The AMICA Bulletin - Stackszr738kv4429/May-Jun-13.pdf · International Piano Archives at Maryland performing arts Library,University of Maryland 2511 Clarice smith performing arts

The

AMICA Bulletin www.amica.orgVolume 50, Number 3

May-June 2013Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association

The AMICA BulleTINAUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS' ASSOCIATION

AMICA BULLETIN

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ISSN #1533-9726

Published by the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’

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ed to the restoration, distribution, research and enjoyment of

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Entire contents © 2013 AMICA International Printed by Engler Printing Co., Fremont, OH • [email protected] 89

president’s Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v-president’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .editorial observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Membership Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .aMiCa 2013 Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chapter news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .in the news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Web sites of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lost and Found . . . . . . . . . . . by kenneth Long . . . . . . . nickel notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Matthew Jaro . . . . . . . . “Footsie”, part 4 . . . . . . . . . . by John grant . . . . . . . . . . Waldkirch orgelfest tour . . . by Liz Barnhart . . . . . . . . .

929293949598

118122128129130

100104110113

Front Cover: 1925 Steinway Duo-Art “Found” by Kenneth Long

Inside Front Cover: Duo-Art promotion, Harper’s Magazine ~1915

Outside Back Cover: Aspire Auctions Ad

Inside back cover: Music Roll Suppliers

VOLUME 50, Number 3 May-June 2013

FEATURES

COLUMNS

90 aMiCa Bulletin - May/Jun 2013

PRESIDENTTim Baxter

939 Briarcliff Rd neatlanta, ga 30306-4664404-377-1220

[email protected]

AMICA INTERNATIONAL

EDITORTerry Smythe

55 Rowand avenueWinnipeg, MB, Canada R3J2n6204-832-3982

[email protected]

PAST PRESIDENTJohn Motto-Ros

110 allen Ranch Roadsutter Creek, Ca 95685209-267-9252

[email protected]

VICE-PRESIDENTAlan Turner

148 kingsway avenueWinnipeg, MB, Canada R3M 0h1 204-489-3075

[email protected]

TREASURER

Joe Orens

8917 Wooden Bridge Roadpotomac, MD 20854-2448301-340-6664

[email protected]

SECRETARY

Bob and Bonnie Gonzalez

26 Foremast CoveCorte Madera, Ca 94925415-924-6834

[email protected]

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY lyle Merithew & Sandy Swirsky

416 Colfax Drivesan Jose, Ca 95123-3403 408-227-9284

[email protected]

- Committees -

- International Officers -

AMICA ARCHIVESTom hutchinson

15361 hopper Roadsturgeon, Mo 65284573-442-6675

[email protected]

CONVENTION COORDINATORFrank Nix

6030 oakdale avenueWoodland hills, Ca 91367818-884-6849

[email protected]

AMICA MEMORIAL FUNDRay Dietz

1250 Lanier RoadMartinsville, va 24112-5212276-638-8563

[email protected]

AMICA Honor Roll Thomas & Donna Stengel

46 Court st.Lancaster nY 14086-2302716-683-5309

[email protected]

AUDIO-VISUAL & TECHNICAL

Vacant

WEBSITE MANAGERKarl ellison

6 Lions Lanesalem, Ma 01970-1784978-740-5680

[email protected]

91aMiCa Bulletin - May/Jun 2013 91

AMICA INTERNATIONALChapter Officers

FOUNDING CHAPTERpres: John Ulrich - 510-223-9587 <[email protected]> vice pres: karen simons sec: Jack & Dianne edwardstreas/Bd Rep: Lyle Merithew & sandy swirsky Reporter: Bob & Bonnie gonzalez

BOSTON AREApres: kirk Russell <[email protected]>vice-pres: Bill koenigsbergsec: phyllis konop <[email protected]>treas: Dorothy Bromage <[email protected]>Reporter: Board Rep: Bob hunt <[email protected]>

CHICAGO AREApres: Jerry Biasella 708-756-3307vice pres: Richard van Metresec: Carol veome 773-338-1042 <[email protected]> treas: Joe pekarek Reporter: Curt Clifford <[email protected]> Board Rep: tBD

HEART OF AMERICApres: Bob stout - 816-833-1556 <[email protected]>vice pres: Dan Davis sec: trudy. Moffitt treas: Brian graham Reporter: hC and Marlene BeckmanBoard Rep: gary Craig

LADY LIBERTYpres: vincent Morgan - 718-479-2562

[email protected] pres: John Dousmanis (646) 638-2201sec: Bob stuhmer treas: Maryam MorganReporter: Martin "Buzz" Rosa Board Rep: vincent and Maryam Morgan

MIDWEST (OH, MI, IN, KY)pres: Don Johnson - 248-650-1840<[email protected]> vice pres: Liz Barnhart sec: hilda Merchant treas: alvin Wulfekuhl Reporter: Christy Counterman Board Rep: Liz Barnhart

NORTHERN LIGHTS (MN, ND, SD, MB, NorthernOntario)pres: paul Watkins - 763-421-0672<[email protected]> vice pres: Don Bartonsec: Mark kraabeltreas: John ellingson <[email protected]>Reporter: Jerrilynn Boehland Board Rep: paul Watkins or Mark kraabel

PACIFIC CAN-AMpres: stuart swanberg - 206 282-7376<[email protected]>vice pres: secretary: halie Dodrilltreas: Robert WilsonReporter: David goodwin, Larry sanchezBoard. Rep: Carl Dodrill

ROCKY MOUNTAIN pres: Jere DeBacker - 303-570-6243 <[email protected]> vice pres: (vacant)sec: Louise Lucero treas: Barry Weiss Reporter: Larry emmonsBoard Rep: Jere DeBacker

SOWNY (Southern Ontario,Western New York)pres: glenn Roat <[email protected]>vice pres: audrey Cannizzaro sec: shirley Roat <[email protected]>treas: holly Walter <[email protected]> Reporter: glenn and shirley Roat <[email protected]> Board Rep: Mike Walterphotographer: Bill Lukasiak

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIApres: Don henryvice pres: Diane De tarsect/Reporter: shirley nix <[email protected]>treas: Diane Reidy Board Rep: Frank nix

TEXASpres: Rich Clayton - 972-369-0470<[email protected]> vice pres: Michael Barisonek <[email protected]>treasurer: Janet tonnesen <[email protected]>secretary: suzanne McCall <[email protected]>Bulletin Reporter: ken Long <[email protected]>Board Rep: John McCall <j-mccall@sbcglobal .net>

Affiliated Societies and Organizations

American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS)president/Ceo – ken Double

1815 DeFoors Walk, nW

atlanta, ga 30318

ph: 404-790-5400

e-mail: [email protected]

theatRe oRgan Co-editors – Mike Bryant and Don Feely

editorial office

3111 ne 165th pl.

vancouver, Wa 98682

phone: 206-619-6645

e-Mail: [email protected]

Associazione Italiana Musica Meccanicavilla silvia - via Lizzano, 1241

47023 Cesena (FC), italy

phone: 0039-547-323425

Fax: 0039-547-661264

email: [email protected]

Website: www.ammi-italia.com

Australian Collectors of Mechanical Musical Instrumentspeter phillips - editor

26 alice street

padstow, nsW 221, australia

phone: (612) 9773-4734


Netherlands Pianola Associationnederlandse pianola vereniging

att. Jan van hulzen, Member of the Board

Chopinrode 25

2717 Bh Zoetermeer, netherlands


Carousel Organ Association of Americaeditor/publisher: Ron Bopp

(918) 527-0589

4725 Montrose Dr., Bradenton, FL, 34210

[email protected]

Friends of Scott Joplin1217 st. Croix Ct.

kirkwood, Mo 63122-2326

website: http//stlouis.missouri.org/fsjoplin


International Piano Archives at Marylandperforming arts Library,University of Maryland

2511 Clarice smith performing arts Center

College park, MD 20742

phone:301-405-9224

Fax: 301-314-7170


International Vintage Phono & Mechanical Music SocietyC.g. nijsen, secretaire general

19 Mackaylaan

5631 nM eindhoven, netherlands

Musical Box Society of Great Britainalison Biden

st giles hilltop, northbrook Close

Winchester, hants.

so23 0JR, Uk


Musical Box Society InternationalRosanna harris, editor

p.o. Box 111,

Custer, sD 57730

605-673-3068


Netherlands Mechanical Organ Society-KDVa. t. Meijer

Wilgenstraat 24

nL-4462 vs goes, netherlands

Northwest Player Piano Associationeverson Whittle, secretary

11 smiths Road, Darcy Lever,

Bolton BL3 2pp, gt. Manchester, england

home phone: 01204 529939

Business phone: 01772 208003


Organ Historical SocietyRollin smith, editor, The Tracker


Pianola InstituteClair Cavanagh, secretary

43 great percy st., London WC1X 9Ra, england

Player Piano GroupDuncan James (secretary),

9 Christy avenue, Chelmsford, essex,

CM1 2Bg, england.


Smithsonian InstitutionDivision of Musical history

Washington, D.C. 20560

Society For Self-Playing Musical Instrumentsgesellschaft fur selbstspielende

Musikinstrumente (gsM) e.v.

Ralf smolne

emmastr. 56

D-45130 essen, germany

phone: **49-201-784927

Fax :**49-201-7266240



President’s Message

Dear aMiCans,

aMiCa is in its 50th year, which is a tremendous achievement. i hope as many of you aspossible will come to our fantastic convention in san Francisco to celebrate. and i am personallythrilled to share aMiCa’s birth-year of 1963; i’ll be 50 in november!

Does aMiCa look healthy at 50? i think the answer is nuanced. as i’ve said several timesin these pages, the quality of our membership is without peer and aMiCa is involved in numerousworthwhile activities to support mechanical music, from organization-wide programs like “adopt-a-piano” and developing a digital archive of historic publications to critically important things beingdone at the chapter and individual level. But we are not keeping membership levels steady; they continueto decline and we are not replacing departing members with the same number of new.

i am always urged by our publisher to “keep things positive!” and i do feel very positive about aMiCa, but the hard truthis that if we do not find a way to gain new members, we will, sooner or later, fall into decline. at present, membership losses aremasked by the enthusiasm and engagement of current membership. this is a great thing; though our organization has shrunk some, itdoes not seem apparent because the folks we have do so much. But we need to start thinking harder (and smarter) about recruitmentand getting new members into the fold. please do everything you can to bring new people into the fold so our children can see anaMiCa 100 Convention!

Looking forward to seeing you in san Francisco,

tim

greetings to all aMiCans around the world!

Warmer weather and pleasant days have finally arrived here in Canada and mythoughts are turning toward travelling to this year’s golden anniversary Convention in sanFrancisco. i am really looking forward to seeing many of our members again this year.

aMiCa’s newly created Facebook group page is gaining momentum as the year pro-gresses, i am pleased with the progress so far. if you have not already checked this out on Face-book i highly recommend it. i hope all of you and your friends, who have Facebook accounts,will join this group and post items of interest to aMiCa. i also encourage all aMiCa Chaptersto use this group to advertise meetings, outings and to post pictures from any events or gatherings.

the address for the aMiCa Facebook group is:http://www.facebook.com/groups/AMICA.International/

through the Facebook group, aMiCa has made a connection with another Facebook group called “player piano talk” fromgreat Britain. this group is very active and interesting, focusing strictly on player pianos. Definitely worth looking into and joining.Musically yours,

alan turner – [email protected]

Vice-Presidents’s Message

Goodwill builder by Seeburg. (contributed by John Motto-Ros)

93aMiCa Bulletin - May/Jun 2013

Editorial Observations

in both Punch (Uk) and Puck (Usa), competing satirical periodicals 1870 to 1900,there are frequent references to “organ-grinders”, most rather negative, tending to focus ontheir presence as a public nuisance. punch in particular even went so far as to accuse the ital-ian government of deporting their organ-grinders to London. in the Usa, in 1891, 3 italiancitizens were lynched in new orleans, provoking an international political incident of someconsiderable magnitude. in april 1891, a puck editorial drew a comparison of a recent newYork City prohibition of organ-grinders and this sensitive political situation. their editorialand companion satirical cartoon are contained herein within the “news” section of this issue.Quite interesting. nothing much changed because in 1899, 11 more italian citizens werelynched in new orleans.

in addition to this curious moment in history of interest, we are blessed with another fineLost and Found article by Kenneth long, which focuses on the provenance of a fine art case steinway ex-Duo-art grand that was“lost” for some 25 years, then mysteriously recently reappeared in a Bonham auction in their san Francisco auction house. onceagain, ken’s research is impeccable.

