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THE MIICA NEWS BULLETIN1...- --... .....The AMICA News Bulletin

Published by the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association, a non-profit club devoted to therestoration, distribution and enjoyment of musical instruments using perforated paper music rolls.

*Questions and Answers*Photographs, Old Advertisements

* Anything elseof general interest to AM ICA

Contributions: All subjects of interest to readersof the bulletin are encouraged and invited by the publisher.All articles must be received by the first of the month. Every attempt will be made to publish all articles ofgeneral interest to AM ICA members at the earliest possible time and at the discretion of the Publisher, in thefollowing areas:

* Letters to the Publisher *Research Findings*Biographical Sketches of Artists and Composers*Technical Information

Advertisements: Personal ads are accepted by the AMICA Bulletin Board. Businesses which are interested inplacing ads must follow these rules:

- Each ad will consist of one full standard page in the bulletin.- Payment of $25 must be included with the ad copy.- Ads must reach the publisher by the first of the month.- Ad copy must be complete and ready for print.- At least 50% of the ad must consist of photographs or art work that will be of specific interest to

AMICA readers.

PUBLICATION OF BUSINESS ADVERTISING IN NO WAY IMPLIES AMICA'S ENDORSEMENT OF ANYCOMMERCIAL OPERATION. However AMICA reserves the right to refuse any ad that is not in keeping withAMICA's general standards or if complaints are received indicating that said business does not servethe bestinterests of the members of AM ICA, according to its goals and by-laws.

THE AMICAI

WHO & WHERE THE AMICA BULLETIN

AMICA PRESIDENTFrank Loob219 Montecito BoulevardNapa, California 94558

AMICA BULLETINGinny Billings, Publisher1428 Liberty StreetEI Cerrito, CaHfornia 94530

AMICA BULLETIN PAST ISSUESDick Reutlinger824 Grove StreetSan Francisco, California 94117

NEW MEMBERSHIPS & MAILING PROBLEMSDick Reutlinger, Membership Secretary824 Grove StreetSan Francisco, California 94117

MEMBERSHIP DUES & TREASURYBob Whiteley, Treasurer175 ReservoirSan Rafael, California

BULLETIN BOARDMel Luchetti, Advertising Secretary3449 Mauricia AvenueSanta Clara, California 95050

AMICA AUCTIONGar Britten, Auctioneer642 Diamond StreetSan Francisco, California

PHOTOGRAPHS REQUIRING HALF-TONESam Thompson6809 Iris CircleHollywood, California 90028

MUSICAL JIGSAWRuth Bingaman Smith206 Tuttle RoadSan Antonio, Texas 78209

PARENT MINUTES & MEETINGSGinny Billings, Publisher1428 Liberty StreetEI Cerrito, California 94530

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHESBob Pye, Editor342 Leon AvenueKelowna, B.C., Canada

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTERKarl Petersen, Reporter314 South Halladay StreetSanta Ana, California 92701

INSTRUMENTS

Bob Billings, Editor1428 Liberty StreetEI Cerrito, California 94530

TECHN ICALITI ESJohn A. Patten, Editor601 Penn StreetPasadena, California 91104

THE AMICA NEWS BULLETIN 2

BOARD MINUTES

September 10, 1971San Frane1sco, California

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by Frank Loob,President. Attending were: Frank Loob, Mel Luchetti, BobWhiteley, Dick Reutlinger, Ginny Billings, and RogerJohnson.

The Treasurer was authorized to pay for gifts for therecent visi ts of honorary members, and the prlnting ofa membership brochure was discussed and authorized.

The Whiteleys volunteered to draft a tentative budgetfor 1972. They will submit it to the October meeting.

Ginny Billings brought up the subject of bound 1971Bulletins. No action was taken pending an indication bymembers of the number of books that will be wanted.Moving the date of publication back half a month toallow a time margin because of mailing problems wasdiscussed. Ginny will change her deadlines from thefirst of the month to the 15th of the preceed1ng month.

The by-laws were reviewed, changed in part, and accepted by the board. They will be presented at theOctober meeting. Copies will be sent to local membersprior to that time, with a letter of explanation.

The meeting, which was held at the home of DickReutlinger, adjourned at 11:00 p.m.

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1969 .. 1970 BOUND BULLETINS:ORDER QUICKLY - SUPPLY DWINDLING

Welre running out of stock on our beautiful 1969-1970bound Bulletins. If you are thinking of ordering a comlete bound set, don't delay! We are almost out of somemonths, and there are no plans at the present time toreprint them. We have enough copies of all months tobind about 10 more copies of the complete series,sosend your $15 soon to Bob Whiteley, Treasurer.

1971 BOUND BULLETINS:ORDERS NEEDED NOW

If you would like a copy of the bound edition of the1971 AHICA Bulletins, please write this month to GinnyBill ings, Pub1ishe r , and 1et her know the number ofcopies you will want. Whether or not we will offer thisyear's Bulletins in bound form depends on your wants -i f enough peop 1e exp ressin te res t in them, we I 11 fee 1free to commit ourselves to the initial expenses of obtaining materials and printing the covers.

What are they like? Like the 1969-1970 bound set,there wi 11 be a printed cover, a sturdy backing,' a frontprotective mylar covering, and a tough spiral bindingthat permits easy turning of pages. They are bothattractive and practical, and we've received many favorable comments on them.

The 1971 Bulletins are double the size of the 1970issues, and triple that of 19691 For that reason, theprice per set of the 1971 Bound Bulletin Sets will be$15.00. Reserve your set now, but send no money, please.

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OUR NEXT MEETING

DATE: Saturday, October 308:00 p.m.

~E: Hr. & Mrs. Walter Jones21 Mercedes Way, S.F.

PLACE: Detai 1s in September Bulletin

CORRECTION OF MISSING ADDRESS

Last issue we mentioned lots of people who are engagedin various aspects of the player' piano field. Onemember', Gr'ace FPiar, is not yet ehaon on the member'shiplis t. Her' addseee is:

Musical Notes12 Gr'afton StNetGzteenlQbJn~ Ne'lAJ York 11740.

r r r r r r r r r t r t r r t r r r t t

SPECIAL SAN FRANCISCO MEETING:URSULA DIETRICH-HOLUNSHEAD FEATURED

by Bill KnorpOn Sunday afternoon, September 4th, we held a special

meeting at Portcullis featuring pianist-composer UrsulaDietrich-Hollinshead in person and on her rolls. Mrs.Dietrich-Hollinshead flew up from San Antonio and playeda fine program for us, including some of her own compositions and one by Sibelius. The program Lnc.Luded s

Echo d'Amour Dietrich-HollinsheadRomance, Ope 24, No.9 SibeliusEcstasy Dietrich-HollinsheadSandman Frolics Dietrich-Hollinshead

Her playing was very much appreciated by the group.The last piece, "Sandman Frolics," a Novelty Piano Solo,was published in 1928 by the Mills Music Co., Inc., andit made a tremendous hit. Unfortunately there is noknown recording, but many members requested the sheetmusic xeroxed. The musical program also included Recordorolls brought by the Billings and played by tape, andAmpico rolls sent up for the meeting from SouthernCalifornia, all composed or played by Ursula DietrichHollinshead. Included was the fine "Valcik" by Makrejsand "Venitienne, Fourth Barcarolle" by Godard, and someplayed by Lee S. Roberts, who was a good friend ofUrsula's and whose "Moon Dreams," "Toujours a Moi" weremuch admired by her.

After the program Jarod Clark served his now famouspunch, and excellent pastries, and Ursula autographedrolls she had recorded for Art Apollo, Recordo, Ampicoand Duo-Art. She received many compliments on herplaying and her fine speech, which was of great interestto AMlCAns. We couldn't believe' she gave up the pianoentirely for 20 years so that she could give full time,as a realtor, to her own business.

The meeting was a great success and gave greatpleasure to the group who attended. We hope to planmore meetings featuring Ursula Dietrich-Hollinsheadl

fPictuNs of the I>letnoh-Hollinshsad and BingamanSmith concezets lUill, appeazt in a f'UtuN 1,8S148. --GB)

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3 THE AMICA NEWS BULLETIN

ROGER JOHNSON WILL HOST NOVEMBER AMICA:INTRODUCING 3-in-I GRAND AND ROLLPERFORATOR

The November meeting of the Founding Chapter of AMICAwil I be held Saturday, November 27th at the home of RogerJohn son, 6380 Wisteria Way, San Jose, California .Directions: take Freeway #280 to Wolfe Road exit. FollowWolfe Road for 2 miles southwest , toward the Santa Cruzmounta i ns . During this time Wolfe has become MillerAve nue , so continue on Miller to Wisteria Way. Turnr igh t abou t eight homes and 6380 will be on the left.

Roge r is a native of Oregon and did not acquire expos ur e to mechanical music until the mid-fifties whileat t end i ng Oregon State College. There they had a Wheelock 65-note AEolian upright with a large collection ofro l l s in t he Student Union Building. The rolls werema i n t a i ned in a checkout I ibrary, along with ping-pongbal ls, pool cues, and swim suits. Although it took considerable red tape to secure possession of a roll fort he piano, it seemed worth the effort at the time andhe admits to never being quite the same since that time.This interest evolved into a project that evoked greatconsternation to worr ied parents, who in 1957 found aSimplex player action being installed in their prizedBaldwin Acrosonic spinet. After grimacing during thedrilling of a hole in the back of each key, when theinstrument began to play they alleged that it reallywasn't too bad after all. And it wasn't . With completelyvariable and uniform tempo, it proved better than thephonograph for dancing of the Fox Trot.

In searching for rolls for the Acrosonic, reproducingrolls kept appearing on the scene and stimulated interest in the possibil ity of something better than thestandard 88-note player. At that time there we re nooperating re produc i ng pianos in the Portland area . Itwas nearly impossible to find even a person in thebusiness that had ever heard one. However, Collins andErwin Co. in late 1958 took on consignment the 19275' 8-1/2" Knabe which they had originally sold in 1927.Having had excellent care, the piano was still like new

and was gratefully purchased in the f a l l of 1958. Thispiano now belongs to Horace Hayes and was en joyed dail yuntil 1970 when Roger purchased his present Masen &Hamlin in San Francisco.

