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Th",e aTe thePha"tom EMORIES glowing with the iog a Iife·tilne ofcompletemusical Ha"d. of a thou,o"d M veiled enchantment of by· satisfaction, naturally choose the bnmorlalpiallists; their gone years come to you through W elte.Mignon*, - the instrument glorious ge"ilts prc$.l!YY. ed /oTeYer, Ih,ollgh II,. the .'supreme art of the Welte· supreme. The Welte.Mignon* is lIIirad~ of IVelte· !viignon*, the world's greatest invisible and does not interfere MiglJ01l' riJprot!ttdioll. reproducing instrument. with manual playing. It is obtain. With the Welte.Mignon*, Pade. able in nearly every good make rewski, de Pachmann, Hofmann­ of piano. Write for interesting and hundreds of other masters­ brochure. Auto PneumaticAction play in your own home whenever Company,12thAve.,at51stStreet, you 'wish. True music lovers seek. New York City.

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The A:l'tIICA BULLETIN AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS' ASSOCIATION MARCH/APRIL 2001 VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2 Granada 9¥Code1 AN appreciation of the Stieff Granada Grand brings to the mind the traditions of Spanish History, of musty iron-clad chests, the Spanish Main, pieces ot eight and finely tooled old Cor­ dovan leather. It is built to conform to the atmos­ pheric requirements of the swiftly increasing vogue for Spanish architecture and interior decoration.

Chas. M. Stieff', Inc. 3 I '5 N. Howard St. Baltimore, Md. (Send for Color Chan "B" The Development of Piano­ forte Composition.) THE AMICA BULLETIN AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTORS' ASSOCIATION Published by the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association, a non-profit, tax exempt group devoted to the restoration, distribution and enjoyment of musical instruments using perforated paper music rolls and perforated music books. AMICA was founded in San Francisco, California in 1963. ROBIN PRATT, PUBLISHER, 630 EAST MONROE ST., SANDUSKY, OH 44870-3708 -- Phone 419-626-1903, e-mail: [email protected] Visit the AMICA Web page at: http://www.amica.org Associate Editor: Mr. Larry Givens Contributing Editor: Mr. Emmett M. Ford

VOLUME 38, Number 2 March/April 2001 AMICA BULLETIN

Display and Classified Ads FEATURES Articles for Publication Letters to the Publisher On a Roll — 74 Chapter News Canning Music for the Mechanical Piano — 87 UPCOMING PUBLICATION DEADLINES From the Player Piano Group— 88 The ads and articles must be received QRS, Manufacturers of Welte-Mignon Licensee Rolls 1933-1945 — 90 by the Publisher on the 1st of the Odd number months: T-100 Welte-Mignon - The Actual Cost of Ownership — 92 January July March September Disk Roll Review — 96 May November Ragtime: No Longer A Novelty in Sepia — 98 Bulletins will be mailed on the 1st week of the even months. Piano Maker Henry Steinway — 100 Robin Pratt, Publisher 630 East Monroe Street Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708 Phone: 419-626-1903 e-mail: [email protected]

DEPARTMENTS AMICA International — 70 MEMBERSHIP SERVICES President’s Message — 71 New Memberships ...... $37.00 From the Publisher’s Desk — 71 Renewals ...... $37.00 Calendar of Events — 72 Address changes and corrections Letters — 73 Directory information updates People - J. Lawerence Cook Part 1 — 76 Additional copies of Member Directory . . . . $25.00 Chapter News — 103 Single copies of back issues They Shall Be Remembered — 111 ($6.00 per issue - based upon availability) Classified Ads — 114 William Chapman (Bill) 2150 Hastings Court Santa Rosa, CA 95405-8377 Front Cover: Ad from 1924 707-570-2258 e-mail: [email protected] Inside Front: Ad from House & Garden, Sept. 1927 To ensure timely delivery of your Inside Back Cover: Ad from The Saturday Evening Post, 1920 BULLETIN, please allow 6-weeks advance notice of address changes. Back Cover: Welte Co. Stock Certificate from 1928 - contributed by Anthony Engels

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

Entire contents © 2001 AMICA International 69 AMICA INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS CHAPTER OFFICERS PRESIDENT Dan C. Brown BOSTON AREA NORTHERN LIGHTS N. 4828 Monroe Street Pres. Ken Volk Pres: Dave Kemmer Spokane, WA 99205-5354 Vice Pres: Dorothy Bromage Vice Pres: Jerrilyn Boehland - 509-325-2626 Sec: Ginger Christiansen (612) 780-5699 e-mail: [email protected] Treas: Karl Ellison Sec: Jason E. Beyer - (507) 454-3124 Treas: Terry Goepel PAST PRESIDENT Linda Bird Reporter: Don Brown Board Rep: Sandy Libman Reporters: Paul & Barbara Watkins 3300 Robinson Pike Board Rep: Dorothy Olds Grandview, MO 64030-2275 CHICAGO AREA Phone/Fax 816-767-8246 Pres: Richard VanMetre - (847) 402-5391 PACIFIC CAN-AM e-mail: OGM [email protected] Vice Pres: George Wilder Pres: Kurt Morrison - (253) 952-4725 VICE PRESIDENT Mike Walter Sec: Curt Clifford Vice Pres: Don McLaughlin 65 Running Brook Dr., Treas: Joe Pekarek Sec: Halie Dodrill Lancaster, NY 14086-3314 Reporter: Kathy Stone Septon Treas: Bev Spore 716-656-9583 Board Rep: Marty Persky Reporter: Carl Kehret e-mail: [email protected] Board Rep: Carl Dodrill FOUNDING CHAPTER SECRETARY Judith Chisnell SIERRA NEVADA 3945 Mission, Box 145, Rosebush, MI 48878-9718 Pres: Bing Gibbs - (408) 253-1866 Vice Pres: Mark Pope Pres: John Motto-Ros - (209) 267-9252 517-433-2992 Vice Pres: Sonja Lemon Sec: Lyle Merithew & Sandy Swirsky e-mail: [email protected] Sec/Treas: Doug & Vicki Mahr Treas: Richard Reutlinger TREASURER Wesley Neff Reporter: Nadine Motto-Ros Reporter: Tom McWay Board Rep: John Motto-Ros 128 Church Hill Drive, Findlay, Ohio 45840 Board Rep: Richard Reutlinger Registered agent for legal matters 419-423-4827 SOWNY (Southern Ontario, e-mail: [email protected] GATEWAY CHAPTER Western New York) Pres: Yousuf Wilson (636) 665-5187 Pres: Anne Lemon - (905) 295-4228 PUBLISHER Robin Pratt Vice Pres: Tom Novak Vice Pres: Mike Hamann 630 E. Monroe Street, Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708 Sec,/Treas: Jane Novak Sec/Mem. Sec: John & Diane Thompson 419-626-1903 Reporter: Mary Wilson Treas: Holly Walter e-mail: [email protected] Board Rep: Gary Craig Photographer: Garry Lemon MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY William Chapman (Bill) HEART OF AMERICA Reporter: Frank Warbis 2150 Hastings Court, Santa Rosa, CA 95405-8377 Pres: Ron Bopp - (918) 786-4988 Board Rep: Mike Walter 707-570-2258 Vice Pres: Tom McAuley e-mail: [email protected] SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Sec/Treas: Robbie Tubbs Pres: James Westcott — COMMITTEES — Reporter: Joyce Brite Sec./Reporter. Shirley Nix Board Rep: Ron Connor Treas: Ken Hodge AMICA ARCHIVES Stuart Grigg Board Rep: Frank Nix 20982 Bridge St., Southfield, MI 48034 - Fax: (248) 356-5636 LADY LIBERTY Pres./Reporter: Bill Maguire TEXAS AMICA MEMORIAL FUND Judy Chisnell (516) 261-6799 3945 Mission, Box 145, Rosebush, MI 48878-9718 517-433-2992 Pres: Jerry Bacon - (214) 328-9369 Vice Pres: Keith Bigger Vice Pres: Tony Palmer (817) 261-1334 AUDIO-VISUAL & TECHNICAL Harold Malakinian Sec: Richard Karlsson Sec./Treas: Janet Tonnesen 2345 Forest Trail Dr., Troy, MI 48098 Treas: Walter Kehoe Board Rep: Dick Merchant Board Reps: Marvin & Dianne Polan CONVENTION COORDINATOR Frank Nix Bulletin Reporter: Bryan Cather Newsletter Editor: Bryan Cather 6030 Oakdale Ave., Woodland Hills, CA 91367 818-884-6849 MIDWEST (OH, MI, IN, KY) HONORARY MEMBERS Jay Albert Pres: Judy Chisnell SOUTHERN SKIES 904-A West Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101-4745 Vice Pres: Stuart Grigg Pres: Debra Legg - (727) 734-3353 (805) 966-9602 - e-mail: [email protected] Sec: Judy Wulfekuhl Vice Pres: Bill Shrive Treas: Alvin Wulfekuhl Sec: Howard Wyman (813) 689-6876 PUBLICATIONS Robin Pratt Reporter: Christy Counterman 630 E. Monroe St., Sandusky, OH 44870-3708 Treas: Dee Kavouras (352) 527-9390 Board Rep: Liz Barnhart Reporter: Dick & Dixie Leis WEB MASTER Terry Smythe Board Rep: Debra Legg 55 Rowand Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J 2N6 204-832-3982 — e-mail: [email protected] http://www.mts.net/~smythe AFFILIATED SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONS AUSTRALIAN COLLECTORS INTERNATIONAL PIANO NORTHWEST PLAYER PIANO SOCIETY FOR SELF-PLAYING OF MECHANICAL MUSICAL ARCHIVES AT MARYLAND ASSOCIATION MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS INSTRUMENTS Performing Arts Library, Hornbake 3210 Everson Whittle, Secretary Gesellschaft für Selbstspielende 19 Waipori Street University of Maryland 11 Smiths Road, Darcy Lever, Musikinstrumente (GSM) E.V. St. Ives NSW 2075, Australia College Park, MD 20742 Bolton BL3 2PP, Gt. Manchester, England Ralf Smolne Home Phone: 01204 529939 Emmastr. 56 DUTCH PIANOLA ASSOC. MUSICAL BOX SOCIETY Business Phone: 01772 208003 D-45130 Essen, Germany Nederlandse Pianola Vereniging INTERNATIONAL Phone: **49-201-784927 Eikendreef 24 P. O. Box 297 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Fax:. **49-201-7266240 5342 HR Oss, Marietta, OH 45750 Division of Musical History Email: [email protected] Netherlands Washington, D.C. 20560 NETHERLANDS MECHANICAL INT. VINTAGE PHONO & MECH. ORGAN SOCIETY - KDV PLAYER PIANO GROUP MUSIC SOCIETY PIANOLA INSTITUTE A. T. Meijer Julian Dyer, Bulletin Editor Clair Cavanagh, Secretary C.G. Nijsen, Secretaire General Wilgenstraat 24 5 Richmond Rise, Workingham, 19 Mackaylaan 43 Great Percy St., London WC1X 9RA NL-4462 VS Goes, Netherlands Berkshire RG41 3XH, United Kingdom England 5631 NM Eindhoven Phone: 0118 977 1057 Netherlands Email: [email protected] 70 President’s Message