Matthew Jaro continues his fascinating series into the lives and collections of noteworthy members of our collecting com-munity, this time featuring Alan Bies and Steve Boehck in the houston area. Many thanks to alan and steve for making this possi-ble. John Grant continues with his delightful series on the history behind our “Footsie” award, one more installment to come.

our editor is responsible for both content and layout of our Bulletin. everything i read about this position clearly indicatesthat the editor should have a year’s array of articles in the queue. Reality is that is a pipe dream. What is published in each issueis what our members contribute. all members are encouraged to get serious about documenting a restoration underway, researchinto a recording artist, the history and products of manufacturers of the instruments we love and their music. the resources are here,just make a beginning. there is no shortage of material.

see you all in san Francisco.

terry [email protected]


Nathan Barr

21475 Colina Drivetopanga, Ca, [email protected]

Richard Buchness

1735 W Las Lanas LaneFullerton, Ca, [email protected]

Glenn Grabinsky

40 River RoadMontville, nJ, [email protected]

Sherman Grable

15531 s Cedar Creek LaneMontpelier, va, [email protected]

ennis hackman

27880 grosse point Drsun City, Ca, [email protected]

Claudine Jones

5925 Ross stoakland, Ca, [email protected]://www.dotcomdetox.com

David Krall

4218 torrence avhammond, in, [email protected]

evelyn Mishkin

1 harrison avenuesuccasunna, nJ, 07876

Alan Mueller

470 Ripplewood DrRochester, nY, 14616585-663-1706

Lylle Merithew and Sandy Swirsky

[email protected]

Membership Update

We have many people who have not renewed for 2013. We sent lists to eachof the chapters (president or secretary). if you can contact any of these people, pleasedo so and encourage them to renew. if they don't wish to renew, please find out whyand let us know.

We are planning a new Membership Directory for 2013. if you have notrenewed for 2013, please do so soon. also make sure your instrument list is up to date.if you do not want your instruments listed in the Membership Directory or if you don'twant to be listed at all, please contact us via e-mail, letter or phone. if you don't receivea confirmation in two weeks, please contact us again.

North Tonawanda Automatic Orchestra


email from Joyce brite <[email protected]>

Re:New Recut of "Wait A Bit, Susie" by George Gershwin

hi terry,

i am pleased to announce the release of a new recut,"Wait A Bit, Susie." this 88-note roll was recut from Meloto rollno. 31004. the song was part of the 1924 musical, "Primrose"with music by george gershwin and lyrics by Desmond Carterand ira gershwin.

"Primrose" was performed in London during 1924-1925, but did not open in the United states. the american pre-miere did not take place until 1987, and then, only as a concertproduction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primrose_(musical)

i would like to thank Michael Swanson for scanningthe roll for me, and i would also like to give Robbie Rhodes ahuge thank-you for his superb roll editing skills! and thank-youto Bob Billings for a great perforating job.

Copies of this roll are $15.00 each and may be pur-chased through my web page at:

http://www.mmdigest.com/exchange/rollpage.htm

thank you!

Joyce Brite

player piano and Mechanical Music exchangehttp://www.mmdigest.com/exchange/

email from ed Gaida <[email protected]>

subject: Ampico Rolls by Bill Flynt

those of us who have been in the automatic musicworld for any length of time know the work of Bill Flynt and hisefforts in arranging and coding ampico rolls. a list would filltwo to three letter sized pages. Many of the selections were pro-duced in the days before computers were common householditems, and Bill arranged rolls on his homemade arranging board.see AMICA Bulletin april-May 2008.

the earliest rolls were produced in limited runs and tworolls were produced without numbers associated with them:ampico rolls by Dave Junchen and Bill Flynt, sort of a "DynamicDuo" of the arranging world.

the time has come to re-issue some of these treasures. ihave collected a large number of Bill Flynt's efforts (and DaveJunchen's as well) and will be producing these scintillating titlesonce again.

if you are interested in notification when the rolls areready, drop me an email and i will add you to the list.

Bill has given his permission (imprimatur) for this effortand the necessary permissions have been received from those to whom Bill made financial arrangements and no longer owns theperformance rights.

it has been a "Blast from the past" assembling the col-lection. if you missed out in the 1970s and '80s, here is yourchance to catch up.

My thanks to all who loaned "original" rolls for this pro-ject, and to Janet Tonnesen who told me where to look in thetonnesen archives for rolls that Custom Music Rolls had a part inproducing.

ed Gaida

preserving musical history by punching holes in paper!san antonio, texas

email from Stephen K Goodman

<[email protected]>

subject: Re: editorial Observations Mar/April 2013

hi terry,

heritage homes: i wanted to comment on the eugene

O'Neill Tao house. it is not a heritage home, but a National

historic Site, part of the national park system, Department ofthe interior. i did not volunteer to restore their Wurlitzer iX-B,they contacted and chose me and my restoration shop out of over50 contractors they were considering and i was awarded a Feder-al Contract for her restoration.

i agree that working with our local Museums and thelike that have instruments on display is an excellent idea. i don'tencourage volunteers to do the work on the instruments them-selves, unless they are professional restorers. i have seen thedamage done by far too many well meaning individuals oninstruments all kinds. i have read lately of the use of glues usedfor crafting, spraying rubber over bellows, soaking wood parts inwater, etc. it would be better to leave the instrument alone andwork to raise the funds thru community fundraisers (and at thesame time expanding the knowledge of the hobby); so that a pro-fessional could be hired to do the restoration properly.

volunteers are also needed to share their extensiveknowledge of the instruments and their music. Many of thevenues don't have instruments, but would be perfect for puttingon a rally or display to attract new members.

thank you terry for reminding us all of another greatway to expand our outreach into our communities and at thesame time expand the interest in out hobby and membership.

Stephen Kent Goodman

stephen k goodmanprofessional player piano & nickelodeon Restoration servicestarpey village (Fresno/Clovis) California, Usaphone: 559-346-0521e-mail: [email protected]

Web site: http://www.mechanicalmusicrestoration.com

Letters


email from Vincent Morgan <[email protected]>

Re: Request from the Connecticut Trolley Museum

Dear folks, lovers of music, the outdoors, nostalgia, etc.;

We have been invited by the folks at the Connecticuttrolley Museum to bring our organs, large and small, to theirmuseum on sat. July 27th. Besides entertaining the folks there,all of our group who participate will receive free trolley rides anddinner at the barbecue in the evening. We haven't set a specifictime to arrive yet. But if you are interested or know someonewho is interested, please let me know. if we can get a grouptogether they will advertise our chapter, aMiCa, etc. We coulduse some more members in the Ct area.

and don't forget our monkey organ rally in Coneyisland on august 10th.

Vincent Morgan

email from John Motto-Ros <[email protected]>

subject: Raspbery Jam house Concert

hi terry,

the Raspberry Jam Band played a concert at the sutterCreek, Ca home of John & Nadine Motto-Ros on saturday,May 11, with about 45 people in attendance.

this group’s byword is variety—playing diverse worksfrom classic ragtime to contemporary compositions. Refresh-ments were enjoyed at intermission as well as listening to someof the instruments in the Motto-Ros collection. p.s. this groupwill be play at the aMiCa convention on Friday evening.

John Motto-Ros

email from Donna estry <[email protected]>

subject: player piano media sightings

hi terry,

i was delighted recently to see a player piano operatingin a short segment in the 1954 cult classic "Beat the Devil" withhumphrey Bogart. and in the recent documentary on henryFord aired on pBs here, there was a shot of henry talking to sonedsel, who was operating a player piano, with lots of rolls inboxes on top of the piano. Later on there was a view of henry'sbirthplace house, as he was creating greenfield village in Dear-born, with a reed parlor organ in the background of a room.

it's fun to spot these scenes!Donna estryYpsilanti, Mip.s. i wonder if there's a directory of every film ever made withthese types of scenes!

email from Ron Bopp <[email protected]>

i just wanted to let everyone know of a new mechanicalmusic book "Fantastic European Organs" authored by me usingmaterial acquired over a 24 years of european travels. the bookis full color with over 230 different organs represented alongwith accurate historical data for each organ. the book is 116pages; perfect bound on heavy stock and is only $30.00 ($31.50if paying by paypal) plus $3.00 postage to U.s. readers and$13.00 postage to europe. payment can be check or paypal to([email protected]).

Ron Bopp

aMiCan since 1972

Standing: Shawn McCoy, vocalist; Doug Davies, bass; Kitty

Wilson, woodboard; Tom Brier, piano; Cheryl Woldseth, violin.

Seated: John Massey, guitar and Julia Riley, flute.


skype call from leighton West in australia<[email protected]>

he enquires about real-time adjusting of dynamics, sus-tain and tempo, within Midi type 1 files emerging from scanned88note piano rolls. Basically emulating what pianolists such asRex Lawson, Julian Dyer and Bonb Berkmam, do as they peddlean 88note roll on a player piano or a vorsetzer.

skilled pianolists constantly make adjustments real-timeto dynamics, sustain and tempo, based on their knowledge of themusic and skill manipulating the controls.

Leighton asks if there is software out there to facilitatesuch adjustments real-time as the tune is playing on a computer.not to be confused with labor intensive editing of a midi file ineditors such as Cakewalk.

i’ve had similar inquiries over the years, emerging outof several thousand midi type 1 files on my web site, emergingfrom scanned piano rolls that have no coded dynamics. neverhad an answer.

an interesting challenge for our members who are com-puter wizards.

in an email exchange with Art Reblitz about his serial articles,100 Years of Automatic Music in Colorado, as published inaMiCa Bulletins in 2009, he observed:

“since i originally wrote that, i’ve hoped that aMiCamembers in other parts of the country would do similar researchand write similar illustrated talks or articles about their ownregion of the country. only those who live in a region know thelocal collectors well enough, and have access to enough pho-tographs to do detailed research, and time is running out.

one example might be a nice article with “then andnow” pictures of the many instruments once displayed in thea.C. Raney Collection, Disneyland and knott’s Berry Farm inthe Los angeles area. another article could feature instrumentsowned by the colorful characters in and around san Francisco:Charley smallwood, Jim DeRoin, Barney shirar, the WhitneyBros., Cecil nixon, Robert heilbuth and others. (how about apicture of anton Lavey playing the calliope in a parade?) i’veheard stories about all of them, but have neither the photographsnor the knowledge towrite anything new. if you have interestingmemories and photos of any old collections, please considerputting them into a talk or an article before it’s too late!

an email from Bill Flynt containing an exchange between him-self and lester Wolff regarding new aMpiCo coded rolls......

subject: Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 for Ampico?

From: lester Wolff

to: Bill Flynt

Re: Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 for ampico?

thank you for your enlightening response to my interestin Rachmaninoff's Concerto no. 2 opus 18.

in view of the fact that the QRs roll is such a mess anda challenge to work with; is it possible that the Welte roll,C-6613played by sylvan Levin might be a better basis for conversion toampico coding? Just a thought!

i cannot tell you what a joy it is to play all of your rolls.Your efforts are remarkable and are a monumental undertak-ing....what a gift to ampico owners out there.

lester Wolff,

sarasota Florida+++++++++++From: [email protected]: [email protected]: Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 for ampico?

i had a similar idea some years ago, but i gave up on it. i have the QRs rolls of the 2nd and 3rd movements, and

i dug them out today after seeing your inquiry. as is typical formost of the QRs 88-note rolls that i "ampico-ed" years ago, thesustain pedal channel was a mess. i had to use massive amountsof scotch tape to salvage the continuity of the phrasing. then asthe playing time progressed, i had to adjust the speed slower andslower.

so after about two minutes into the 2nd movement, ijust gave up. i'm guessing that Rudy Martin also gave up on it.

this certainly would make a desirable ampico roll anda good seller. i didn't know that there was a Welte version.

i really don't want to get back into this part of the hobby,but i'd like to coach someone younger in doing it. i'm almost 82now, and i don't have the energy that i once did.

ed gaida, in san antonio, has acquired the perforatingequipment from the tonnesens here in Dallas, and he plans to re-issue some of those ampico rolls that i edited in the 1970s and'80s.... so who knows?

thanks for your observations about that concerto. it's afavorite.

Best regards...Bill Flynt

Dallas, tX


In addition to what has been published in earlier

issues of our AMICA Bulletin, Mark Forer in an email

message, adds the following about an important

orchestrion roll release timed for this convention:

email from Mark Forer <[email protected]>

New G-Roll "Barbary Coast" Arr. by Art Reblitz

hi terry,

By special permission of Art Reblitz andJohn Motto-Ros i have been asked to make an impor-tant announcement. in conjunction with the 50thanniversary of aMiCa and its forthcoming conven-tion to be held in the city of san Francisco, California,the week of July 11-14, 2013, a new, novel and uniqueg-Roll has been commissioned that has been arrangedby none other than art Reblitz, himself, to commemo-rate not only the convention but the area for whichthe City is famous: san Francisco's storied -- andnotorious -- "Barbary Coast."

From the cribs, the dives, the "cow yards", thesaloons, dance-halls and parlour houses, art wasasked to draw upon his vast storehouse of musicalknowledge to produce a limited-edition g-roll unlikeno other -- a roll that would include music composed,published, played and drawn from life from the Bar-bary Coast era.

these tunes were chosen expressly for theirtorrid nature. all ten tunes on this roll -- aptly namedg-0026, "Echoes Of The Barbary Coast" -- arearranged in such a fashion as to call upon the spirit of"the Coast" at that time.

imagine entering a "high-class" house such asthat belonging to the real-life Madame Bertha, armedwith ready money to be "entertained" by any numberof "pretty waiter girls" who would coax you intodepositing any number of quarters into the seeburg g(located conveniently in close proximity to the grandstaircase that led to innumerable pleasures awaiting).

