about the inventionsmentioned in this article. Nor can theysupply any of the inventions. Readerswho are interested should refer allinquiries to the United States PatentOffice, Washington, D.C.

covered with felt and curved inwardly inthe direction of its length. This bar heldalong the back of the hand and wrist causes the hand to assume and hold thearched position so essential to good execution. Since the bar does not extend as faras the first joints of the fingers, these areleft perfectly free.

An arm support for piano pupils(patent No. 627,646) consists of a strap orband freely hanging over the shoulders ofthe pupil and suspending at its ends pendent portions supplied with wristbandsfor supporting the arms. By this means

purpose there is placed around the forearm, approximately in the middle betweenthe wrist and the elbow, a band, preferably an elastic band which will stretch tofit any circumference of arm. From thisband a second band, also elastic, extendsaround the arm to the side of the thumb,then over the back of the hand, to behooked finally to a contrivance placedaround the hand at the side of the littlefinger.

Another inventor (patent No.1,092,173) provides a rigid bar of wood

162

NO. 653,814

states that a device is designed wherebythe piano player is forced to keep thehands always steadily in the correct position without, however, being in any wayimpeded in his movements. This is effected by assisting and to some extent replacing the muscular power which must beexerted in order to keep the hands continuously in the correct position. For this

"\V JE ARE living in an age of greatW inventions. During the last hun

dred years, man has harnessed theuntamed forces of nature and put them touseful work by means of ingeniousmachines. The electric motor, the aeroplane, the radio, the telephone, the automobile, are but a few of the achievementswhich have changed radically our mannerof living. Some of the machines, such asthe player piano, seem almost human intheir performance.

However, in spite of our wonderfulinventions and advancement in science,the piano student today must go throughthe same tedious training that his forefathers had to undergo. The human bodycan learn and acquire habits, but unfortunately these acquired habits are not passedon to succeeding generations by heredity.In playing the piano, to mention a fewdifficulties, the arms must be trained toassume a correct position. The fingersmust be held in the properly curved manner and move in their correct paths. Thewrists must be kept at the proper level.

Our inventors have not forgotten ourstruggling piano students and havetried to help them with manycontrivances which have been patented.A few of these devices which are veryinteresting will be discussed.

One inventor (patent No. 653,814)

NO. 679,288

In another patent (No. 679,288) ahand guide is provided to raise or lowerautomatically the level of the pupil's handwhen he moves it from the white to theblack keys or from the black to the white.The guides are supported on a carriageabove the keys and run on rollers.

It is difficult to determine whether ornot these mechanical aids for the pianostudent produce any beneficial results.The improper use of such devices maymake the student dependent on physicalaids rather than on his own ability. Probably the best method in mastering thetechnic of the piano is the use of intenseconcentration and will power in trainingthe muscles to do what they are requiredto do.

NO. 6558

Also there is provided a finger exercising device which consists of a rod towhich a series of gum elastic, wire orother springs of a suitable size areattached.

These springs are sufficiently flexibleand elastic to allow the fingers of the performer which are attached to them to

strike the keys by the exertion of a little

force and then, when the force is relaxedsuddenly, draw them up again. Each finger of the performer is provided with aleather sleeve having a ring on its upperside to which springs of uniform strengthare attached by hooks or otherwise. It follows that the same force must be exertedby each finger suspended to them in striking a clear and distinct note. Moreoverone finger can derive no aid from theother. By exercising the fingers in thesesprings, they acquire a strength, freedomand independence of action, as well asequality in power.

_--__ $

NO. 1,126,938

engage the fingers. The tension or elasticity of the bands will tend to draw the fingers in and maintain them in proper playing position, although they may be spreadout by stretching the tapes should occasion require.

it is well known to all teachers ofmusic that the greatest obstacles whichbeginners have to overcome in learningthe piano is the extreme difficulty whichthey experience in keeping their hands onthe proper level with the keyboard, thefingers and arms becoming fatigued fromthe position in which they must be held.Then, unless very strictly watched, thelearner is extremely apt to relieve himselfby dropping his wrists below the level ofthe keyboard and pressing heavily uponthe keys with his fingers, a position inwhich it is impossible that the fingeringshould be properly performed.

To lessen this tendency a large number of devices for guiding the hands havebeen patented. The simplest guide consists merely of a round bar placed at thelevel of the keyboard of the piano onwhich the wrists rest.

In order to avoid rubbing the wristson the bar, a slidable rest for each hand

_ has been provided as shown in patents-.,.' 6,558 and 173,205. These hand rests

supporting the wrists can be readilymoved along the keyboard on a rod.

NO. 173,205

163

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164

TUE l?TUDE FEBltUflRY 19.34 Page IO!)

~ft.r\..--

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166

Thanks to John Motto-Ros

When a bird sings part of a composition he invariably sings the thematic,inspired part. Of course, he does notdevelop this and work it out. It isreserved for the mind of Man to do that.Consider the first movement ofBeethoven's Appassionata Sonata.

ebEx.4.

It is about twenty pages long, but seehow economical Beethoven has been inthe use of his thematic, inspired motifs?First, we have (A) which is then invertedup the arpeggio scale. The secondarysubject begins with this theme invertedand in major (B) while this portentoustheme: (C) occurs throughout. This lastkind of raven croak, a fatalistic group oftones which many different kinds ofbirds were singing long before Beethovenimmortalized it. A Carolina wren cansing the secondary motif (B) of thissonata beautifully, while many a robin Ihave heard sing the minor group of tonesintroducing the primary motif.

Of course much of the thrill we getfrom listening to birds' music is causedby the quality of their tones. We loseourselves in the effervescent joy-wild spirits of these exquisite little singers, and noone thinks of attempting to analyze theirmusic merely as music. Yet bird musichas rhythm and melody the same as ours.And the elusive tone quality of their voices has a musical significance which mightbe compared to our harmony. For, asharmony furnishes much of the mood,the setting, for our music, so also the

sparrow fashion with a group of rapidlyrepeated notes in place of the high note,are a fine composite song sparrowmelody:

Ex. I Song Sparrow/1- -.-..-..---..---.--- -.~Hjrjnm~)

Here we have the three notes all ofthe same pitch with which most songsparrow songs begin, the rise into thesong and a dotted notc at the end. Onlyseveral birds have dotted notes in theirsongs, and the song sparrow is one ofthese. He may use them at the beginning, the end or in the middle of hissinging. The beginning of a characteristic purple martin warble sounds like thebeginning of Chopin's Waltz in A Flat:

Bird RepertoiresBy the Well Known

Composer and Lecturer

ARCHIE A. MUMMA

From The Etude, August 1929

The examples one could cite of thissimilarity are legion, and, while I am farfrom implying that composers deliberately use bird songs in their compositions, isit not logical to suggest that centuries oflistening to them may have produced inmankind a racial musical impulse? Acomposer need never even have heardbirds sing, but centuries of his ancestorsundoubtedly did; music is written out ofthis racial experience, lodged in hissubconscious mind, as much as in hisindividual mind.

Ex.2 Chopin, Purple Martin

'.I/I~tV -L. ! •

while a theme in this same composer's BFlat Mazurka is very suggestive of one ofthe swinging songs of the meadowlark:

Ex.2 Chopin, Purple Martin

'1/1~rlf •1.. ,.

"Bird Calls" were recorded by Mr. Mumma forAeolian on Duo-Art music rolls #'s 6555 (9-22),6557 (10-22), 6576 (11-22). Ed

~EN A song sparrow sings

one of his melodies in perfectly pitched tones, true to our

major or minor scales, why does he do it?When one of our composers writes acomposition true to these same scales, weknow (for centuries of experience havetaught us) that it is because the mostheart-satisfying music is founded uponthem. Let us compare our music with

~ that of the birds and see whether we do.1. ~ .not conclude that the same Creator who

inspires us also inspires the little songsparrow to choose his tones because theyare the most beautiful paths for his songto travel along_

But, first, what inspired the earliestefforts at music making? Birds and ourselves are the only two kinds of musicians on earth, and there must have beena period, away back in the night of time,when the birds were the only musiciansand when the only musical tones heardon this earth were made by birds. Wewere in the childhood period of the racethen, and the child's sole way of learningis through imitation. So, since the onlymusic there was to imitate at that timewas that of the birds, there can be butone conclusion - the birds were our firstmusical inspirers.

But how about music of today? Practically every melody that man has conceived has fragments in it that are also inthe songs of birds. Song sparrows arethe most versatile singers among the

__~ birds. No two song sparrows sing alikeI :: and each one sings a number of different

songs, in some cases as many as a dozenor more. The opening measures of theMarseillaise Hymn, sung in true song

/~

"(

;.

167

J J ~ ..

by outside conditions. A wood thrush'smusic always expresses religious exalta- "tion, solemnity or sadness, regardless or--L;:" \how things are around him. A mourn- I ..ing dove's song always has a brooding, Iloving quality, while a wood pewee'ssong is always sweetly pensive.

Several of the thrushes can producean harmonic effect, that is, sound severalharmonic notes at once. But most birdssing just one note at a time, althoughtheir songs follow a chord outline so definitely that the effect is harmonic.