I’m pleased to announce that we have a new Treasurer, Wesley Neff of Ohio. He’s recently retired and and has the time and skill to do a great job for AMICA. We owe him our thanks for stepping forward to help the organization. The transition is in progress and will soon be completed. Thanks again to Rob DeLand for re-assuming the Treasurer duties and getting us through a difficult time. Congratulations to Robin Pratt and all the contributors who made the last Bulletin so great. It had everything we want: history, tech tips, and great chapter reports. Yes, it was delayed by some computer problems, but I think it was worth the wait. It reminded me to request that members take a few minutes and contribute an article. Don’t be deterred by your not being a polished writer or not having earth-shaking (sorry for that reference, Seat- tle) information to share. Robin will take your article in any form you can supply it and work with you. Don’t diminish the importance or appeal of your article, either. Personal sto- ries, reminiscences, or articles about a favorite instrument all contribute to our fund of knowledge and help make the Bulletin more varied and interesting. Mike Barnhart is working hard on the development of the IFMMO website which will coordinate information from instrument collector organizations around the world. In recent correspondence, he noted that this may appeal to the current generation of electronically- interested, but pneumatically-uniformed potential members. In the past several years, we have often discussed new methods of recruiting members, but our numbers have not increased. In recent discussions with members of the public, it became painfully obvious to me that many people know little about pianos, let alone player or reproducing pianos. As a child, there were two operating original player pianos in my neighborhood and I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy both regularly. Most people had pianos of some sort. Look around your current neighborhood. I’d bet you wouldn’t find many pianos and you probably have the only automatic instruments around. This is further evidence that we have to get our treasures out in front of the public to pique their interest and develop their knowledge. The Australia convention was a great success, even with super hot temperatures. I look forward to the stories and photos. No board meeting was held at the convention due to the timing in the year and the number of people who could attend. I am currently looking into the possibility of a mid-summer board meeting somewhere in the midwest. This will allow face-to-face discussions and be a good compromise for keeping travel distances to a minimum. Watch for details. Amicably,

Dan Brown

that I would also like to see a few names on some of the instruments . . , but there I go THINKING again! You will see a blatant expose about yours truly in this issue from the local Sandusky Register. Just so no one gets really upset at my “free advertising”, I was directed by the members of the AMICA Board to do this. It gives the members more of an insight into the Publisher and his roots. Hope you enjoy the article. The young man, Colt Foutz, who wrote the article, spent lots of time with me and was really a pleasure to work with. Initially we were seemingly at odds with each other. I was trying to “dumb-down” the answers and he was trying to get me to “up-grade” them. Turns out I was assuming that he wouldn’t Hi All, know much about music. WRONG AGAIN! He graduated When I say “Boy, do we get LETTERS!”, I thought that from the Carnegie-Mellon Institute with a degree not only in last month would be the resolution of the Chapter report Journalism, but also in MUSIC COMPOSITION! Oh well, dilemma. Boy was I wrong. I received a slew of telephone calls can’t win ‘em all. that all pretty much said, “Don’t change the Chapter reports! Hope you enjoy this issue. There is lots of variety in it this That is my favorite part!” time. OK OK OK! I am not changing them, but the writers SPRING IS HERE, too! might. We’ll see what happens. Although I certainly enjoy seeing the members in these meeting reports, I think Robin

71 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

AMICA CHAPTER MEETINGS Memorial Fund Donations Heart of America Chapter Fall, 2001 - Branson, MO Please think of AMICA as a place to Christmas, 2001 - Linda and Gerold Koehler remember your friends and family with a dona- tion to the AMICA Memorial Fund. September 1-2, 2001 Pacific CAN-AM Chapter Send to: Band Organ Rally Convention Center, Ocean Shores, Washington Judith Chisnell Contact Norm or Sally Gibson 3945 Mission, Box 145 360-289-7960 Rosebush, Michigan 48878-9718 [email protected] 517-433-2992 June 1-2, 2001 [email protected] Monkey Organ Rally - Kalamazoo, MI (Bob Cantine)

July 19-21, 2001 Monkey Organ Rally - Wabash, IN (Frank Rider)

Pacific CAN-AM Chapter invites AMICAns to its June 26-30, 2002 AMICA Convention, Springdale, Arkansas BAND ORGAN RALLY 200 1 2,1-Se p.t Hi, Just wanted to say thanks for publishing the article WeDa y a bLoredn)ek( on the hurdy-gurdy. It will come in handy when another crank organ rally comes around and people keep calling WaOcon cengsehtSioanre ,nh iis a crank organ a “hurdy-gurdy.” Have gotten interested in magic lanterns and have Information: Norm or Sally Gibson, 125 Taholah St. SE, seen pictures of an itinerant lanternist with a hurdy- Ocean Shores, WA 98569-9549 gurdy slung on his back. E-mail: [email protected] Good reference. Dorothy Bromage

“NEWEST ADDITION TO COLLECTION” After many years of searching, AMICA Founding Member and first AMICA Bulletin Editor Bill Knorp has added an out- standing Weber Duo-Art to his collection. Bill also owns his family’s original 1926 Fischer Ampico grand in a wonderful Span- ish Renaissance case.

72 Letters…

THE HOLLOW SOUND OF KEN BURNS’“JAZZ” From the San Francisco Examiner, January, 2001 By Jonathan Yardley Sent in by Bill Knorp

Yes, there are wonderful sights and sounds in Ken Burns’ Take by way of revealing example Burns’ treatment of “Jazz,” the first three episodes of which were shown last week Jelly Roll Morton. Burns gives us Morton as whorehouse on PBS. How could it be otherwise? Jazz - the music, not the piano player, Morton as braggart, Morton as dandy, Morton as series, though exhausted viewers may feel differently - is a controversialist; but he gives us almost nothing of Morton as century old. musician, which is in fact the only real claim - it is a very large claim that Morton has on our attention. Thousands of brilliant performances have been preserved on recordings; the library of jazz photographs is immense and This is easily explained. Burns is neither an historian nor provides a visual history as rich as that enjoyed by almost any a scholar (though he does nothing to discourage others from other subject; even the archives of jazz film, though scant by depicting him as such) but an entertainer, and he knows that comparison, contain telling glimpses of many of the greatest on television the visual image is what draws people in. jazz performers and composers. As is happens, my own introduction to jazz, which took It is from this incredible array of raw materials that the place exactly half a century ago, came through the recordings pleasures of the series derive; it would be churlish to deny the of Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. Hearing them set me on a depth of those pleasures. Beyond that, though, it is precious journey that in many ways has been, outside of private and hard to find much for which to be grateful in the work of the familial joys, the happiest and most fulfilling of my life. series’ presiding genius, Ken Burns; its writer, Geoffrey C. Ward; or all but a handful of the talking heads enlisted I pretend to no expertise beyond that of well-informed as ostensibly expert commentators, most notably (or amateurism and would scarcely presume to set myself up as ignominiously) Gerald Early, Albert Murray and Margo an expert in contradiction to those hired by Burns, but I Jefferson. If to some measure the series succeeds - and to frankly resent it that the music of my lifetime has been some measure it does - it is despite, not because of, the efforts co-opted by an ill-informed amateur who now represents of these people. himself as authoritative and has been accepted as such by equally ill-informed amateurs in the media. Burns has done good work in the past. His film about the Brooklyn Bridge (1981) is lovely, and the series about the It is claimed that “Jazz” will be the kiss of life for an art Civil War (1990), which made his reputation, is undeniably form that, except during the swing era of the 1930s and early powerful, if overlong and emotionally manipulative. For this 1940s, has always existed at the margins of American culture, work he has been praised, and he seems to have come but it is hard to see how this will happen. to believe his press clippings. Not merely is he content to For one thing, “Jazz” is almost entirely focused, as others recycle all the formulas that were once fresh but are have pointed out, on the music of giants long since dead; this now exhausted, he has assumed a self-aggrandizing, may be good news for record companies that can repackage near-messianic pose. their backlists at minimal expense, but it does absolutely Thus we have various films (about Congress, the Statue nothing to call attention to most musicians who are still very of Liberty, and so forth) presented as aspects of “Ken Burns’ much alive and very much at work. America,” and now we have Ken Burns’ “Jazz.” For another, it so obsessively places race at the center of Well, it isn’t Ken Burns’ America and it certainly isn’t the tale that it manages to politicize jazz in ways that would Ken Burns’ jazz. By his own acknowledgment Burns knew have deeply offended, say, Louis Armstrong and Duke almost nothing about jazz when he began work on the current Ellington, and that surely will offend many potential converts, series; there is little reason to believe that he knows - in the whatever their own race may be. deepest sense of the word - much more about it now. Ken Burns’ “Jazz” isn’t jazz; it’s politics and ideology - at What he has put together is not a documentary about times one is tempted to say racism - masquerading as history music but a condemnation and/or celebration of various and sociology. But if jazz interests you and you would like to attitudes having to do with race, class and America. Indeed, learn more about it with film as your instructor, two for much of the time music is entirely peripheral to this series; videotapes are herewith recommended: “Jazz on a Summer’s the boast that more than 500 pieces of music are featured is Day,” Bert Stern’s classic chronicle of the 1958 Newport Jazz empty, when one considers that most of these appear only as Festival, and “A Great Day in Harlem,” Jean Bach’s account sound-bite snippets and that many are merely background for of a famous photograph taken that same year. In a total of Ward’s banalities and pomposities as intoned by the under three hours, these films tell us so much more about jazz oleaginous narrator, Keith David. than Ken Burns does at six times the length that comparisons are meaningless. One thing they tell us is that jazz - the music, if not always those who make it - is colorblind.

73 Left: Robin Pratt removes pegs from the Marshall and Wendell reproducing grand piano. Pratt is restoring the 1929 piano.

Bottom: Pratt works at removing the strings from a Robin Pratt makes remarkable acts 1929 Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing grand of piano restoration routine piano belonging to Dr. & Mrs. Ty Frerking of New Albany, Ohio. In the foreground is the piano action that was removed. Pratt is in the process of restoring the piano. By Colt Foutz [email protected] time. Since then, she’s put the piano to work, singing along From Sandusky Register, with the rolls as it plays. February 16, 2001 “I think it’s just the most gorgeous sound when it fills the Robin Pratt has made a career of bringing pianos back house,” she said. “I’m surprised at the amount of work that from the dead. Back from the ashes? Now, that was a went into it, how intricate the work is. He clearly knows what challenge. he’s doing.” Sylvia Chappell’s player piano had not produced a single Pratt’s passion for player pianos goes back to his tolerable note since it was damaged in a house fire nearly 50 childhood in Sandusky. After he saw the fun people had years ago. The Marblehead resident had the Weber Duo-Art coming to his home to play the piano during parties, he began grand’s exterior refinished in 1999, but the instrument’s shiny taking lessons. His interest in mechanical devices such as new exterior couldn’t mask the loss of its key feature - its phonographs, cars and clocks combined with his love for voice. music to make him take notice of the player pianos in the homes of relatives and teachers. “It would drive you right out of the house with the way it sounded,” Pratt said. “It was very metallic sounding and the “When I was taking piano lessons, a player piano was just keys were sticking and their fascinating to me because it played itself,” Pratt said. “Every edges were running into each other. That piano basically needed everything from the ground up.” For 18 months, Pratt gutted the 79-year-old instrument in his Sandusky studio. He replaced the bellows, strings, valves, pin block, leather, tubing, hammers, dampers and every piece of felt. He refit the keys, regulated the action, rebuilt the sound board and had Sandusky Electric work on the motor, which he placed inside. Restoration? More like a resurrection. On Feb. 7, Chappell was treated to the sound of the restored instrument for the first