But first, a fast dance to "The Grizzly Bear

Rag", "The Frisco Rag", "On San Francisco Bay" or

perhaps "The Texas Tommy Swing"? Close contactwas indeed encouraged and what better way to getacquainted than a tight dance to "The Bunny Hug

Rag"?Captured in this music are the teasing and

pleasing tempos that aficionados of these early num-bers crave. they start off deceptively, with a light air,but as they progress these Reblitz arrangements getvery down and very dirty, with the tympani and drumsections getting a real workout while the bass sectiongoes into overdrive (those with g-roll machines utiliz-ing octave-couplers take note!).

the essence of the Barbary Coast continues tobe captured with a special arrangement, true to thetimes, of "Cripes!" by well-known ragtime pianist andcomposer, Tom Brier. "Black Bottom Stomp" isincluded because its author, Jelly Roll Morton, did fre-quent (and play) in san Francisco at one time oranother. special attention must be paid to "King

Chanticleer", a Reblitz g-roll variation of a John Far-rell favorite that must be heard to be believed.

and, if you were well-heeled and "slumming"in the area (and lucky enough not to be drugged and"shanghaied") you might find yourself in the City'sMidway plaissance Music hall, the first melodeon tofeature what variety called "torso-twisters and hip-wavers". there you might encounter Coochee-Dancersupreme, the original "Little egypt".

Female acts at the Midway plaissance werebawdier in every way, and a visitor who engaged abooth for the evening was entertained between theacts by the female performers, and his conduct wasnot questioned as long as he continued to buy liquor"(ref. herbert asbury: "the Barbary Coast").

"Sphinx Rag" as rendered on your orchestrionwill give you a true indication of the fast times andwomen that made the Barbary Coast the most notori-ous of all "the districts" in the country, until its shut-down (by law) in 1917!

as mentioned earlier, this special roll is a lim-ited edition, produced especially for the aMiCa Con-vention. plus, each roll will have a copy of art's signa-

San Francisco Convention Golden 50th Anniversary

July 2013


ture stamped upon each roll leader. after the produc-tion run is completed and all are sold, there will be nomore rolls issued.

the roll, available exclusively from John

Motto-Ros (of "Johnny's Music Rolls") has beenperforated to perfection by Bob Billings, and sports aspecial label featuring the famous (or infamous)nymph-and-satyr sculptures by renowned san Francis-co artist arthur putnam that once adorned the ill-famed "hippodrome" dance hall (and are the only sur-viving artifacts of the Barbary Coast's ancient glories).

You are encouraged to visit "Johnny's MusicRolls" web site (below) for an exclusive MiDi-file"sneak preview" of this hot new roll, g-0026, "Echoes

Of The Barbary Coast":

http://tinyurl.com/n9suh9c

thanks,Mark Forer

Ed Note: See also:

http://tinyurl.com/bvatwoo

Box Label and Box Top, Echoes Of The Barbary Coast

if you’ve ever worked on an aMiCa convention, you could easily recognize the symptoms of panic inthe demeanor of all the convention committee members as time draws near. Just July, and that’s not far off, willmark the convention that will celebrate our organization’s fiftieth anniversary and we will welcome aMiCansfrom the world over. We want you to be among the number. We have all the usual events, pumper contest, mart,etc. plus a cruise on san Francisco Bay, an excursion to sausalito across the golden gate and other more. Usethe registration sheet in this issue of the aMiCa or download one from www.amica.org , and get it to us assoon as you can so we can reserve your meals, your place on the tours and so much more.


Rare mechanical instruments are known to mysteriouslydisappear but their “Lost” state is often transitory and theseheirlooms ultimately are rediscovered. Within this article youwill see the absolute truth of this statement for one of our mostbeautifully ornate and one-of-a-kind musical instruments. Youwill also experience as well an illustrious history of its owner-ship.

“FoUnD” is an exceptionally fine 1924 newYork steinway, originally a Duo-art reproducinggrand, Louis Xv case style, featuring a giltbronze mount case with kingwood, sat-inwood, pear wood, rosewood, andmarquetry inlay. the lid, sides,fall board area, and leg apronshave inlaid foliate vines sinu-ously entwining the crossbanding with centering rib-bon tied musical trumpettrophies and lutes above acirclet of laurel. thecheek blocks are orna-mented by substantialacanthus and rocaille

mounts, and gilt putto

musicians around thecase are floating on bil-lowing clouds strum-ming lyres, with lush flo-ral cast chutes surroundedby acanthusencadrements. the cabriolelegs are adorned with acan-thus scrolled mounts headedby a floral garland ending infoliate sabots.

this intricately hand-craftedsteinway adorned the French empirestyled lobby of the st. anthony hotel insan antonio, texas, for decades. it consistentlyprovided musical harmony and was positioned in fullsplendor in the large loggia reception hall know as Ruelle du

Paon, or peacock alley, and heard by many U.s. dignitaries suchas president eisenhower, general Macarthur, eleanor Roosevelt,and prince Rainer and princess grace of Monaco. John Wayne,Judy garland, Lucille Ball, Fred astaire, gregory peck, andRock hudson were some of the famous actors and actresses whowere guests hearing the steinway’s song. the citizens of sanantonio, the hotel patrons, and local music

clubs all would find excuse torelax in elegance and listen topiano music by Joe Morin, the“man in the tuxedo”. the piano was the centerpiece of everywedding, reception, afternoon tea, elegant afternoon quartetrecital, evening musical ensemble event, and sunday brunch for55 years until it mysteriously disappeared in the dead of night in

1993. the history of the hotel and the steinway is ofsignificant interest. the st. anthony was com-

pleted in 1909 with the most modern accou-trements such as room telephones, door-

bells, electric lights that would turn offupon room departure, automatically

operating lobby doors, and a pri-vate power plant.

Ralph Waldo Morrison,(b.9/7/1878-d.4/3/1948); a rail-way, hydroelectric, and utili-ties businessman; banker andfinancier; and rancher; pur-chased the hotel in receiver-ship for $475,000 ($8 mil-lion today) in 1935.

Mr. Morrisonstarted his career in st. Louis

by the turn of the 20th centu-ry working for st. Louis Car

Company who manufacturedrailroad passenger cars, trolleys,

and streetcars. By 1910 Mr.Morrison and Warner McCall, v.p.

of st. Louis Car Company, 1905-1910, formed Morrison & McCall and

started their business of purchasing pub-lic utility properties. in 1912 they devel-

oped ozark power and Water a hydroelectricplant in arkansas; and in 1914 they purchased

Central power & Light of st. Louis and Laredo electric& Railway Company in texas which was the first passenger

railway operated by electricity west of the Mississippi River.With the purchase of the Corpus Christi Railway & Light Com-pany in 1921, Mr. Morrison relocated his residence to san anto-nio. their accumulation of business enterprises continuedwhereby they controlled electric, gas, or water facilities in 75towns in the southwest.

Morrison served as president of the san antonio Cham-ber of Commerce in 1926 and 1927. however, in 1929, uponadvance and confidential information from Washington, Morri-

Lost and Foundby Kenneth long

Kenneth Long


son sagaciously liquidated all his $10 million utility stocks tosamuel insull, president of Commonwealth edison Co. in Chica-go, and ordered his banks to close out all security loans by sep-tember 1, 1929—thereby positioning himself well for the antici-pated financial collapse. By 1932, purchaser insull was bankruptand fled from the U.s. to France and greece. From insull’sbankruptcy trustee, Mr. Morrison secured back from Centraltexas hydroelectric, with no capital expenditure, the hamiltonDam power project on the lower Colorado River in texas—mak-ing an $800,000 profit ($13.5 million today).

Ralph Morrison at $50,000 ($850,000 today) was one ofthree largest financial contributors (Barney Baruch, Joe kennedy,and Ralph Morrison) to the 1932 campaign of Franklin D. Roo-sevelt and in June 1933 was appointed by Roosevelt as a delegateto an international economic conference in London where thechief effort was to increase and stabilize the price of silver.When the U.s. went off the gold standard in the spring of 1933,silver was the ideal commodity to protect against inflation. iron-ically, in 1933 Mr. Morrison was the second largest individualholder of silver in the U.s. at 1,774,740.66 ounces at a value of$887,370 and it doubled its value by 1935 to $1.8 million ($32million today).

in February 1936, he was appointed by Roosevelt to theBoard of governors of the Federal Reserve system in Washing-ton D.C. under Chairman Marriner s. eccles. But he resignedhis appointment within a few months on July 9, 1936, as docu-mented in a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt accepting his resig-nation. perhaps his resignation was due in part to a newsweekarticle published on May 30, 1936, mentioning questionable

financial ethics as well as other published conflict of interests.he subsequently continued his strong civic leadership in sanantonio and focused his attention on the st. anthony hotel.

Mr. Morrison’s desire was to decorate the hotel in euro-pean antiques and brilliance to raise it to the level of world class

prestige. he was a man of exquisite tastes buying 19th centuryFrench furniture of empire style including paintings by leg-endary masters, fine French and italian furnishings, europeancrystal chandeliers, marble and onyx pedestals supporting bronzesculptures, all sitting on the finest persian hand crafted silk rugs.he died april 3, 1948, and left $500,000 to Baylor University inWaco, texas, to build a new law school building completed in1954 as the Morrison Constitution hall.

the piano log at steinway & sons states that the pianois a Model L player piano and completed august 19, 1924. itwas then shipped to the furniture firm L. alavoine et Compagniein paris where “the plain mahogany case was decorated withmounts of exotic woods and bronze gilded with gold in the shapeof vines, flowers, and other flourishes”. this process requirednearly a year to finish and from paris was shipped to the aeolianCo. in new York on september 21, 1925, for an unspecifiedclient.

there is uncertainty and speculation about the stein-way’s first 13 years, perhaps explained as follows: authorRonald v. Ratcliffe advises on page 169 in the book “steinway”that the piano was designed for the Russian embassy in paris.also, the published newsletter for the 1983 national preservationConference mentions that Mr. Morrison purchased the piano“made for a czar” from the Russian embassy in paris. however,san antonio express news correspondent, David anthonyRichelieu, stated that the fine heirloom instrument was purchasedand made for the soviet embassy in paris but placed in the sovi-et embassy in Washington D.C., which better aligns with the

steinway records of it arriving at new York aeolian Company in1925 with case completed and ready for the unquestioned Duo-art installation. the Duo-art was believed to have beenremoved subsequent to the piano’s arrival at the st. anthony orsoon afterward. it is documented that Mr. Morrison purchasedthe piano in 1938 for $27,000 ($445,000 today). Based on the

Ralph W. Morrison(oil portrait, St. Anthony Hotel)

Russian Embassy in Washington, DC


information in the next paragraph and knowing Morrison’s Roo-sevelt connection and his spending considerable time, 1929-1936, on Capital hill, one could deduce that the steinway wasspecially ordered and delivered to the Washington D.C. sovietembassy and upon the right amount of financial influence trans-ferred to Mr. Morrison.

the soviet embassy was a Beaux art mansion original-ly built for Mrs. george pullman’s daughter in 1910. the com-pleted house cost $361,000 ($8.5 million today)—the mostexpensive building in Washington at the time. the soviet gov-ernment bought the home in 1913 for $350,000 to serve as theembassy, and ambassador george s. Bakhmetev became its firstoccupant until 1917. Boris skirvsky was sent after WWi toWashington D.C. in october 1921, as an “unofficial representa-tive” in the U.s. and held various foreign affairs positions. in1924 he was appointed as the authorized Representative ofvoks – soviet society promoting Cultural Contacts, a programof soviet-american cultural exchange. in 1933 skvirsky waschief diplomatic relations spokesman for the soviet Union in theU.s. and was invited to the White house to interface with presi-dent Roosevelt. he was instrumental in facilitating the U.s. offi-cial recognition of soviet Union in november 1933. alexandertroyanovsky succeeded skvirsky as U.s. ambassador from 1933to 1938. skvirsky still held the Charge d’affair position at thesoviet embassy along with his diplomatic and cultural liaisonfunctions until February 1936, when he was recalled to Moscowultimately spending three years in prison without trial and exe-cuted in July 1941. the house was used as the embassy of thesoviet Union and subsequently Russia until 1994. it now servesonly as the residence of the Russian ambassador to the U.s.

once the piano was relocated to the st. anthony hotel,the magnificent steinway stood proud for 55 years. the hotelwas purchased in 1993 by park Lane hotels and the owner and

chairman removed the piano and art treasures for his personal usein hillsborough, Ca. after a span of twenty years, the pianoresurfaced for auction at Bonhams in san Francisco. ironically,the st. anthony hotel was purchased out of receivership lastspring and the new owner is BC Lynd hospitality. the Ceo ofBC Lynd, Brandon s. Raney, stated: “this is an important arti-fact that had significant meaning to people who worked in andvisited the hotel. every bride who ever got married here had herphoto taken in front of that piano. it’s a piece of artwork.”