The Mason & Hamlin unfortunately had not received t heloving care that had been bestowed upon the Knabe. TheAmpico mechanism had been stripped and discarded and thepiano had seen days behind a bar, receiving dousings ofunknown liquids, insertion of microphone and lightmountings in the case, and bearing numerous gouges andscratches. With the expert craftsmansh ip of Lar ry Mangus ,and professional refinishing, it today g ives ne indi cation of its past. Although it was not poss ible to secure a complete Ampico mechanism from a 7' Mason &Hamlin, late-A parts were found. The stack was made f roma late Ampico upright stack combined with flanges, lostmotion pneumati cs , and primaries from a smal ler late - Agrand stack. Since the Mason & Hamlin is strung in fivesections it is wider than any other reproducing grandand no conventional stack will fit it. Thanks are dUeNelson Barden, Larry Mangus, Doug Hickling , Mel Luche t t iand Bill Hunter for generously helping to prov i de t henecessary parts. After two years' work and t he bui ld ingof several aux iliary expression devices, th e in s t r umentnow gives full fidelit y performances of Ampico A, Amp i coB, and Duo-Art recordings.

In 1963, Roger began work on a roll pe r forator wh i chmakes 1 to I copies of Ampico rolls. Comp le ted in 1966 ,this machine has made several hundred copies on a cus t ombasis , although from a volume standpo int i t i s t oo inefficient to be considered a production perfora tor.Pending its dec ision to be cooperative, its ope ra tionwi l I be demonst rated at the meet ing. Since the meet ingis scheduled during the Thanksgiving hoI ida y weekend,a hearty i nvi t a t ion is extended to members outside t heBay Area, local members, and guests.

Roger Johnson ' s ? ' Maso n & Ham l-in Ampiao A,B, and Duo-Art . Not e out s i de pump -- nor oom in the piano f or it as it if fuZZ oftubing and par t s ! Plays bot h type s ofro l l s verywell..• a beautiful instrument!


TOP:George Coade (oente») and Riahard Riley (to his right)en joy Ce ai L 's hospi taU ty al.onq wi th other AMICAns .

CENTER:Ceci.l: Dover puts a ro l- l: on hi s Maso n & Ham l.in Ampiao Aduring the eonoert: at his home.

BOTTOM:Anita Niake ls (aenter) i n her attraative aostume fromher reaent trip to Bavaria.

SOUTHERlJ CALIFORNI A AUGUST 12 MEETING

at t he home of Ce ci. l: Dover . See next

page f or Karl Petersen ' s arti ele aon

aerning t his event . Photos by AMICA

Repor t er (So . Cal . ) Karl Petersen .


9-1/2' STEINWAY AMPICOTO PLAY ATSOUTHERN CALI FORN IA OCTO BER MEETING

Initi al testing, us i ng vaauwn cleaneras a t rial pump , of Sam Thompson 's9-1 / 2 ' S te i nway Ampi-eo A.

Clare Spencer worki ng on SClTa Thompson 'sSteinway/Ampico. Note Ampico t r acker bari n Duo-Ar t spoo l box , Duo- Art: cont ro lsare r etained. The Duo-Ar t air motor i sused but not mounted when this pict urewas taken . Sam Thompson i s the hos t ofthe Oc tober Southern Cali fornia meeting.

SOUTHERN CALIF ORNIA AUGUST MEETI NGby Karl Pe tersen

Hosts f or the Sunday afternoon meeting, l as t August22, were Ce ci l Dover and Edward Pos tinoff, who welcomed us to their newly acquired home, delighted thatthey can now entertain more t han four guests pll~ thepiano .

Ce ci l 's interest i n "musi c mechanical" was awakenede ar l y when as a child he spent many hours an d n i cke l sl istening to coin-operated nickelodeons at t he nownonexi s t en t Pony Express Museum in Arcadia, California,near his family home. His interest was set when hispa rents took a beach cottage for a summer holiday whichcame f ully equipped with an upright player piano . In-

t entional l y i t had been inopera tive, but af t e r muchcoaxing, Ceci l f i nal l y convi nced hi s father t hat thesi t ua t i on could be r emedi e d by put t ing t he V be l t b ackonto t he pump an d mo t or pu l l eys .

The interest turned to des i r e , if not obs ession , andfinally an oppor t uni ty to acquire an upri ght Estey fo otpumped playe r pr es ent e d itself--not wi t ho ut complicat i ons , howeve r . The money which had been s ave d fo r h i sf i r s t year ' s tui t i on at Choui nard Art Ins t i tu te j us twouldn't s t r e tch f or a player piano as wel l . Fortunat e l ya scholarship kep t Cecil from be i ng a pl aye r pi anodropout.

A f riend tol d Cecil of a ca che of piano rol l s wh i cha l l turned out to be full of ext r a holes whi ch seriouslyaffected the music, They were all of t he s ame unkn own"Ampico" b r and . It took th ree ye ar s to f i nd ou t thatthose rol ls were f or a reproducing piano . Then he f oundout what a r eproduci ng pi ano was.

With education and Army ser vice f i nally out of theway , the goal of a cqui r ing a reproducing piano onceagain occupied his attention. The goal was gi ven astrong boost when Ed , upon hearing his fi r s t rep r oducer ,decided to push Cecil to purchase t he completely rebuiltrestore d and r e f i n i s he d Mas on & Haml i n model A gr andfrom Bernar d Coms ky ' s . The piano now occup i e s a prominent spo t in bot h Cecil and Ed 's home an d life.

The nearl y ten yea r s that e l apsed be twe en thea cqui s i tion of the upright player an d t he Ampico sawmany f r us trated attempts to make f r i ends wi t h an instrument more closely related to t he players an d nicke lodeons of Cecil's earlier fascinat i on . A small WurliTzerOrganette piano pipe organ is pr esently underr es t or a t i on by Carty's after Cecil f i nal ly deci ded thatit was much too exotic for his ab ilities an d pa t i ence .

Cecil is a pr oj e c t designer f or Fr ed Schmi d Associates, ho t e l -restauran t design consul tants and specialis ts, havi ng abandoned all hopes of rel yi ng on his finearts e ducati on when the collect ing mania ove r t ook him.Ed emi gr a t ed f r om Vancouver, B.C., seven ye a r s ago toope rate hi s own hairstyling salon, the f i rst of t wowhich Cecil has subsequently des i gne d f or hi m. Bo t h menare regularl y seen at AMICA maetings locall y , and Cecilis curren tly se r vi ng as our Southern Cal i fornia Chap t e r


Vice Chairman, and the Chairman of the 1972 Convention.Arriving guests may have thought the warm afternoon

weather would make the gathering seem uncomfortablyclose. They were relieved to find the house light andairy, largely because the gardens blend with the roomyhouse with no obvious breaks, although the piano iscomfortably "inside" while most of the flowers are ap-parently "outside." To avoid continuing on withsuperfluous compliments, this will stand as an indication of the tasteful planning for this afternoon andevening with friends from the AMICA.

Printed programs heralded a pleasantly short but wellselected classical program, which began with the recognizable brusque technique of E. Robert Schmit, who madethe Bach-Liszt Prelude and Fugue in A minor relevant tothe concert audiences of the 'twenties. Next the segmented variations comprising Brahms' Rhapsodie in Gminor, Op. 79, No.2, in Artur Schnabel's definitiveinterpretation.

Chopin's incurably optimistic Ballade in G minor, Op.23, No.1, is noticeably faster in this Ampico recordingby Ferruccio Busoni than in his version for the WelteMignon. This piece seldom fails to bring forth anemotional response in the listener.

Dohnanyi has not only done us the favor of arrangingLeo Delibe's ballet pieces for the piano, but he hasrecorded these clarified musical delights for theAmpico. No , we did not get the most popular Naila "Pasdes Fleurs," but the Waltz from the ballet "Coppelia"f or a pleasant change.

Liszt's Et ude in D flat was recorded for the Ampicoby Olga Steeb in a fluid, somnolent, moving interpretation about 1921. As the piano techniques of theromantic period became more dated, the piece was recorded agai n in 1927 by Mischa Levitzki with more crispago gic accents. We are presented with this Levitzkii nterp r e t ation of "A Sigh."

Debussy's Nocturne in D flat deserves to be playedonl y when you a r e ready to listen, to be absorbed in

EDYTHE BAKERby Bob Pye

As I begin to write, Edythe Baker is serenading me(and the neighbors on a Sunday morning) with her 1923performance of " Somebody ' s Wrong," and I am thinking ofwha t a great difference all the years between the DuoArt days of the early 'twenties and the present havebrought to a little old lady, now living quietly inEngland. And I wish there was more to write about thissupreme favorite on jazz-oriented reproducing pianorolls of the 1920's.

Edythe Baker began her roll-recording career sometimearound 1920 .•. by 1922, she was I isted in the distinguished roster of Duo-Art recording artists, where shewas to remain, making some of the finest rolls of hertime, until 1926 . We think of roll recording now as aprestige occupation, but after my conversation withWelte-Mignon recording artist Johnny Johnson, I wonderj us t how much prest ige there ~ in recording for roll

the music and to have your emotions stirred and smoothed.My compliments to the artist Julius Chaloff and to Cecilfor having played the piece.

Sergei Rachmaninoff must have gotten along well withthe Ampico staff, judging from the proliferation of hisrecordings. We hear his own early Elegie, Gp. 3, No.1.Well, did Rachmaninoff really know how to interpretRachmaninoff? The imposing technique of this artist isoften lost on pianos in middling condition, but we havebeen fortunate to find this piano more than up to it.The perfectionist owners feel it still needs a bit ofadjusting to play more subtly late in the evening withonly a few people in the room, but this did not in anyway detract from the afternoon's program.

SCC notes from Bill Mintz, Chapter President, included the announcement that Mr. C. Dover (where havewe heard that name before?) has been appointed theChairman of the 1972 Convention committee. Tom Hawthornenoted his recent travels to the north, and apprised usof the need for the recording of Ecstasy for the UrsulaDietrich-Hollinshead program in that area.