74 reproducing piano symphony which no human could possibly play. These are some of the many challenges that keep the 52-year-old Pratt plugging away. He divides his time between restoring nine pianos in various stages of repair currently in his workshop for customers from all over the country. Work on a single piano can take anywhere from 100-200 hours, as long as two years. What makes the long hours worthwhile to Pratt remains the preservation of antique instruments, he said. “Quite often with customers, when they see their piano restored and it was a family piece, they’ll just burst into tears when they hear it played for the first time,” he said. “I know that there’s such a A piano roll plays on a restored 1922 6 foot 2 inch Weber Duo-Art reproducing grand piano belonging to Sylvia Chappell of love there, and it really makes me feel great because I’ve Mablehead. The Piano was restored by Pratt. given them something they can pass on to their children that will well outlive me.” time I went in for a piano lesson, I wanted to play that piano It’s something Beverly Brabb appreciates, too. Pratt has because it could play better than I could!” worked on all five of her pianos at one time or another. Pratt’s talents were improving. In junior high school he The Norwalk resident took her Marshall and Wendell successfully begged his mother to buy him a player piano, and grand to Pratt on the advice of a friend. At the time, the piano spent his time tinkering inside, repair book in hand. He also was a wreck. Within three months, Brabb said, it was perfect. logged enough hours working the keyboard part of the instrument to gain entry into Chicago Conservatory College, “When I first heard the music come out of that piano that where he studied piano and organ performance. had been dead, it was such a thrill,” she said. “All of a sudden when you put that roll in there and hear this great music - During his time at the Conservatory, Pratt focused his what fun!” attention entirely on music, absorbing lessons in arranging and conducting. After graduating, he turned his attention back to Brabb has been a player piano enthusiast for 30 years, what makes his favorite instrument tick, learning the ins and traveling to international conventions of AMICA almost every outs of tuning and rebuilding at the former Perkins School of year and delighting in gatherings where she can hear the Piano Technology in Elyria and most recently was asked to be distinctive voices of different instruments. She considers the the local Steinway technician. sound Pratt gets from the instrument to be the best. His degrees from both sides of the musical world - how “One strange thing is that he’s never finished - he always things play and how to play them - enabled him to start his has to tweak that piano and do something to it,” she said. career as a piano rebuilder, accepting various tuning jobs and “But when I hear other people’s pianos I know he’s probably attending conferences to learn the characteristics of different the top restorer around.” piano brands while continuing his musical career as a church choir director and organist. The two disciplines go hand in hand, Pratt said. “It has a lot to do with my playing piano because I’m not just guessing what it should sound like,” he said. “I know that player pianos are designed to sound like a person is playing it. “For me, it’s trying to make the piano sound as close to Tickle the ivories the original design concept as possible and not being presumptuous enough to think I can make it better,” he said. Robin Pratt is available for appraisal and restoration of “Some people basically want to turn every piano into a antique pianos and player pianos. Steinway, and you just can’t do that, nor should you try.” • Studio: 630 E. Monroe St., Sandusky According to Pratt, learning what makes each player piano unique requires years of involvement with every aspect • Phone: 419 -626-1903 of automatic instruments. For his part, Pratt has belonged to • E-mail: [email protected] the Automatic Musical Instrument Collector’s Association since 1967, and is editor and publisher of its bi-monthly • For information about player pianos and the Automatic newsletter, The AMICA Bulletin. Musical Instrument Collector’s Association (AMICA), visit the group’s Web site, www.amica.org In 40 years, he has collected more than 3,800 piano rolls, and has worked with transcribers to create several new rolls, arranging music meant for two hands into a veritable

75 J . LAWRENCE COOK AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY YEARS PART 1 OF 2 Transcribed from his comments taped in 1972 Edited and annotated by his son 1899 -1910 Jean Lawrence Cook M.D. © 2000 Dr. J. Lawrence Cook. Reproduced with permission

JACOB LINCOLN COOK - MY FATHER Early years in Athens (McMinn County), Tennessee The Reverend Jacob Lincoln Cook, my father, was born in Athens, Tennessee, in May 18701 to George and Amelia Cook, former slaves2 of Judge J. B. Cooke. Their former master was a member of one of the earliest families to settle in the area of McMinn County in Tennessee. By the time Jacob Lincoln was eight years old both of his parents were deceased, but he had the good fortune to be “taken in” by two former slaves, “Aunt Huldy” and “Uncle Nelse” Gettys.3 They were caring foster parents and they believed strongly that education was the key to success for “This picture used to hang in the foyer of JLC’s apartment at 409 Edgecombe Avenue in that first generation of freedmen to which my father belonged. Manhattan and, according to Dr. J. L. Cook, Jake, as my father was called, became a bright and dates from the early 1930’s” industrious student, so when he completed his secondary Note: Mike Meddings of Staffordshire UK, who produced a school education the Gettys were able to bring him to the series of Jelly Roll Morton roll transcriptions in the 1970-80’s, attention of a white physician, Dr. Parkinson.4 He was able to was recently contacted by J. Lawrence Cook’s son Dr. Jean secure a scholarship for my father at Fisk University in Lawrence Cook, M.D. (retired). Dr. Cook was impressed by Mike’s Nashville, Tennessee. My father had a good singing voice, comprehensive website showcasing his father and other music luminaries (found at http://www.doctorjazz.freeserve.co.uk), and which enabled him to become a member of the famous Fisk asked Mike to phone him at his residence in France. After a long Jubilee Singers. conversation, Dr. Cook told Mike about his eldest niece, Dr. Lisa Fagg, who also lives in England and that he should contact her also. After a short time at Fisk, just how long I do not know, 5 After doing so Mike was invited to visit Lisa and her husband Steve, my father entered Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. for a Saturday lunch and get-together. He worked to pay his expenses, and was also aided by In the meantime, Mike was offered Dr. Jean Cook’s donations from individuals back in his home town of Athens. reminiscences of his father in document format, transcribed from In 1888 he received his bachelor’s degree from Knoxville tape-recorded comments by his father. Mike was also shown private College and entered Allegheny Theological Seminary in family photos never before seen by the public - some of which will Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to prepare for the Presbyterian be reproduced in this serial. While some parts of this biography are ministry.6 On 9 April 1890 he was licensed as a minister by the quite similar to the ground-breaking JLC biography published in the 1973 AMICA bulletins, the Billings’ only had the audio tapes to Allegheny Presbytery, and with this credential returned to write the transcription - with incorrect phonetic spellings and Athens to establish a United Presbyterian mission. Fresh out geographical assumptions. Dr. Cook has embellished these early of seminary, he began holding services in an old dance hall.7 transcriptions with corrections, facts and references to back up this article. Dr. Cook happily gives his permission for AMICA to print The School My Father Founded in Athens this work. In addition to starting his missionary congregation, my Lisa and Steve Fagg will be attending the Player Piano Group annual dinner May 5th 2001 in Leatherhead, England. Mike father, with a handful of dedicated co-workers (Miss Henrietta Meddings has offered to be their host at this function. I too, will be Mason, Miss Mary Byars, Miss Fannie Jackson, Mr. James in attendance and will be in a position to report back on the event to Cleage and Professor Pitts),8 organized a small school, the AMICA this summer. - Karl Ellison Academy of Athens. It was located on a site called Depot Hill

76 and was funded by the Presbyterian Church. Only one year “Zella and her sisters - Zella after its founding, my father’s school had moved from its is on the far right.” original three-room building to another twice as large.8 Most owner in Tennessee, by his black schools in Tennessee at that time were of the slave Miranda.12 Born in one-teacher, one-room variety, making my father’s school an 1852, Miranda’s son became exception. Eventually the Academy of Athens became Job Lawrence after recognized as one of the best schools for Blacks in the South. Emancipation. In 1876 he My father headed the Academy of Athens until 1900 graduated from Maryville when he was appointed President of Henderson Institute in College in Maryville, Ten- North Carolina.9 The Academy was destroyed by fire in 1925, nessee. He then went to twenty-two years after my father’s death, and the Presbyterian Howard University to pre- Board of Missions decided not to rebuild it. Classes continued pare for the ministry, and in to be held in the United Presbyterian Church, where the 1879 was ordained by the Reverend C. H. Wilson was then pastor, and principal of the Presbytery of Kingston, school. The need for a proper school to replace the burned Tennessee. Reverend Job down Academy was clear, and one was built with funds from Lawrence’s early ministry mainly involved establishing McMinn County, the City of Athens, and the Rosenwald Fund churches along the foothills and in the valleys of the (a national foundation for the support of Negro education). Great Smoky Mountains. Later, from 1896 to 1910, The new public school, which opened 10 December 1926, had he pastored Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church in Columbia, six classrooms, an auditorium, five teachers in addition to the Tennessee. principal and 150 pupils enrolled in nine grades. Its original name, Athens Training School, was quickly changed to the J. Job Lawrence married Missouri Ann Wallace in 1876. My L. Cook School in memory of my father’s work as an educator mother, Zella Cornelia, born in 1880, was one of their nine in Athens, and it eventually became the J. L. Cook High children. Missouri Ann was “white” by nature and “colored” School. It flourished until it closed during the desegregation by nurture. But that is another story. (See appendix). of southern schools in the mid- 1960’s.10 My Father’s Marriages and His Children My Father Expands His Career as The Rev. Jacob Lincoln Cook was married three times Pastor and Educator and fathered four children. After his first wife, by whom he had a daughter, died, he married my mother. I was an infant, her only child, when she too died and left my father once more a widower. The two boys born of my father’s third marriage died in infancy. I was not quite four years old when my father, a widower for a third time, died on 6 July 1903. First Marriage My father’s first wife was named Pocahontas Gibson. The memory has been handed down in our family that she was a descendant of her namesake, the Indian Princess Pocahontas who is believed to have helped save the life of the English adventurer John Smith. My half-sister, Amelia Beatrice Cook (Prillerman), my In 1892 the congregation which my father began father’s only child from his marriage to Pocahontas Gibson, gathering in 1889 (while still a seminarian) was organized as was born 24 March 1894 the First United Presbyterian Church (USA) of Athens and and died 3 March 1970. began to worship in its newly constructed building on North She is survived (1972) Jackson Street, across from the Tennessee Wesleyan campus.11 by her husband Delbert On 31 March 1893, Reverend Jacob Lincoln Cook, who had Prillenman, five sons, been a “stated supply” minister (a minister appointed and one daughter, many grand- supported by the regional Presbytery), was ordained by the children and two great- Tennessee Presbytery and became the “called” pastor of his grandchildren. Athens church. He also continued to head the Academy of Second Marriage Athens until 1900, when he became the first colored president After the death of of Henderson Normal and Industrial Institute, in Henderson, Pocahontas, the Rev. Jacob North Carolina. Lincoln Cook married my mother, Zella Cornelia My Mother, Zella Cornelia Lawrence Lawrence, then only The family background of Zella Cornelia Lawrence eighteen years old. But (Cook), my mother, was very different from her husband’s. Zella was a bright young Zella’s father, Job, was the son of John Lawrence, a plantation “Baby J. L. Cook” 77 woman and had completed her secondary education. She was was married (to a Mr. Perry) and living in Whitville, Virginia. studying voice in Boston when my father met her. They were Aunt Gertie was able to arrange for Amelia to go live with her married in 1898, five years after my father’s ordination. half-Aunt Rachel Perry and her husband in Whitville. Rachel My mother was born 22 February 1880 and died of Perry was a crafty woman, and in the absence of a will she typhoid fever on 27 September 1900. I was her only child, was able to acquire most of my father’s property and personal born 14 July 1899, so I was little more than a year old at the belongings. time of her death. I have no recollection of her, and as First Amelia and I were orphaned, then we were mementos just a picture or two and a silver butterknife separated, not to see each other again for 15 years when I was inscribed “Zella” on the handle. 19 and she was 24. We missed growing up together, but we did keep in touch by mail.

COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE 1903-1907 The manse, in which the Lawrence family lived, and Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, which my grandfather pastored, were small wooden structures next to each other. They have now been replaced by brick buildings on the same site. When I joined them the Lawrence family, in Columbia, Tennessee consisted of Grandma (Missouri Ann Wallace Lawrence). Grandpa (Job Childs Lawrence), and six of their My parents lived in Athens, Tennessee, from the time of nine children. Zella Cornelia (my mother) had died, Leonora their marriage until the summer of 1900 when my father (“Aunt Nona”) was living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and became the Principal of Henderson Normal and Industrial Gertrude Miranda (“Aunt Gertie,” age 21) was teaching at the Institute in Henderson, North Carolina. Henderson Institute in North Carolina. The six at home were My father’s work required him to travel frequently Lamar Westcott (age 19), Grace Amelia (age 16), Herman between Athens and other cities, in and out of the state, Holsey (age 14), Charles Radford (age 11), Harriet Geraldine lecturing as a Christian educator or fund-raising for the Athens (“Geral,” age 5) and Lucille Wallace (age 1). Academy. My very young mother traveled too, between 13 Grandma was an excellent cook, and I liked everything Athens and Columbia, Tennessee, where her parents lived. she prepared (including chitterlings), except okra, and Still, she found time, in addition to caring for me and Amelia, cornbread (unless it was made with pork crackling). I to give piano lessons and sing with a group called the Choral especially liked Grandma’s pies (she actually put small pieces Glee Club of Athens. of meat in her mincemeat pies). Lemon custard was my Third Marriage favorite. I can remember being ill in bed when I was 7 years My mother’s death occurred only a few months after the old, and Grandma promising that on my next birthday she family moved to Henderson, North Carolina. My father was would bake a lemon pie especially for me. left with two children to be cared for, so after a proper interval I lived in Columbia, Tennessee, with my grandparents he was married a third time, to a young woman Amelia and I from the time I was 4 until Grandma died, two days before my came to love and whom we called “Mama Anna.” This eighth birthday in 1907. During those four years I always marriage produced two boys, both of whom died in infancy. looked forward to Sunday, a special day centered on the church. I remember that Grandma used to cook dinner on Death visited my father twice more, taking Mama Anna Saturday and warm it on Sunday, so she would not have to do first, then him. She died on 9 February 190314 and he died on 5 a weekday task on the Lord’s Day. July the same year.15 More than once my father was advised to make a will. To this advice he would respond, “I’m not First thing after Sunday breakfast, Geral and I went getting ready to die, I’m getting ready to live.” Therefore, through the comic sheets in the Nashville Banner. At 10 when he died at the early age of thirty-three he left no will. o’clock we went next door to Sunday School (Lucille was only 1 year old when I went to Columbia to live) at Mt. Tabor, Amelia and I are Separated and at 11 o’clock to the worship service that Grandpa led. When I became old enough, I went across the street in the My mother’s elder sister Gertrude (Aunt Gertie) was a afternoon to a service in the Episcopal Church. I enjoyed the young teacher at my father’s school in North Carolina when pageantry of the Episcopal service, and the fact that at he died. Aunt Gertie assumed the responsibility of finding Christmas they gave children fancier presents than Mt. Tabor someone to care for her brother-in-law’s two children. She could afford. arranged for me to live with her parents, my maternal grandparents, in Columbia, Tennessee. Grandma’s Reed Organ Pocahontas Gibson, Amelia’s mother and my father’s first Grandma played the organ for the Sunday School and at wife, was the daughter of Phoebe, a former slave and her the 11 o’clock church service. She also baked the bread and husband Harrison Gibson. When she married Gibson, Phoebe made the blackberry wine that we used for Communion already had a daughter named Rachel, fathered by her master Service. Only she knew where she stored the wine. when she was still a slave. In 1903 Rachel, Amelia’s half-aunt, 78 The church’s old reed organ was often out of commission, Grandma’s Death, 12 July 1907 the most frequent problem being with the straps on the pedals. Not long before my eighth birthday, the one for which she They would often break, usually one at a time, fortunately. I was going to bake me a lemon pie, Grandma became very ill. always sat near the organ, and if a pedal broke down and Her two eldest daughters, Leonora and Gertrude, came to help Grandma couldn’t continue the music with just one pedal, I take care of their mother. During the early hours of July 12, would crawl beside her foot and pump the loose pedal like two days before my birthday, they came through the house mad by hand. I felt important. If the second strap broke the and quietly awakened us all saying, “Mama is dead, do you music stopped for that service. want to see her?” We all went to Grandma’s room where she lay with her eyes open. My beloved grandmother was buried Preaching to the Empty Room on my eighth birthday. Like all children I thought about what I’d like to be when Grandpa was now left with no one to take care of me I grew up and imagined myself in uniform as a fireman and his two youngest daughters. Aunt Nona, who lived in driving a horse-drawn engine, or a policeman. Eventually I Chattanooga, agreed to take on the responsibility. All three of outgrew these careers and began to think about following in us went to Chattanooga to live with her and her husband, and my father’s footsteps as a minister. Of course I had a live-in their only child, Lavetta Mae. My aunt Harriet role model in Grandpa. At an early age I would take a Bible, Geraldine(Geral) was 9 years old, I was 8 and my aunt Lucille prop it in a chair as if it were on a pulpit and read a verse or was 5. two, then preach a little sermon to an empty room in our house. CHATTANOOGA After I learned to play a tune which we called “Coonjine We arrived in Chattanooga one afternoon, a few weeks Baby” on the black keys of the piano, I became more attracted after Grandma’s funeral. Aunt Nona and her husband, Hugh to music, and this attraction became strengthened when Keith, met us and drove us to a wooded area on the outskirts Grandma taught me to play “Jesus Lover Of My Soul.” called Rosstown. Their house was quite isolated in the woods, We had a rule in our house that on Sunday no popular it had no number and it was on a path, not a street. Their mail music could be played, so I made up a tune of my own called was delivered to the house of a family named Thornton, which “Today is Sunday, this is a Sunday Song.” The title was to was on the postman’s route. protect me from being called away from the piano for playing The Keith house was on a slope and overlooked a brook worldly music. I had no melody or harmony and fumbled over whose water was not suitable for drinking. Their drinking the keys, but I do think I had the beat. water was gotten from a place called Indian Spring, so named because a community of Indians lived nearby. School in Columbia, Tennessee On the way from the Chattanooga railroad station to the Grandma had already begun teaching me to read when house, Hugh Keith14 began an abusive argument with Aunt at age five I entered what was called the “primer” grade, Nona, something I had never seen in my family before. I must equivalent I believe to today’s kindergarten. I had great have reacted to it in a way that displeased Hugh Keith, affection for Mrs. Phoebe Armstrong, my very first teacher, a because when we arrived at the house he jerked me out of the lady we will return to later on in this story. carriage and beat me. I had never been beaten before. Then he ordered me to take a bucket and fetch drinking water from Reverse Discrimination Indian Spring. Along the mile and a half to the spring I passed One day a sign appeared in the window of an empty store only one other dwelling. It was night, and I was a frightened inviting everyone to a showing of the first movie to come to child, alone in the dark in a strange place. Columbia, “The Great Fire.” The showings were free, there Hugh Keith was not only a wife-beater, but at times he were no seats and the standing audience was not segregated. would even draw his gun and threaten to use it. I can vividly Later, a second free movie called “The Great Train Robbery” remember Aunt Nona begging him not to shoot. Looking was shown in a vacant building near a store, which had a back, I think he may have threatened her just to hear her window display of player pianos. Until then, the only pleading. self-playing piano I had ever seen operated using a If Geral, Lucille or I made Hugh Keith cross, he would cumbersome device called a Pianola. The Pianola was a use a cedar limb to give us a beating and he really seemed to playing mechanism, which had to be pushed up to the piano enjoy hurting us. His daughter Lavetta would get lighter so that its felt-covered “fingers” could strike the keys. beatings, with a peach tree limb. Among ourselves we chil- My third movie was “The Crucifixion.” This time there dren called him “the meanest man in the world.” was a charge for admission, there were chairs, and the We made our own entertainment at home. Aunt Nona audience was segregated. Grandpa, being a minister, received played the guitar for us and she enjoyed singing ballads and complementary tickets as did other ministers, black and white, hymns. Hugh sang too, mostly Tennessee country music. The for himself, Grandma, Geral, Lucille and me. The Whites sat best times of all were had when Aunt Gertie visited and sang in front of the big sheet, which was used as a screen. The beautifully for us, accompanying herself on the piano. Negroes sat back of the screen, which of course made it Hugh Keith had a horse-drawn hack, which he used to necessary not only for us to view the action in reverse, but transport patrons from the Chattanooga railroad station to also to read the titles backwards. their destinations. He always had his bottle of whiskey and his gun with him.

79 First School Vacation in Chattanooga, own children, who I believe suspected I was making it up for Herding Cows their enjoyment. During the summer after my first school year in We went barefoot all summer, except on Sunday. Chattanooga, I was expected to take a job. Out in Rosstown However, when the weather turned cold, we all needed shoes there was really only one job available to colored kids my age, and Aunt Nona never had enough money to buy them for and that was herding cows. Every morning, except Sunday cash. Fortunately there was an itinerant vendor who made his morning, it was the herder’s job to go to the home of the rounds in poor neighborhoods, both white and black, from people who owned the cows and drive the animals to a graz- whom Aunt Nona could buy shoes and pay for them in small ing pasture. The herder brought the cows back home in the weekly installments. afternoon, in time to be milked before the owners sat down to My Uncle Lamar had a good job, one which required him dinner. to pass for white, in a Pittsburgh clothing store. Once in a The first two cows I herded belonged in fact to Hugh while he sent us a box of “irregular” garments. Although Keith’s parents. The standard pay for herding was 25 cents a Hugh Keith would appropriate some of the clothes and sell week per cow, paid every two weeks. After my first two them, we always were excited when a box arrived from weeks of herding I went to collect my pay, which should have Pittsburgh. been $1.00, but Hugh Keith’s parents would only pay me 35 cents. When Aunt Nona complained on my behalf, her hus- I Experience Racism band’s response was in character. He forced me to herd his My favorite playmate in Chattanooga was white, and it parents’ cows thereafter for nothing. was from him that I learned about slavery. He used to visit my Fortunately I got three more cows to herd which belonged house to play, and I visited his, which was across the road to a white family living just across the road from Hugh’s from Hugh Keith’s parents. Three of the cows that I herded parents. (the three for which I was paid) belonged to his family. One day when he was at my house, he told me that his parents did The cows grazed peacefully, and we barefoot herders not want me to come play with him any more, saying: “We roamed about, watched them, and kept an eye out for snakes used to have his kind of people as slaves. We are better than and other hazards to bare feet, like thorns. When it came time they are...but he can still come to the back door to collect his to go home, each herder guided a lead cow, one which the money for the cows.” Our friendship managed somehow to other animals would follow. survive this restriction. We herders only had a problem when the cows held what we called a “prayer meeting.” Sometimes a butcher would Our Sunday Routine come into the woods to slaughter a steer. If a cow smelled the Every week Geral, Lucille, Lavetta and I would take our fresh blood, she would give a loud mooing signal, calling all Saturday night bath in a zinc washtub, and on Sunday the cows within hearing to follow her to the killing site. Once morning would put on our best clothes to wear to Sunday there, they would mill around, mooing mournfully. We herders School and church. We walked a long way from Rosstown to just had to wait until the “prayer meeting’’ was over before we a place appropriately named Churchville, occasionally could lead our cows back home. accompanied by Aunt Nona. Hugh Keith never joined us. My earnings were turned over to my aunt, so I did not Before we left for Sunday School, Aunt Nona gave each profit personally from my herding job. I was quite happy to of us two pennies. One was for the collection plate at Sunday give the money to Aunt Nona, who really needed it, and even School, and one was for church. If we were given only one happier when she gave me a nickel or two for myself. I penny. We knew we were expected to come home after wonder how much of my little earnings Hugh Keith took Sunday School and not stay for church. away from her? A Fiery Christmas in Chattanooga Life in Chattanooga At Christmas-time, our church had a large decorated tree Grandpa, back in Columbia, did his very best to provide on which the Sunday School teachers would hang gifts for the for his daughters and grandson in Chattanooga. He would children. Each child’s gifts were in a labeled bag or stocking, send a money order when he could, and when Spring and Fall and it was thrilling to march up to the tree when your name arrived, he did not fail to send Aunt Nona money to buy us was called and have Santa Claus hand it to you. We would be clothes. Grandpa was not aware that Hugh Keith appropriated given a thoughtfully selected, inexpensive toy, fruit, nuts and most of it for himself. candy. When Grandpa shared in a slaughtering he would send us The church did not have electricity, so the Christmas tree a big box of salted-down meat. Hugh Keith would divide most was lighted with candles. One year, while Santa Claus was of it among his friends; nevertheless it was a great help to busy getting things organized, the tree caught fire. Although Aunt Nona. Since Hugh Keith pocketed most of the money he used the pails of water and sand, which were on hand for Grandpa sent, Aunt Nona could rarely afford to shop for our just such an emergency, Santa Claus could not put out the clothes in the regular stores. Instead, she would go into flames. Worse yet, his beard caught on fire. The nearest fire Chattanooga and find a rummage sale. I remember clearly that department with its horse-drawn equipment was far away, but once she bought me a pair of blue knickerbockers for five neighbors came to the rescue with more pails of water. The cents. I used to tell the story of the five-cents knickers to my