St. Anthony Hotel(from a period postcard)

A promo photo from the St. Anthony archives.

A chamber music quartet performing in the famous Peacock Alley,

from the St. Anthony Hotel archives.


and now, after the March 18, 2013, Bonhams auction,the ornamented steinway Louis Xv grand piano is returning toits original place in the st. anthony hotel’s lobby loggia, pea-cock alley. one of the officers of the ownership consortium wasthe high bidder and intends to loan the instrument to the hotelafter the current hotel renovation is completed. after the mostinconceivably iconoclastic removal twenty years ago, the instru-ment initiated its journey back home in less than two exigentminutes of bidding. truly, lost and Found, the rare heirloomwill honor its recrudescence by playing ceremoniously again inthe Ruelle du Paon, providing exhibition of its stunning andshimmering splendor in a brilliantly proud peacockish display.By chance or through tempered encouragement, either a Duo-artretrofit or a Live performance LX Reproducing system installa-tion should be recommended to musically honor its 2038 centen-

nial with the restored historic st. anthony hotel.

The Peacock Alley today.(photo by author)

Bird’s eye view of the piano lid showing its fine marquetry.


in the last riveting episode of Nickel Notes, ipromised an article about Alan Bies and Steve Boehck inhouston, texas. i would not want to disappoint ourbeloved readers, so here is the article. alan and steve livein a beautiful victorian house in houston heights. theinside of their house is so amazing that it is impossible totake it all in. First, i will talk about alan.

Alan Gets Excited About Mechanical Music

alan’s father, who was born in 1907, servicedjukeboxes in the 1930s in the Central texas region. heremembered nickelodeons and music boxes andhad a deep appreciation of themwhich was passed on to alan.When alan was five or sixyears old, he saw adisk music box inan antique shopand thought thatit would reallybe somethingto have.

alan’s auntand uncle livedin Minnesotaand the familywould take frequenttrips there. on one trip,alan’s father got sick andthey had to stop for a while inatoka, oklahoma near Bob Nelson’s

Chuckwagon Café. alan walked to the muse-um and heard a Mill’s violano for the first time. alan, whowas seven or eight years old, got really excited andexplored all the machines.

alan’s parents and relatives loved antiques and bythe time alan was in the sixth grade, he wanted to get anantique telephone. next came wall clocks and then ceilingfans. his parents helped him to acquire these items. onelocal man, who had antique telephones, had an edisoncylinder player. alan got one in the seventh grade and took

it to school. everyone loved it.then, alan decided that it was time to acquire a music box.at an antique shop, there was a single cylinder Mermodbox with a case that was falling apart, bad teeth in thecomb and a faulty governor. alan’s dad helped him fix thecase. he sent the works to Baud Frères in switzerland tobe fixed.

then alan saw a big polyphon disk music box inan antique shop. the family scraped up $514 to buy it.

Player Pianos and Nickelodeons

alan acquired a Cable-nelson player piano in1964. he learned how to patch it up and fix

leaks so it played well. in 1966, hemade a trip through some of

the southern states. hevisited Bob Johnson

in Rossville, geor-gia. When alan

arrived, Bobwas on thephone negoti-ating to buythe newYork para-

mount theatreorgan. Finally,

he went to a bigmetal building full

of machines. this iswhere alan heard the

Welte Brisgovia that Bob

Gilson currently owns. alan wasenthralled. next, alan went to pennsyvania to

buy clocks. he had begun a business fixing and sellingclocks. alan went to Wexford, pennsylvania to see larry

Givens. Larry had to go on a trip and initially said he did-n’t have much time. But when alan was so enthusiasticabout the machines, Larry spent half the day. When alanwalked in the door, the seeburg “h” was playing. B Bron-

son currently has this machine. alan signed Larry’s guestbook in 1966, and many years later Larry sent him a copyof this page!!

Nickel Notesby Matthew Jaro

Matthew Jaro


Alan Meets Steve

in 1966, Red Whaley, an antique dealer in Dallas,who had music boxes, repeatedly told alan that he had tomeet steve Boehck who was attending texas ChristianUniversity in Fort Worth (a neighboring city) because theyboth liked the same things and both frequented Red’santique shop. steve majored in history (as a pre-lawmajor) and minored in Business economics. steve’s fatherhad passed away several years earlier. his mother remar-ried and moved to Maryland, so steve lived in houstonwith his aunt when he was not attending school. in addi-tion, there was an article in the houston Chronicle assert-ing that alan Bies was the only music box collector in thehouston area. steve saw this article, called alan, and toldhim that he was a teenage music box collector, too. sufficeit to say, the two decided to join forces because there werenot enough music boxes to go around if they were in com-petition for them.

Steve Boehck

steve’s interest in music boxes stems from child-hood. steve’s grandparents had some novelty musicalitems such as a griesbaum Whistler, and a musical swissChalet. his grandmother gave him a Bremond cylinderbox. steve’s parents were interested in antiques andwould go on trips north looking for early americanitems. on one such trip he found an antique store withserious musical boxes, and he wound up buying a 155/8” olympia box in good condition. his parents helpedthe fourteen-year-old with the $125 price tag.

Within the span of several years, steve acquired8 to 10 machines. During college days, steve would tryto go to Red Whaley’s unloading sales, where Red wouldsell items newly acquired from a buying trip. he onlymarked the machines up about 20 % so the prices werevery affordable for the young collectors.

after college graduation in 1968, steve wasdrafted into the army. alan visited him in stuttgart wherethey searched for music boxes. in 1972, steve movedback to houston, working with his brother in the con-struction equipment industry. Don Mudd was an auc-tioneer who came to town with a big antique clock auc-tion in 1976. Both alan and steve worked for Don fixingclocks, music boxes and setting up the sales for severalyears.

steve was introduced to the MBsi in 1966through founding members lucille and Al hacker, whorecorded machines, and sold their records in departmentstores while dressed in victorian costumes.

The Seeburg “H”

alan’s aunt sent him a letter stating that there wasa place with a lot of machines in Minnesota and his auntknew the owners. the family went on a trip there. alan wasreading the newspaper and saw an ad from Ozzie and

Marie Klavestad’s Stagecoach Inn in shakopee. Well,

alan opened the front door to see the side of the seeburg

h with the statue and was wild with joy. it turned out thatnone of the machines were for sale but they did buy aFrench barrel organ that was marketed by Wurlitzer.they were playing the machine backwards so that all ofthe barrel pins had fallen out. alan found them all andreplaced them.

ozzie said “alan, if i ever sell the seeburg h, it’syours.” after a lot of complexity and eight and a halfyears alan finally bought the “h”.

Acquisitions

an ad in 1966 advertised a player organ withbrass pipes. alan was hoping for a Welte but it turned outto be a Reproduco. alan acquired it and got it working.Bill Stewart of Music treasure in kemah, texas intro-duced alan to harvey and Marion Roehl, who werevisiting texas. harvey insisted that alan join the MBsi.harvey even had membership application blanks withhim.

in the summer of 1967, when alan was still inhigh school, the family went to Minnesota and alanbought a Wurlitzer 146 and a 105 band organ. herestored them. alan went to houston Baptist College andstudied business and economics.


The Cremona “K”

after seeing the seeburg “h” at the stagecoach inn, alanwas frantic to find one. on one of the family trips to Min-nesota in 1969, the family decided to stop at saloons andask the bartenders. since alan wasn’t of legal drinking age,his father would go into the saloon, order a beer, show apicture of a seeburg h and see what resulted. there wasone false lead, but at one antique shop they tried, alan wasreferred to a little resort called “Mosquito heights” sincethey had a piano with stained glass in their back room.Upon inspecting the machine that they had, it was evidentthat it wasn’t a seeburg “h” but a Cremona “k”. parts

were strewn all over from a flood. the stack and pipechests were warped and there was a lot of rusty parts.alan’s father paid $150 for the machine. With the efforts ofDon Teach, and Wayne holton, alan and steve were ableto restore this machine so that it would play beautifully. Forthose interested, the story of this machine can be found inMechanical Music (september/october 2007), pages 56-57.

The Wurlitzer 180 Band Organ

in 1968, alan would work on machines for Duke

Parish of Cripple Creek, Colorado and houston, texas.one day, alan and Duke delivered a tiffany window por-traying the Landing of Columbus to hathaway and Bow-

ers. Duke was busy packing up a Wurlitzer style Yo pho-toplayer he bought while terry took alan on a private tourof the machines. the Wurlitzer 180 was the premiumband organ and there he saw a chassis for the 180.immense! alan’s interest waned a bit when he found out itplayed Caliola rolls. however, it was destined for houston,where Judge Roy hofheinz acquired it for his astrodome.

the machine sat in the basement of the astrodomeuntil 1974 due to Roy’s declining health. the investors inthe astro-domain Corporation ordered the sale of theinstrument collection for an auction which Dana Johnson

helped to put together. alan helped and succeeded in get-ting 220 volts fed into the auction site so they could hearthe machine. alan decided that he had to have it. his dadhelped and they won the auction for a record-setting pricein 1974.

The Welte Style IV Orchestrion

one of the show pieces of the collection is a beau-tiful style iv Welte orchestrion. standing ten feet high,with beautiful pipework and cabinetry, it is indeed impres-sive. in 1966, a collector from oklahoma, Bob nelson andan antique dealer from Dallas, Red Whaley, acquired thecollection of Charles Merralls of southern California.Red ended up with the style iv in his garage, unassembled,in Dallas. Whaley told alan that Dave Bowers was interest-ed in acquiring the collection and alan should act if hewanted the Welte. alan had previously bought music boxesfrom Whaley, but nothing like this. Dave did come and hebought quite a few machines, but not the Welte. so 1968finds alan taking a loan from the local credit union. thelong and complex story of the restoration follows. pipeswere mixed up and alan was lucky enough to procure thecorrect pipes. there were other components that were miss-ing and replacements were found. steve wrote a compre-hensive article about this machine for Mechanical Music,vol. 51, no. 1, spring 2005.


The Phonoliszt Violina

Walt Bellm ran Bellm’s Cars and Music of Yes-

terday museum in sarasota, Florida until 1997. Walt hadtwo hupfeld phonoliszt violina machines and tried to sellone by auction. no acceptable bids were received. Waltknew that alan wanted a phonoliszt and gave alan firstchance to buy it at a set price. this machine is a really niceexample of a late model.

Miscellany

pictured is a C & C electric fan, combining a fan with alamp. the lamp is wired in series with the fan and thus actsas a resistor. a high wattage light bulb will slow the fandown, and a low wattage one will speed it up. if you put afuse in the lamp socket, the fan would run full speed. steveand alan got interested in early electric fans from elise

and Marty Roenigk, then in Connecticut and also Dur-

ward Center in Baltimore. they saw a dragon phonebooth fan that they just fell in love with and this startedthem on a fan collection.

steve got interested in Loetz glass after seeingMrs. Darwin Klinetob’s collection of steuben glass thatglowed “like king tut’s tomb”, according to steve. hechose Loetz because it is sort of poor man’s tiffany orsteuben.

also in the collection is an early encore Banjo. itis interesting to note that the valves contain ball bearings.the company changed from steel to aluminum bearings,since poor vacuum conditions might not be able to lift theheavier steel bearings. the holtons found this machine inan antique shop in Beaumont, texas. the owner was think-ing about making it into a china cabinet!

the adler is a disk music box with organ, drums,triangle and comb.

the machine with the metal band is a kallistonorganette. the band turns, playing the music.

alan Bies and steve Boehck may be reached at

[email protected] Jaro may be reached at

[email protected] always, comments, questions and suggestions

are welcome.

The Welte Style 4 Orchestrion


The Phonoliszt Violina


Adler Model “Z” Orchestral Disc Music Box

An early Encore Banjo

A C&C Electric

Fan with bulb

for speed con-

trol.