The follOWing examples should becarefully noted:

(A) triad intervals, wood thrush figures;(B) triad and diminished 7th chord,olive-backed thrush songs; (C) augmented triad and diminished 7th, Baltimoreoriole songs.

Ex.6 Wood Thru8h FlgureE

a ~ ~R-r i Sife i ctriqC '1

Sunrise Song

-:;-....

, C4Qr '=-

Ex.uRapidly joyously --....

'wrlb,eO'lri~::>- ::>- =--

~'ti"q~'·1:0- ~ ::=-

Daytime Song

the day, especially during a hot sleepy orcloudy day. It becomes pensive, and itsprevailing style is minor. Compare afragment from his sunrise song with oneheard during the day:

Indigo buntings and meadowlarksoften sing at twilight in minor, whiletheir prevailing style throughout the dayis major. This means that the objectiveside of bird music, the side that is influenced by outside conditions, offers interpretations of the varying moods of theday - a remarkable achievement, sincemuch of our music of the present doesnothing more than this.

However, some birds sing nothingbut subjective music, the kind whichcomes from within and is not influenced

tone quality of a bird's song portrays itsparticular setting in nature, its habitat orchoice of environment. For instance, thered·winged blackbird is a lover of waterand marshy country, and, in the qualityof his voice, suggests watery gurgles andthe reedy rattle of cat-tail swamps.Vesper sparrows love the hot, dusty,open country, and their voices have not ahint of any liqUid quality; they arelanguorous little lays full of mid-summercontentment. So the tone quality of abirel's voice is really the bird's harmony,since it hints at its natural setting.

A fundamental of our music is themajor and minor modes. Generallyspeaking, majot portrays realization, contentment and joy, and minor, striving ,doubt and sadness. The music of theRussians, Orientals and all oppressedpeoples is prevailing minor. The musicof the United States of America is prevailing major. Birds, and this may seemstrange, sing in both major and minor,and apparently the modes denote thesame in their music as it does in ours,that is, the expression of differentmoods. Our American robin will sing inboth major and minor at different timesto express the varying moods of the day.We all know what his sunrise song islike, with its bubbling joy and ecstasy.This is sung in a mode prevailinglymajor. But listen to his singing during

168

The arrangement of these musicalfigures in a song so that they bear a logi-

~ -cal relation to one another would seem toshow that birds possess musical taste.To a musician it cannot seem merechance that impelled a wood thrush Ionce heard through an entire season toarrange the musical figures of his songalmost invariably in this succession:

--...

::::::-::::-::::=-:::::- ==-

Divide each into three parts. Part one ofeach ends with an ascending group ofnotes, part two with a similar group ofnotes descending, inverted, while partthree merely rounds off the phrase.From a composer's standpoint, this indigo bunting's song and the openingphrase of America, because they are thesame in construction, are similar, regardless of how different they sound.

These and other elements of similarity between the bird's music and our ownare all such a part of our music that weare almost unconscious of them. Butthey were undoubtedly a part of thebird's music centuries, perhaps, agesbefore we began music-making. Just howmuch birds have influenced our musicwe can never know. But is it not wonderful to see how the same Creator hasgiven us each the same idea as to the waymusic should be sung and created?

Surely it is not due to mere accidentthat birds have occupied the place theyhave through the centuries in the heartand imagination of Man! To him theystand at the very gateway of Heavenitself, as proclaims Shakespeare in

Hark, Hark! the lark at heaven'sgate sings,

and indeed the Bible itself in the passage:

And, 10, the heavens were openedunto him, and he saw the Spirit of Goddescending like a dove.

4. What special effects seem to bedenoted by minor and major in birdmusic?

SELF-TEST QUESTIONS OFMR. MUMMA'S ARTICLE

2. What type of bird can produceharmonic effects?

3. What element in birds' musicusually takes the place of chordal structure in men's music?

1. How account for the similaritybetween human and bird music?

5. Give an example of inversion in abird's song.

:3

Indigo Bunting Soog-

C'~Y~":""-"'--"':::':::==::'::':'-'.""'''''=

~---t-' - __~ ~"'P I -'-~, l

I

~~g~~ " L' _

Ex .• :J Am.. ric.1

W ..fit}m£W9i-l1fffimI '1 ! L--------J

2 :3

~-ti!?"-~-=-~u ~-~ --

Ex.9

'WI~and follows it immediately with

Ix.to~

,lAtt -he is giving us an example of inversion insubstance. Now birds, too, are true tothis principle, furnishing anotherinstance of the natural law of music composition flowing through their music.Among the robins I have head, onealways began his song this way:

Ex.1I

&£w~~~

a perfect example of inversion. A woodthrush sang these two figures:

Ex.12

always following the first with its inversion, and never with any other of the several figures that composed the song.Everyone has heard the cardinal's whistle, Oo-oo-oo-eet, sung with a risinginflection. But he is sure to follow thissoon with a Tee-oo-oo-oo, its perfectinversion with a descending inflection.Compare this indigo bunting song withthe song America:

~U;€m~~·~"1.

-- ----~r,.r,~::::-- ::::-- ===-

E".~

_,~ I tv ,

Ex.7,tit JJj i JP~'r i _JjM....:!....,.. "'-"'" ...f!., "'--'

~,

Or the robin which had its nest in ashade tree in front of my home to incorporate so frequently in his song this fragment which sounds positively human inconception:

When any particular string of apiano is struck, the immutable laws ofnature governing tone production set upsympathetic vibrations in other stringsknown as the harmonics. These sameimmutable laws seem to work throughthe little organism of the bird, impellinghim to choose the true and beautifulfrom among all possible tones, togetherwith the true and beautiful way ofarranging these tones. Truly, birds lovetheir music for its own sake as music andrevel in the beauty of the tones theysing. The spring mating season bringsforth their songs, but it is not entirelyresponsible for them. All animals havethe mating season in the spring; but dogsonly bark, cats meow, pigs squeal, cowsbellow and donkeys bray!

When Bach literally turns a themein one of his fugues upside down, itsounds mechanical to our modern ears.Yet this idea of inverting phrases inmusic, not literal inversion, perhaps, but

'-..;,- inversion in substance, is an essential inthe construction of even our moderncompositions. When Chopin begins hisFifth Nocturne

.-'

169

From The Etude, August 1929

9)faster VisesA DEPARTMENT OF REPRODUCED MUSIC

By PETER HUGH REEDA department dealing with Master Di;cs and written by a specialist. All MasterDiscs of educational importance will he considered regardless of makers. Correspondencerelating to this column should be addressed "THI! ETUDI, Dept. of Reproduced Music."

ft, ----c.-

OPERA AT home has been further

advanced by Columbia's recent

double album release of Carmen, which

presents a coherent reproduction of a

vital and ingratiating score, but one with

out recitatives and with numerous exci

sions. The interpretation, however, is tra

ditional because it is sung by the compos·

er's compatriots most of whom are associ

ated with the renowned Paris Opera.

The performance proves one of decision

and accuracy, in which every artist does

his part in a reliable manner. In fact,

there would seem to be no stellar role that

stands forth in such a way as to submerge

the minor parts - which is as it should be

in recording. The only necessary criti

cism is an unfortunate speeding-up of cer

tain sections to get them within the timed

space of the record. The set is divided

into two albums of eight and seven

records each. A word about Georges

Thill, the Don Jose. Columbia has done

well to introduce one of the finest French

tenors of the day to American music

lovers in such a favorable manner.

Those who like operatic arias should

hear the heroic performances that

Aureliano Pertile, the leading tenor of

La Scala, gives of the Swan Song and the

Narrative from "Lohengrin" on Victor

disc No. 6904. Both are well sung

although in the Italian language they

seem somewhat un-Wagnerian. Another

disc to hear is Sofia del Campo's gra

ciously resilient singing of the Laughing

Song from Auber's "Manon Lescaut" and

Gomes' Gentile di Cuore from "II

Guarany" on Victor disc No. 4037.

Then there are Johnson's two arias from

"The Girl of the Golden West" dramati

cally sung by Bernardo de Muro on

Victor record No. 1331.

Toscanini, the conducting genius, has

returned upon records, but in a hardly

auspicious manner even though the

wizardry of his leadership undeniably

enhances the musical material which he

offers. On Victor discs Nos. 6994 and

7021 we find him leading the New York

Philharmonic Orchestra through the

Preludes to the 1st and 3rd Acts of "La

Traviata," Verdi's musical version of

Dumas' "Lady of the Camellias," and

through Dukas' clever scherzo, "The

Sorcerer's Apprentice." The program of

the latter concerns a sorcerer's mischie

vous apprentice who in his master's

absence speaks a magic word which sets a

stick to work fetching water. When the

room becomes overflowed the apprentice

not knowing the magic word to stop the

stick's labor fooli3hly chops it in half only

to find the two parts doubling up on the

work. Frantic with fear, he calls for the

sorcerer who soon restores the sticks to

order. Needless to add, Toscanini makes

the drama of the scherzo a vital one.