80 Sunday School teachers, mainly ladies, evacuated the office general delivery window. Since all the local residents children, and the fire was put out before there was any real knew one another, important messages like telegrams and damage to the church building. We children then went back in special delivery letters, which were brought by the letter and some of us cried when we saw the burned remains of our carrier, always reached the proper destination, even without pretty Christmas tree and our presents. The teachers assured house numbers. us that we would have another tree, and another party with presents very soon. They kept their word. Two Women Who Change Grandpa’s Life, Phoebe Armstrong and Mary Williams COLUMBIA AGAIN Summer 1910, We Get Mrs. Williams was a widow, and she had two daughters. Away From Hugh Keith They lived in a corner house, not very far from the heart of I have written enough about Hugh Keith for it not to be town in Columbia. I recall it as a large, frame house supported surprising that a time came when Geral, Lucille and I wanted on pillars, with a restaurant, run by Mrs. Williams, on the nothing more than to get away from him. Geral, then 13 ground floor. and the oldest, wrote a letter to Grandpa describing our Mrs. Williams’s restaurant business thrived and she was unhappiness and took it down to the Thorntons’ house (where able to buy more property next door to the largest Negro our mail was delivered). I still remember the address. 216 church in Columbia. She built a new frame building on the Watkins Street. Mrs. Thornton gave Geral a 2-cent stamp. property and moved her restaurant out of her home and into it. Perhaps Mrs. Thornton sensed the importance of the letter this young girl was so anxious to send to her grandfather when she The older of Mrs. Williams’s two daughters was named assured Geral it would be mailed. When Grandpa received Mary. A rumor started that Grandpa, now a 55-year-old Geral’s letter he wasted no time having us put on a train back widower, was overly friendly with her. I do not doubt that to Columbia. Grandpa was attracted to Mary, but it would have been totally The day before we left Chattanooga the little frog I had out of character for him to have what nowadays we would call raised from a tadpole died. I buried him in a strawberry box “an affair.” and made a tiny tombstone. It was even harder to tear myself Mrs. Phoebe Armstrong, who had been my very first from that little grave than it was to leave my kind Aunt Nona schoolteacher, turned out to be a gossipmonger. I do not know and her daughter Lavetta. what her motives were, but she was the disseminator of the scandalous gossip about Grandpa and Mary Williams that Mrs. Alexander’s House in Columbia culminated in his departure from the pulpit at Mt. Tabor and Things had changed for Grandpa during our three years his retirement from the active ministry. away from Columbia. He had been replaced as pastor of Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, and consequently no longer lived Grandpa’s Ups and Downs in Business in the manse. He had been retired by the Presbytery with only Heaven only knows how they managed it, but Grandpa a small pension and had taken a room in a large two-family and a Mr. Simmons, inspired perhaps by Mrs. Williams’s house owned by Mrs. Alexander, an aged widow. A family success, got together enough capital to open a small café- named Peppers rented half of the house, and both Grandpa restaurant together. They served good, simple meals and had a and the widow Alexander lived in the other half. Grandpa soda fountain, as well as a counter with candies, stationery arranged with Mrs. Alexander for the three of us to live with and notions. Their rented location on Main Street was in the him. Geraldine and Lucille slept in the finished part of the Colored Oddfellows Building, which marked the division of large attic, which was provided with a coal-burning stove. I the city into white and colored areas. slept in the unfinished part, without heat, and with the earthy aroma of root vegetables stored there in the cool. The Simmons and Lawrence Restaurant was in a neighborhood nicknamed “Mink Slide.” I am told that dealers Mr. Peppers was a cook for a white school, the Columbia in “moonshine” liquor used to do business there, and that Military Academy. We were always glad when we saw him when they heard revenuers were about they would slide down returning home in the evening with a bundle under his arm. a pole “like a mink or a fireman” to make a getaway. A This meant he was bringing leftovers from the Academy colorful but not too credible story. kitchen, good things to eat which he always shared with our family. One of my most vivid memories of Grandpa’s café concerns the night that Booker T. Washington came to Mrs. Alexander had peach trees, apple trees, a cherry tree Columbia to give a lecture at the (whites only) Opera House. and a mulberry tree on her property. We planted corn, beans, A banquet was held for him in our restaurant. After the turnip greens, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, banquet Washington gave a talk to a colored audience in the so we never wanted for fruit or vegetables. Oddfellows Hall before going to the Opera House to address a At one end of her property there was a floor-less cabin, a white audience. I learned years later how skillful a lecturer sad reminder of the days of slavery, which Mrs. Alexander Booker T. Washington was, so I am sure he was able to arouse rented to an old woman for seventy-five cents a month. support from both audiences for his school in Tuskegee, Mrs. Alexander’s house was just outside the Columbia Alabama. My uncles Herman and Charles both graduated city limits, in a place called Happy Hollow. Our houses were from Tuskegee Institute. not numbered, and we picked up our regular mail at the post Uncle Herman studied masonry at Tuskegee Institute, but

81 he could not find work in his trade when he returned to and shot them dead, in cold blood, like animals trapped in a Columbia and he had to take a job driving a grocery wagon. cage. This cousin was my Aunt Grace’s first child. One day he announced to Grandpa that he was leaving home to try his luck in Chicago. An even greater blow than Uncle ‘Possum and Sweet Potatoes Herman’s leaving home came when Mr. Simmons, Grandpa’s business partner in the restaurant, also decided to travel north. One opossum in the chicken house could kill three of our Grandpa could not make a go of the restaurant alone, and birds during the night. Sometimes we could tell when an eventually it closed. opossum was prowling or killing, because the chickens made enough noise to awaken us. When this happened. Grandpa Uncle Herman got a job in Chicago, not as a mason but in would get out his hunting rifle, and the visiting predator the post office. He is retired from that service now (1972) and would usually become a delicious dinner of ‘possum and lives in Pasadena, California. sweet potatoes. Grandpa’s Jobs A Puzzling Letter from Miss Mary to Grandpa After his restaurant went out of business, Grandpa held several jobs at once. He cleaned offices at the Phoenix Eventually even we children became aware that Grandpa National Bank, took care of a lawyer’s vegetable garden on a was courting Miss Mary, and we resented it because of our sharecropping basis, and worked in a local canning factory. In strong attachment to Grandma’s memory. Maybe others in the the summer he prepared tomatoes for canning, and in the fall family resented it as well. I just could not imagine Grandpa it was sweet potatoes. At the end of the work day I picked up being married to someone other than Grandma! Grandpa at the cannery, riding on our horse Harry, and we One day one of us children came across a letter to would return home riding double on Harry. After dinner it was Grandpa from Miss Mary. I do not know how it happened to my chore to go and clean the offices for Grandpa. come into our hands, but it did, and we read it with Mrs. Alexander. It began: “My dear husband...” We didn’t know The “Colored” County Fair how to understand that salutation. The white people had a county fair in Columbia every year, and when it ended some of the concessions and About My Name decorations remained for the “colored” fair, which followed. I recall that one of the attractions for us was a couple of I grew up as J. Lawrence Cook. My grandparents automobiles in which we could take a ride around the explained to me that my father wanted me to be named Jacob racetrack for ten cents. Lincoln Cook, Jr., but that my mother did not much care for the names Jacob or Lincoln. My father suggested that as a Train Wreck Sales compromise I just be given the initials “J. L.” temporarily. Papa always signed his own name “J. L. Cook” unless he was Train wrecks, which fortunately damaged freight much required to write it out in full, so I suspect he thought that more often than they hurt people, were not infrequent in our some time in the future I would replace my “J. L.” with his part of the state. Mr. Wolf, proprietor of Wolf s Bargain Store, names. After my parents died, some family members called had a “train wreck sale” every year, featuring wreck-damaged me “Lawrence,” and others called me “Jake.” I was told that goods at very low prices to attract customers into his store. my mother had a liking for “Jean”, the French equivalent of Some years he did not have enough wreck-damaged goods, so “John”, but that she hesitated to give her son a name that was Mr. Wolf would damage some of his stock himself, to produce considered feminine in her society. “train wreck” sale items. Some of us youngsters earned money distributing his handbills for the sale, but he usually I have always signed my name “J. Lawrence Cook”, but gave us more handbills than there were people in Columbia when I registered for the draft during World War I had to and we had to dispose of the extras discretely. provide a first name. Well, then and there I decided that since my mother liked “Jean”, that would be my official name in the Chain Gangs Draft Board’s records. My Uncle Herman, who is still living (1972), is the only person who calls me “Jake”. The sight of chain gangs working was a familiar one. The gangs were segregated, white and black, and they mainly worked on the roads, breaking and tailoring rocks. The prisoners rode in a truck to their worksites, and the familiar Photo Credits: Dr. Jean L. Cook, Prof. Alan Wallace heavy iron ball was attached after they arrived.