Kalliston

Organette


“Be it ever so decadent, there’s no place like home.” – Tom Lehrer

in early 2012 i had not been paying much attention tothe upcoming annual convention. in fact, i had not even realizeduntil the last week in June that it was to be held in pittsburgh, avery comfortable drive from Baltimore, Maryland, or at least itwould have been in earlier times. at this stage of my life, theinevitabilities of longevity were starting to accumulate. not onlywere the ravages of my now 24 year-old ankle fracture becomingpainfully intrusive on my every-day activities, a new physicalissue was shaping up to further challenge another run for the“Footsie”: spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal joint openingsthrough which nerves pass) was causing a bad case of sciatica,complicated by an L5 lumbar joint displacement. By the time thisarticle ends up in print, a surgical procedure will have hopefullycorrected, or at least lessened these symptoms, and a determina-tion will have been made, and perhaps even implemented, as towhether i am a suitable candidate for an artificial ankle jointreplacement. But i digress.

at what was almost the last possible moment, i mademy decision and sent off the convention application. i had barelydropped it into the mailbox when i began to agonize overwhether or not to enter the pumper Contest for yet a third time.the importance of music selection loomed large in my mindwhen i remembered something critical. earlier in the spring of2012, i was reading an internet posting about an english pianistand composer by the name of adam Ramet. the posting con-tained a link to a Youtube video of one of his compositionscalled “Trot Macabre”. now, with a name like that, it’s hard topush the “Delete” button and move on to the numerous eD(erectile Dysfunction) pitch links i receive. (Do you supposethey know something i don’t?) anyway, to the link i went. it wasan epiphany! ‘trot’ is a foxtrot paraphrase loosely based onsaint- saën’s ‘Danse Macabre’ orchestral tone poem, the conceptfor which was suggested to Ramet by netherlands automaticmusic enthusiast Max Lakeman. here was a wonderfully com-plex piece of music, in the minor mode, full of delicious disso-nances, wrapped in an emphatic, driving rhythm worthy of theinventive genius of Conlon nancarrow, and yet you could actual-ly listen to it without the risk of otorrhagia (look it up!) suffice itto say, this was the piece i wanted to play if i ever againentered the pumper Contest. i made a mental note of this conclu-sion but promptly put it out-of-mind until literally ten daysbefore the Convention was to begin. now began the scrambling:What were the specifications of the contest piano? Did it have acrash-valve pump bellows? an automatic sustain pedal? Man-dolin rail? however, most importantly, how was i going to getmy hands on a copy of the roll, if indeed, it even existed?

in listening to the Youtube performance(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmspjC_nin8), there was akind of perfection to it that made me think it was not an audiorecording of the piece actually being played on a player piano,but rather a synthesized piano voice playing a MiDi file. Don’tget me wrong; i am not discounting it on that premise. it soundsfabulous, but maybe just a little too perfect. a prominent featureof the arrangement is a dissonant chord that occurs on the upbeatin the upper treble many times. in the Youtube “realization”, thischord has a metallic, almost bell-like quality, evocative of thesimilar sound heard in the typical orchestrated performanceswhich inspired it. a thorough and interesting analysis of the pieceposted along with the Youtube link likens this (dis)chord to“hogarth’s ‘Four stages of Cruelty’” [seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_Four_stages_of_Cruelty.]While this tone quality could be achievable with a “preparedpiano”, the fact that that it does not extend to other occurrencesof these same individual notes played in different contexts withinthe piece, suggested that the chord was placed in a second MiDichannel that was assigned that contrasting tonal color. that alsosuggested a sound effect that would be appropriate at thosepoints in the pumper performance.

however, all of this still didn’t get me the roll! By fol-lowing various links and suggested alternate videos on Youtube,i soon became aware of one Julian Dyer, who, had i been pay-ing attention to my aMiCa bulletins for awhile, has been a pro-lific contributor to the organization in many ways, not the least ofwhich as a source for “new” piano rolls, both re-cuts of vintage,mostly Duo-art rolls, some of which are very obscure, even unis-sued at the time, and selected contemporary pieces. to my greatdelight, “Trot Macabre” was one that he was offering. thereinensued another flurry of emails: Was it in stock? Yes. Was theretime to ship it? no. Was he coming to the convention and couldhe bring it with him? Yes! so, the plan was coming together. hewould be arriving in the Baltimore-Washington area the Friday

before (July 6th) in order to have a few extra days, primarily tovisit with Warren trachman in Laurel, Maryland, who is heavilyinto roll scanning and associated topics. hastily, a couple of other“targets of opportunity” were assembled. Julian expressed aninterest in seeing one of Bob hunt’s “virtual Roll” systems. asluck would have it, i had just finished an installation on a mag-nificent 1913 stieff concert grand (9’), retrofitted with a WelteLicensee system. the full story of this behemoth, which irestored in the late 1970’s, will be, or already has been, the sub-ject of another series of Bulletin articles. But i digress.

Just before leaving Baltimore i hit upon an idea ithought might help generate some “buzz” about the contest andmy participation in it. since almost everyone (or so i thought)

The “Footsie” Chronicles(Being the true, unvarnished, and slightly ridiculous history of the AMICA

Pumper Contest, 1989-2012, and its iconic trophy, the “Footsie”.)

(Part The Fifth, The 2012 “Footsie” Comes Home!)By John R. Grant, p.e. (Pumper Emeritus)

John R. Grant


now carries a “smart” phone with a scanner app that decodesUpC barcodes and the like, i fabricated a nametag to wear thatcontained a “QR” code graphic which, when scanned with theproper “smart phone” application, would take the user to a pageon my primary web site (www.parkwaytheatre.com). this linkposed a tongue-in-cheek challenge to other competitors and ateaser for audience members. “Fear the Foot” became my psy-chological battle cry in the lead-up to the contest, and i madesure larry Norman heard it every time we crossed paths. (Forthose who have nothing better to do, the web page remains on-line, updated with a photo of Contest Chairman Julian Dyer mak-ing the presentation of the “Footsie”. Just type inwww.tinyurl.com/fearthefoot or scan the graphic image below.) ihighly over-estimated the effectiveness of the QR code badge, asit attracted mostly quizzical, What is that? looks from otherconvention-goers, so i wound up doing the picture/scan with myown phone, showing it to, uh, both people who bothered to ask.But now i’m ahead of myself.

arriving in pittsburgh the afternoon of July 11th, iimmediately sought Julian out and arranged to take possession ofthe coveted roll. i then learned that another convention attendeehad also ordered the same roll. My heart sank. Was he also goingto use it in the pumper contest? even if not, were he to “casually”play the piece before the contest, my sense of paranoia made meworry that my subsequent playing of it would lose the element ofsurprise that would be an important element in the performance.at Julian’s suggestion we simply asked the gentleman if hewould refrain from playing it until after the contest was over, andwhy we were asking. he graciously complied, and i extended mysincere appreciation to him for having done so. My next hurtlewas, how could i now practice playing the roll, which i had neverheld in my hands before, knowing it only by its Youtube video,without attracting the attention of both audience and competitorsalike, further tipping my hand, er, foot? Just before the hospitali-ty room (with the contest piano) was locked at 11:00 pMWednesday, i closed the door and gingerly placed the roll on thepiano, Fairly quickly a minor issue arose with the tempo consis-tency. What would be, under ordinary pumping situations, a bare-ly noticeable change, became in this context a troublesome detail,at least for me. there was a slight increase of tempo withhard/fast pedaling (when accents were desired) and a somewhatmore apparent slow-down when pedaling effort was reduced forquieter passages. since my right hand would be occupied at con-test time with producing some of the sound effects (which i had

not brought along for this practice session), and my left handoccupied as described further below, it would not feasible to tryto compensate for these excursions in tempo by manipulating thetempo lever. a rock-steady tempo was critical to this piece whichdepends on its pounding, almost zombie-like rhythm. i had antic-ipated setting the tempo and not changing it for the entire piece,except for a grand fermata just before the final fff chord. notfeeling comfortable with making adjustments on my own, iwound up practicing only about a third of the roll and decided topursue the issue the next day.

With thursday’s daily activities, it was again into theevening before attention could be brought to bear on the piano.owned and nicely restored by convention first-timer JoelCluskey, it was a large-scale instrument (the brand name escapesme at the moment) equipped with a double-valve standardaction player. it did have the so-called “crash valve “ on the bel-lows, which is a flow-dependent choke valve that, upon a force-ful pedal thrust, closes to isolate the more strongly sprung of thetwo reservoirs from the vacuum plenum. this allows the fullforce of the pedal stroke to be passed directly to the stack, result-ing in very pronounced accents. While this feature was workingflawlessly, some other “practice pumpers” in the room alsonoticed the erratic tempo. apprised of the situation, Joel droppedby and made some adjustments that brought it very close to nom-inal. the compass design of the governor spring makes it particu-larly tricky to adjust perfectly because the only practical way tostrengthen or weaken it is by trial-and-error, hyper-extending itscoil in the appropriate direction to weaken or strengthen its force.Combine that with the knife-valve limiting screw and it makesfor a tedious, multi-iterative process. Less of an issue for me thansome of the other contestants was the absence, in this vintage ofstandard action designs, of an automatic sustaining pedal pneu-matic, that function being purely manual via a keyslip lever.“trot” has no sustain perforations anyway, and my analysis ofthe Youtube performance did not suggest the need for any. as itturned out, my left hand would wind-up being more gainfullyemployed. i managed to get in one complete playing of my piece,but again, without the sound effects. Joel made some additionalfine adjustments Friday, just before the contest. then, not morethan 15 minutes before the contest was to begin, another, equallycritical issue suddenly arose.

as one of the other contestants was practicing his entry,he discovered that the piano’s low B note was not responding toits perforation on his roll, an arrangement which depended heavi-ly on this note. Joel, myself and several other technician/restorersgathered around in an effort to resolve the problem. the conclu-sion was unexpected and, in the time frame available, unfixable.Joel revealed that he was not the first restorer of this piano, onlythe most recent. We fairly quickly discovered that although thepneumatic stack was originally constructed with all 88 strikerpneumatics, the first four (1a, 2a#, 3B & 4C) and last four(85a, 86a#, 87B & 88C) pneumatics had, for unknown reasons,not been reinstalled into the stack. it suddenly dawned on mewhy my abbreviated practice runs had sounded somewhat disap-pointing to me: “Trot” aLso makes critical use of the low Bnote. in fact, the constant sounding of it along with its nextoctave B in the left hand could be termed the signature elementof the piece. i had to make a quick decision: i had two soundeffects planned: striking a 6” section of a steel “i” beam with arubber-tipped hammer at the same time as the “hogarth” chord,


thereby simulating the bell tone in the Youtube video, followedby an on-the-beat “ratchet” sound from the familiar halloweenkid’s toy that is twirled in the hand. this task should have beenperformed by my left hand, but sounding the low B manuallynow seemed to be the more important task, therefore i chose thatover the ratchet. even so, with so little practice with the actualroll, i decided not to attempt to sound every occurrence of thelow B, but tried to catch those that occurred on cardinal beats.With this distraction, several of my “bell” strikes were less thanideal, as i discovered that the precise striking point on the “i”beam to achieve the best effect was surprisingly small. i wouldhave done better to remove the rubber tip on the hammer andsimply struck it with the metal surface and with a slightly lessforceful blow. ah, hind-sight (or would that be hind-hear?)

so troublesome was the absence of the low B note tothe other contestant that he decided, at the last minute, to switchto an alternate roll selection. i regret that he was unable to putforth his best, most practiced material, however he still manageda remarkable performance. i also regret that worthy opponentand frequent contest entrant Dick Merchant withdrew after dis-covering he had left his intended roll at home. i nervouslyapproached the piano for my turn, bringing with me a digitalvideo camera to capture the performance in order to prove to my(now) wife (who did not attend the convention) that i was indeedin pittsburgh and not Las vegas. the performance went prettymuch as i had expected, with the exception of a couple of mis-strikes on the i-beam, the inability to include the “ratchet” sound,and the missing low B strikes. Ultimately, the panel, chaired byJulian Dyer, showed their superb judgement, by awarding me mythird and possibly final “Footsie”* to my great disappointment,when i went to review the video i had shot, i discovered thecamera had apparently locked-up during the performance and thefile was totally corrupted. noW, how was i going to prove myattendance at the convention to my (now) wife? ah yes, the

“Footsie”! Fortunately, following saturday night’s banquet, ireturned to the concert room for an encore performance of “trot”with more of the sound effects (ratchet) and low B strikes, butstill well-short of what i believe my optimum performance of thepiece might have been with a few more practice sessions. Bob

Taylor used his video recorder to capture this run-through and atsome point, we will try to make it available to my adoring pub-lic.

i would be remiss if i did not mention and congratulateLarry norman on one of his best, but, sadly, non-winning perfor-mances, with a rousing rendition of “The Midnight Fire Alarm”,with cameo appearances by perennial Ln productions cast mem-bers including Joe Orens and Florie hirsch.

*Following Julian Dyer’s third winning of the “Footsie” inCincinnati in 2009, “Julian’s Rule” has been adopted that limits“Footsie” winners to a maximum of three contests. With this per-formance being my third win, i now retire, joining Julian andRoger stumfoill as “pumper emeritus”.

end: part the Fifth. next: the Final(?) Frontier: to boldly pumpwhere no foot has pumped before.

ed note: John grant may be contacted at:

[email protected]

John Grant sounding the low B.(photo by Glenda Steain)

John Grant winning Footsie for third and last time,

presented by Julian Dyer.(photo by Glenda Steain)


For more information about this tour, of interest to all AMICAns, contact Liz and Mike Barnhart at:

[email protected] or (937) 254-5580






Boston Area Chapterpresident - kirk RussellReporter - phyllis konop

photographer -Bill koenigsberg

it was a beautiful fall afternoon on september26th, 2012, when the chapter meeting was held at theeast Coast piano Co. owned by Brian grindrod inChester, new hampshire. the company buys, sells,services and restores pianos. tom ahearn, Bostonchapter member, works at the shop and restores theplayer pianos.

our hosts, Brian and Cindy Grindrod andTom Ahearn were introduced and a complete tour ofthe east Coast piano facilities followed with technicalquestions about pianos and piano rebuilding expertlyresolved by our hosts.

tom ahearn's beautiful walnut art case stein-way Duo-art model "oR" circa 1926 played some oftom's prized rolls. of particular interest also was arare german steinway Red Welte grand. some origi-nal Red rolls were showcased. More amazing was thatthis piano was recently fitted by Bob hunt with hisvirtualroll, so that it can play the entire americanWelte Licensee collection (currently 700 titles) fromcomputer files.