Our traveling scholar, Anita Nickels, then entertained us with off-the-cuff impressions of her year inEurope and with the personalities and pianos she hasmet in those travels. Fortunately ,she has written upsome of this for the Bulletin. Unfortunately, no onethought to ask her to demonstrate the folk dances whichwent with her charming Bavarian costume.

All of this left us in a perfect mood for the subscribed dinner of roast bratworst, kartoffelsalat, cakeand all the trimmings. The mild freshness of the farewas in pleasant contrast to such food served in somerestaurants which is similar in name and rough appearance only.

Many guests felt comfortable enough in thesesurroundings to stay into the evening to become furtheracquainted with one another's interests, the music androll trading, and the hosts' collections.

EDYTHEBAKER


companies in the '20's. John ny recalled vividly (and itwou ldn ' t be d ifficult to do) that he was paid $25.00 ape rformance for making his rolls, and certainly he wasone of the top Welte popular pianists--though admittedlytheir emphas i s on popular music was s l igh t . However , itma y wel l be that Edythe Baker and her contemporariesdi dn't rece ive a great deal more fo r their efforts, andit i s entirel y pos s ib l e that they enjoy more realcel ebrity wi t h us today than they ever did with theirau d ipnce of rolr-enthusiasts during their active years.

Edythe Baker j ourneyed to England--quite likely in1926, as her Duo-Art roll ou~put ceases at that point., reca ll being to l d of an article in a Duo-Art bulletinwit~ rema rks that she was a favorite of the Prince ofWa le s and custom-recorded rolls for him (my letter toth e Pr ince , now the Duke of Windsor, regarding this hass o far remained unanswered , but hope has not dimmed) .Thi s woul d have given her a valuable "in" with the veryshow-business oriented young nobility of the time. Atany rate, we hear no more of Edythe Baker until 1928,when she became a star--l iterally overnight--stoppingthe show with her variations on "My Heart Stood Still"in a Rodgers and Hart revue, "One Damn Thing AfterAnot he r . " C.B. Cochrane, veteran British producer, i nhis book "Showman Looks On" remembers Edythe Baker asone of the great stars of his career, recall ing theRodgers and Hart revue as "introducing to this countryEdythe Baker and her white piano, and the song hit "MyHeart Stood Sti II."

And suddenly Edythe Baker was a British star. A lookthrough a number of British books dealing with the showbusiness world of the 'twenties and 'thirties yieldsseveral references to Edythe Baker: "Little Edythe Bakerfrom Missouri with her white piano," one biographer recalls ... and indeed, her white piano became a trade-mark~

She continued as a star in English revues and cabaretwell into the ' t h i r t i es , and made phonograph records aswell.

The gentleman in England who finally led me to MissBaker herself recalls, "she looked most glamorous onstage, and she was a pioneer in that particular type ofpiano playing, but s he seemed to fade out of the l imelight in the late 'th irties."

"That part icular type of piano playing" evidentallyrefers to a popular-classical approach likely fairlysimilar to Pauline Alpert's; in fact, I was fortunatein meeting an English lady here in Kelowna who had along career as a pianist in the theatre in England andon the Continent, and she recalled Edythe and her careermost vividly . I played a few Baker rolls for her, andshe remar ked that she would never have thought that itwas the same pianist she remembered. A very differents t y l e . .. . l isten ing to other rolls, she said that therewas some s imi l a r i t y t o the Adam Carroll rolls of the'thirties , and a distinct similarity to some recordsPauline Alper t made in the 'forties . Again, she recalledth e whi t e p iano and the elegant appearance Edyth Bakermade on stage.

My British correspondent provided more biographicalinformation. "She married into t he rich d'Erlanger fami ly , and was a prominent figure in the blase Londonsociety of the 1920's. I believe the ma r r i age was nota s ucces s . "

The next word of Edythe Baker comes farther on in C.B. Cochrane's book. In 1943, Cochrane produced a giantre vue called "Seventy Years of Song," featuring tunes

and performers from the seventy years prior to 1943. Andon stage: Edythe Baker at her White Piano, stopping theshow as she did in 1928, with her variations on "MyHeart Stood Sti 11."

Now, the clock moves ahead to 1971. And my friend inEngland, after some fair amount of effort , located MissBaker, and sent me a letter of information on her, whichhe asked me to keep, as far as detail is concerned, inconfidence. And in respect to her, and what she means toall of us, that is how it must be. Suffice it to saythat Edythe Baker , now in all likelihood nearing eighty,is living quietly in England, long since completely retired, and forgotten in the present day except by thoseof us who cherish her piano rolls, and the Engl ish showbusiness enthusiasts who remember her later career.

Now, wi t h a modern recutting program of Edythe Baker'srolls, any Duo-Art owner who wishes may make a generoussampl ing of the delights that the Baker piano of the1920s holds for us--and look forward to the day, notlikely too far off, when even the obscure rolls (andlet 's pray for " Sob-Sister Sadie, The Vamp Cry-Baby ")will once aga in be recall ing to us one of the vibrantpersonal ities of the music world of the 1920's.

VWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWV

Honor ary AMICAn Wilb ur Chenoweth l i steningto one of his r o l.Le at a Southern Cali f orniameeting l as t ye ar.

THE AMICA NEWS BULLETIN

"The range of musical genius is so wide that itwould be the height oi absu rd ity to t ry to compa ss itwit h a few words . Bu t some light perh aps may bega ined by a few reflections upon some o f the g rea tmind s in music with whom I ha ve had the priv ilege o fcoming in contact. In stant ly, Grieg suggests h imself,not merely becau se o f my personal acq ua inta nce with themaste r but also because o f my entire sympathy with hi slitt le-understood ideals. Gri eg seems to me to be pre-eminent ly a ma ste r of th e a rt of condensa tion. Grieg'sge nius lies la rgely in his power to say so much with solittl e. T he av erage person, in d iscussing music, seemsto have the idea th at the greatest musicians were thosewho wrote in the lar gest fo rms ; that is, the form srequir ing the most time and th e most people to performthem. T o such people a cycl orama wou ld be finer thanone of th e exquisite littl e etchings of Rembrandt.

Grieg a Mast er of Cond ensation

In literature no one ever th inks of saying that a man isan inferi or a rt ist because he wr ites poems an d does notwr ite lengthy dramas . In deed, one poem like the"Elegy" o f Gray can win immortality for the author. Inmusic the public seems to regard, a pri ori, the composero f symph onies, operas or orato r ios as a g rea ter masterth an a genius like Chop in, for ins ta nce , whose wo rk sfor the o rches tra ar e vir tually limited to the or chestralaccom pan iment s to the two concertos. Yet in Chopinand in Gr ieg we find a kind o f a rt ist ic cond ensat ion ofthought, mean s and materi al s whi ch is o ften entirelywant ing in the int er minah ly lengthy works of some o fthe wri ters o f the so-call ed large r forms. T his does notmean tha t composers o f the la rge r form s do not at time semploy g rea t condensation o f means. In W agn er andDehussy can be found numberl ess splendid exa mples ofconde nsat ion.

" In music , as in all the ar ts, it is desir abl e th a t every thing should be pruned down until only th e necessa ry remains. Gr ieg was neve r Jed astray fr om what he wa nte dto say. H e turn ed h is attent ion early in life to thestudy and ad aptation of t he Norwegia n Folk TunesT hese sett ing s of hi s nati ve folk mu sic ( wherein h isha rm onic or iginality and unfailing taste and sense o fproportion can full y rank along side the workmanshipof Bach in the lat er' s Chorale-preludes ) have alwayshad a immense fascinat ion for me, particula rly the opus30 for male voices and the opus 66 and op. 72 ('Slaa tter' ) for piano. Th ese 'S laatter ' a rc, as it wer e, theNorwegian equ ivalen t for the 'Tur key in th e Straw'type of tune and are very jolly . There is a fascinat ionabout the stud y of such thing s which is alm ost intoxicat ing. On e can find so much in t hem. I t is like the manwho tak es up the study o f flints for instance The ave rage man may walk over a wh ole field 0 f interestingflints without the ir sugges ting much , or anything , toh im; but the man wh o has mad e a study o f th em willfind one he re and there whic h when proper ly understoodwill ca rry h is imagi na tion back th rough hun dreds ofcentur ies, thru phase upon phase o f the developmentof prim itive man. The No rw egian melodies , and in

Glimpses of GeniusAn Inte rview Sec u re d Exp ressly for T he Et u d e,

with the d is tinguished Pi anis t -Composer

PERCY GRAINGERfact all th e folk melodies o f t hc count r ies main ly popu lat ed by peoples o f No rd ic ra ce ( such as Great Britain,Scand inav ia, th e U nited States} , are of intense interest,hav ing reached the highes t known degr ee o f ind ividualization an d freedom. Gr ieg knew and felt thi svery kee nly. Indeed it was his controlli ng passion inmusic. Ye t the full immensity o f his achievments inthis con nect ion a re not appreciated by the averagemu sicia n, even in No rway- O nly musicians o f the wid estcosm opo litan cu lture, o f the most refined cr it ical sense,a re able to fully sound th e depth s of erudition andsubtlety that lie hid den behind the appar ent simplicityo f much of Gr ieg's music.

"H erman Sand by, whom I regard as the greatest o fall living Scandinavian composer s, and who was myfellow- stu den t in Germany, knew Gri eg and once senthim some of my cho ruses unkn own to me. Grieg wasevid ently pleased, for he re sponded by send ing me anau tog raphed portra it. Lat er , in 1906, whe n he was aguest o f Lady S peyer in Lon don, h is host ess aske d himif he wanted to meet any o f the musicians then in th eg rea t Metropol is. Gr ieg surp ri sed her by sending fo rone o f the youngest and I had the honor o f meetinghim for the first tim e in thi s way . This was the beginning of a frien dsh ip which deepened every day unti l hisdeath in the following year.