Philadelphia Orchestra

A NOTHER RECENT orchestral

/""\.recording of interest is Rimsky

Korsakov's Overture, "The Russian

Festival of High Easter," magnificently

performed by Stokowski and his famous

Quaker Orchestra qn Victor discs Nos.

7018-19. The composer used melodies of

the Russian Church as a basis for this

work to enhance its program. Of the

latter he once said "It is the legendary

and heathen side of the holiday, the tran

sition from the gloomy and mysterious

evening of Passion Saturday to the unbri·

died pagan-religious merry-making morn

of Easter Sunday, that I was eager to

reproduce in my Overture." Those who

have been in Europe during Holy Week

will recall that Easter festivities are

always gay there, full of religious fervor _

and pomp. \..-/

Beethoven has been somewhat

neglected since the Centenary of 1927.

Strange to say, at that time the Victor

Company issued only four out of the nine

symphonies, hence Koussevitzky's recent

reading of the "Pastoral" or Sixth in

Victor set No. M50. Perhaps this is an

augury of others which are to follow.

Let us hope so - since two versions of

each of this famous family can only help

to foster discrimination among the many.

Koussevitzky's reading is quite in keeping

with the pastoral qualities of this work.

There is no exaggeration; even the storm

scene is treated with a solicitous regard -

which may create captious comment from

those who like more realism. "'The

Pastoral Symphony' bears witness to

Beethoven's revived interest in the

artistic interpretation of small things of

common life," says Bekker in his book

on the composer, "after a period of

wrestling with great thoughts and ~

emotions." He refers to that period in

which the "Third Symphony" and the

"Fifth Symphony" were written.

170

171

It is in truth a work of simple emo-tions, somewhat redundant, presentingthe composer’s react ions to Nat ure,which are at al l t imes based on t he “actual and palpable aspect of Nature,”since to him the “intermediate world ofthe romantic nature-lover was closed.”Lawrence Jacob Abbott in THE OUT-LOOK once wrote, “I can think of notheme which Beethoven introduces withsuch sheer delight as the Shepherd’s Song

in the last movement, unless it be theHymn to Joy in the Ninth symphony.”

Petroushka Once More

ANOTHER Petroushka! This timewe have the composer conducting in

Columbia set No. 109. But once again itis only a Suite arranged from the com-plete ballet that is offered, although thistime one containing much more of themusic. Stravinsky makes a great deal ofthe dramatic qualities of his work thusproving that the music is undeniably tiedup with the story of the ballet and hencemore enjoyable when visualized as well asheard. Therefore those who have seen aperformance of the ballet should derivethe greatest pleasure from this set. It isexcellently recorded.

Two other orchestral discs of interestand merit include Ravel’s Pavane on theDeath of a Royal Child coupled with afox trot from his work A Child and the

Witcheries, (L’Enfant et les sortileges,)

played by a French Symphony underPiero Coppola on Victor record No. 9306and Mozart’s Overture to the “Elopmentfrom the Seraglio,” played by Dr. Weiss-mann and a Berlin Symphony on Odeondisc No. 5163.

Chopin’s works are gradually mani-festing themselves in recorded sets forthe music librar y. Recently Columbiaissued two albums, one containing thet went y-eight Preludes and t he othertwelve selected Nocturnes. The former

are played by Robert Lortat, a Frenchpianist. His concept of these musicalpoems is masculine to the “nth” degree.In fact, the excessive strength of his play-ing - although never lacking in musicalexcellence - sometimes proves too virilefor a consistently smooth recording, sincenow and again we are made conscious ofthe percussive qualit ies of the piano.There is, however, a boldness of declama-tion in Mr. Lortat’s interpretations whichis admirable - and also in his rubato,where it is less admirable. At the sametime his is a reliabilit y of technic whichcommands the respect of the most cap-tious. A set to be heard by the discern-ing piano student as well as the music-lover. (Columbia album No. 110)

For the Discerning

LEOPOLD GODOWSKY plays thetwelve Nocturnes. Columbia’s choice

of this artist was a most felicitous one, forGodowsky presents these delicate pastelsin a manner which projects their song-like qualities without any sentimentalexaggeration. Here, too, is a set for thediscerning! The Nocturnes have beenwell chosen, the list including the firsttwo f rom Opus 9, the first two f romOpus 15, the two in Opus 27, the firstfrom Opus 32, then the admirable majorand minor moods of Opus 37, next thecomposer’s favorite in F sharp minorfrom Opus 48, the first from Opus 55and last ly t he posthumous one in Eminor. The only one we miss is theimposing and moving “miniature music-drama” in C minor, the first of Opus 48.But perhaps Mr. Godowsky will makethis later for us. (Columbia set No. 112,seven discs.)

Etude readers will be glad to learn ofthree Polydor records of selections fromviolin and harpsichord sonatas of the18th Century. Licco Amar of the AmarQuar tet and Gunther Ramin are the

interpreters. From Bach’s C minor Sonata

they play the Siciliano and Adagio; fromVerracini’s E minor Sonata the Ritornell

and Allegro con fuoco; and from Leclair’sD major Sonata they play the Sarabande,the Allegro and the Tambourin. The per-formances are traditional and artistic,and t he recording balance is good but not perfect as the violin is inclined|to some predominat ion over t he harpsichord.

Leo Slezak, the German tenor, longadmired in t his count r y as wel l asEurope, for his distinctive artistr y hasmade some lieder for Polydor recently.They are all admirably sung and worthowning. Among those which we haveheard and can recommend are Strauss’Traum durch die Dammerung coupledwith his Freundliche Vision, Strauss’ Ichtrage meine Minne coupled with his Zueig-

nung, Hugo Wolf’s Verborgenheit coupledwith Verschwiegene Liebe, Schubert’s Du

b i s t

die Ruh coupled wit h Brahms’ Feldeinsamkeit, Schumann’s Mondnacht

coupled with his Der Nussbaum andHildach’s Der Lenz coupled with Brahm’sSerenade. These records are a means ofimparting technical information to thevocal st udent as wel l as of g iv ing enjoyment to all music lovers.

172

Tha

nks

to J

ohn

Mot

to-R

os

173

Tha

nks

to J

ohn

Mot

to-R

os

174

THE MUSICAL CROSS WORD PUZZLE BOOK

PUZZLE NUMBER FOURTEEN

An attractive design and a very instructive puzzle.

THE MUSICAL CROSS WORD PUZZLE BOOK•••.........._-- ---_ _-----_ _------ _ _--_ --•..........._------- _-------------_.-.._.

HORIZONTAL

1. A poem set to music.4. Detached, separated. (abbr.)8. High or higher.

ll. An ancient small drum.13. A waltz. (French.)16. Plural article. (French.)18. The note "D flat." (German.)20. An old ballad sung at Christmas.22. An octave. (abbr.)24. Simple, natural. (French.)26. A drum-beat of a single note.27. In the. (German.)28. Of; with; for.30. First three letters of the last name of a modem

English musician; composer of the song cycle"Mother and Child." Born 1879.

31. First three letters of the name of a celebratedcomposer and violinist, born at Nuremburg in1802, died in 1869.

32. The space between two bar lines on the staff.34. Conjunction.36. Into.37. Of. (French.) Masculine.38. With the bow. (abbr.)40. Towards. (French.) Masculine.41. One of the nine fabled godesses presiding over

art, literature and music.

42. Minor. (German.)43. Work. (Latin.) (abbr.)45. One half of Italian word meaning "verse, poem,

song."48. Sixth note of the scale.49. Spanish article.50. A species of musical declamation. (abbr.)52. Celestial, heavenly. (French.)55. A composition consisting generally of three

movements, for a solo instrument, with orchestralaccompaniment. (abbr.)

56. First three letters of a word meaning "a fourth."58. A letter of the Greek alphabet.59. And. (French.)60. The construction of musical instruments. (Ger·

man.)61. Arrangement of poetical feet.63. Things. (Latin.)65. One of the principal movements of the Mass.66. First three letters of a word meaning "the dif·

ference in pitch between two tones."68. Him. (French.)70. A dance tune. (French.)72. The nationality of John McCormick.75. First four letters of a word meaning "the dam·

pers."76. With the.77. A poem in the heroic, narrative style.

VERTICAL

1. Without the dampers. (abbr.)2. Initial letters of two words meaning "not too

much."3. A quick dance in 2·4 time.4. Sustained. (abbr.)5. The loudest of portable wind instruments. (abbr.)6. 105.7. An ornamental passage. (abbr.)8. Very, extremely.9 The. (French.) Masculine.

10. In time. (abbr.)12. The first of two Italian word's meaning "a tender,

pure and sympathetic tone."14. First three letters of an Italian word meaning

"slow."15. The stick with which a conductor beats time.17. Initials of the composer of the opera "La Tra·

viata." (See page 91.)19. A reed, a pipe.21. First three letters of a word meaning "gradually

slower."22. First name of a celebrated Persian poet and

philosopher.23. The key of "A ,major." (German.)25. Anger, wrath.27. That is.29. Prefix meaning "not."31. Smaller, referring to intervals.32. One of the fine arts.33. A school. (French.)35. Double.37. Major, in referring to keys. (German.)

39.44.

46.

47.49.51.53.