Many refreshments were available with indoorand outdoor seating.

Chapter News

Hosts Cindy and Brian Grindrod.

Kirk Russell and host Tom Ahearn inserting a roll in

Tom’s 1922 Steinway Red Welte.

Tom’s 1926 Steinway Duo-Art

in a lovely Italian Renaissance art case.


Boston Area Chapterpresident - kirk RussellReporter - phyllis konop

photographers _ phyllis konop and Bill koenigsberg

our first meeting of the year was held on March 10,2013 at the home of Dorothy Bromage at 8 skyline Drive in Bil-lerica, Ma.

as is the custom at our meetings we brought items for"show and tell" and items that we hoped might find new homes.after sharing and enjoying refreshments we gathered for ourbusiness meeting.

Following the business meeting Dorothy Bromageshared the history of her house. the story includes a foundingmember of the Boston area Chapter, Alan Pier. as owner of thehouse since 1967, he was an active member, filling chapteroffices and co-chairing an international convention. Followinghis demise in 1996, Dorothy Bromage has lived in the house,hosting many aMiCa chapter meetings as well as open houses.

When her retirement club meets at her home she pre-sents lectures on subjects like magic lanterns and small automaticmusic instruments, along with piano roll concerts.

Mandy Grindrod

and her father,

Brian.

Playing the Steinway Red Welte.

Members at the business meeting.

Our host, Dorothy Bromage, displaying a recent AMICA Bulletin

article about she and her Therimin.

A few of those present at the business meeting.


in the main music room she has a 1922 Weber Duo art,1940 Chickering ampico B, 1926 Mason & hamlin ampico a(with Bob hunt’s virtual Roll system) smith american parlororgan, 6-air forte piano music box, 12 air forte piano music box,Mira disk music box, and Brunswick phonograph. Miscellaneouscollections are also found here as well in all of the rooms.Dorothy has among her collections, old vocal sheet music, WorldWar 1 sheet music, 78 rpm and Lp records, optical and automaticmusical toys, marbles, stereoscope and stereographs, to name afew.

a special collection is her tea paRtY which is on dis-play in basement room along with other collectables. Dorothyselected four dolls from her large collection and put them in fourdoll chairs around a box that has a card table cover. a completedoll-size tea setting is on the little "table." she has finally found ause for the doll tea set purchased in 1988. on a trip to France in1959, she bought a little carved wooden cradle. a baby doll isnow sleeping in the cradle. in back, another doll has found abook she likes and is absorbed reading it.

Dorothy's most recent acquisition is the theremin whichwe were invited to try. she was featured in the november-December 2012 aMiCa Bulletin playing her theremin at anopen house given for local clubs she belongs to.

Dorothy is a remarkable woman who manages to keepup with the latest technology and contributes to our Boston chap-ter in so many ways. she was aMiCa international's publisherfor 6-1/2 years and has held offices in aMiCa's local chapters,southern Califormia and Boston area, as well as MBsi's south-

ern California Chapter.

Dorothy’s Tea Party.

Bill Koenigsberg’playing’ the Therimin.

Contributed by Adam Ramet.


Pacific Can-Am Chapterpresident -stuart swanbergReporter - Dave goodwin

the March 2013 meeting for the pacific Can-am Chapter was held at the home of Stu and Alison

Swanberg. stu is the new president for our chapterand we had a great day listening to music and enjoy-ing a potluck dinner.

Our hosts Alison and Stu Swanberg with their beautiful dog.

Fran Wilyard, Halie and Carl Dodrill and Rob Reid.

Farrand 88 note player piano with a beautiful restored case.

Tom Ahearn who was visiting our chapter from back east talking

to Dave Goodwin about how Steinway pianos were numbered.

Stu built this beautiful roll cabinet. He is an excellant wood worker.


Brisbane timesBrisbane, australia

16March 2013

Gentle scholar and his forte: pianosby David klages

a virtue of birth to musical parents was that Barclay

Wright's fondest memories from his formative years were oftime spent around the family piano. For the Wrights, as it was formany australian families, the piano was the heart of family andsocial activity, with night-time concerts providing escape and theopportunity to forget hardships.

For Wright, the memoriesignited a lifelong passion - not justfor music but also for the instru-ments that bought joy into people'slives. he became an expert on theplayer piano, a modified piano thatallowed people to ''play'' the instru-ment by foot without having tolearn it. suction power generatedby pedals drives the player action, asystem of bellows and pneumaticvalves, and the piano ''reads'' theperforations in a paper roll andoperates the keys, producing music.in its heyday of the 1920s, it is esti-mated half of australian householdshad a player piano and its attendantpile of piano rolls.

Barclay Robert Wrightwas born in Belmore on august 14,1934. his father, stanley Wright,was a singer and his mother inez(nee Cottier) a pianist. he quicklydemonstrated his capacity for cre-ative, innovative thinking. Whenother neighbourhood childrenmowed a patch of grass for cricket,Barclay built a tennis court, com-plete with judge's chair from whichhe'd adjudicate, although throughouthis life he hated actually playingsport. When others built billycarts, Barclay built a stage coach,complete with velvet curtains.

he went to homebush Boys high school, where he wasa senior prefect, then qualified at Balmain teachers College. hestarted his teaching career at Redfern public school with under-privileged and disabled children, an area in which he excelled.advertisement

he went on to teach at a nsW child welfare home in Laperouse, where he worked to change attitudes towards children incare. one Christmas, he diligently waged a campaign of ''annoy-ance'' until all his friends had agreed to take a child from theschool home for the holiday. the school dorm rooms were quiet

that night but, all over sydney, orphans and state wards sataround the tables and pianos of caring strangers - many experi-encing a family Christmas for the first time.

then, still in his 20s, Wright left teaching to pursue hislove of music - a love that would define his life.

in the early 1900s, two firms manufactured piano rollsin australia. a celebrated child prodigy pianist, Les Luscombe,had produced australia's first piano rolls at his company, theanglo-american player Roll Company, and g.h. horton & Co.Ltd had started manufacture in 1919, selling rolls under the name Mastertouch from 1923. in the late 1920s, crowds flocked tohorton's Castlereagh street showroom, where, between concerts,20 to 30 player pianos could be sold on a Friday night.

Wright's passion for playerpianos dated to his teenage years.his engagement with the industrystarted when Wright complained toLuscombe that he was unable tofind modern music on the rollsthen being manufactured.

Bruce gyngell welcomingaustralia to television in 1956 wasa nail in the coffin of the playerpiano, but Wright fought on. onLuscombe's death in 1957, anglo-american was sold to g.h. horton,who moved the factory to sydneyand employed Wright as a record-ing artist to replace edith and Lau-rel pardey. then, before Wrightcould record, he had to repairmuch of the ageing machineryused in making the rolls. he quick-ly became an authority on themachines and process of manufac-ture.

to make a piano roll, whenthe recording artist depresses a keyon a specially wired-up piano, asignal is sent to a recordingmachine, which punches holes in amoving roll of paper. originally,editing was done by punchingextra holes by hand or patchingunwanted holes with sticky tape

but eventually the process was done by computer.as well as working on the recording and manufacture of

rolls, Wright, perforce, became an expert in the repair andrestoration of the player pianos. nevertheless, sales were in asteady decline and by 1960 there was no avoiding the fact theindustry was in trouble. When g.h. horton & Co moved itsColumbia plant from Waterloo to Lane Cove in 1961, it decidedto finish piano roll manufacture. not wanting or willing to let alarge part of australian musical history slip into oblivion, Wrightnegotiated to buy the Mastertouch rights and its complete libraryof masters.

In The News

Wright in 2005, the year he donated his collection

to the Powerhouse. Photo: Steve Baccon


in 1962, Mastertouch was moved to a new factory inCanterbury and Wright had a business. he pioneered the newmethods that allowed his old machinery to record the music ofthe day - from the latest musicals to the emerging rock'n'roll. By1963, Mastertouch was manufacturing again and even sellingdirect to the public through their store on Canterbury Road.

in 1970, to gauge the state of the industry, Wright touredthe Us visiting many famous manufacturers - such as steinwayand Wurlitzer - as well as numerous famous music venues. thetrip consolidated his view that there was, and always would be,interest in player pianos, and that when the time came, Master-touch should be the centrepiece of a mechanical music museum.

Wright returned home with a renewed interest in thepreservation and restoration of australia's musical heritage andstarted buying and restoring pianos and organs of historical sig-nificance. in 1975, Mastertouch bought the petersham Christianscience building and, as the collection expanded, Wright estab-lished an advisory council to oversee the creation of the Master-touch Mechanical Music Museum. soon after, Mastertouchopened as a working museum, and continued trading in peter-sham for much of the next two decades despite its core businessprogressively slowing.

in the late 1990s, a heritage assistance program loanwas granted by the nsW government, which let Mastertouch buythe stanmore fire station. Wright, along with the Friends of Mas-tertouch organisation, started a program of restoration, turningthe neglected building into a fitting home for the museum, withworking factory, display areas and a theatre. however, by the2004, despite support from employees, friends and volunteers,the museum had become unsustainable.

Wright knew that in order to prevent his collection andlife's work being broken up, the museum needed a new owner. in2005, with his customary generosity, he donated the entire Mas-tertouch collection, including all manufacturing equipment,recording masters and the collection of restored pianos andorgans, to the powerhouse Museum.

he was diagnosed with a terminal illness in late 2012. inkeeping with the way he lived his life, he wanted no fuss made.he sought no treatment and died quietly in his sleep. BarclayWright is survived by his sister, Deidre, and his nieces, Zoe andeve.

Story and video may be seen at:

http://tinyurl.com/akcqura

Cool huntingnew York City, nY

24 april 2013

MB&F Music MachineThe innovative Swiss timepiece makers collaborate with

ReuGe for a first foray into music

by evan orensten

Marking the first kinetic machine made by MB&F thatisn't a timepiece, the MusicMachine confidently brings the inno-vative swiss laboratory into new territory. While the spaceship-styled MusicMachine may not tell time and can't be worn, thetabletop music box does play six beautiful and eclectic tunes.Developed in collaboration with and manufactured by Reuge—the world's premier music box maker with over 150 years ofexperience—the MusicMachine expands on MB&F's storiedbackground in avant-garde horology.

MB&F founder and creative director Max Büsserexplains that the basic engineering behind music boxes is actual-ly quite similar to that of watch making. Both rely on a series ofmechanisms to manipulate another set to achieve an output,whether it be telling time or making music. the MusicMachinedid force Reuge to break the rules slightly, by inverting MB&F'soriginal design to create two mirrored movements that keep themusic making combs on the outside.

the MusicMachine's dual propellers are turned to windup it up. the twin silver cylinders sit atop a fuselage, whichextends to slender outrigger "landing gear." a press of the buttonnear each cylinder plays a song, and each cylinder plays threetunes—the left riffs off of the player's space ship heritage andplays star Wars’ theme “may the Force be with you," "imperialMarch" from the empire strikes Back, and the theme from startrek. the right cylinder takes a less celestial approach by playingthree songs central to Büsser's early years, pink Floyd’s "anotherBrick in the Wall," Deep purple’s "smoke on the Water" andJohn Lennon’s "imagine." pressing the button plays the nextsong by moving the tube just enough to hit the next set of"tracks." each song is a full rotation on the tube, and there arethree sets of adjacent teeth on each tube, each corresponding toone of the 72 keys for each tune.

standing up to the superlative level of design MB&F isknown for, each detail on the MusicMachine is both functionaland elegant. the wood lacquered body stands to absorb vibra-tions while the aluminum legs distribute any movement awayfrom the body to eliminate any chance of noise. even the circularfans on each end help regulate air flow to steady the rate at whicheach spring unwinds, aiding in the seamless listening experience.


announced today, 25 april 2013 at switzerland's Basel-world watch fair, 66 MusicMachines by Reuge for MB&F willbe produced (33 in black lacquer and 33 in white lacquer). Formore information visit MB&F and check hodinkee's video for anexpansive explanation by Büsser himself.


http://tinyurl.com/q5u7rcl

huffpost MusicCanada

28 august 2012

The Piano Roll of The 21st Century: The MIDI File

by penny Will

piano rolls were paper tubes that made a player pianoplay a song. You would thread in one end of the paper roll -- kindof like an old film projector. as the paper fed through, little holeswould tell the piano what notes to play. if you have ever seen theworkings of a music box, it's the same idea. a rotating drum withlittle spines on it, plucks tuned metal fins, like a kalimba.