Crleg's Love of F reedom

"At thi s t ime (1906 - 1907) Gri eg- was very t ir ed andvery weak ; but he instantly became anima ted when wedi scussed t he subj ect o f folk music in which we wereboth so g reatly intcr ested . The sam e spir it oT independence, the batt le with man-made. a rt ificial conventions ,soon -becarne ev ident. Hi s love for F reedom and Independence wa s perhaps one o f the finest cha rac te ris tics ofhis ge nius. H e det ested useless regul ati on and restra ininginflu ences. H ere is one amusi ng instance o f this tr ait.On th e litt le ra ilway wh ich ran fr om Gri eg's home at

(ED ITO R'S :\OT"~ : Per cy AlrIrhlgoe Grntnger . whosecompositions a nd plnno for te p1n yin~ have won h im Inter nnt lon nl r ecognit ion a8 n centns. di scu sses for th e r end eraof The Etude th e ehn rnr-t eris ties of Rome of t he e ren t mu alc' n ns h r- hn s kn own . It or n nt Br-te b t nn . Anat rnfln . h e wn aflr8 t t r nin cd hy h is mo ther, th en Lou!s Pabst of Mel bour n e,t he n six vonr s with t he ur ent Du tc h nlnno teache r ,1. K WlIRtof F ran kfo rt , In ter, n Nhor t time with Hu snn l. lip mnd e h isprofes s tonn l d ebut at L on don in l n OO wh en h e was sevente .... n , com me ncing n lotl.c: se rif'S uf 'ovat ion s which h nven t tended his nerformances in Eu c lo nd , Scnnrllnavtn .H ollan d , Ne w 7.pn111011, Au strnl ln, Sout h Afrl cn a n d th eUn ft el1 Stn.tes. As n co m poser h o is l nr.cI' I ~' self -t mur h t. If ls('nr ly Inc lf nn tlon s wor-e townr-d t h e po l,vnh on y of Bar-h. hil tlnt er he heenme crea t tv ounmonrorl of f olk "ol1g nnrl pr -lmtttve1111181(' In rn- ner nl , mnkl ne extr-nst vo In ve s tlzntl ons of a llma nn er of f olk find n borl rrfnn! SOlle'~ . eolt ectl nz Rom p fl\' Ph l1nllr Prl pho no rrrn pblc records o f t our-s fr om mnn v rlilff'un tpeoplea . 'Th e enmb lnn ti on of tht>~f' two intlul"ncps (o f I tnr -ha nd of folkmua lc } n re ('hi efly ncc nuntuble fo r the mostaalten t ch nr nc terl s tl ca of Gr:lin ~f'r 's creatlve " st yle.""'hil l' h I" has em ployed many t ra dit iona l melodies i n hi sco mnostttons. man y of his own run es, nftn gr-the r or -i rrfnn lwith h im, h ave been s o Id enti fted wi t h th e folk-ao nzg r fu'C tha t man y ha ve been de eel ved Into hollevl ne t hntthey were nnclent d t t tfes . Mr. Grn lnl?pr' R eompnsf t tona Inlarger form are not 80 wen known as " Molly on th e Shore ,""Sheperd 's H ey " or "Han del In th e St ra nd ;" but t hose whoh a ve see n the sco re of h Is " l\Ifirch ln2' 80n 2' of Dem ocracy ,"" Hl lfso n ga ," "The w an- to-e" a nd ot her wor-ks cast on abi~ scal e r eali ze that In whatever field hi s gent ns Isemplo yed he ascends to very great nnd mas terly heights.)

...._::...._ ~ EDVAAD (JR ; f; 'i]P ......__....

H op to thc ncighbor ln!,: city -o f Ber gen, the conductorswere re quir ed to tear o ff th e ticket in per son. The ticketwa s suppo sed to be void if the passenger tore it off. T oshow his contempt for wh at he regarded as an absurdregu lation, Gri eg, with his ch ar acter istic impishnes s, a lways wait ed until the conduc tor came in view an d thendelibe rately tore o ff the coupon unde r the conductor'snose.

T he Ar t of Breaking Rules"Gr icg's independence in th is and a thousan d other

instance s was typi cally Nor weg ian. But while t he Nor weg ians, and .in fact al1 Scandinavia ns, a re extremelystubborn, dar ing and manly when occasion demand s, yetthey a re the fartherest of all peoples fro m being foolhar dy, quarrelsome and rec kless . They are br ave, bu tthey seld om take a needless chance. No amount ofmoney would induce a Dani sh coast -guardsman ( Li feboa t ca pta in ) that I know, to take his boat out in a seathat he thought unsa fe; but if he saw that lif e was tobe saved th er eby he woul d venture out wi tho ut thoughtof h is own self-i nteres ts. They enjoy break ing ru leswhic h th ey th ink a re needless, yet are observa nt enoughof those of who se r eal necessity they a re pe rsona llyconvinced. Scandinavia is pcrs01wl , ind iri dualistic inall things and on that account is not always properlyund erst ood by races that lead a mor e slavi sh and narnbyparn by nat ional li fe ; wh ich reminds me o f t~ lO SC sc in t ila ting lines o f Geor ge Bernard Sh aw , ' Disobed ience,the rarest and noblest of the virtues, is o ften -nistak cnfor neg ligence, the commonest and meanest of the vices.'

"The man ner in which Grieg' s ge nius led him to g-iveattention to detail s may he indicated by th e followinganecdote . I explai ned to him in our convers ations inNorweg ian ( Gr ieg spoke En gli sh and German, but pre ferred to speak in his nat ive tongue) that many o f thetran slati ons of his songs wer e ver y in fer ior. H e acce ptedmy services in trying to bett er th ese transla t ions. Hewould o ften spend one or two hour s of in tense thoughtover th e pr oper mean ing and sign ificance o f just a fewwords. Indeed h is con cent rat ion and persistance weresuch that th ey would wear ou t the average per son. H isapplicat ion to detail wa s limitless. Nothing was toosma ll to merit his closest att entio n.

"To Gri eg , the a r tistic end took precedence over ever ything else. On ce in Ber gen a great festival o f No rweg-ian music was plann ed . Gri eg was give n charge o fthe event an d immediat ely got himself in hot wat er bymaking ar ran gements to bri ng over the famou s Con~crtgeboow Or chest ra from H olland with Mcngclherrr asconductor. Many o f the musicians o f No rway took th etim e-old atti tud e that, since th e Festi val was Norwegianin spiri t an d characte r , an al ien orchest ra wa s not wel come. Gr ieg's pat rioti sm, on the othe r han d, took th estand that only th e very best exi sting orc hes tra wasgood enough for a fest ival o f No rwegian mu sic and sincethere wa s in Norway no orchest ra as fine as t he Concer tgeboo w, it woul d be mi stak en patriot ism to have anythingbut the best when the best was available. H e was soper sistent that he won th e day an d had the D ut ch Con ductor and player s to h is heart's content.

8


and reveals more or less affinity with a similar 'Northern'psychology in the works of other Norwegian creatorsin other branches of art, such as Ibsen, Bjornson, VinjeArne Garborg, Munch and Johan Sinding.

"Those who had the good fortune to hear Griegperform his own compositions, whether as a pianist or asa conductor, are more likely to be alive to the heroicand intense attributes of his art than those less luckyin this respect; for Grieg was nothing if not extremelyvirile and dynamic as an interpreter of his works. Always a poet, but above .all, always a man. As a rulehis tempi were faster than those usually heard in performances of Grieg works by other artists; and invariably the enthralling wistfulness and poetic appeal of hisrenderings knew no trace of sentimentality or mawkishness. Strong and sudden accents of atr~ds and vividcontrasts of light and shade were the outstanding featuresof his self-interpretations; while the note of passionthat he sounded was ofa restless and feverish ratherthan of a violent nature. Extreme delicacy and exquisiteness of detail were present in his piano playing; andaltho the frailty of his physique, in the later years atleast, withheld him"from great displays of rugged forceat the keyboard, yet, when occasion required, he prizedarid demanded those resources in others.

"In short, the general human tendencies of the heroic,active, poetic, excitedly emotional Norwegian race fromwhich he sprang all seemed to be faithfully portrayedin his renderings of his own compositions, as were, noless, the characteristics of the hillscapes and fjordscapesof his native land. The brilliant coloring and strikingclarity of the scenes, the almost indescribable exhilaration of the northern atmosphere, all were mirrored in hismusic.

"Grieg eschewed all 'muddiness' or obscurity of tonaleffect in writing for the piano or other instruments;and the performer of Grieg's music should try torealize the composer's prediliction for the bright andclear and' clean sonorities.

This unusually interesting interview will beconcluded in The Etude for November when Mr.Grainger will give recollections of Cyril Scott,Busoni and Richard Strauss.

OOTOBER 19S1 tus ETUDEPage B8S

"In fact, this adamant character in Grieg's geniusmust be apparent to anyone really familiar with his music.Even in the lightest, most gossamer of his compositionsthere is a solid background indicating the character of theman. Grieg had certain impish traits that few peopleknow but which may be imagined easily by anyone whohas taken the trouble to become intimately acquainted withhis works. Once a Danish composer visited Grieg at hishotel and bored the master to death with his compositions,which were highly reminiscent of the music of Griegand other composers. Grieg with his love of originality,was quick to sense this and was disgusted. At last theDanish composer got up to go and failed to find hisover-coat where he had left it in the cloak-room. Heinferred that someone had taken it. Grieg's impishreply was quick. 'Surely you are not going to complainabout someone stealing your overcoat when you yourself steal from us all.'

"During the many. wonderful days spent in the com-pany of Grieg, so varied were the experiences that it'would take a very long time to recount them- Hispride in Norwegian scenery was unbounded. Althoughit was only with great effort that he could climb, heinsisted on taking me up to the top of the mountain nearBergen. It was called 'Blaamanden' (the Blue Man).Finally, when after great exertion he reached the top,his thoughts turned to the characteristic Norwegianrustic music and he said, 'Here we need a peasantfiddler to play a dance for us.' The view was ex-ceptionally lovely, and, as Grieg looked out over thevalley$ so dear to him, his voice was tinged with melan-choly as he said, 'Alas, I shall never get up here again.'He died a few weeks thereafter."