My Cousin is Killed, A Victim of Racism FOOTNOTES: Serious racial conflict did not occur often in Chattanooga [Acronyms used in this series] or Columbia. But there was one serious race riot in Columbia TCHS - Tennessee County History Series during which a first cousin of mine, along with two other UPD58 - United Presbyterian Directory 1958 black youths, was apprehended and put in jail. All three were EUJLC - Eulogy for Jacob Lincoln Cook in the same cell, unarmed and locked up, when a cop came by WWPM - Who’s Who in Presbyterian Missions 82 HFUPC - History of First United Presbyterian Church, Athens, TN children, Annie and James. In the 1900 Census of Athens, John HJLCS - History of J. L. Cook High School, Athens, TN Parkinson is again enumerated; a white, widower, physician with BIGSLL - Balm in Gilead by Sara Lawrence Lightfoot a daughter named Annie. One wonders what happened to the son. HHLORIG - Herman H. Lawrence, “Origins of the Lawrence 5. Presbyterian colleges established for the education of freedmen in Family” Tennessee included Knoxville College at Knoxville, Bethel PCUSADH - Presbyterian Church USA Department of History College at McKenzie, King College at Bristol and Maryville College at Maryville. 1. Date obtained from United States Census 1900 PCUSADH provides this information: “The United 2. After the Occupation of Tennessee by the Federal armies in 1862, Presbyterian Church North America’s work with freedmen began Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor by President full-force immediately after the Civil War. In 1865 the Lincoln, and he was confirmed on 3 March 1862. On 22 Committees on Education and Freedmen Missions called on the September 1862 (after the Confederacy’s crushing defeat at General Assembly to establish more schools for freedmen, Antietam, Maryland) a preliminary proclamation declared that all particularly with the intent of training African-Americans to teach slaves in any part of the Confederacy in rebellion against the and proselytize themselves. This led to the establishment of United States on 1 January 1863, should be forever free. This Knoxville College, their flagship school. The teachers produced proclamation did not apply to the four Border States (Delaware, by Knoxville were utilized in the establishment of other mission Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri) or to those parts of the schools in the South. In September of 1889, Athens Academy was Confederacy under the control of the Federal armies. On 1 begun with two teachers, Henrietta Mason and Mary Byars, both January 1863 Lincoln issued a second proclamation that graduates of the Knoxville program.” confirmed the first and announced that the former slaves would be UPD58 gives the following educational and career summary received into the armed forces of the United States. As President, for Jacob Lincoln Cook; “Knoxville College 1888; Allegheny Lincoln could issue no declaration of freedom; as commander-in Seminary; licensed by Allegheny Presbytery, 9 April 1890; chief of the armies and navies of the United States he could issue ordained by Tennessee Presbytery 31 March 1893; principal directives only as to the territory within his lines; but the Academy and pastor Athens, Tennessee 1893-1900; stated supply Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his and president Normal and Industrial Institute, Henderson NC, lines. Therefore it did not apply to George and Amelia Cook. 1900-1903; died 6 July 1903.” On 22 February 1865 (before Lee’s surrender on 9 April 6. PCUSADH informs: “Allegheny Theological Seminary of the 1865) slaves were freed by an amendment to the state United Presbyterian Church was originally established by the constitution, ratified on that date by a vote of the people. It was Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1824 a committee then that the bondage of George and Amelia ended. Since their was appointed to plan for the establishment of a seminary. only child was not born until 5 years later, they may have been Pittsburgh was designated as the location and the Rev. Dr. Joseph married after 22 February 1865 as free persons. Kerr was selected as the first professor. The first students only On 25 February 1865 Negroes were given suffrage, a attended four months a year while the rest of their studies were privilege they were actually not permitted to exercise. conducted under their presbyteries. When, in 1831, the Rev. Dr. On 24 July 1866 Tennessee became the first Confederate John Pressley was selected as the new professor, the school was state to be readmitted to the Union, after ratifying the constitution moved to Allegheny City. In 1843 the faculty was increased to the of the United States with amendments, declaring the ordinance of size of three and the school’s first buildings were constructed in Secession void. 1851. 3. EUJLC states: “Rev. J. L. Cook’s mother died when he was only The Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian eight years old.” Note that no mention is made of his father. Churches reunited in 1859 to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) and thus control of the TCHS states (p.87): “Cook’s parents had been slaves of one seminary passed to the new church body. The seminary continued of the earliest settlers, Judge J. B. Cooke, but died when Jake was to prosper until the turn of the century when state-supported a young child.” schools and private institutions began to put pressure on In TCHS we find “…Uncle Nelse (sic) and Aunt Huldy denominational institutions. The minutes of the General Gettys who had been slaves for the Getty family.” Assembly from 1900 to 1912 show that enrollment steadily In EUJC we read that “…an old gentleman by the name of declined and leaders in the denomination grew increasingly Uncle Nelson (sic) Gettys…took him into his home and cared for concerned. In 1912 or 1913 the seminary changed its name to him” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In 1930 Pittsburgh and Xenia There is a story I remember my father telling when I was a Theological Seminaries were joined and named, quite creatively, child about his “grandfather” who bought himself and his wife out the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary. This joint institution of slavery. The following story appears in TCHS: “When James would continue until the UPCNA and Presbyterian Church USA Gettys fell on hard times he was forced to sell Nelse (sic). He was merged in 1958, and Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary was joined with purchased by the Reverend Edwin Attlee who did not believe in Western Theological Seminary to create Pittsburgh Theological slavery, but was a friend of Gettys. Attlee immediately arranged a Seminary.” job going through the area buying poultry and eggs so that Nelse 7. EUJLC states “…He established the U. P. Mission in Athens in could buy his freedom ...” We also read in TCHS that “...although 1889. The old dance hall where the U. P. Church now stands was the Civil War came before the debt was paid in frill, Nelse stayed used for a place of worship. ...” with Atlee until it was paid in full. He later, with his wife, was responsible for taking in and raising the orphan boy, IL L. (Jake) 8. Names from EUJC. Also from EUJLC “…he succeeded in getting Cook.” a three-room school building on the site now occupied by J. L. Cook High School ... soon after, a new site was purchased, the old 4. In the 1880 Census of the City of Athens, McMinn County, Henderson place on which was an old building of about six Tennessee, a John Parkinson is enumerated. He was a white male rooms. A little later on a new and more modern building of two physician, age 38. His wife was named Fanny and there were two

83 stories was erected. ...” Henderson, NC is in northeast NC, near the Virginia border. HFUPC records “...The Athens Academy, a United 10.HJLCHS: “... The City of Athens, and McMinn County met in a Presbyterian Mission School for black students was erected on a joint meeting to discuss plans for building a school for Blacks. lot on the corner of North Jackson and Green Street, where now After the building was completed, it was voted upon unanimously stands the home of the family of the late Rev. C. H. Wilson. ...” to name the school after Rev. J. L. Cook. J. L. Cook School Rev. C. H. Wilson served 50 years as pastor of the First United opened December 10, 1926 under the principalship of Professor Presbyterian Church (USA), Athens, TN. W. E. Nash who was assistant principal of the Athens Academy. PCUSADH informs that “... in September of 1889, Athens Under his leadership the school advanced from 9th grade to a full Academy was begun with two teachers, Henrietta Mason and four year accredited high school. Within three years the Mary Byars, both graduates of the Knoxville College program. In enrollment increased from 150 to 350 students. He made its first year enrollment reached 132 and average attendance was education possible for children throughout the Southeast by 65. In 1896 the enrollment at Athens was 199 students, with 156 providing boarding facilities for boys and girls in two dormitories. students typically attending. Soon after the school was founded, He instituted the first bus program in the county. The Cook the Rev. J. L. Cook took a leading role in the establishment of a School’s Athletic Program was recognized throughout the state. Sabbath School. It was expected that he would return upon the The school Glee Club and Band were started under his leadership. completion of his seminary studies and help organize a church. The faculty members were of high caliber and instilled in their The second year, enrollment reached 141, with an average atten students the right quality of education. The Elementary dance of 106 in its first month. They hired an additional teacher Department was operated by the city and the High School and added an additional room to their facilities. Cook then Department was operated by the county. The W. E. Nash assumed full-time mission work, visiting house to house. They Scholarship was established to help worthwhile students attend also moved their Sabbath School to a larger building and its size college. The first building consisted of ten rooms and an quickly reached 75 students. By 1891 Cook was teaching two or auditorium. Professor W. E. Nash retired in 1953, after serving as three classes a day, overseeing the operations of the school and principal for 27 years. ...” trying to organize a congregation.” 11.“Across from the Tennessee Wesleyan Campus” is from TCHS. HFUPC: “The First United Presbyterian Church of Athens, In 1999 the address of the First United Presbyterian Church of Tennessee was organized in 1889 in an old dance hall building on Athens, TN is listed (Internet) as 321 N. Jackson Street, Athens, the corner of North White Street and an alley, now known as Roy TN 37303-3617. EUJC contains the statement “...Uncle Nelson Street. The present church building and manse were erected in Gettys, who owned the property on which the church and 1892 on this property under the ministry of J. L. Cook, a native of parsonage now stands (sic)…” Athens. The manse was torn down in 1983. The Reverend J. L. Cook, a forceful and eloquent speaker, 12.BIGSLL (p. 121) Quotes Charles Lawrence II - “Apparently it attracted many of the young people from the other churches, and was common knowledge that Job was the son of a master named many of them joined, forming the first congregation. Nearby Wallace.... When Wallace, my great-grandfather, lost everything Grant University (now Tennessee Wesleyan College) was very he had in gambling, He sold my grandfather Job and his mother to friendly toward the Rev. Cook and his work; therefore his efforts his brother. He gave Job a silver dollar, and earned his undying were rewarded rapidly. Rev. John Arter served as pastor of the enmity.” BIGSLL continues: “The jaw of Charles II tightens as he First United Presbyterian Church and as principal of the Athens speaks these bitter words. After the Civil War, Job found a job Academy from 1900 through 1905. The Rev. D. F. White served working as a houseboy for a man named Lawrence who was a from 1905 through 1908, and in 1908 the Rev. John Brice came to paint entrepreneur. The Lawrence family ‘was very good to him,’ the church as pastor and principal. At the same time, Rev. C. H. and he decided to take their name as his own.” Wilson came to Athens as the Rev. Brice’s assistant. In 1911, However, in HHLORIG we find: “A slave, Miranda, bore a when the Rev. Brice was called to a church in Indianapolis, the boy child for her master, John Lawrence, on a plantation in Rev. Wilson became pastor of the church and principal of the Tennessee. Job Childs Lawrence was his name according to the Athens Academy. Family Bible. The date of his birth, November 21, 1852.” The Athens Academy burned in 1925, and classes were held 13.The report of the Henderson Institute to the Board of Freedmen’s in the Presbyterian Church until the city and county took Missions for the year 1903 noted the death of Anna B. Cook, wife responsibility for the education of the black community and built of the Rev. J. L. Cook on 9 February 1903, “leaving a babe only a a school for black students. Shortly after, the school was named J. few hours old.” Jacob Lincoln Cook is enumerated in the 1900 L. Cook School. Professor Nash, who was a teacher at the census, and on 1 June of that year he lived in Athens, Tennessee, Academy and an elder of the First United Presbyterian Church, in a house he owned mortgage-free, with a family consisting of became the first principal of the J. L. Cook School. In 1953, when wife Zella and children Amelia and Lawrence. The census notes Mr. Nash retired, Professor E. Harper Johnson, a member and that J. L. Cook was born in May 1870, and that Zella had been elder of the First United Presbyterian Church became the second married for two years. J. Lawrence Cook’s tape states (with a tone principal of J. L. Cook School until it closed in 1966”. of uncertainty) that Zella was buried (and presumably died) in PCUSADH: “…Soon after the school (Athens Academy) Henderson, North Carolina. If she died in Henderson she must was founded, J. L. Cook took a leading role in the establishment have moved there with her husband some time during the four of a Sabbath School. It was expected that he would return upon month period between 1 June 1900 and her death on 27 the completion of his seminary studies and help organize a September1900. church. The General Assembly noted that this was the first attempt by an ordained ‘colored’ man to organize a UPCNA 14.PCUSADH notes that the report of the Henderson Institute to the church.” Board of Freedmen’s Missions for the year 1903 and the General Assembly minutes of 1903, both noted the death of Anna B. 9. WWPM lists only two positions held with the Mission Board: Cook, wife of The Rev. J. L. Cook. Principal, Bristol School, Athens, TN 1893-1900; President, The General Assembly minutes of 1903 report: “We are Normal and Industrial School, Henderson, NC 1900-1903. There called upon to record the death of Mrs. Anna B. Cook...which is no mention of Bristol School in any other documents. 84 occurred 9 February 1903, leaving a babe only a few hours old. office, they, perhaps prompted by the feeling of guilt, drove up to the Mrs. Cook was principal of the Training School Department. We modest Lawrence home in a fine carriage and invited Missouri Ann bear willing, cheerful, testimony to her noble Christian life and to to come and live with them in the luxury of their world. She declined the faithfulness and unusual ability and skill with which she man and I’ve been told that her answer went something like this: “I was aged the department. She was one of our most efficient and raised as a Negro and that’s what I am. They love me and I love valued teachers and missionaries. Her place will be hard to fill. them. I’ve married a Negro and my husband and I love each other Her husband, the Rev. Jacob L. Cook, has suffered a very serious dearly. We shall raise a family and we shall all live together as breakdown of his physical health. This was occasioned by the Negroes.” great sorrow that came upon him and by overwork as the “The X’s left in great disappointment, but they offered Missouri principal of the Institute and pastor of the congregation. He has a large sum of money which she accepted. I suppose she reasoned been laid aside from all work for several weeks.” that this money would be very helpful in moving from Grandpa’s PCUSADH also notes that “In 1904 the Board of Freed church assignment in Maryville to Columbia. In his new assignment men’s missions reported: ‘It is with profound sorrow that we to Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church.” record the death of the Rev. J. L. Cook, which occurred at Henderson, North Carolina, on the 5th day of July, 1903. Brother The following is transcribed from Herman Holsey Lawrence’s Cook was graduated at Knoxville College, June, 1888; studied oral history of the Lawrence family: theology in Allegheny Seminary; was licensed by the Allegheny “After school one day I went into a drugstore and was shown to Presbytery 9th April, 1890; ordained by the Presbytery of the store owners Will and John Lawrence, Jr., half brothers of Job, as Tennessee 31st March 1893. He was principal of the Academy one of Job’s boys…(blank)…she was born September 2, 1859, and pastor of the congregation in Athens, Tennessee 12 April Missouri Ann. After World War 2, I learned that Missouri Ann was 1893-25 June 1900; stated supply and Principal of the Henderson an illegitimate child and that her father was a member of the famous Normal Institute, Henderson, North Carolina, 1 August 1900-5 Taylor family of Tennessee. Robert Love Taylor, a Democrat, Alfred July 1903. The work of the Church among the freedmen has Taylor, a Republican. Each was Governor of Tennessee in their suffered in his death a severe loss. He was most devoted to the respective periods. Their election campaign(s) were known as “the work, self-denying and consecrated; he labored beyond his power War of the Roses”, a highlight in Tennessee political history. White that he might make known the riches of God’s grace to his own Rose was Bob, Red Rose was Al. From infancy Missouri Ann lived people. He received his reward early. Many will mourn his early in the house of the second President of Maryville College, where she departure.” lived until she was about 7 years of age and old enough to go to 15.In the 1900 Census of the City of Athens, McMinn County, school. A daughter of the college president resented the illegitimate Tennessee a Phillip Keith is enumerated. He was black, married, child, and an Indian woman, Caroline Wallace, was hired to raise this age 44 (born May 1856) and his profession was “drayman.” His girl. She lived in the Wallace household until she married. Caroline, wife, Hattie, was born in 1867. He had a son born in February the Indian woman, lived in the Lawrence household until she died. 1882 (age 18), an unmarried drayman whose first name was We children knew her as our grandmother. Hugh. If this is the Hugh Keith who later married “Aunt Nona” “Lamar Lawrence, fourth child of Missouri Ann and Reverend and went to live in Chattanooga, he would have been 28 years old Job Lawrence, remembers that when he was about 4 years old a at the time JLC went to live with his family there. Phillip Keith carriage driven by a coachman who sat up high above the carriage also had a daughter, Sarah age 16, and another son, Clyde age 4. occupants arrived at our home in Knoxville, Tennessee. The carriage Other Keith families are found in this census, one with a member contained two (women governesses?) who asked Lamar his name. named Keith, whose age does not make him a candidate for ‘The one told him to call his mother. This he did. As his mother was Leonora Lawrence’s husband. not near the door she did not hear him ... them talking to the boy. Mother came to the door and was asked if she was Missouri Ann. She replied ‘Yes ...Why do you ask?’ She was told ‘Your father has APENDIX: sent for you to come to live with him in the State House in Nashville. However, you must disown your husband and children, as none of Missouri Ann Wallace them will be accepted by your father.’ The women then displayed The following is from J. Lawrence Cook’s verbatim huge sums of money. “This will pay up all obligations you may (unedited) autobiography: have.” Missouri Ann’s reply was ‘When I needed a father, he was not near me. Now I have a good, honorable husband and a family of “My maternal grandmother was white. Her father, whom I shall lovely children. I do not need my father’s help. This you may tell call Mr. X, the lawyer, decided to go into politics. When he first him ...Good day.’ They departed and no more was ever heard from started campaigning he learned that his sweetheart was pregnant. her father. When the baby was born, they decided that this situation would create a scandal which might ruin his chances for a political career. “Missouri Ann’s mother was a Caucasian woman. We think she So they gave the baby to an Indian-type Negro woman slave whose was a daughter of the second President of Maryville College and name was Wallace. In growing up, this child became psychologically bore Missouri Ann out of wedlock, with Governor Robert Love a Negro. She was named Missouri Ann Wallace. Mr. X married the Taylor as father.” same sweetheart shortly after he began to achieve success with his “When we lived in Columbia, Tennessee, mother Missouri Ann political efforts. I do not know if they had other children, but I do used to visit, upon invitation, and have tea with, Mrs. J. P. Street, a know that they did have one daughter who also lived in Columbia, daughter of the second President of Maryville College. Mother used Tennessee who exchanged visits with my grandmother. He to tell of how she and Mrs. Street played on the hearth in the home of succeeded in reaching some of the highest elective offices obtainable Mrs. Street’s father, second President of Maryville College. As very in the State.” small children....Charles...as very small children.” “When Missouri Ann grew into young womanhood she married “Also, I remember when one of Mrs. Street’s little grandsons the Reverend Jacob Childs Lawrence on 21 December 1876. The X’s was born, her little granddaughters insisted that Charles, my younger became wealthy and in their declining years after retirement from 85 brother, and I come in to see their baby brother. This we did as we had gone with our little wagon and buckets to collect the swill from the Streets’ kitchen to feed our hogs.” “Missouri Ann Wallace Lawrence, a devoted wife and mother, died July 12, 1907, leaving her husband and eight surviving children to mourn her ...(unintelligible)... Reverend Job Childs Lawrence 1911 • 14 July, JLC’s twelfth birthday. continued to serve his Father God and humanity until July 11, 1919.” • JLC goes to Snow Hill instead of CPS. • JLC enters Seventh Grade at Snow Hill. J. Lawrence Cook’s unedited tapes record: 1912 • 14 July, JLC’s thirteenth birthday. “As a final gesture in their effort to ease their consciences, the X’s (i.e. the Taylors) saw that grandma Wallace was buried in a • JLC enters Eighth Grade at Snow Hill. ‘white’ cemetery in Maryville, Tennessee.” This statement, however 1913 • 14 July, JLC’s fourteenth birthday. remains to be confirmed (Editor). • JLC enters Ninth Grade at Snow Hill. The following is from “Balm in Gilead” by Sara Lawrence Lightfoot 1914 • 14 July, JLC’s fifteenth birthday. (great-granddaughter of Missouri Ann Wallace): • JLC enters Haines Institute in Tenth Grade. Page 121 - Quoting Charles Lawrence II: “The legend is that 1915 • 14 July, JLC’s sixteenth birthday. there were two brothers who were leading politicians in Tennessee; one of them was Missouri Ann’s father.... The president of Maryville • JLC enters Eleventh Grade at Haines Institute. College had a daughter, and she had an illegitimate child out of an • JLC returns to Columbia for summer vacation. affair with the promising young politician. The child was Missouri 1916 • 14 July, JLC’s seventeenth birthday. Ann. The president’s family was deeply embarrassed by their daughter’s promiscuous behavior and the child it produced, and the • JLC goes to work for the summer in South Egremont, politician worried that the public humiliation might compromise his Massachusetts. career. The baby was secretly given away to Grandmother Wallace • JLC enters Twelfth Grade at Haines Institute. [no relation to Job’s father and master], a kindly old slave lady who 1917 • 6 April, United States enters World War I. raised Missouri Ann as her own.” • 14 July, JLC’s eighteenth birthday. “From birth, this white girl was raised ‘colored’ and was • JLC works in Chicago and registers for the draft. therefore honored and pleased to marry Job, the handsome, • JLC attempts to enter SATC (Student Army Training industrious ‘coed’ [so-called because he was a black student in Corps) at Fisk University without success. Maryville College, which ‘co-educated’ black and white students] who proposed to her. Many years later, when Job and Missouri Ann • JLC enters first “Junior College” year at Haines already had several children, a fancy horse-drawn carriage drew up Institute. to their front door. ‘The carriage belonged to the governor, who 1918 • 14 July, JLC’s nineteenth birthday. wanted his daughter, Missouri Ann, to come and live with him.’ The • JLC meets Edith Louise Bascomb on returning to young politician, who had fathered the illegitimate child, had realized Haines in the Fall for his second “Junior College” year his ambition to become governor of Tennessee. When he descended the steps of the gilded carriage and offered his daughter the chance to ‘come home,’ Missouri Ann looked at him in horror and her children grew quiet and still as stones. She hid her bitterness behind a simple response. She was home. She knew of no other home. These people were her family. ‘She said she was happily married and she would not go.’ Missouri Ann walked into her house with her back to the governor’s carriage as it drove away.” The following is from TCHS: “The Taylor story is one of the most famous in Tennessee history. Robert Love Taylor (note above that Herman Holsey Lawrence names Robert as the father of Missouri Ann) and Alfred A. Taylor became governors of the state. Bob was a Democrat and Alf a Republican. Since they were ‘roses from the same garden,’ their campaign came to be known, with reference to the old feud between the houses of York and Lancaster, as ‘The War of the Roses.’ The men’s humor, skilled oratory, and musical ability turned out campaign crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. Bob’s “That’s Athens, Tennessee!” campaign song was ‘Dixie’ and Alf’s ‘Yankee Doodle.’ Bob won by a narrow majority, eventually served three terms, and went on to be a senator and a representative. Alf then served one term as governor and three as congressman. Before their deaths, they toured the nation appearing before large audiences as ‘Yankee Doodle and Dixie’.”