MiDi files are basically digital piano rolls. they tell thecomputer or synthesizer, what notes to play. Where piano rollshad a limited amount of information they could relay; MiDi filescontain a vast number of details including: instrument, pitch,channel, tempo, volume, attack, decay, and pitch bend. eventhough MiDi files contain so much information, they are amaz-ingly small.

Just like a piano roll will sound different on differentpianos, a MiDi file will sound different on different equipment.a MiDi file has 16 channels and each channel is basically aninstrument, with channel 10 always being reserved for percus-sion. often MiDi files sound lousy, with whistles and odd bang-ing, and that's usually because the 'drum kit' assigned is not avail-able in your MiDi instruments -- kind of like when you load text,

but don't have the right font and everything goes crazy. as withfonts, you can install additional instruments in your computer orhook up to different synthesizers or even tone generators like theYamaha vL70-M. i compose and arrange using MiDi, but recordthe finished work to an audio file, (.wav or .mp3), so it plays thesame for everyone. it's the same as writing and editing a worddocument then translating it to an electronic format (.pdf) forgeneral consumption.

Story may be seen at:

http://tinyurl.com/bp8qvgk

WiReD Beyond the Beyondnew York, nY15 april 2013

Poppers Welt-Piano Koncertist plays1920s Leipzig techno

By Bruce [email protected]

“here is a 1920s-vintage hugo popper ‘happyJazzband’ orchestrion Welt-piano konzertist, made in Leipzig,germany. they were created by adding a ‘jazz band percussioneffect’ top cabinet to a Welt coin piano model. the instrumentplays music from 88 note or 88 hole rolls, of an identical size toarburo rolls, and in addition to the piano, has percussion and trapeffects such as muted cymbal, snare drum, triangle and woodblock.

“What makes these popper orchestrions outstanding isthe attention to detail of ensuring the percussion effects areexpressive – that is for example, rather than a simple pneumaticbeating a drum, the beater has its distance from the drum alteredcontinuously according to holes in the roll, by means of a sepa-rate expression pneumatic. the resulting music is therefore verymuch less mechanical than in many orchestrions.

“here this popper orchestrion plays a tune called ‘amRüdesheimer schloss steht eine Linde’ (Blues von erich Ziegler)– the title translating to ‘at Rüdesheimer Castle stands a Lindentree’.”


http://tinyurl.com/bq5weqt


new York postnew York, nY23 May 2013

Officials to unveil Coney Island's restored, historic carousel

By RiCh CaLDeR

there’s finally a reason to head to the western end ofConey’s island’s fabled beachfront besides catching a BrooklynCyclones’ ballgame.

Workers yesterday were putting the final touches onsteeplechase plaza, a long-anticipated piece of the Coney islandmakeover that city officials hope will make the boardwalk westof stillwell avenue rival Luna park and the rest of the amuse-ment area to the east.

Mayor Bloomberg, Borough president MartyMarkowitz and other officials are expected to host a ceremonialopening Friday for the new $29.5 million, 2.2-acre plaza that willshowcase the landmarked parachute Jump and a historiccarousel.

“this will be a huge event for the western end of Coneyisland because it hasn’t had amusements there for decades,” saidDennis vourderis, chairman of the alliance for Coney island andco-owner of Deno’s Wonder Wheel park.

“the anticipation istremendous -- especially after[superstorm] sandy.”

Designers aeCoM andthe Rockwell group have exquis-itely covered the plaza in multi-col-ored, hexagonal stoned pavers.

the B&B Carousell -- alongtime local icon that was builtin 1919 and rescued from auctionby the Bloomberg administration in2005 – has been fully restored bycarousel restoration experts fromMarion, ohio. the ride and its 50hand-carved wooden horses arenow enclosed inside a glass pavil-ion offering children who ride itspectacular beachfront views.

steeplechase plaza willallow visitors the novelty of beingable to enter the amusement areaby walking directly underneath the262-foot-high parachute Jump. itwill also feature a food concessionarea.

the plaza is located on thesite of the former steeplechaseamusement park, between W. 16thand W. 19th streets. it is next toMCU park, home of the BrooklynCyclones.

steeplechase amusementpark closed in 1964, and there has-

n’t been a ride on the west end of Coney island since the thun-derbolt roller coaster shut down in 1982.

amos Wengler -- a Coney island musician whose 2007tune “save Coney island” became the theme song for activistsfighting to keep condos out the amusement area -- said he wasinvited to Friday’s opening to sing a new song, “Coney’s ComingBack,” in honor of the neighborhood rebuilding itself followingsuperstorm sandy. he said he would be accompanied on choruswith students from ps 90 in Coney island.

“this wi l be a great day for Coney island; it’s back!”Wengler boasted.

Meanwhile, the parachute Jump is in the process of get-ting a separate, $2 million makeover.

Believing it lacked sufficient “bling” to be worthy ofBrooklyn, Markowitz pushed for the ride to get a spectacular newlighting system that is expected to be unveiled as early as June21, sources said.

in related news, nathan’s Famous is among the oldfavorites returning this summer as it’s flagship store on surfavenue reopened this week after being devastated by superstormsandy.

Meanwhile, Luna park expects to unveil a new waterride on saturday and two new thrill rides next month.

Story may be seen at:

http://tinyurl.com/q49sfb3


pucknew York, nYapril 15, 1891

Cartoons and Comments

the stern edict of our local lawgivers has driven out ofnew York, the organ grinder and the monkey. the agile simianno longer taps nervously at second-story windows. the good cit-izen no longer throws up his sash to admit the gibbering little fig-ure and the scarlet coat, grimacing and moving for the cent ofmendicancy and the cracker which human charity spares to thechild of the south american forest. stern reformers are, no doubt,well pleased with the law which banishes the children's hairy lit-tle friend, condemned to exile because his unheralded appear-ance on second story sills has scared a few clamorous old maids,who, never having had children of their own, have none of thereal maternal feelings for a monkey which ought to exist in everygood woman's breast.

But that great city can only drive the organ grinder withhis monkey to its utmost bounds. Beyond those bounds he isfree. Westchester welcomes him. new Jersey reject him not. hehas his regular route through those happy regions, and he traces itover and over again, year in and year out. his monkey learns toknow one house from another; differentiates the “nice-a-man”from the “bad-a-man”; separates, in his intellectual processes, thelady who “gives-a” 10 cent from the lady who “setta de dog on”.

there are organ grinders and organ grinders; monkeysand monkeys; householders and householders. sometimes it hap-pens that the organ grinder who wanders through new Jersey'ssuburban wilds finds a host where he is paid liberally for withholding his hand from the crank of his organ, and where his mon-key is received into the inner circles of domesticity. in suchcases, the monkey is an excuse for the musical performance thatheralds him. But such cases are few and far between. as a rule.the tune seals the monkey’s fate. the organ grinder grinds out afew bars, and the monkey is driven forth from the eligible subur-ban residence.

and what does the organ grinder do then - supposingthat is happens in the chill young springs? he takes the rejectedmonkey, gathers him up into a ball, and thrust him in a canvasbag, designed to protect him from the cold until such time as hemay be called upon into active service again. and, for the timebeing, the monkey is no more. he is in eclipse: he is wiped out:he is shut up. his bag hides him from mortal site; his ownergoes on is weary way. the tune has been played, and it has fallenon deaf ears. the crank has been ground, the reeds havesqueaked; but no one has danced. the monkey has done his best,and has displayed creditable agility; but no one cares for hiscapers or for the prehensile adaptability of his tail. the wholeperformance is a dead failure. silent is the band organ; back goesthe monkey into the bag: the organ grinder departs; and that isthe last of him.

You understand, of course, that we think that the dis-comfited organ grinder looks something like the italian govern-ment after its late diplomatic flurry with the United states. it ishardly possible that you will disagree with us. her best friendscannot deny that italy's position is more or less pitiful. sherecalled her Minister, and thereby, according to the usage ofnations, threatened a war. now, in the most peaceful fashion

imaginable, she asks that our courts shall, in the performance oftheir usual functions, take cognizance of a recent breach of thepeace in new orleans; and that, if it be proven that, under theconditions of our treaty with italy, we owe her any money forthe italians whom we lynched, we shall pay it. to come to this,after recalling a Minister, certainly justifies us in saying that itonly has “made a monkey” as the phrase is, of her prime Minis-ter, the responsible agent of the government: and leaves us free topicture the monkey thus made, in the humiliating act of being putback into his bag.

the facts justify us, we think, beyond a doubt. But, tosatisfy ourselves, we should ask a broader justification. is such afigure as we have chosen to illustrate the situation justified infairness, in kindness, send me a decent comity when should existbetween two self respecting people's? We are sorry to say that itis, and up there is no getting around the fact. if ever there was amonkey put into the bag, it is Rodini, and if ever a discomfiteditalian retired from untenable ground, it is that excellent and wor-thy monarch, king hubert - or, in other words, the governmentand whose head he stands.

so much for the fairness. as to the kindness and comi-ty, italy has forfeited, in the recent “unpleasantness”, every claimto friendly indulgence. she has had no better friend than theUnited states. We stood by her when she groaned under the pres-sure of austrian despotism. We sheltered her exiles; we fed andclad her fugitives, and sent them back, their pockets filled withamerican dollars, to fight out the great fight for italian indepen-dence. From Maroncelli to garibaldi, italy’s patriots havefound their refuge, their asylum and their bank in this country.and the friendship has always been singularly one sided. howlong is it since the garibaldy badges were peddled about - nar-rows strips of embroidered silk, worked in Coventry by englishweavers? twenty-five years? thirty? it matters not. But themoney we spent for those silly trifles, to show our goodwill toitaly, is more than all the italians that have ever lived have spentto show friendship for america or sympathy with americanideals.

and, after all these years of one sided friendship, whathas happened? three italian citizens - or three men who are sup-posed to be italian citizens - lynched in new orleans. it isunnecessary, in considering the attitude of the italian govern-ment, to inquire whether their lynching was justifiable or unjusti-fiable. our government promptly assured italy that the Unitedstates intended no affront to a friendly nation, and stood ready toredress any possible wrong. Whereupon, italy recalled her Min-ister.

this action was an insult of the gravest sort. it is noth-ing to us that it may have been a convenient move for an italianprime Minister who was playing the Jingo game that our ownBlaine is fond of. it was a menace of war, undeserved, unfair,indecent. When we record the fact that it failed, and failed in themost ignominious fashion, we do not go too far in picturing theking of italy as an organ gringer whose war-tune has been shutoff suddenly, and who has been obliged to put his agile but inju-dicious monkey of a prime Minister into the bag of discreet

silence, and, in our crude american phrase, “git”.



Wurlitzer Motion picture orchestra style 160 C(contributed by tim trager)

http://tinyurl.com/c7rcufe

Usa newspapers 1836 to 1922http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Museum of Music automatons - switzerland(contributed by David krall)

http://tinyurl.com/yhe4ap3

David Rumsey's Welte articles(contributed by David krall)

http://www.davidrumsey.ch/Seewen.php

tour a 4/26 Wurlitzer theatre organ(contributed by vincent Morgan)

http://tinyurl.com/bw59qco

Musical instrument kits(contributed by vincent Morgan)

http://tinyurl.com/ce5pv4s

an unusual piano duet, great fun!(contributed by vincent Morgan)

http://tinyurl.com/bqwrane

evening of pianola, with Randolph herr(contributed by vincent Morgan)

http://tinyurl.com/m9nc52n

the Mighty Wurlitzer organhttp://tinyurl.com/btvf85k

old time Radio showshttp://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

Robert tiso on the glass harp(contributed by thad kochanny)

http://tinyurl.com/c6v78ye

pavarotti's granddaughter, delightful.(contributed by thad kochanny)

http://tinyurl.com/77pveeg

"stand By Me", worlwide.(contributed by thad kochanny)

http://tinyurl.com/btyh5l

"stand By Me", worlwide.(contributed by thad kochanny)

http://tinyurl.com/btyh5l

"star Wars" p/b Jelani eddington on the sanfilippo Mighty Wurlitzer

http://tinyurl.com/d4pc42j

australian piano and pianola Factoryhttp://www.pianosandpianolas.com

Restoration of Baldwin Modello player action(Contributed by al pedworth)

http://www.pebworths.com/Baldwin/index.html

sutter Chip's Ragtime innhttp://www.sutterchip.com

harry perrella program(built and contributed by peter Mintun)

http://tinyurl.com/cdubpnd

Rex Lawson - pianolisthttp://www.rexlawson.com

Underground pianola(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://www.undergroundpianola.com/

aeolian hall in its golden age(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://tinyurl.com/oowoftc

Mark twain's orchestrelle(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://tinyurl.com/awhar9e

Welte-Mignon documentary, 43 minutes.(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://tinyurl.com/bs89ar2

Ballets Russes Mecaniques, by Bob Berkman(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://tinyurl.com/cpgh799

pianola partnership(contributed by adam Ramet)

http://www.pianola-part.freeuk.com

tom Brier in informal performance (vg)(contributed by Duaine hechler)

http://tinyurl.com/4wfwos9

excellent video of reassembly of Coney island’s B&B Carouselhttp://tinyurl.com/p2kf84m

how the ampico a expression system Works(narrated by Craig Broucher, contributed by John tuttle)

http://tinyurl.com/ogqsund

Web Sites of Interest


Dr. Robert Rosencrans 1923-2013

aMiCa lost one of its mainstays in Bob Rosencranswho had just celebrated his 90th birthday at the end of February.the occasion included a catered cocktail party, friends and fami-ly and he showed his usual wit and good humor. in the daysafter, he declined quite rapidly. although in recent years mobilitybecame a real challenge for him and he was unable to attendaMiCa conventions, heenjoyed the Bulletins andwas always eager to hearabout his aMiCa friends.he continued to enjoy hisreproducing pianos andkept them well-maintained.