54.

55.

57.

60.62.

64.65.

67.68.

69.70.71.

72.73.

74.

In the style of. (French.)Christian name of the CO\lDposer of the opera,"The Maid of Orleans." (See page 92.)A curved line over two or more notes' indicatingthat they are to be played smoothly.The note "E double flat." ('German.)A study. (French.)One half of the Italian name for a guitar.First and last initials of the composer of the"Keltic Sonata." (See page 98.)Initials of one of the greatest English composersof the sixteenth century. (1520·1585.)Third, first and fifth letters of the musicalalphabet.A chord of three tones, consisting of a root,its third and fifth.Split, broken into an arpeggio. (French.)Initials of French tenor, husband of AdelinaPatti. (1834·1898.)In. (French.)Russian composer; was major general in theRussian army. (Died 1916.)One key alone. (abbr.)Initials of well known Russian pianist and composer. Born 1873. (See page 101.)With the left hand. Onitial letters.)One half of the name of a percussion instrument.Initials of the composer of the opera, "Le RoiArthus." (1855·1899.)The.Initials of one of England's greatest composers.(1658-1695.)From the beginning. (abbr.)

175

176

News From The Chapters

March 2000 ConcertDavid Thomas Roberts played his second concert at Mark

Pope’s home on March 25, 2000. Last year in 1999 Davidplayed here on August 21. This concert was better in severalways as compared to last year’s concert which was very good.The 1927 Steinway Duo-Art XR Grand Piano was moved to themain living room for better sound. This Steinway has beenworked on more and tuned better. David Thomas Roberts gave agreat performance with more variety and depth of songs fromOld Ragtime to New Ragtime to Terra Verde. Close to 50 mem-bers and friends came to hear David Thomas Roberts perform.

David ThomasRoberts Concertstarted at 7:30 p.m.Part One had sevensongs and Part Twohad eight songs.Some of the songswere GladiolusRag, Babe of theMountain, theWorld Premier ofTia St. Antoine,The Crave, Maga-zine Street, HalIsbitz, Memories of a Missouri Confederate, Kentucky BlueGrass and others. The first set lasted for 37 minutes and the sec-ond set lasted for 41 minutes. About 8:10 p.m. there was a 40minute break where members could talk to David ThomasRoberts and enjoy a great food service and many types of drinks.Also CDs by David Thomas Roberts were available for pur-chase. I saw about six different CDs by David. The concert wasover by 10:00 p.m. and a lot of people stayed to talk to Davidand each other about Ragtime and Terra Verde.

Again a special thanks to Mark Pope who spent a lot of timegetting David Thomas Roberts to be at his home. Mark spent alot of time and effort getting his Victorian home ready for thisgreat concert. A most enjoyable evening for everyone here.

I talked to David Thomas Roberts tonight and here are somehighlights. David told me he has moved to Missouri and livesnear Eminence in Shannon County. This is the Ozark Countryhere. David says he lives in the Ozarks and not the Midwest orthe South. This beautiful area is great for David, only four hoursdrive to St. Louis and a four hour drive to Sedalia. Both citieshave Ragtime Festivals every year and Missouri is the state that

FOUNDING CHAPTERReporter: Tom McWay

President: Bing Gibbs - 408-253-1866

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Ragtime Music was created in about 100 years ago. Missourialso created other types of American music. In the “River ofSong” book by the Smithsonian Institution on page 140 saysthat the blues originated on the levee at St. Louis, Missouri.“They say that the blues originated in New Orleans but St.Louis had some of the best blues singers that ever there was.The levee at St. Louis was known throughout the country as theorigination of blues.” This quote from James “Stump” Johnson. Also in the Mojo Magazine of January 2000 fromLondon, England on page 62, Keith Richards of the RollingStones says, “Chuck Berry invented Rock ‘N’ Roll at the Cos-mopolitan Club in St. Louis, Missouri on December 31, 1952.”There is also Ike and Tina Turner. But enough here. I wasraised in St. Louis from 1946 to 1968. I was born in 1944. Imoved to San Francisco area in 1968. During the years 1960 to1968 my parents took me and my three sisters camping everysummer to Alley Springs near Eminence, Missouri two or threetimes each summer. The Old Red Mill is still there. A beauti-ful round spring is right next to the Old Red Mill and the wateris safe to drink. We met many nice people from all over Missouri here. My sister Mary met and married Ken Seamanof Eminence and they have three children and now live in FortCollins, Colorado. Ken plays with the Bluegrass Patriots onbanjo and they have about 12 CDs available and tour Europeevery year now.

Just read a music review on Ma, Country and AppalachianPie from the Times, London, England on Tuesday, March 28,2000. Classical Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has joined with AppalachianFolk Musicians to give both Classical and Folk Music a newdirection. Ma says, “To be spiritually engaged and intellectual-ly stimulated is necessary for artistic growth.” Ma wants toexplore and do new types of music. Classical and Folk seemsto work great here. Yo-Yo Ma’s new CD is called AppalachianJourney and is on Sony Classical.

This is very interesting now. David Thomas Roberts coulddo the same with the many great Ozark Folk Musicians. TerraVerde and Ozark Folk could be just as wonderful and enjoyableas Classical and Appalachian Folk. I am sending all this infor-mation and full news reports to David Thomas Roberts. SinceMissouri invented Ragtime, Blues, and Rock ‘N’ Roll, maybe itis time for another style of music for everyone to enjoy. Justwhen you thought that there is no new music to enjoy, alongcomes Yo-Yo Ma and David Thomas Roberts.

I am always looking through lots of magazines and newspa-pers I get at work. I work at Northwest Airlines in San Francis-co and come across lots of magazines and papers. Below aresome of the best music articles from just the last few months.

“How the Piano Got to the Top,” from U.S. News andWorld Report, February 21,2000. Great article on the 300thyear of the modern piano on page 52. Has a picture of FranzLiszt, Duke Ellington, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The piano is themost important musical instrument in history. Think of all themusic that came from the piano. The piano is second to none.

“Yamaha’s new Disklavier Pro 2000 player piano for$333,000.00.” That is the price. Three have been made so far.Has every computer unit known to exist. Some of the specs.:600MHz Pentium III, 120MB of RAM, 20GB hard drive,DVD-ROM drive. Made to order only. Please let AMICAknow if you order and receive one of these Yamaha’sDisklavier Pro 2000. From Newsweek International April 3,2000, page 7. It is not in the U.S.A. edition.

“Come on along,” by Buck Henry in Travel and Leisure,

April 2000. Great article on Ragtime in Sedalia, Missouri.Page 86 to 89, only three pages of Ragtime music. Talks aboutRagtime Festival in Sedalia from May 31 to June 4, 2000. Thisis a great Ragtime event for everyone. Information, call 800-827-5295. Also Buck Henry recommends the following sevenRagtime CDs for everyone interested in Ragtime. A greatselection here.

That is enough for now and back to Founding Chapter news.

On April 1, 2000 the Founding Chapter had their meeting atMark Pope’s home. It was from 1:00 p.m. to about 6:00 p.m. Avery relaxed afternoon here. Light refreshments and food wasavailable for all. Talked about David Thomas Roberts concerthere last week. Also a lot of talk on AMICA Sacramento 2000.Main talk here is on transportation from Sacramento to SanFrancisco for open house at Richard Reutlinger’s and RoyPowlan’s home. John Motto-Ros was not here but has every-thing well organized for AMICA Sacramento 2000. About 6:00p.m. most members left for the evening. About 12 membershere today. In the next few weeks everyone should be gettingan update on AMICA Sacramento 2000. Hope to see everyonethere.

Y O U H A V E T O H E A R T H I SBuck Henry’s Recommended Ragtime Starter Collection

� The Complete Works of Scott Joplin performed by Dick Zimmerman (four-CD set from Bescol)

� Bucktown in the Nineties by Frank French (Stomp Off)

� Fingerbreaker by Morten Gunnar Larsen (PolyGram)

� Geraldine by Mimi Blais (Les Productions Targart)

� Best of New Orleans Piano by David Thomas Roberts (Mardi Gras Records)

� Ragtime Bigtime by Glenn Jenks (Stomp Off)

� And, for an excellent overview of the major composers andplayers, A Century of Ragtime (two-CD set from Vanguard)

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Linda and Galen Bird

Jim Westcott presides while AMICA President Linda Bird,Caroyl Westcott and David Bernstein listen attentively.

February 27th was the date for our last meeting at the wonderful home of John Ledwon. Rain threatened, and withall the wet stuff we had in the last couple of weeks, some of themembers opted to stay home if they didn’t have their boatsready for freeway use. It was a shame to miss it, though, sinceit had been almost three years since we were there.

John’s home is a lovely Victorian-style, and there are thingsto enjoy in every nook and cranny. John, like most of us, collects many varied things. He has clocks, organs, jukeboxes,neon signs, old metal banks, and just lots of great “stuff”.

He has a wonderful theater organ, originally from theLyceum Theatre in Duluth, Minnesota. A major Southern California brush fire in 1978 all but decimated the pipe work,and the organ now contains pipes from many instruments.