86 anning Music for the Mechanical Piano BY L. E. CROZIER C FROM THE POPULAR MECHANICS, MARCH 1911 SENT IN BY GARY LACHER

mechanical piano, must have as thorough a knowledge of harmony and composition as the original composer, if he is to give anything like a just interpretation of the latter to his audience. He must also thoroughly understand the needs of his instrument, for he is its soul. Preferably, also, he must be master of several other instruments, for often he does his arranging not from the piano-forte, but from the orchestral score. The work offers to a competent musician with a mechanical turn the same opportunity as the editorial department of a musical publishing house. Seated at an arranging machine with a keyboard like a piano, the musician applies by a touch of his foot to a treadle, the power of an electric motor. This sets in motion a drum at Musician Arranging Music from the Orchestral Score, the back which revolves with clicks like a stock ticker, but Using an Arranging Machine carries an 8-in. paper in place of the ribbon. The music roll used in mechanical pianos is a familiar He plays the music just as he would on an ordinary piano, object to most persons, but its manufacture involves far more only more slowly, choosing his notes, and inserting others as than a simple translation of a music score into perforations in he goes. If he wishes to record a half-note, for instance, he a piece of paper, as on first thought might appear to be all that presses his finger on the key and counts eight clicks. There is is required. Except in the case of certain classics, the music of no other sound, but on the paper appears a vertical row of which is full enough without any doctoring, a piece to be eight perforations. played on a mechanical piano must be edited and elaborated by an expert, for otherwise it would sound pitifully This narrow “master,” as the paper roll is called, is then thin and tinny when played by an unthinking and unfeeling run over the tracker-board of a machine which also responds piece of mechanism. with punches instead of notes. It perforates two rolls, one a heavy paper, used for reproduction, and the other a thin test There are many varieties of mechanical piano players. In roll. The latter is tried on the piano and corrected by the a typical kind there is a tracker-board containing longitudinal musician. slots under each of which is a pneumatic tube leading to and controlling the action of a lever or “finger” which terminates From this the heavy master, too thick for the in a leather-covered hammer for operating one of the keys of tracker-board of the piano, is corrected by hand. Its extra the piano. The music roll contains perforations corresponding perforations are pasted over, and missing ones inserted with a to the notes to be played, and when one of these perforations mallet and punch. It is then run through a machine which comes opposite one of the slots changes the round perforations of the master to slits where or holes in the tracker-board, a necessary, at the same time reproducing the corrected master free passage is made for a draft upon ten other strips of paper. Each of these strips unwinds of air which operates the finger, from its own large roll, and rewinds, its perforations complete, and thus the note is played. The air draft is created by the action of the performer’s feet on a pair of bellows, or by an electric motor. The note is held until the perforation is passed, the length of time depending on The Machine Which the size and shape of the hole. Changes the Punches of the Master Roll to It can be readily seen that Slits, at the Same The Machine Which Changes the man to whom is entrusted Time Punching and the 88-Note to the Winding Up Ten 65-Note Master the editing of the music for the Other Rolls 87 The Marking Table, Where Expression Lines and Printed Directions are Put on

The Machine Which Uses the Narrow master of the Arranging machine to Produce a Wide Heavy master for Reproduction, The guide for this marking is a perforated roll, and a Thin Test Roll marked by hand by the musician. The rolls are upon the familiar black spool which is inserted in the piano. then rewound by means of a hand reel, and carried to the inspection tables, where they are checked over There is also a machine which changes the 88-note master for blemishes. They are then spooled, labeled, tested and which has previously been edited by hand by the musician, to boxed, and stored on shelves (called “bins”) to await a 65-note master. This is then reproduced by a machine which shipment. perforates and rewinds ten rolls at once. Perforated music is not a special invention for the All the rolls then go to the marking table where they are mechanical piano, however. It has for many years been used spread out two at a time and the dotted expression lines put on by the humble hand-organ, and the early patents are all held by a semi-automatic marking machine. Words in regard to by Italians. By recent legislation the composer whose music expression are printed by hand by means of rubber stamps. is adopted for the mechanical piano is entitled to royalty.