How Grieg Played"Sir Charles Villiers Stanford has called Grieg

'a minature Viking,' and there is much truth in thisremark; for a certain fresh or tragic primitivenessmixed with a somewhat eerie and ethereal spiritualitymarks off Grieg's music from his mid-European fellowRomanticists such as Mendelssohn, Schumann or Chopin,

AMPICO ROYALTIES & THE MOST HATED MAN IN THE WORLD

by Doug Hickling

EXCERPTS FROM PART IIIOF COURSE IN AMPICO SALESMANSHIP 1924

contributed by Doug Hickling

VI: BE SPECIFIC IN PROVING STATEMENTS

Fred Rydeen informs me that George G. Foster, President of American Piano Company, once told him that therewere two living men whom he hated more than any othersin the world--the Kaiser and Charles Fuller Stoddard.

Foster, of course, really didn't hate Stoddard. Installation of the AMPICO, at fairly nominal cost,enabled his company -to double the price of a piano andthereby multiply its profit by an even greater factor.Fos ter and the American Piano Company had a really fantastic money-maker in the AMPICO and no doubt Fosterand Stoddard were both amazed at its success. Still,Foster, as an astute businessman, could hardly help butnotice that his company was paying Stoddard a large sumof money in royalties in addition to the salary he received. It is Mr. Rydeen's recollection that theseroyalties amounted to $50.00 for each AMPIOO grand pianosold and $25.00 for each upright.

11111111111111111111

Talking in simple, non-technical language does notmean talking in generalities. Nor does it mean evadingthe technical points that are raised. By no means. Thepurpose of the demonstration is to make clear and vividto the prospect what the Ampico is and what it does.And this can best be done by specific facts and statements.

If the subject you are covering with a prospect ismechanics or music--or anything e1se--avoid generalalities. Stick to specific statements and use illustrations wherever possible. If you call attention to aneffect produced in piano-playing, show how it can beproduced on the Ampico. Demonstrate it, just as thesalesman demonstrated the working of the crescendopneumatic by playing The Lark. A generality, such as,"the crescendo pneumatic enables the Ampico to re-enactthe artist's playing with all the color and delicateshadings of the original," is not as convincing or as


effective as letting the prospect hear the Ampico playa selection containing crescendos and delicate nuances.

In the same way, general claims about artists arenot as convincing as the fact that "the Ampico has 235concert pianists--a much l arger number than can beheard on any other reproducing instrument." Gp.neralclaims regarding the excellence of these artists arenot as effective as naming a number of them specifically--"Rachmaninoff and Dohnany I , leading composers as wellas virtuosos of the piano; Rosenthal and Godowsky, preeminent master of the piano; Levitzki, Lhevinne and Ornstein, great concert pianists who have a rare facultyfor catching and rendering the poetry of music; Leginska, Ney, Schnitzer and Bloomfield-Zeisler, the fourmost gifted women pianists"; and so on through thelist.

The citation of actual facts about the Library ofRecordings and the naming of specific selections ofvarious types give a better impression regarding thelibrary than the statement that "we have the finest library of piano music in the world."

General statements should be used only to summerizespecific facts and specific information about the supremacy of the ·Ampi c o . This point is especially i mportant, because practically all reproducing instrumentsmake the same general claims about the beauty of themusic they reproduce and abou t their artists. The on l yway to make our statements about the Ampico stand outand carry conviction is by backing up each statementwith specific proof. It is to help you do this, thatthis course has been prepared. Use the information youhave. Drive eac h poi nt about Arrrpico supremacy home s othat it wi U mean some thing de f ini te t o the pro spect .

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The #2l 334 appe ars on the player action of t he pianoon t he righ t . A l .i: titil:e l -obe l: on t he pump be l.l oiae o f thele ft piano s ays "Themodi s t." No dat e on original phot o .Con t ribut ed by Kenne t h Snowden .

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Aggressive mer chandising of The Ampioo in the Wichita, Kansas area by means of a tuo-paqe (8 1/2 x 11)letter, here reduced in size f or printing on a single page . The front page cons isted of an i ndividuaZZytyped letter ; the se cond page , i n color, showed the s oaiaU y eli te ; and the third page of fe red ani nvi t at i on to expe rience th e marve l s of The Ampico . Cont ributed by Bi ZZ Pix l ey .

I'" T" ~ "I STO R YOI' MUS r c/

/

AMPICOry,.~ .,..., ,,,, ,,,~!,",,,,,,

MASON 6- H A M LI NKNA BE . • . • . • .CH IC KEP..IN GJ .~ C . F IS C HER • . H AI N ES BROS.

MAP5Ht\ U bWENDELL. AMPICO SYMPHONIQ ULTHEWlLUS (.it.~

Elutrically opeoued modeu - $750 to $4,500. An initial pfiymtnt o/ IC% will pi4ce an Ampl'coin Y OU1'home. The remainder is payabl$ over a period 0/ two y earl.

Salonl in principal ciliu

Jacobs Bend , Milton Delcemp -e-the Iwift andrhythmic music of Broad way, played by suchmasters ofeynccpetion as Lopee.Confr ey.Cerrol l,

Th e Ampico is an integra l part oCthe piano.It reproduces through the piano itsd f - bringing you the actual voice of the instru ment inits full bee uty-c-p ermi tt ing you to stud y closelyth e method an d Cone of funous pieni eee-c-i nepiri ng you and lour chi ldre n in your ownplaying.Th e Ampico does not in any way changethe app ear ance, tone or action of th e pian o.

You cannot fully believe in th is miracl e ofth e Amp ico unti l you hear it! Co, at your fireroppornmity. tc th e etore wh ere th e pien oe lisredhelo...... ar e sold . Ask to have the Arnpico pla yfor you . program oCyou r own selection . . . Donot postp one th is Iescinetin g expe rience!

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You hav e heard grf>at pienc performances . . •In a crowded concert han, l ome world -fam edgeoiu. pleying tc hushed hundred s. Walungthemost glorioua of . 11 instru ments to glorioue Iife.Heleesing, with incredib le fingen , th e Iloode ofme lody you have longed to hear-waited p.~

tienely to bear-c-treveied far, perh ap s, to hear.

On ce there was no other ",ay 10 heat gre atpiano music, Bue no...... in the quiet or your ownhom e, ) 'OU can hen , an y evening, ccnce rta morewond erful IIIill. To your own waitin g pia no th eAmpi co will brin g the pla ying, not of one arti stalon e, but of pracricelly .11 the femoue arti stsof th e world. You merel y touch an electri cbutton- chen relax in your chair to liste n.

All in one eveningyou may hear great c1a1l8icalcompce it ions pla yed by euch concert pieni ete asCodow eky, Orloff, Hoeen thel , Lhevinne-welJloved ballad s played by Victor Herb ert, Carri e

I'O RT" !; MO ST

lHE AMICA NEWS BULLETIN

THE POST-WAR AMERICAN WELTE COMPANY, PART nby Doug Hickling

GITI1NS PREPARES TO BUILD DISTINGUISHED ORGANS

In May, 1925, Gittins announced the appointment ofRobert Pier Elliot as vice-president of the WelteMignon Corporation and general manager of its organbusiness. A superb and well~knawn organ architect andbusinessman, Elliot was,"at the time of his appointment,manager of the W. W. Kimball Co. organ department. Itwas under Elliot's direction that Kimball startedbuilding significant pipe organs of high quality, acharacteristic for which Kimball pianos were not wellknown.

Born in Michigan in 1871, Elliot was employed as avery young man by the pipe organ firm of Granville Wood& Sons of Northville, Michigan. The firm of Farrand &Votey acquired the Wood plant, and Elliot served hisapprenticeship with Farrand & Votey up to and after thatcompany took over ~he Roosevelt organ business and theVotey organ business was acquired by the Aeolian Company.While with Farrand & Votey, Elliot became acquaintedwith John T. Austin and later followed Austin to theClough & Warren Company where the first Austin organswere bui 1t ,

A few years later, Elliot and John T. Austin organizedthe Austin Organ Company at Hartford, Conn., and Elliotbecame its vice-president. He was then instrumental inbringing Robert Hope-Jones to the United States and hestepped down to the position of secretary of Austin sothat Hope-Jones could assume the post of vice-president.During a stay in England he obtained the Americanrights to manufacture the Kinetic organ blower, and whenHope-Jones left the Austin Company in 1905, Elliot leftalso and organized and became president of the KineticEngineering Company. He then spent a few years in themining and smelting business in Latin America, returningin 1909 to serve as president of the Hope-Jones OrganCompany of Elmira, New York, this company going out ofbusiness in 1910, at which time its assets were takenover by the Wur1iTzer Company. The peripatetic Mr.Elliot then became vice-president of the CaliforniaOrgan Co., a predecessor of the Robert Morton Company,at Van Nuys, California, and in 1914 became easternmanager of W. W. Kimball Co., going to the company'sChicago factory as manager of the organ department in1918.

In announcing Elliot 1s appointment, Gittins alsostated that an additional story, provided for in theoriginal building plans, would be added to the organfactory .

Elliot hired Carl A. Benson, formerly head of theKimball electric department, as superintendent of theWelte organ factory and Frank H. Niemann, Kimball'sPhiladelphia representative, as assistant superintendent. G. A. Dominique was placed in charge of the design and construction of Welte windchests, work whichhe formerly supervised for Kimball. The Welte consoledepartment was put under the supervision of Albin W.Johnson, who had for a long time been assistant foremanof the Skinner console department.

Gittins and Elliot now proceeded to set up a pipemaking and voicing department. James H. Nuttall was

brought in from California for several weeks to layoutscales, make pipe patterns, and advise in the selectionof equipment. Nuttall came to American with Hope-Jones,with whom he had been associated. While with Hope-Jones,Nuttall built the first diaphone for the Worcester Cathedral organ and he also invented the valvular reed typeof Diaphone. After spending many years with the WurliTzer Company, Nuttall retired to California. From thenon he supervised the installation and did the finishingof virtually all Welte organs sold in the west.

J. Vern Fridlund, manager of organ service for Kimball, was made assistant manager of the Welte organdivision. He had been with Kimball for fifteen years.