It is, therefore, considered to be a hybrid Wurlitzer. Thepresent instrument is controlled by a new 4 manual Fox Specialreplica console built by Ken Crome, and consists of 52 ranks

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTERReporter: Shirley Nix

President: James Westcott

along with 32 channels of MIDI. The instrument has beendesigned to provide just about every voice that was included inthe original specifications of both large and small theatreorgans. In addition, 12 ranks from the 1925 Mormon Tabernacle Austin are installed along with the high pressuretheatre ranks. The classical antiphonal division includes six ofthese ranks, and is installed unenclosed above the console andSteinway grand piano on the south wall of the living room.This division, when played with the main organ on the northend of the room, results in a sound that must be described as allencompassing, and is truly unique for any California residenceinstrument. A Trumpet on Chamade completes this division,both tonally and visually.

The pipes are enclosed in a pipe chamber, but are visuallyavailable due to Plexiglas swell shades. (The organ containsthree-thousand-five-hundred and twenty-nine pipes.)

John is a wonderful organist, and he really makes the organsing. He can rattle the whole house with the bass, and yet thesweetest sounds come from this organ when the music calls forthat. It is really a treat to hear his music. He gave us quite aprogram.

Besides being an organist for the El Capitan Theater inHollywood for the Disney people, John is the drama teacher atWestlake High School, where he teaches his students not onlyacting and music, but also how to interact with people. Thenext show the school is putting on is “Joseph and the AmazingTechnicolor Dreamcoat”. This will air in May.Terry and Reese Banister, Herb Mercer, Frank Nix

and Galen Bird enjoying the music.

John Ledwon introducing his next number.

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February MeetingA cold, wet, rainy day didn’t dampen the spirits of the

Sierra Nevada AMICANS who traveled to the Sierra Nevadafoothill home of Kent and Margie Williams in Newcastle.The Williams’ home is a uniquely designed single storyhexagonal shaped house which sits atop a hill providingextraordinary views from each of the six sides.

Kent and Margie have a variety of collecting interests.Musical instruments include a player organ, upright pianowith Piano Disc, 1950’s Reuge Street Organ, phonographs, aTanzabar, and a magnificent music box collection of cylinderand disc machines from 1830 to 1970. Music was comingfrom everywhere!

But wait, that’s not all. The Williams are also “bottlediggers” and collectors. Their collection of rare bottles are ofall different shapes, colors, sizes and dates. Some are morethan 1500 years old.

If you like cars, you’d love the restored Ford Model Awith rumble seat.

SIERRA-NEVADA CHAPTERReporter: Doug and Vicki Mahr

President: John Motto-Ros

Frank Nix, Galen Bird and Phyllis and Doug Adams

He worked at the Radio City Music Hall in Los Angelesand travels extensively giving concerts all over the world. Thetravel comes, of course, during summer vacation for the school.

Jim Westcott called our meeting to order in the afternoon,and one of the more pleasant jobs, as usual, was introducing theguests. This time we were very happy to have Linda andGalen Bird from Missouri with us. I think it’s a first . . . ourmeeting with the Local President and the International Presi-dent both present.

Another pleasant announcement was the birth of JenniferCecilia on February 26 to Steve and Ruth Walker.

Frank Nix gave a report on past, present, and future organrallies. We have one coming up in May in Temecula, probablythe 6th and 7th. We will also be in Sierra Madre July 1 fortheir July Fourth Weekend Celebration, and the City of Orangehas asked us to be there July 3rd. In October we will again bein Fullerton for their Arborfest. In addition, we will be playingat the Sacramento Convention, so we have a busy scheduleagain.

Our April meeting will be at the home of Richard andMary Thomas in La Canada, where we will enjoy their variedcollection, staring the 11-rank Moeller organ with an Artisteplayer . . . always a favorite. Then in May we are having ajoint meeting with MBSI for a weekend. We will have openhouses on Saturday at the homes of Leland Fletcher and RonWolf, a program at a church hall with a catered dinner there,and a mart. On Sunday we will visit Mike and Marilyn Amesin Solana Beach and be on our way home late Sunday afternoon to avoid the holiday traffic.

The upcoming conventions were discussed, and everyonewas urged to get their reservations in early for Sacramento, andalso for Australia, since the deadline is fast approaching.

Refreshments were enjoyed by everyone both before andafter the meeting. We reluctantly left, having relished the afternoon of music and fellowship we had shared, but lookingforward to future meetings and the upcoming conventions.

Our hosts, Margie and Kent Williams

Part of the Williams’ extensive bottle collection

180

“Stuff that envelope, Bob!”

Becky Kane, with one of 220 packets for the 2000 SacramentoConvention.

Kent tries out the organ after a roll governoradjustment

“Maybe I’ll electrify this.” Margie, Bob Lemon and FredDeal concur.

If you’re a fire arms connoisseur, you would really enjoythe collection of ball and cap pistols prominently displayed.

Kent is a water quality engineer and Margie is an accom-plished writer/author. Kent’s engineering background prompt-ed him to develop an alternative energy system for their home.A tour of the Williams home and property revealed a solar col-lecting and tracking system augmented with wind generatorsthat provide electricity to a number of 24 volt batteries. The 24volt D.C. connect is then rectified to provide 110 volts for thehouse.

Margie was kind enough to share copies of her books forlater enjoyment.

So many things to see and do, so little time. Thanks, Kentand Margie, for a wonderful day!

April MeetingOn Saturday, April 8, Sierra-Nevada AMICAns wended

their way through the sunny foothills of the Sierra Mountains tothe home of George and Sharyn Cunningham in Sutter Creek.Spring was evident everywhere, with all of the flowers sur-rounding their property in full bloom.

President Motto-Ros clearly indicated in his meetingannouncement, that this meeting would not be a typical gather-ing. This meeting was to be a “work” meeting, and so it was.The Sierra-Nevada Chapter members collated and stuffed theregistration packets for the June 2000 Convention. Papers andmaterials were neatly laid out on a large patio table, and chaptermembers went around the table picking up the materials andputting them in the registration envelopes. This activity con-sumed large amounts of energy, which had to be replenishedfrom lots of wonderful snacks and hors d’oeuvres.

With work done (220 registration packets prepared), it wastime to play with the Cunningham’s collection of delightfulmusic makers which includes an Ampico Grand, a Victrola,Mason and Hamlin upright, and disc music box.

Thank you, George and Sharyn, for hosting not only a funmeeting, but a productive one as well.

181

The Boston Area Chapter met at the home of Joe and PatLavacchia, which was visited by the 1999 Convention atten-dees. The mechanical musical instruments playing for usincluded: 1928 Mills Deluxe Duo Violano, a 65-note Tel-Elec-tric player piano (brass rolls), a Marshall and Wendall AmpicoA Grand, Bruder/BAB 43 keyless Band organ, a hand-crankedbarrel organ, a 1926 Wurlitzer 46B Band organ, and one of thetwo remaining 1920 American Foto-Players Style 35.

We always enjoy the friendly hospitality of the Lavac-chia’s, and the turnout was great! We had several new peopleand they were encouraged to join us. The instruments wereplayed separately, to enjoy each in its own special way. TheFoto-Player has an additional roll frame hidden in rear to playband organ rolls. Some brought rolls or chose one from thehouse collection to try on this instrument. Karl Ellison was astar performer.

Our business meeting began with a welcome by JoeLavacchia, and a description of the instruments, and how theywere acquired. Much credit was given to Alan Pier and KenVolk for their work in the restoration of the Foto-player, andthe band organs. Dorothy Bromage asked if there were volun-teers to assess the restoration of the upright player piano at theCharles River Museum of Industry. When it was seen duringthe Convention, the mechanics were in poor shape. Our offeris to estimate time and cost to repair the player portion of thisinstrument. Dorothy will contact the Museum. Dorothy alsohad news about pipe organ concerts in New Hampshire, Babson College Wellesley, Ocean Theater, and the CriterionTheater in New Bedford. She has for borrow, video tapes of Hi Babit. There was some discussion about the upcoming

BOSTON AREA CHAPTERReporter: Don Brown

President: Ken Volk

Our hosts, Sharyn and George Cunningham, enjoying theirbeautiful backyard.

Doug Mahr and John Motto-Ros, supervising!

Now that’s serious listening, George!

One of the many creative bugs and critters.

Ken Volk and Chris Christiansen play a barrel piano.

182

Skinner’s Auction of instruments in Bolton, Massachusetts.Dorothy read a newsletter from Australia about AMICA 2001,and the exchange rate and air fare to their Convention.

Our next meeting is scheduled to be at the home of Ed andAlthea Patt in Bridgewater, Massachusetts in June. They have aWeber Player piano, a Regina 12-bell box (1 of 50), two Stellamusical boxes and a Regina Phono box, and a reed organ. Therewere many clocks to be seen too. We are also planning to visitBill Koenigsberg and his collection in September.

Bruder BandOrgan

Joe describes his collection to Dot, Joe Gibson, Ken Volk, Karland Sandy Libman

Ken Volk in rapture over Karl’s Foto-Player technique.

The front of the 1920 American Foto-Player Style 35 (only twoknown to exist), Ken Volk checking stop switches.