Bob was born inshaker heights, ohio andwas one of the few people iknew who was aware ofand appreciated reproduc-ing pianos when they werenew. his parents built acustom house and he trea-sured the blueprints of thishouse for his entire life.this was probably the startof his appreciation of his-toric architecture, design,art, antiques, gardening andlandscape planning. earlyon he also developed a keen sense of social mores, culture, andcivic responsibility. he was quite aware of the fine cars of theera and for his entire life read about and appreciated classic auto-mobiles. his future looked bright when he developed a signifi-cant infection which resulted in permanent, significant hearingloss. his mother tutored him at home and despite the challenges,he returned to public school with the primitive hearing aidswhich were available in the 1930’s and did well. the familymoved to the philadelphia area in the ‘30’s when his father’swork took him to the area and the family purchased a colonial-era house which had been part of the underground railroad forescaping slaves during the Civil War era. even with the hearingloss, Bob became quite a skilled pianist, playing “by ear” andemulating the cocktail party style of the era. “as time goes By”was a life-long favorite and he played it very well (no, the familydid not own a reproducing piano). he excelled at the Universityof pennsylvania dental school and became a successful orthodon-tist. his father died while he was in college and his mother livedwith him for the rest of her life.

his mother was not an appreciator of reproducingpianos, but Bob’s memory of what they were and what they

could do led him to purchase his first one in the mid-1960’s (andkeep it at his dental office) shortly after aMiCa was founded.he joined aMiCa and attended conventions early on (his motherthought he was attending dental conferences). he was one of thefounders of the philadelphia Chapter and kept that chapter aliveas long as possible, helping host conventions in 1979 and 1986.a favorite activity was to host musicales and to encourage appre-ciative listening. he purchased and had several reproducingpianos restored, which he freely shared with others and transport-

ed to public venues for con-certs. he was aMiCa pres-ident 1975-1980. he culti-vated the honorary memberswho remained active at thetime and his recorded inter-view with Robert arm-bruster is an aMiCa trea-sure. several honorarymembers autographed theplates of his pianos. WhileBob was aMiCa president,i joined aMiCa and attend-ed my first convention asquite a novice in the field.Bob was very encouragingof my interest and cultivatedmy participation in associa-tion activities. i’m gratefulfor his demonstration of realaMiCa spirit and enthusi-asm. i was pleased to pre-

sent the aMiCa president’s award to him in 2001. he was agreat and generous friend and mentor and i made a yearly visit apriority.

Bob had a great sense of civic responsibility and anappreciation of history. he regularly contributed to worthy orga-nizations which promoted animal welfare, civil rights, culture,and the arts. he donated a restored reproducing piano to theDickinson high school pipe organ project in Wilmington,Delaware. Bob enjoyed the finer things in life, including cocktailtime, a good dirty Martini, fine restaurants, and piano bars. We’llall remember his generosity, his wisdom, his sharp wit and hissense of justice and propriety. he passed while wintering in keyWest with his partner of 35 years, Lee Rosencrans.

Dan Brown

Ed Note: In July 1981, Bob visited with us in our home and

while here, I made an audio recording of him playing my piano.

If anyone would like to hear that performance of some 38 min-

utes, it may be downloaded off my personal web site: ....ts

http://terrysmythe.ca/Rosencrans_1981.mp3

In Memoriam

Bob and Lee Rosencrans


ADVERTISING

GeNeRAl INFORMATION ABOuT All ADVeRTISING IN

The AMICA BulleTIN

All advertising should be directed to:

terry smythe55 Rowand avenueWinnipeg, MB, Canada R3J2n6phone: (204) 832-3982 (email preferred)e-mail: [email protected]

ad copy must contain text directly related to the product/service beingoffered. extraneous text will be deleted at the editor's discretion. adver-tisers will be invoiced, with payment to aMiCa treasurer. telephoneads will not be accepted due to high risk of errors. aMiCa reserves theright to edit or to reject any ad deemed inappropriate or not in keepingwith aMiCa's goals and objectives.the BulleTIN accepts advertising without endorsement, implied orotherwise, of the products or services being offered. publication of busi-ness advertising in no way implies aMiCa's endorsement of any com-mercial operation.

AMICA PuBlICATIONS ReSeRVeS The RIGhT TO ACCePT,

ReJeCT, OR eDIT ANY AND All SuBMITTeD ARTICleS

AND ADVeRTISING.

all items for publication must be submitted directly to the editor for consideration.

ClASSIFIeD AD RATeS FOR AMICA MeMBeRS:

1-100 Words $20.00non-member rates are double for all advertising.

DISPlAY ADVeRTISING

Double page $ 200.00Full page $ 150.00half page $ 75.00Quarter page $ 50.00Business Card $ 30.00non-member rates are double for all advertising

Special 6 for 5 Ad Offer - place any ad, for a full year (6 issues), andpay for only 5 issues. payable in advance. photographs or halftones$15.00 each. Loose sheet or insert advertising: inquire

Display advertisers supply camera-ready copy. Copy that is oversized orundersized will be changed to correct size. We ordinarily do not prepareadvertisements from raw content.

PAYMeNT: advertisers will be invoiced. Make check payable toaMiCa inteRnationaL. typesetting and layout size alterationscharges will be billed if required by professional services.

DeADlINeS: submissions must be received no later than the first ofthe odd months (January, March, May, July, september, november).the Bulletin will be mailed not later than the first week of the evenmonths.

FOR SALEThe GOlDeN AGe of AuTOMATIC MuSICAl INSTRu-MeNTS by Art Reblitz. award-winning classic that brings his-

torical, musical, and technical informa-tion to life with hundreds of large, vividcolor photos. We guarantee you'll find itto be one of the most interesting, inspir-ing, informative books you have in yourlibrary-or your money back. everyonehas been delighted, and some readershave ordered several copies. get yourcopy today for $99 plus s/h. MechanicalMusic press - a, 70 Wild ammonoosucRd., Woodsville, nh 03785 603-747-2636 2-14

http://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com

1926 Mason & hamlin grand, 5'8". ampico mechanism. goodworking order, may require fine tuning. Cabi-net is in excellent condition. same owner 39years. 80 original ampico rolls. piano has beenreconditioned by the Bannister Bros, River-side, Ca. some years ago. $16,400. Contact

ernie Becerril <[email protected]> 3-13

COINOlA X from the Milhous Collection in quarter-sawn oakwith orchestra bells - "the most popularorchestrion that has ever been made" asdescribed in MBsi 's Mechanical MusicMarch/april 2013 issue. Beautifullyrestored inside and out. piano, mandolin,bells, snare, tympani, and bass drum, cym-bal, wood block and triangle playing the

incomparable o roll. available for sale or trade - what have you?WANTeD: Nelson-Wiggen cabinet pianos style 6, 5-X, 4-X,and 8; Coinola Midget K, and Seeburg G. Call or email BrucePerelman today at (310) 880-7945 or <[email protected]>rf

Beautiful Antique Music Boxes, Automata, and Accordionspreviously owned by Mar-vin and Dianne Polan .includes Miraphone (c.1900) superb condition,Nicole Frères Cylinder Box(c.1875), Paillard cylindermusical box (c.1880), Sym-phonion Carriage Clock(c.1900-1905), Swiss Over-

ture Box, Swiss cylinder musical box (c. 1840), Kaliope,heller expressive Cylinder Musical Box (c. 1875), ReginaDisc Music Box (c. 1815), Mira 9 ½ disc box, Musical Automa-ton-Bouquetiere, Reuge Musical Automaton – Young girl withBird Cage, Tanzibar accordion, Musical embossed Seal andmuch more located in Long island, nY. For pricelist e-mailMichael Polan at 516-458-7699 or <[email protected]>rf

Wanted

Does anyone have the capability of transposing a Duo art roll, toan ampico B, that really knows the systems? the roll is TheBenediction Of God In The Solitude, #6636, Liszt. larry Smith, origsmith@sbcglobal rf

Music is the poetry of the air.

Richter


AMICA CD/DVD's for sale:

* aMiCa Bulletins to date* aMiCa on-Line Research Library to date* aMiCa technicalities* obenchain ampico catalog* purple Welte Book* Billings Rollography* piano playing Mechanisms, by William Braid White* technical history of the player by John Mctammany

all discs are in hi-resolution. Most already on our website,freely available to all members, but in low-res. For most,these discs will be more of a convenience for those notinclined to spend many hours of downloading time. and ofcourse, for those with dial-up or no internet access at all.and even if they do not have a computer, there is always afriendly neighborhood office Depot type service centerthan can print pDF files off the discs. serious researcherswill love the hi-res of these discs.

each of these discs are priced at $25 (Us), postage includ-ed. purchasers will be invoiced.

Contact:terry smythe55 Rowand avenueWinnipeg, MBCanada R3J2n6email preferred: [email protected]


Brian Stahl: Piano Ticklers Music RollsP.O. Box 220, Elizabethville, PA 17023

email: [email protected]: (717) 599-1369

Rob Deland: Blues Tone Rollswww.bluesrolls.com


Bob & Ginny Billings: Sierra Music Rolls14010 Rim Rock Drive, Reno, NV 89521


Leedy Brothers Music Rolls4660 Hagar Shore Road, Coloma, MI 49038

www.leedyrolls.comPhone: (269) 468-5986 - Fax: (269) 468-0019

Larry Norman: Rollertuneswww.home.earthlink.net/~rollertunes


Don Teach: Shreveport Music Co.1815 E. 70th Street, Shreveport, LA 71105email: [email protected]

Phone: (318) 798-6000 - Fax: (318) 797-4572

Robin Pratt: Artists' Choice Music Rollsemail: [email protected]: (419) 626-1903

516 Pierce Street, Sandusky, OH 44870-4725

Steve Bentley, SB-"O" Rolls series.Play-Rite Music Rolls

1536 N. Palm St.,Turlock. CA 95380. U.S.A.Phone. (209) 632-5784.

Fax. 209) 667-8241.email: [email protected]

QRS Music Technologies, Inc.1026 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213

Phone: 1-800-247-6557 - Fax: 1-716-885-7510www.qrsmusic.com

Magic Melodies360 Lawless Road, Jamestown, KY 42629

Phone: (270) 343-2061

David Saul: Precision Music Rolls1043 Eastside Road, El Cajon, CA 92020-1414


Joyce Brite: Player Piano andMechanical Music Exchange

http://www.mmdigest.com/Exchange/http://www.mmdigest.com/Exchange/rollpage.htm


Dick Hack: Hack Mechanical Music2051 Chesapeake Road, Annapolis, MD 21409

email: [email protected](410) 279-5859 Cell Days

(410) 757-2164 Home Evenings

Kukral Collection: Welte-Mignon and 88-Note Rolls

216 Madison Blvd., Terre Haute, IN 47803Phone: (812) 238-9656


Julian Dyer5 Richmond Rise, Wokingham RG41 3XH,

United Kingdomwww.pianorolls.co.uk


John Motto-Ros“Nickelodeon Rolls”

“A” “G” “O” Rolls & Boxes110 Allen Ranch Road, Sutter Creek, CA 95685

209-267-9252www.johnnysmusicrolls.com


Keystone Music RollsP.O. Box 650, Bethlehem, PA 18016

[email protected]://www.keystonemusicroll.com

Gnaw-Vol-ty RollsStephen Kent Goodman

www.gnaw-vol-ty.comE-mail: [email protected]

Fax: 866-828-2165

D.C. Ramey Piano Company, LLC.17768 Woodview DriveMarysville OH 43040

708-602-3961www.dcramey.com


Ed Sprankle Piano Roll AuctionSearch for my eBay Seller ID:jensprankemail: [email protected]

Jennifer Sprankle6114 La Salle Avenue #491

Oakland, CA 94611

"Pipes of Pan Music Rolls"(Formerly Schmidt's)207 S. McCrary St.

Woodbury, TN 37190615-563-5814

http://www.popmusicrolls.comemail: [email protected]

Ed Gaida Music RollsPO Box 8174

San Antonio, TX [email protected]

Please visit these suppliers of rolls

Documents

The AMICA Bulletin - Stackszr738kv4429/May-Jun-13.pdf · International Piano Archives at Maryland performing arts Library,University of Maryland 2511 Clarice smith performing arts