David Arthur was employed as the head reed voicer andArthur Birkmaier as the head flue voicer. In 1911,Arthur left England where he had received his trainingwith several firms, particularly Henry Willis & Sons.In this country, he was associated with Hope-Jones andfor many years was with the Rudolph WurliTzer Company.David Arthur1s nephew, Henry Vincent Willis--grandsonof the famous IIFatherll Henry Willis, the nineteenthcentury English organ builder--thereafter joined Welteas a consultant.

Although the Welte organ factory had long since beenAmericanized, a number of the original German craftsmen,brought to this country by M. Welte Sons, Inc. prior toWorld War 1, remained with the business, includingRudolph Glatz, Paul Sawada, and George Goll.

An article appearing in Diapason in 1926 stated:

In mechanical equipment the new Welte pipe-makingplant is complete. It has a machine-shop with turret andplain lathes and milling machines, heavy and light dieand punch presses, including one up to twenty-five tonscapacity, and even a power shear whi ch cuts a full sheetof zinc at one stroke. A new type of gas furnace withair compressor .will be used for melting the metal, anda fine casting table set on a concrete "floor is anotherimportant part of the metal pipe making equfpmerrt , Thecasting room is in a separ-ate buf.Ldfng adjoinin,g thefacto~ proper. Wood pipe making is equally well provided for, with plenty of suitable machine~, steamboxes, and other equipment. '

1926 produced a sudden increase in orders for organsof all kinds. Even though the nulTtber of organ factoryemployees had more than doubled in thE! past year, thecompany found it necessary to place full-page advertisements for help in ~apason. The Bronx was describedin idyllic terms:

Organ builders, Why not live in a clean city whi choffers eve~ advantage of good schools, ehurches, music,lectures, art and other museums, the scenic river ofAmerica. the seashore, beautiful. roads in all directions,a splendid climate • with social, educational and entertainment conditiona unequaled? Where there is abundant,pure, clear, soft water brought underground, uncontamin-ated, from the Catskill mountains. "

Prospective employees were assured of a favorable


working environment:

The Welte Organ Factory is among the best equipped inthe trade . It is new, f ireproof , light , well he at e d andventilated . The machinery is of the most modern, allindi viduall y motored and f itt e d with app roved s afetyappliances, and includes equipment fo und i n no otherorgan f ac tory . I n the ma chine shop , besi des t urn ing outorgan har dware and s upplies, we have built i nt ricat eand perf e ct - wor ki ng machines f or our own use , includingmusi c r ol l cutting machines , or gan and pi ano recordingmachines, etc ., etc.

The company emphasized that i t s workmen did not haveto handle second-rate supplies:

The mat e r i als work ed are i n every r e s pe ct the bestfor their us es, bought right an d manufactured right . Themarkets are s e arche d fo r pe r f ect pneumati c skins , evenwhen thi s involves per s onal vi s it s to other cities .First qu ali ty Cali fo rni a s ugar pine is shippe d i n t her ough after ai r dryi ng on the Pa cifi c Coast , s tackedand f urthe r air drie d i n our yards , ki l n dried in ourscientific humidifying kilns, dressed i n our own mill.

The f ines t h ar dwoods are similarly treated. The besthot gl ue sys t em with plenty of warming ovens. Pureor an ge shellac . Si l ve r contacts. A magne t said by allwho have s een i t , bot h professional and lay critics,to surpass all others , both i n appearance and wor k i ngqUali ties- -expens i ve , but worth it. Flame-proof, moi s ture-proof manufactured cable. St r a i t s t i n an d purel ead cast in our own shop--no ready made metal us ed.

In case a prospective employee had any remainingdoubts , he was assured that " t he operating officialsare men of h igh ideals ... and Saturday is a half holidaythe yea r I round."

In December, 1926, a new organ erection room wascompleted at the New York factory. At the same time ,the metal pipe shop was increased in size by 150% andspace in the piano factory was taken over for actionmanufacturing work, this being possible by improvedmethods of storing pianos in process and finished, whi chdoubled the capacity of some floors. At this point theorgan facto ry contained 50,000 square feet and the pianofacto ry twice that amount.

PLAYERPIANOS

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THE WILCOX & WHITE co, MERIDEN. CONN._ba.... ZIotalaU.lld 187'1 ~AIle- _ ....

The iaords "Pl ayer> Action Nanufaeturedby Kr>ani ch & Bach, " and "Ins talled Exclusively i n Kr>anich & Bach Pi ano"appear> at th e back of the draaer i nth e or>iginal phot ogr>aph . They ar>e notLeqib le i n this copy . No date onox-iqi nal. photo . conta-ib uted byKenneth Snowden.


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14

REVIEWINGTHE REVIEWER!

by Lawrence Jacob Abbott

contributed by Bill Pixley

Recently I enjoyed the novelty of discovering a series of reviews covering newpiano roll and phonograph record releases in Outlook Magazine. The periodcovered is March 18, 1925 and the first issueeach month through August, 1927.The reviewer is Lawrence Jacob Abbott.(JuZy 7, 1926)DOLCE FAR NIE"NTE-Tunes t-rom the Eighteenth Century,No.5 (Baue») , PZayed by Harol-d Bauer. DUO-ART.

As a composition, "number five" i8 not of outetandinqbeauty. As a fai thJ"ul »eoord of Bauev te superb touchand interpretabion, this piano roll is far from oonmonpZace.(February 2, 1927)POLONAISE NO. 2 E MAtJTOR (Lisst). Plcqed by PhiZZipGordon. AMPICO.

A piece that xequisee euperl.atriue gusto. Mr. cordonachieved this most of the time, and makes good use ofcontrasting deZica~~.

(August 4, 1926)WTUS LA}jD, Op,' 47, No. 1 (Scott). PZayed by C':JPilBcotiti, Al@ICO.

Cyril, Scott is poet; Lhrouqh: and through. He l.ikeerich sensuous harmonies and doee not hesitate to admi-t:it--as his music ehoae, Both the piece itself and hisperformance of it are interesting as a creation ofimpressionistic tor~ coZops.

fttttttttttttttttttt

The QRS company's new 8-1/2"x 11" full page 1971catalog lists 3000 titles, which include over 100 Recordorolls and a Recordo test roll.

As a special salute to Pete Wendling, his 1915 recording of "Vaaka Hula Hickey Dula" has been released forAmpico (roll AMP-1001), Duo-Art (DA-1001), Recordo(M-1001), and S8-note players (Q-1001). This is an excellent selection which was included as one of threecombined Wendl ing rolls offered on AMI CA's 1ist ofAmpico rolls to be recut.

This is QRS's first issue of a roll for the Ampicoand Duo-Art reproducing pianos. Could it be a "feeler"to sample the reproducer market? Time will tell.

The catalog itself is attractive and informative.The front page shows oval pictures of 16 well knownplayer piano artists. Inside, 1/2 page explains how QRSrolls are made and is illustrated with four pictures.The "Salute to Pete Wendl ing" tells briefly of his career and shows Mr. and Mrs. Wendling examining a QRScatalog on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary •

Between the front and back covers, rolls are listedin many catagories--even a roll played by Dick Hyman:"Moog: the Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman."

The last page lists roll repair parts and paper,tracker ba r pump, "Ri nkey Tink" attachmen t , i nexpens iveroll cabinet, books and records.

A custom roll recutting service is also offered whichstates: IIlf you have a standard length rolL which youwould like to have copied, QRS can supply you with 13copies (with words) for $78."

WHWHWHWHWHWHWHWHWMW

A-oNE AND A-TWO GETS RESULTS

A couple of Bulletins back, Alan Pier made a requestfor additional titles and information on the "A••• " rollson Universal. Both Dick Sch1aich and Alan Mueller responded with lots of titles! So here they are, with 88note, 65 note and Themodist-Metrosty1e numbers:

TITLE 8~ote 65-note TMABEAR 300527 100235ABEAUT 300807 100535ABIRD 301047 100809ACORKA arranged 98935 79347ADANDY by 99615 79589ADAZIE Herman 301003 100757AHUMMER Avery 300517 100219AHURRAH Wade 301725 101059ALALAPALOOSA 301319 100999APEACH 300747 100457APIPIN 300493 100187ABlOT 301665 101057ARIPPER 301813 101087AROUSER 301163 100899ASPARKLER 301477 100989ASTAR 301243 100965ASTUNNER 300879 100599AWHALE 301403 100949AWHOPPER 301497 101025AWINNA 99295 74489AWUNDA 97285 97075AZIPPER 301603 101037

A-BOUNCER 302372 30237'3 101097A-BULLY 302044 302045 101125A-CUCKOO 302034 302035 101119A-DAZZLER 302312 302313 101187A-DREAMER 302378 302379A-FIZZY 302436 302437 101227A-GOOD MIXER 302212 302213 101147A-JINGLER 302264 302265 101175An-OK 302598 - 302599 101269A-PEPPER POT 302462 302463 101237A-RING DINGER 302592 302593 101267A-RIP SNORTER 302178 302179 101137A-STARTLER 302432 302433 101217A-TINGLER 302574 302575 101257A-TOPPER 301952 101953 101105A-WIDE AWAKE 302484 302485 101207AZAZA 302214 302215 101149

A-BANNER 303034 303035A-HEADLINER 303006 303007A-HIGH-FLYER arranged 302916 302917A-HUNKY-DORY by 303084 303085A-RIPPLER Edwin 302906 302907A-SIZZLER E. 302748 302749A-SPIC-AND-SPAN Wilson 302674 302675A-SURE-WINNER 302964 302965A-SURPRISE 301778 301779A-TICKLER 302834 302835A-WHIRLWIND 302958 302959A-WHIZZER 302668 302669

""""""""""


My records indicate that Ampico issued sevenMoonlight Sonata rolls. These rolls are as follows:

AMPICO GOOFED!

by Dick Howe

Thus the long play roll was about 30 seconds fasterthan the total running time of the individual rolls.This is about the same result you would obtain bytaping the two individual rolls together to make along play roll.