Karl Ellison atthe Foto-Player.

Ed Patt, Ed Everett, Chris Christiansen and Ken Volk in frontof Wurlitzer band organ.

183

Bruder Cardboard43 Note Bruder/BAB Organ

Long lost organ

Marshall & Wendall Tempest

How dooo you dooo?

Hand-built popcorn wagon

Das Gang

Photo Emblem

Tweeking the Bruder

15.5” Regina Music Box

Paper Player organ

Phono Record Lamp

65N TelelectricTelelectric

184

Violano Rosin

Violano Tuners

Double Mills Violano with 60 rolls Violano Frets

185

I had the opportunity to co-host my first chapter meetingon the weekend of March 18-19. We first gathered at my homein Akron, Ohio for visiting and refreshments while waiting for everyone to arrive - from four states and Canada! The Pianolodeon, Playasax and Clarola proved to be popularattractions in the “music room” of the 1929 house.

We took a ten-minute drive to a showplace of the past - theStan Hywet Hall Gardens. It is the restored mansion of F.A.Seiberling and family, the co-founder of the Goodyear Tire andRubber Co. Built from 1912-1915, it is one of the finest exam-ples of Tudor Revival architecture in the U.S. The 65-roomhouse site is on 70 of the estate’s original 3000 acres. Themusic room houses a 9’ Steinway grand and an Aeolian Resi-dence Organ, complete with many rolls housed in hand-carvedcabinets hidden behind the wall. Unfortunately, we weren’tallowed to take pictures inside the mansion. But we saw elabo-rate hand-carved woodwork, the state-of-the-art telephone sys-tem for the day, as well as luxury bathrooms and the enormous“Great Hall”. It took over an hour to see just part of the house.

MIDWEST CHAPTERReporter: Christy Counterman

President: Judy Chisnell

The impressive main entrance of Stan Hywet Manor.

One of our five tour groups outside Stan Hywet Manor.The fun…the serious…the stoned

Stooges with rolls

Wurlitzer Rolls

Wurlitzer 146B Band Organ, (only the back, sorry!)

186

Alvin Wulfekuhl, Liz Barnhart and Cathy DeWitt listen as HalMalakinian presides over the business meeting.

Liz Barnhart serves the orange juice to Don Johnson and BobAndersen as hostess Donna Counterman looks on.

Marlene and Wally Donoghue await breakfast with Ken Vinen.

We hurried to dinner before the main event - a performanceby Lyn Larsen, world-renowned theatre organist. (AMICAnsmay know him from the San Filippo restoration project.) Theconcert was to celebrate the rededication of the just-restoredmighty Wurlitzer. The organ is original to the 1929 theatre,which was designed by architect John Eberson to resemble aMoorish garden at night. Clouds floated overhead and starstwinkled from the sky as the house lights dimmed for the per-formance. The organ rose from underneath the stage on arevolving platform, from which Lyn Larsen entertained us witha wide selection of classics to show tunes to modern music.And he demonstrated the organ’s many unusual sounds as well.Our chapter had over 60 members and guests in attendance atthe 2600-seat theatre, one of the largest atmospheric theatresremaining intact.

The next morning we traveled to Tallmadge, Ohio and thehome of my parents, Clark and Donna Counterman. Theyserved a breakfast buffet before the business meeting. Wefound out details of the upcoming chapter meetings - in Augustin Dayton, and in Sandusky for our annual holiday gathering -as well as of the International Conventions. We will be well

The east winghouses the musicroom.

The tower ofStan Hywet provides a viewof the 70 acresof groundsremaining aspart of theestate.

The DeWitts arewelcomed to theStan HywetManor House.

Dave Van Oosten andBob Porter discuss theprogram of Lyn Larsenduring intermission at

the Civic.

187

Pat DeWitt gives the “thumbs up” to Rollie Chisnell’s Seeburgrestoration photos.

AMICA online - Judy Wulfekuhl shows the story of husbandAlvin’s auction to benefit his alma mater to Bennet Leedy.

Dennis Eiland andWes Neff enjoy photosfrom the latest musical adventure.

represented at Sacramento and in Australia. The current officerswere thanked for their service, and new officers were elected.Our new president is Judy Chisnell; Vice President, StuartGrigg, Secretary, Judy Wulfekuhl; Treasurer, AlvinWulfekuhl - and I will continue as reporter.

I have always hesitated to host a meeting since I have onlyone foot-pedaled upright player piano, and many of our mem-bers have such nice collections. But I encourage all of you whohaven’t hosted a meeting yet to try it, everyone seemed to enjoythe weekend, and my parents and I received many notes ofthanks from the chapter members. Even the unfortunate choiceof restaurants was rewarded in the end, due to the poor servicewe received, the restaurant made a donation in AMICA’s nameto the organ restoration fund of the Akron Civic Theatre.Thanks to all who came, including the first-time attendees.

Lawrence and Margaret Frazer and Lois Franklin check outthe view from the balcony,

The restored marquee of the 1929 Civic Theatre.

The Countermans and the Malakinians arrive just in time forthe concert.

188

ADVERTISING GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT

ALL ADVERTISING IN THE AMICA BULLETINAll advertising should be directed to:

Robin Pratt630 East Monroe StreetSandusky, Ohio 44870-3708Phone (419) 626-1903 e-mail: [email protected]

Ad copy must contain text directly related to the product/servicebeing offered. Extraneous text will be deleted at the Publisher’sdiscretion. All advertising must be accompanied by payment inU.S. funds. No telephone ads or written ads without payment willbe accepted. This policy was established by a unanimous vote ofthe AMICA Board at the 1991 Board Meeting and reaffirmed atthe 1992 meeting. AMICA reserves the right to edit or toreject any ad deemed inappropriate or not in keeping withAMICA’s objectives.

The BULLETIN accepts advertising without endorsement,implied or otherwise, of the products or services being offered.Publication of business advertising in no way implies AMICA’sendorsement of any commercial operation.

AMICA PUBLICATIONS RESERVES THE RIGHT TOACCEPT, REJECT, OR EDIT ANY AND ALL SUBMIT-TED ARTICLES AND ADVERTISING.

All items for publication must be submitted directly to thePublisher for consideration.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: $.20 per word, $5.00 minimumfor AMICA members. Non-members may advertise double themember rates ($10.00 minimum). Because of the low cost ofadvertising, we are unable to provide proof copies or “tear sheets”.

DISPLAY ADVERTISINGFull Page — 71/2 " x 10" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150.00Half Page — 71/2 " x 43/4" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 80.00Quarter Page —35/8 " x 43/4" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 45.00Business Card — 31/2 " x 2" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 30.00

Non-member rates are double for all advertising. Special 6 for 5 Ad Offer - Place any ad, with no changes, for afull year (6 issues), and pay for only 5 issues. Payable in advance.Photographs or halftones $15.00 eachLoose Sheet or Insert Advertising: InquireWe recommend that display advertisers supply camera-readycopy. Copy that is oversized or undersized will be changed tocorrect size at your cost. We can prepare advertisements fromyour suggested layout at cost.PAYMENT: U.S. funds must accompany ad order. Make checkpayable to AMICA INTERNATIONAL. Typesetting and layout size alterations charges will be billed.DEADLINES: Submissions must be received no later than thefirst of the odd months (January, March, May, July, September,November). The Bulletin will be mailed the first week of theeven months.

(Rev. 6-98)

FFOORR SSAALLEE

AEOLIAN PRINCESS player organ, 46 note, matching bench,and 18 rolls, playing condition. $1,500 or b/o. (415) 453-3661.(3-00)

1915 AEOLIAN Weber Duo-Art upright reproducing piano, serial#71633, mahogany, restored and in perfect condition, $10,000.William Jindra Jr., Raleigh, NC, 919-269-4808. (5-00)

300 DUO-ART player piano rolls with mahogany roll cabinet, rollsin excellent condition and cabinet like new, $3,000. William JindraJr., Raleigh, NC, 919-269-4808. (5-00)

CHICAGO COTTAGE ORGAN CO. reed pump organ, $800.William Jindra Jr., Raleigh, NC, 919-269-4808. (5-00)

STEINWAY “D” ebony concert grand piano, serial #99335 (1900),modern styling, complete expert restoration 1982, well-maintained,$37,000. Not a reproducing or player piano. Mark S. Ritzenhein,(517) 484-8860. (3-00)

DUO-ART Mechanism for Steinway Duo-Art model XR or OR 88note temponamic style, $2500; early 1921 AMPICO A mechanismfor 5’4” Chickering grand, $1200; AMPICO B DRAWER, $1500;MASON & HAMLIN Ampico B stack, $1000. Mel Septon, (847) 679-3455. (4-00)

88-NOTE PIANO ROLLS, hundreds of used rolls, Fox Trots,Waltzes, Marches, Hymns, Song Ballads, Classicals - $3.00 eachplus shipping. Nice clean playable rolls. Also new old stockQ.R.S. ROLLS $5.00 each. Will furnish lists on request. DaveCaldwell,400 Lincoln Lake Rd. NE, Lowell, Michigan 49331;phone (616) 897-5609 (6-00)