13:1012:40

7:106:40

Harold BauerHarold BauerJosef LhevinneJosef LhevinneIgnace Jan PaderewskiIgnace Jan PaderewskiJosef Lhevinne

6:006:00

1st Mvt 2nd & 3rd Mvt Total

1st Mvt.2nd & 3rd Mvts.1st Mvt.2nd & 3rd Mvts.1st & 2nd Mvts.3rd Mvt.1st, 2nd, & 3rd Mvts.

Individual RollsLong Play Roll

Since all rolls were marked tempo 75, I nextchecked them by overlaying and the perforation lengthswere identical. My next thought was that the longplay had been recut from the individual rolls withoutadjusting the cutting speed for the 2nd and 3rd movements. Hal Powell assured me that the recut was thesame as the original so I decided to check theoriginal. Since I was unable to borrow an original tocheck against the other rolls on my piano, I askedVernon Brown to measure his original [only the mostavid roll researchers will agree to measure a roll].These measurements yielded the following results:

I recently purchased a high-quality recut of thelong play roll (100185). When I played this roll itseemed that the 2nd and 3rd movements played somewhatfaster than the original Lhevinne roll (67283-H).This was verified with a stop watch which gave thefollowing results:

50405-H50337-H66613-H67283-H7177371783100185

Individual Rolls 109'-10"Recut LP 109'-10"Original LP 109'-11"

After timing and measuring the various rolls, Ihave concluded that Ampico goofed. Either the 2nd and3rd movements are playing too fast on the long playroll or too slow on the individual roll.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

inaccurate player, always needed a lot of editing. It isalso possible to perform feats that no pianist coulddream of doing--miraculously full chords and fantasticarpeggios. The old and very popular pianola style ofrolling bass and octave tremolo was never actuallyplayed by pianists. It was punched in afterwards. Thepotentialities of the player once got musicians veryexcited. Busoni was going to write a special work forone but died before he got around to it.

MUSIC ROLLS(FROM FORTUNE MAGAZINE, DECEMBER, 1934)

contributed by Ed Sprankle

Like the piano industry (see page 99), the playerpiano-roll industry has had tough sledding. But whilethe piano industry has good hopes of recovering, theplayer-roll industry looks very much as if it might not.Only ten years ago it was a $6,000,000 industry and waspoundf.ng its way day in and day out into American life.But now it is almost completely archaic and a bit wistful. Sales in 1931 were only $428,000, and this yearthey will be less than half that. There is only one veryactive company in the business--the Imperial IndustrialCorporation, nee the famous QRS CO .--and that is beingkept up largely because Mr. Max Kortlander takes thebusiness to heart.

QRS was the great roll name though no one knew forsure what the name stood for--maybe Quali ty, Real Service. A QRS salesman passed through Grand Rapids in 1915and heard young Max Kortlander play the piano. He spottedMax as a natural for player rolls and persuaded him to goto Chicago. So Ma~ became one of the biggest player-rollnames, ranking with Pete Wendling and Lee S. Roberts. In1919 he wrote a song called TeZZ Me (Why nights are lonely; tell me, why days are blue") , which was sold for$100,000, the highest lump sum any popular song evergot. As QRS slipped softly into its decline, Hr. Kortlander became a Director and in 1931 bought out themusical end of the business. He calls it Imperial Industrial Corp., because with a name like that he can gointo any business. He plans to stick to rolls until heactually loses money--he says he hasn1t lost any yet.

Imperial puts out about twenty new rolls a month andgets a steady call for old recorded numbers like theBZue Danube. Sacred songs sell well and so does foreignmusic--Polish, Bohemian, and German, with Greek pickingup fast. South America is the best export field. I~

perial's biggest rivals are Ampico and Duo-Art, reallythe same company. But they make rolls that can be playedonly on their own pianos. They have big names likePaderewski and Hofmann on their rolls but don't make anymoney and never did make much. Their only new output ispopular stuff, no classical. Hardly any player pianosare made.

You probably know the principle of the player piano.In the player piano is a perforated cylinder over whichthe roll passes. When air is sucked in through a hole inthe cylinder, a note plays. When you want to play C, youpooch a hole in the paper so that it will pass over theC hole in the cylinder. This makes it possible for anyone to make a piano roll by punching holes in paper.Which is just the way Imperial makes its rolls today.Mr. J. Lawrence Cook, a Negro, sits at his desk, a pianoat his side, and plays a few bars of a song on the piano,arranging as he goes along. Then he draws lines on a rollof paper to indicate notes. Then someone punches holeswhere the lines are drawn, and there is your piano roll.It never gets near a piano until you play it. Mr. Cookdoes an average roll in two or three hours and is veryadept at imitating the styles of popular pianists.

Ampico and Duo-Art scorn this cheaper method; theirrolls are actually played and interpreted-~as the oldQRS rolls were. It is, naturally, always possible tocorrect an interpretation by pasting up a wrong note orpunching in an omitted one. Paderewski, a notoriously

THE AMICA NEWS BU·LLETIN

RECORDO BANNER STILL FLIESPART V: RECORDO ROLLS

by Bob Billings

A & B RECORDO REVISITED. ROLLS DESCRIBED.

When this series began I explained that the Recordostory was under construction and subject to change. Hereis the first major change.

In the last few months we have acquired a number ofImperial Automatic Electric rolls, which replaced Recordo and QRS Recordo rolls in our collection. The theorywas lithe older the more authen t l c ," or something likethat. The first thing I noticed was that the Imperialseries extended a year further than lid thought earlier--close to 1922. Second, as I began to write aboutrolls, originally the subject of this article thesimilarities between Imperial and Recordo bec~me moreapparent. Ginny made a convnent which eventually led toa new understanding of the A & B Recordo: III find ithard to believe that Recordo made so many rolls in oneyea r of ex is tence , II In a momen t of i nspi ra t ion I compared an Imperial and a Recordo roll of the same number.The notes were identical, but 10 and behold! The expression coding was different! The Imperial AutomaticElectric used A coding, the Recordo B coding. Now someof the questions raised earlier are answered.

Why did the Cab1e/ Euphona B system use the sametracker bar as the H. C. Bay A system? Why did the A &B systems apparently coexist in 1916? Why was a B testroll (#6910) issued early in the A series? Why did QRSRecordo make no effort to differentiate between A andB rolls? Why did Recordo and Imperial use the samelabels, boxes, paper and spools? Why should Recordo haveexisted at all?

Very simple. Imperial issued the Automatic ElectricA rolls and the Recordo Standardized Reproducing B rollssimultaneously. (Along with Solo-Caro1a, which used thesame note masters. Note to Jeffrey Finn: I have compared Solo Carola to Imperia1/Recordo, and they areidentical in notes and hammer rail lift.) Imperial issued both series until late 1921, lid guess, since wehave absolutely no Imperials after then, but plenty ofRecordos. After early 1922 it would seem that the Asystem was dropped and only B rolls were issued. As liveproven before, though, such speculation may prove incorrect. Does anyone have an Imperial Automatic Electricroll with a number higher than 658601

When QRS acquired Recordo in late 1923 they carriedon the B system, using the Recordo masters rather thanthe Automatic Electric. This explains why QRS neverdifferentiated between A and B rolls. QRS issued onlyB rolls, until 1926.-The QRS Recordo rolls live comparedare identical with the same numbered Recordo rolls innotes and expression. I have found no QRS Recordo rollscoded for A. Yet.

Here is what I know of the rolls, boxes and numberingsystem to date ...

Selmer Nielsen has more Recordo titles and brandsthan anyone else I know, and says the following brandsplay on the Recordo:

1. Imperial Automatic Electric2. Recordo3. QRS Recordo

4. Aria Divina Reproducing Roll5. u.S. Auto Art6. Symphonola7. Rose Valley Reproducing8. Vocalstyle Reproducing9. Voca1sty1e Reproduco

10. Vocalstyle Home Recital Series11. Me10dee Expression Roll12. Pianosty1e for Expression Reproducing Pianos13. Gulbransen Expression Roll (one copy known)14. International for Expression Reproducing ~ianos

15. Mastertouch Expression Roll (Austral ian).

Following are some characteristics noted from rollsin our collection. Except for Imperial, Recordo and QRSRecordo the samples are quite small, and may not berep resen ta t ive ,

1. IMPERIAL AUTOMATIC EL~CTRIC (A SYSTEM)Box: Black, 2-1/4 11 x 2-1/411 to 2-3/411 x 311

•

~: Light blue, dark blue printing. Word rolls hadan additional red stamp reading "sonqrecoj-d.." Boxlabel used on roll leader.

Paper: Sturdy waxed, light brown.Numbering Sequence: Rolls numbered in order of issue,

beginning with 1 and going to about 590. The highest Imperial we have is 586. Prefixing each sequential roll number was a 6, ending each numberwas an O. Thus I became 610, 586 became 65860.

. Word rolls had an addi t ional 115 11 or "0 11 prefix.~: Difficult to determine since we have no cata

logs and the rolls were not dated until 1920. Nomonth coding was used. First roll was probablyissued in 1916, the last in late 1921.

2. RECORDO (B SYSTEM)Box: same as Imperial.~: Same as Imperial, omitting red stamp for word

rolls. Fi rst mention of "Standardized Electricll

reproducing system. IIChicagoll at bottom of label.Box label used on roll leader.

Paper: Same as Imperia~.

Numbering Sequence: Same as Imperial, except extending to about #800. Prefix IISI1 or 110'" is omitted


Air de BaBet. No. •Played by Herma MentJl

CTto7llinade

r'fJais 'Roll is~alJCutforthi ..

AnaDivinaReproducing Action

X2016Sweet Forget-Me-NotsCOI'y.illhteJ1917 Sllll~ FoA. Puh. Co.

Milesf1.AnD IV ROI£aT RaMAYNf

,1$

A-613430CALLIRHOE

lnteran.&&oPi_I", ('OfA M,' H.....

Vider lie..bertCopy., W'tm••k

MUSrc 1.00 ON"Y

£QDlJ@Q~Lr*R EPROD UC'.NG ROl.L.