AMPICO B Grand Piano, SN 40323. Original finish and ivories.Included are 130 “A” rolls, 21 “B” jumbo rolls, and 30 “B” rolls. If interested, make offer. Fred Fisher, 1056 Woodruff PlantationParkway, Marietta, GA 30067. E-mail: [email protected], Fax 770-612-1817, phone 770-612-1816. (6-00)

TWO PLAYER 88-note upright pianos; cases in great condition,players play poorly, need restoration, $390. Fischer Ampico GrandPiano, case in excellent condition, player is in original condition,$2750; also an Aeolian player console, 64 notes, $790, in greatworking condition. Many 88-note piano rolls, $2.50 each. Sendfor list. Phone 212-690-9999. (4-00)

1926 KNABE 6’4” Ampico mahogany with matching bench, rollsand restoration supplies, $5725.00 US dollars. Large 3-door (Art Case) roll cabinet, $775.00 pkg. Negotiable. Harold Braker,8527 - 111 St., Delta, BC, Canada V4C 7E3; 604-572-6110. (3-00)

WURLITZER Automatic Harp parts and plans. From the repro-duction project by David Boehm and George Baker. Everythinggoes as a group: coin chutes, rolls, pluckers, soundboard material,much more. A lucrative project for a good craftsman. Write oremail for inventory: Dianne Baker, 30 Reinig St., Belgrade, MT59714 or [email protected]. (3-00)

Ampico, Duo-Art, Welte rolls, great selection of popular, classi-cal, and medley selections. List on request. David Caldwell,400 Lincoln Lake Rd., Lowell, MI 49331; 616-897-5609. (3-00)

YAMAHA Grand 5’8” Conservatory Disklavier D.C. 211XG, paid$27,000-sell for $19,000. Color black ebony. Call 440-593-2155 (Ohio) (4-00)

“When little things go,big things follow!”

from “Tender Comrade” starring Ginger Rodgers

189

KIMBALL Player Organ-70’s model, re-tubed with black rubbertubing, has leather pouches, plays good, has bench. Call 517-741-5167 (MI), leave message. (3-00-G)

Visit the Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange, a popular Internet site for advertising mechanical music machinesfor sale. In continuous operation since 1997. Find us at:http://mmd.foxtail.comExchange/ (3-00-G)

Music Roll Auction, Elizabeth Rettig, 131 1/2 S. Gaw St., Raw-son, Ohio 45881, phone 419-963-3075. Since 1992 - mailed free -Ampico, Duo-Art, Recordo, 88-note, Themodist, Apollo, ConcertGrand, 58 note, 65-note and misc. rolls available. (3-00-G)

WWAANNTTEEDDA - or - G Roll Coin Piano. R.J. Avary, P.O. Box 2607, GraniteShoals, TX 78654; 830-598-7309. (3-00)

UPRIGHT AMPICO (Chickering, Haines Bros.) in good condi-tion, no humidity/moth damage, preferably unrestored. JannKnaus, 3921 N. Hamilton Ave., Chicago, IL 60608; 773-588-9597.(3-00)

ROLL WANTED: Duo-Art 19555 - “I’m Goin’ South” song roll.John Werth, 503 Shinnecock Ct., New Bern, NC 28562; 252-636-5541; [email protected]. (3-00)

PIANOLODEON rolls: by Chein (toy player piano); also buyingPlay-A-Sax, Clarola, and Rolmonica rolls. Buying Pianolodeons,Play-A-Saxes, Clarolas, and Rolmonicas. Jon Tench, 203-790-6239 (CT) before 11 p.m. E.S.T. (4-00)

WURLITZER violin-flute pianino. Jon Tench, 203-790-6239(CT) before 11 p.m. E.S.T. (4-00)

Wanted: Welte-Mignon rolls: #2773 Barcarolle Op. 26 (Faure);#75410 “Doin’ the Raccoon;” #6790 Bohemian Dance No. 1(Smetana); #7359 Bohemian Dance No. 6 (Smetana); #75543“Me.” Call 812-238-9656 (Indiana) (3-00-G)

ARTRIO-ANGELUS reproducing rolls and catalogs wanted.David Krall, 4218 Torrence Ave., Hammond, IN 46327, 219-932-2322. (1-01)

Hallet & Davis Angelus-Artio grand. Have mechanism androlls, need piano. Any condition. [email protected] (3-00-G)

Bach on rolls, any system- Book Eighth Octave-Biog. of MarkHambourg. Raymond Palmer, P.O. Box 17, Berala 2141 NSW,Australia, phone 61296465445. (3-00-G)

116 note Aeolian pipe organ roll No. 343-Valse Triste by Sibelius.Leonard J. Rogers, 8608 Sunnygrove Rd., Chesterfield, VA 23832-7549; 804-276-1501; [email protected] (3-00-G)

Wanted to Borrow or Buy!: Welte (red) roll #1386, HungarianRhapsody #1 to have copied and “converted” to Licensee format(will return.) Also looking for QRS #9579, “A Very PreciousLove”. Wm. Dean, 627 Tenth Ave, Bethlehem, PA 18018. (3-00-G)

O rolls, M rolls, 88 note recut rolls, Wurlitzer 88 note rolls, Artiorolls, Artizan-B,A,B, 82-87 note rolls, Arburo rolls, pipe organ rollplayer, small Wurlitzer or American Fotoplayer, O roll frame.James Williams, 799 Maple Street, South Ogden, Utah 84403-1921; 801-394-7263. (3-00-G)

SWAP - Fully rebuilt Upr. Full exp Duo-Art or Upr. Ampico forgrand reproducer. Raymond Palmer, P.O. Box 17, Berala 2141,NSW Australia; phone 61296465445. (3-00-G)

WEBER DUO ART BABY GRAND piano #80014, Mahoganywith original bench. Excellent playing condition. 60 classic rolls.$5,000 firm. Gary or Sueannah Whitener, Huntington Beach, CA(562) 592-2441. (3-00)

MILLS VIOLANO, newly restored, mahogany cabinet beautiful-ly refinished inside and out, plenty of music, quality appearanceand sound. Frank Nix, (818) 884-6849, [email protected](3-00-G)

DUO-ART Rolls - 125 choice re-cut rolls in boxes. 95 long-playrolls @ $12 each and 31 regular rolls @ $9 each, or all for $995plus shipping. Write or email for inventory: Dianne Baker, 30Reinig St.,Belgrade, MT 59714 or [email protected]. (3-00)

Fully restored UPR MARSHALL AND WENDELL Ampico likenew, electric. Raymond Palmer, P.O. Box 17, Berala 2141, NSW,Australia; phone 61296465445. (3-00-G)

253 88-note Antique Operas, concertos, ballets, etc., send SSAE forfree list, best offer all or part. Robert Nelson, 2616 W. Lake, FortCollins, CO 80521-4140; 970-224-2709. (3-00-G)

1928 Cable WELTE MIGNON LICENSEE grand, nice originalmahogany finish, original matching bench, professionally rebuilt.Has new pin block-chrome pins excellent tone and expression, 70 rolls. $9,000 Wisconsin, 715-424-2095. (3-00-G)

WILCOX and WHITE CO. ROLLS: 30 Symphony, 49 Angelusand Symphony all in boxes, most in good to very good condition.Also, 13 without boxes and 12 empty boxes. Send SASE for list,$700 OBO. Dave Laverdiere, 2205 Dalesford, Troy, MI 48098;248-828-8989. (3-00-G)

Nice original unrestored AEOLIAN Duo-Art upright, $600. John A. Field, 117 Arroyo Place, Santa Cruz, CA 95060-3139;|831-423-1397. (3-00-G)

STEINWAY Duo-Art grand, rebuilt 20 years ago, great playing condition, bench, roll cabinet, $13,000. Bill Maguire, Greenlawn,NY; (631) 261-6799. (3-00-G)

DB MUSICAL RESTORATIONS-Quality repair of cylinder anddisc music boxes, cylinder repinning, all phases of work performedin our shop. David Beck, 75 Waters Edge Lane, Newnan, GA30263; 770-253-1903, email: [email protected] (3-00-G)

ARBURO BERSENS Dance Hall Organ, 97 key book operated, 2 accordians, drums, etc. over 300 pipes, $20,000. 215-659-5333. (3-00-G)

FAÇADE 153 Wurlitzer, hand carved wood copy, Seeburg B, Wurlitzer organ crank, right angle w/gear reduction, $725; Nation-al Changer Nickelodeon, $1200, need Seeburg G internal parts, mechanicalmusicbox.com Alan Erb, 510-783-5068 CA. (3-00-G)

WEBER Duo-Art Upright foot-pumper, piano professionallyrebuilt and refinished, Duo-Art unrestored, beautiful quality uprightplayer ready to enjoy as-is while you rebuild Duo-Art mechanism,$1100 OBO. Robert Baumbach, 310-476-0066 CA. (3-00-G)

Your Source For Classic Books on Mechanical Music. Many out-of-print titles available. Complete list at my website: http://members.aol.com/wwineburgh e-mail: [email protected]. or call me, Bill Wineburgh at 973-927-0484. (3-00-G)

AMPICO “B” DRAWER, $1500; Stack for Mason and HamlinAmpico B, $1000. Mel Septon, 9045 Karlov, Skokie, IL 60076; 847-679-3455. (3-00-G)

WWrraassssee’’ss CCuussttoomm PPiiaannoo MMoovviinngg

Specializing in:Player Grands, Nickelodeons, and Orchestri-

onsAnywhere in Continental US and Canada

• • • • •25 years experience

Knowledgeable Rebuilder and CollectorWell-known • References Available

• • • • •Your instrument is wrapped, padded andsecured for transport in an insulated and

clean custom-built heavy-duty trailer.Professional and personal service.

JJoohhnn PP.. WWrraassssee660088--886622--11226688

ppiiaannoo..mmaann@@ttddss..nneett(3-00)

190

Visit the

AMICA Web page

at:

http://www.amica.org

(4-00)

Magic Melodies360 LAWLESS ROAD - JAMESTOWN, KY 42629

RReepprroodduucciinngg aanndd 8888 NNoottee RRoollllssPPrrooggrraamm RRoollllss CCoolllleeccttiibblleess

AUCTIONS AND FIXED PRICE SALES!ALL ROLLS IN PERFECT PLAYING CONDITION

WITH GOOD BOXES

For Periodic Lists Write or CallTel. 270-343-2061

Laura Shelby (3-00)

AMICABROCHURES

(Free)

and

BROCHURE HOLDERS($3.00 each Post Paid)

Order from:

ROBIN PRATT630 East Monroe Street

Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708

Phone: 419-626-1903

e-mail: [email protected]

191

AMICA TechnicalitiesSince 1969, AMICA has been publishing into bound vol-umes, collections of technical articles written and con-tributed by its members for publication in The AMICABulletin. They may be purchased as follows:Vol 1 - 1969 to 1971 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10.00Vol 2 - 1972 to 1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.00Vol 3 - 1975 to 1977 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9.00Vol 4 - 1978 to 1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7.00Vol 5 - 1981 to 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00Vol 6 - 1989 to 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00

Postage PaidPlease note: Supplies of the earlier volumes may be

temporarily unavailable as stock is depleted. Overseas orders may take longer than domestic shipments.

AMICASTATIONERY

andENVELOPES

This is a reducedsample of

the small letterheadswhich can be purchased.

AMICA ITEMS FOR SALE

AMICA STATIONERY & ENVELOPESFor Quantities and Pricing contact:

Stuart GriggGrigg Graphic Services, Inc.20982 Bridge StreetSouthfield, MI 48034

Fax: (248) 356-5636e-mail: [email protected]

The AMICA Bulletin1971 through 1999 bound annuals

of the AMICA Bulletins$24.00 (U.S. Dollars) per year postage paid

Make checks payable to: AMICA International

Send Orders to: Stuart GriggGrigg Graphic Services, Inc.20982 Bridge StreetSouthfield, MI 48034Fax: (248) 356-5636e-mail: [email protected]

Get the Whole Story !In Stock Now Shipped Immediately !

The AMICA Bulletin remains the single source of complete information about the technical andsocial aspects of our hobby. No home library would be complete without a FULL SET of theAMICA Bulletins, bound into sets by year.

In addition, technical articles published in the bulletin have been extracted and published asinvaluable reference volumes. More than 30 years of knowledge, discovery and revelation can befound in the TECHNICALITIES, a complete set of which takes less than 30 inches of shelf space!

ORDER TODAY! In stock for immediate shipping via United Parcel Service or US Mail.

Attention Chapters!AMICA Brochure Holders

are now available for $3.00 each.

They are clear plastic with AMICA Logo imprinted

on a gold label.

Included will be as many AMICA New Member Info Brochures

as you wish at no charge.

Make checks payable to AMICA International.

Order from:Robin Pratt

AMICA Publications630 East Monroe Street

Sandusky, OH [email protected]

192

REPLACEMENT LEADERSThese 11 1/4” x 17” reprints, not trimmed and without tabs, are excellent replicas of the more popular types ofreproducing piano roll leaders. While intended for roll repairs, they may also be used for decorative purposes.To splice, overlay new leader on old roll, lay a straightedge on an angle, cut through both papers with a sharpknife, discard scrap, and butt-join with magic mending tape on top surface.

A. Brown on buff (For early red label boxes)

B. Black on ivory (Area for reusable artist photo)

C. Black on ivory (Most common)

D. Black on ivory (Very late rolls by combined Aeolian/American)

E. Green on ivory (Most common)

F. Green on ivory (Favorite Fifty & Selected Roll Service)

G. Welte Brown on buff (Most common)

Note: Early Welte’swith blue leaders maybe repaired with thisbrown leader. Many ofthese when reissuedhad brown leaders.

Please make checks payable toAMICA INTERNATIONAL, And send to:

BRIAN K. MEEDER904A West Victoria StreetSanta Barbara, CA 93101-4745

e-mail address for orders:[email protected]

Checks or moneyorders from for-eign countriesmust be drawnon U.S. bank.

Style QuantityA ______________

B ______________

C ______________

D ______________

E ______________

F ______________

G ______________

Total Quantity ______________

Price: $ 1.00 eachMinimum Order: $10.00

Postage and Handling $ 5.50

Roll Order $ ________

Total Amount (U.S. $) $ ________

?-.......'\... ~ 6 EVERYBODY'S MAGAZINE

....""

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-.d!l'll. II "1,'11j1\') .

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• __ '1 ====~=~~~I~~ltIl'~~'~Q~ .. ..' .. ., . . ... ."'~"~'i"'t%R:3{~'7"'1:"\)C=~1.i'!,r~p{;;'1~l ....... ~ \i,IJ.j,..~~,e WIld Melody ~,tI.?-r~~.tIusICi;~~t!~l . ~' 'Yk"""l ::D:?-~~-0-<;jI 'v':)' /- '-- i') ~l'.,.., \loI *'y: i\. ,: :-f.G'.J;;..) \~••~-.j}....;:~'J/.' ~ ~ :-::. \.>n'i()~"'u

",~ "l;'),rl ~ A:·." ~·O'dI· .~/- '1? IJ ~-~- . ll'~'s.J ~y' .,,-,. \~II"';'''''''!~HERE' 1 . . l' )G.,J'",V~,1:'J.'~\ ,l!~ 'F~j IS not lIng so stunu atmg ~nD~~~O

'!, \' J()'r',' ~ " .~. • ~D'! Jr oQ

1 ;~,Y1!1'~':1 _ .~~.'" .'J.;~. to ~he Jad~d nerves as. the wel.rd lIUJi:;0'1}l

~~\~\\ \! straIns of 1mpaSSIon ed martlal m USle. v ~~r/!~ir\~\\) 1 The crash of the attack-the desperate resistance-the clattering, "1/1/., ~I'~~~~ clanking rush of cavalry--the resounding deep-throated song of ~ 1/11 I\\~'\V,l the artillery-the sharp staccato rattle of musketry-the clash of VW'~ ~ steel on steel-the mad melodious cheer of victory. 0!A\f~1 A11 of these minor motifs woven together in a cloth of inspiring heart, r Iff, I~ 0 throbbing melody, lies dormant in your piano until awakened into life hy the C r!l~

,~ wonderful Tel-Electric Piano Player. ~ y

~None but the world-famed virtuoso, and he only in his most brilliant II;

~. moments, can equal its exquisite interpretation of the varied masterpieces of ~\ the great masters of harmony. II

From the thundering call to arms to the drowsy lullaby, the repertory of the I

Tel-Electric Piano Playeris remarkably complete. The man-constructed" mind" of this marvelousinstrument expresses perfectly every shade of meaning- every hauntingth:ead of melody motif-yet at the touch of a lever it is entirely under yourcontrol, for your individual interpretation.

Exclusive Tel-Electric FeaturesIt can be attached to any piano. It requires Any piano with a Tel-Electric attached,nO }lunlping. costs less than a lllrlyer·riano of 'he same grade.

It plays from the keys but does not obstruct Its music TO))S are lndestt'uctible but Costthe Keyb01\Td Elt:ctr"ic cunent t1nneceSf><\ry. no mOre than others.

It enables ,.OU to play your piano from a It is wonderful. It is perfection.distance. Send/QY <alaIQg'.

Set of four beautiful photogravures like above illustration, si2e I J x 15,.,,~tO):1 suitable for framing, will be sent prepaid for ten cents in stamps. 1">'-' /,l~t,,~~~ ~r,\3~I¢.~:;:'.~III··o~,II!r-;. -- h/ie Tel-Electric Company. '"""\\r1f!' I \1 / BRANCHze 'T ...t. ...s....c'rJUC BUiLDING AdaNett. I I.

l'I l eN,CAGO 299 Flf'-th AV2hU... IN............ I',. tJJJl~ ". 1loa"ON - New York Cliy e'TI.' - ,--./ " I _';

. .,J " __ _ _ :::!f\:~.::-:--··J"·""".'

The advertisements in Everybody's Magazine are indexed. Tum to page 2.

DURRELL ARMSTRONG, CEO

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