5. ARIA DIVINA: TYPE I, MEL-a-DEE STYLE (B SYSTEM)Box: Same as Mel-a-Dee Expression, size 2-1/411 x--2- 1/4 11 to 311 X 311 •

Label: Same as Mel-O-Dee Expression except black in---stead of brown printing and Aria Divina nomen-

clature. Box label on leader.Paper: Same as Mel-O-Dee Expression.Numbering Sequence: Same as Mel-a-Dee Expression.Dates: Unknown.

6. ARIA DIVINA: TYPE II, QRS RECORDO STYLE (C SYSTEM)Box: (1 sample) plain black, 1-7/811 x 211

•

Labe1: Same as Ari a Di vi na, Type 1.Paper: QRS.Numberi ng Seguence: QRS Recordo, but prefi xed IIA"

instead of IIM. II

~: March 1926 to early 1928.

7. U.S. AUTO ART (B SYSTEM)Box: 2-1/411 x 2-1/411

• Black, textured wi th legend--IIRo 11 of Honor."Label: Same as U.S. Three colors: blue, yellow and--b-lack. At bottom of label, "Auto-Art" in yellow,

II Rep roduc i n9 Ro 11 11 in sma11 blue 1et te rs be low.Stamped information in blue ink on leader.

Paper: Same as U.S. Medium quality light tan.

3. QRS RECORDO (B & C SYSTEMS)Box: Standard QRS box (see pp 28-29, AMICA Bulletin,---Sept. 1971: Bill Bonner).Label: 3-color; red, blue and black. Blue band across~p 40%, QRS in red at top. Red border left and

right. Roll information black on white lower 60%.Box labels used on rolls until late 1924. Information stamped on leader after that. Earliestrolls occasi.onally used Recordo labels on leader.

Paper: Same as QRS (Bill Bonner, Ope cit.), exceptearliest rolls used up the remaining Recordo paper.

Numbering Seguence: Same as Imperial/Recordo, exceptfor the addition of the prefix IIM. II Thus, 848 became M-68480. Some rolls were prefixed IIA. II Thesewere the ones also issued under the Aria Divinalabel. First QRS Recordo roll was about 800, thelast 1809 or 1810 (Alan Mueller sent us some rolllabels #1810 he found in the archives at the QRSfactory, but we1ve never heard of a live example,nor has Ramsi Tick of QRS). Recordo rolls werereissued with the M prefix. Rolls were all codedfor B system until about 1275-1285 when they were

.coded for the C system. There was some overlap ofBand C rolls. Late in the series coding began toslip back to B.

Dates: November or December 1923 to February 1930. C---nDlls were first issued in March 1926.

for word roll s .~: About 1916 through September or November, 1923.

4. MEL-O-DEE EXPRESSION ROLL (B SYSTEM)Box: (2 samples) 2-1/211 x 2-1/2 11

• Purple, textured.Label: Light brown, dark brown printing. Extends--about 1-1/2" onto top of box. Part on top of box

reads "Expres s ion Roll." Information stamped greenon leader.

pap6r: Aeol ian.Num ering Seguence: Two series, both prefi~ed X.

Fi rs t se ri es is 3 dig its, numeri ca 11 y from 101.Second series is 4 digits, numerically from 2001.Upper 1imit not known.

~: Unknown.


Numbering Sequence: Not certain. 5 digit number,first digit 6 for word rolls, 8 for instrumental.

~: Probably began in early 1927, after purchaseof U.S. by QRS in November 1926. Last date unknown.

8. SYMPHONOLAUnknown to me.

9. ROSE VALLEY RECORDING ROLLUnknown to me.

10. VOCALSTYLE REPRODUCINGUnknONn to me.

11. VOCAlSTYLE REPRODUCOUnknown to me.

Lh /'...,. LIl:itL~~

":_1": ,,, 11· Ii .1. f

12. VOCALSTYLE HOME RECITAL SERIES (A SYSTEM)Box: (1 samp 1e) 2-1/811 x 2-1/811

, black textured.--Legend IILook for the Bird. 1I

Label: Three color: blue, yellow, black. Vocalstylebird on left. "Reproduce Ro l l" very faint whiteon yellow under title. Box label on VocalstyleReproduco leader, pasted onto roll.

Paper: Vocalstyle, fair quality.Dates: Unknown. Sample is 1923.

13. GULBRANSEN EXPRESSIONUnknown to me.

14. PIANOSTYLE FOR EXPRESSION REPRODUCING PIANOS(B SYS-TEM, VERY POOR COOl NG)

Box: 1-7/811 x 2-1/811• Black, textured with legend

--lip i anos ty 1e. 1I

Label: Two color: -blue-green and black. At bottom of---,abel, IIP1ays on all 88 note and Express ion Repro-

ducing Pianos. 1I Information stamped in blue inkon leader.

Pctper: Similar to Imperial.Numbering Sequence: Unknown. Sample is 31016.Dates: Unknown.

15. INTERNATIONAL, TYPE I (B SYSTEM, VERY POOR CODING)Box: 2-1/411 x 2-1/811

• Black, plain.Label: Two color: red and black. Red band -at top of--label. At bottom of label, IIPlays on all 88 note

p1aye rs and a 1so exp ress ion rep roduc i ng pianos. II

94915Why Did It

Have rro Be Me?Fox Trot

I:J~ «;l :11 Relllkk MUllc cOlr.PLAYS ON ALL. 8& NOT!! Pl:AV£RS

AND Al!:O EXPRESSION

REPRODUCING PIANOS.

Box label used on leader.Paper: Cheapest available.Numbering Seguence: Five digit number, beginning with

94. Next three digits probably sequential.Dates: Earliest date not known. Latest date seen is----:ianuary 1932.

16. INTERNATIONAL, TYPE II (C SYSTEM)Box: (1 samp 1e) 211 x 2- 1/811

• B1ack, p1a in.Label: Brown on white.Paper: Cheapest available.Numbering Seguence: Prefixed R-. Sequential numbering

beginning with 100. Listed in QRS Catalog.Dates: Earli~st catalog listing is October 1929.---catest date not known.It has been suggested that this series of rolls wasderived from Rythmodik masters bought by QRS. I havenot yet made any comparisons.

4Iln!Jttrtl1ur~EXPRESSION ROLL"a" uca••

£.722----TESORO MIO

WALTZ.HAND PLA\'I:I) ROLa..

Je:rn(!,;to Becueci.)'laye,) 111 Thomsura Ir K. AtUI U.

(C.) Chappell. CD..

17. MASTERTOUCH EXPRESSION ROLL: AUSTRALIAN (B SYSTEM)Box: 2-1/811 x 2-1/811 to 311 X 311

• Green and tan tex--tured, IIMastertouch ll printed in gold.Label: Black on whi tee Legend under brand: "Expres ---sTon ro 11, Standard i sed Reproduci ng. 1I Extens i ve

design and roll information printed in brown onleader.

Paper: Good grade hard paper, similar to butcherpaper.

Numbering Sequence: Prefixed E. Sequential numberingprobably starting at 100. Highest known number is1782.

Dates: Unknown.

These are the Recordo roll types found to date. I amsure a few more are known to some of you readers, soplease write and gain fame. Get your name in printl

NEXT ARTICLE: LATE INFORMATION AND LOOSE ENDS.

&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

INDEX - OCTOBER

INTERNATIONAL, pp 1-3

Who & Where •••••..•..•......•.•••.•.•...•.••... 1Boa rd Min utes • . . . • . • . • • . . . • . • • . . . . . . . • • . . • . • • .. 21969-1970 Bound Bulletins: Supply Dwindl ing ..•• 21971 Bound Bulletins: Orders Needed Now .•.•.... 2Next Mee t ing. . • . . • • . . . . . . • • . . . . • . • • . • • . . . . • . . .• 2Correction of Missing Address .......•....••...• 2Special San Francisco Meeting:

Urs u1a 0ie t rich-Ho11 ins head. • . . . . . • . • • . . • • •• 2by Bill Knorp

NORTHERN CALI FORN IA, p, 3Roger Johnson to Host November AHICA ••...••••.. 3

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, pp. 4-6

So. Ca 1i forn i a August Meeting .••..•....••.•.•.. 4by Karl Petersen, Reporter

Sam Thompson's October Get-Together .•.•...•••.• 5(photos)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, pp. 6-9

Edythe Baker••.•••••.•••••.•.••.••••.••..••.••• 6by Bob Pye

Photo: Wi 1bur Chenoweth ...·•••••••.•....•••...•.. 7G1irn pses 0 f Gen ius: Per cy Gra inge r , • • • • . . • • • • •• 8

Contributed by Bill Pixley

AMICA BULLETINGinny Billings

Pub1i sher

AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS' ASSOCIATIONP. O. Box 77525, San Francisco, California 94107

DATED MATERIAL

INSTRUMENTS, pp. 9-13

Ampico Royalties & the Most Hated Man inthe Worl d•...•••••.•..••.••.••••••..•••••••. 9by Doug Hickling

Excerpts from Part I I I of Ampico Salesmanship,Chapter VI, contributed by Doug Hickling .... 9

Photo: Piano Factory •••.•••.••..•.•...•..••.•.. 10contributed by Kenneth Snowden

Agg res s ive Amp i co Adve r tis i ng••...••••...•..... 11contributed by Bill Pixley

Post-War American Welte Co., Part 11: GittinsPrepares to Build Distinguished Organs~•.... 12by Doug Hickling

Photo: Piano Factory, contr. by K. Snowden •..•. 13

ROLLS & MUSIC, pp. 14-15

Revi ewing the Reviewer ••.•.•.•.•.•.•.••••..•.•• 14contributed by Bill Pixley

QRS Issues Pete Wendling Ampico/Ouo-Art/Recordo Ro 11, by Sam Thompson •.••.••...••... 14

A-ONE & A-TWO Gets Resul ts ••••••••••••.•••••.•• 14Mus i c Rolls (from Fortune, 1934) ••••••..••.••.• 15

contributed by Ed SprankleAmp i co Goofed! •••••••••.••••.••••.••••••••••... 15

by Dick Howe

TECHNICALITIES, pp. 16-18

Recordo Banner Fl i es Again, Part V••••••...•••• 16by Bob Billings

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