From Player Piano Group BULLETIN 157, DECEMBER 2000

EARLY WEBER PIANOLA

Reg Richings has provided photographs of this very early been fitted with an 88-note tracker bar at some point in its his- American Weber Themodist Pianola. This is one of the very tory. The musical loss of playing 88-note rolls on a 65-note earliest internal players, perhaps from 1905 or 1906, and it instrument is surprisingly low. provides an interesting challenge - where are the controls? Julian Dyer The key slip is fixed, and the photo shows all you see on opening the usual parts. The hint is the two small catches on the underside of the fall. When these are lifted, the rear of the fall is revealed to be a thin flap that drops down and sits on top of the keys, reveal- ing the controls. It turns out that this is simply a 65-note Pianola pushup works installed above the keys of this huge piano! This instrument is an interesting stage in the evolution of the familiar form of the player piano. An alternative means of installing these large 65-note stacks was to fit them under- neath the keybed. These early instruments are very interesting and worthwhile restoration prospects. The 65-note scale puts off many potential owners. In this case, the instrument has

88 From Player Piano Group BULLETIN 155, JULY 2000

THE PIANOLYZER

MESSRS. BECHWAY AND STEINETEIN Beg to call the atten- wire, so that I could start it whenever I wished. It works tion of the public to the most astonishing invention of the age. admirably! THE PIANOLYZER will supersede, and, if necessary, 75, Armony Avenue, N. annihilate, every other piano-player, human or inhuman. Please send man at once to rectify Pianolyzer. The last The Pianolyzer plays Bach, Handel, Beethoven, three nights it has started of its own accord a half-past one and Mendelssohn, Wagner, Moszkowski, Elgar and Tschiakowski played for two hours in spite of all my efforts to stop it. Last ALL AT ONCE! evening before going to bed I moved it away from the piano, but at 1:30 it walked across the room to the keyboard and thereby effecting considerable economy in time. It is started off as before. Cannot stand it any longer. therefore specially adapted for busy men. A HEAD MASTER writes: Gentlemen, I have used your People who don’t like music will find the invention a Pianolyzer with excellent results. A boy who had repeatedly great boon, as they will be able to get it all over at once. failed in his Latin Grammar was strapped to a form, face A Child can start it, downwards, and pianolyzed for ten minutes. He has been a But NOTHING will STOP it different boy ever since. till it has run down. A FARMER writes: Being shorthanded during the hay-har- A pint of petrol will keep it going all night. vest, I had your 3 horsepower Pianolyzer brought into the field and set to work. It acted splendidly and made hay of The Pianolyzer can be made to go THREE WEEKS everything. without stopping by a patent device which will be appreciated by persons about to go to the seaside. It will keep burglars out PATERFAMILIAS writes: I cannot find words to express while the family is away from home, and will also give the my gratitude to you for your admirable invention. Having owners the pleasant assurance that they will not be forgotten four boys home for the holidays, and being at my wits’ end to by their neighbours during their absence. know what to do with them, I hit on the idea of buying two of your Pianolyzers. These were taken into the harness-room, The Pianolyzer can be fitted with double-barrelled gramo- and, as I quite expected, the boys set the two machines to fight phone, so as to sing a large number of vocal duets, as well as each other. I have now no difficulty in finding suitable solos, to its own accompaniment. Will also give recitations amusement for them on wet afternoons. and make political speeches, etc. Never till now has it been possible to possess a machine that will play, sing, talk and N.B. - Every Pianolyzer is fitted with three-speed gear, recite without stopping, and without the necessity of any powerful Bowden brake, steam-gauge, and reversing-lever attention being paid to it. (enabling compositions to be played backwards, thus doubling the repertoire at a stroke). Tested up to 500 lbs. Pressure. The Pianolyzer may be obtained fitted with patent Alarum Attachment, so as to start at any desired hour in the morning. A Handsome Pair of Ear-Blinkers, together with 1/2 lb. It will effectually wake the household, and render it impossi- of Sterilised Wadding, given away with every Pianolyzer. ble for them to go to sleep again. The Pianolyzer may be put to no end of different uses, as the following testimonials will show. PADEREWSKI writes: Gentlemen, The Pianolyzer made my hair stand on end! BUSONI writes: . . . An astonishing invention. It actual- ly played through the whole of BEETHOVEN’s “Eroica” symphony in seven and a half minutes; and though I put the brake on hard it was impossible to check its speed. It has cer- tainly established a record that will take a lot of beating. The following letters speak for themselves: 71, Armony Avenue, N.

Gentlemen - The Pianolyzer you supplied has given me Don’t please don’t, miss this chance!! great enjoyment. I bought it as a present for a friend of mine at No. 75, and had it connected with my house by a concealed (August 1, 1906, From Punch Magazine. Contributed by Kevin McElhone)

89 RS, Manufacturers of Welte-Mignon Q Licensee Rolls 1933-1945 BY MARK REINHART

QRS has long been associated with the manufacture of 88 and June 1933 seems to be right on schedule. note rolls and Recordo rolls but most people don’t realize that QRS was also involved with Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls. The last bulletin to bear any reference to Welte-Mignon The earliest Licensee rolls were produced by M. Welte & Licensee rolls was the October-November 1945 QRS bulletin. Sons, Inc. and are commonly referred to as Poughkeepsie rolls Virtually every bulletin from 1933 to 1945 was labeled since the city of manufacture appears on the label. The “Manufacturers of Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls.” QRS was DeLuxe Reproducing Roll Corporation began around 1920 to in business for a longer period than any previous single maker produce their own Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls. The DeLuxe of Licensee rolls to that date. Ken Caswell relays the story rolls were produced both from previous M. Welte & Sons that Max Kortlander told him that the Welte masters were masters and DeLuxe’s own new recordings. This continued burned in the 1940’s when they were perceived to have no throughout the 1920’s. By 1930 the market was in commercial value. serious trouble. Auto In 1937, Janssen Piano Co. offered a small player piano Pneumatic Action at the National Association of Music Merchants annual Co., the owner and convention. The price list noted that for an additional $250 a producer of DeLuxe Welte-Mignon action was installed. Apparently the sales were Reproducing rolls and nil. I have yet to learn of a single example of this late Welte- Welte-Mignon Mignon player. What a difference it would have made if there Licensee player had been reasonable sales to stimulate the further production actions, was all but of Licensee rolls by QRS. closed. The recording division was shut At the time that QRS was contracted to become the down and production of new Licensee rolls was contracted out consignor of Welte-Licensee rolls, there was still a very large to Aeolian. These late rolls were all popular dance rolls with quantity of existing Licensee stock. It is unknown how many no additional classical recordings produced for Licensee. Licensee rolls were recut by QRS.* No new titles were ever Aeolian continued issuing Licensee popular rolls until the last produced. The examples included in the pictures here are bulletin of May 1932. Aeolian also overstamped the DeLuxe C-2556 Thais in which the QRS end tab and Tempo stamp are Reproducing Roll Corp. label with black ink to obscure the clearly visible and the test roll. The test roll also illustrates information. Then the production of new titles ceased. that QRS produced their own word stencil for instructions. The stencils used by the previous manufacturers are In October 1932, an agreement was reached with Max completely different. Kortlander and a contract signed whereby QRS would be the consignor of Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls. A large portion of Aram and Rose Giragosian bought Welte-Mignon the existing stock of rolls was transported to QRS for resale Licensee rolls from QRS in the early 1950’s. There were with QRS receiving a portion of sales price under the many times when Rose would drive from their home in contract. QRS also agreed to terms for producing new rolls Arlington, Virginia to the Bronx in New York to pick up and including information in monthly bulletins. However, no another large quantity of Welte-Licensee rolls. The rolls they new titles were produced by QRS. The April 1939 bulletin in bought were used, purple seal, Poughkeepsie and DeLuxe the author’s collection and reproduced here illustrates how the rolls. Herman Kortlander, the brother of Max, seems to have bulletins bore the information that QRS manufactured Welte- been in charge of the sales of other non-88 note rolls. It is Mignon Licensee rolls. Inside the bulletin there is no further unknown from where these rolls originated. During one of the mention of Licensee rolls. It appears that customers who visits to New York, Aram was given sheets of uncut blank wanted Licensee rolls would contact QRS directly for labels for Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls. One of the sheets is additional information. Thanks to Mark Zahm who made this shown here. Among the hundreds of Licensee rolls owned by bulletin available. the Giragosians, only a handful were from the QRS period with the tempo stamp and end tab. The two rolls illustrated Bob Berkman, the unofficial archivist of QRS, kindly here are from Rose and Aram Giragosian. assisted in this research by scouring the QRS archives and examining the many bulletins within their collection. It was determined that the earliest QRS bulletin in their collection * Editor’s Note: For more detail, see Chapter 35 in part V of bearing the Welte-Mignon Licensee is June 1933. Since the The Historical Overview in Charles Davis Smith and Richard James contract with Max Kortlander was signed in October 1932, it Howe’s “The Welte-Mignon: It’s Music and Musicians,” published would most likely have already been too late for inclusion in in 1994 by the Vestal Press for AMICA. any Christmas 1932 literature. Spring 1933 would almost certainly have been the soonest it would have been possible

90 91 -100 Welte-Mignon - The Actual Cost of Ownership T BY MARK REINHART How often have we speculated what a particular piano might cost in today’s dollars? When a period price list is seen, a rough approximation of cost in modern times may be considered - - but what is the actual cost? Many have written that, when new, the T-100 Welte-Mignon red-paper pianos were very expensive and consequently were only available to the most wealthy patrons, but how expensive in terms of today’s (ca. 2000) dollar? There are published pictures of the Welte-Mignon in home settings that are very extravagant; perhaps they’re indicative of the degree of wealth necessary to enjoy one of these incredible instruments when they were new. Dick Howe wrote a comprehensive article for the Winter, 1991 MBSI Bulletin for converting original prices into current US dollars. I spoke to Dick recently and he supplied me with the multipliers to determine the conversion of earlier US prices to the year 2000. As the Welte-Mignon approaches the centennial of its invention, let’s examine what a buyer in the USA could have paid when the piano and rolls were new and what that would represent in terms of today’s dollar. The earliest listing of the “Mignon” I have found is from a 1907 program. The only model listed was the Welte-Mignon in a cabinet piano, the first model offered in the USA. The cost in 1907 was $1,500. Using the Hourly Wage Index, that same piano would cost $117,331 in the year 2000! This is certainly not a purchase for your average consumer. The buyer of this fine piano also needed music rolls to play. The earliest US catalog I have seen is the 1908 List of Music for Welte-Mignon. This catalog, a year later than the program, gives a close approximation of the cost of T-100 red Welte rolls for our 1907 buyer. The following list cites performances by some of the most celebrated pianists of the day. Included on the list are a few works requiring more than one roll to complete the opus. The highest price of any roll in the 1908 catalog was $15 and the lowest $2. I have converted the 1908 prices to equivalent 2000 prices using the Hourly Wage Index.

1908 2000 US $ US $ Busoni #443 Adelaide Beethoven-Liszt $12.00 $922.00 Carreño #361 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 1 R. Schumann $14.00 $1157.00 #362 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 2 R. Schumann $8.50 $703.00 #372 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt. 1 $8.50 $703.00 #373 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt.2 $15.00 $1240.00 Paderewski #1246 Sonata Moonlight mvmts. 1 & 2 Beethoven $14.00 $1157.00 #1247 Sonata Moonlight mvmt. 3 Beethoven $10.50 $868.00 Emil von Sauer #876 Don Juan Fantasie Liszt $15.00 $1240.00 #881 Etude Op. 25, No. 9 Staccato Chopin $2.00 $165.00

The last US catalog for T-100 red-paper Welte-Mignon rolls was published in 1920 by the Welte-Mignon Corporation. Comparing again the prices for the same music rolls, we see both a decline in the retail prices from 1908 and a concurrent decline in the value of the dollar. The dollar decline can be attributed, at least partially, to the effects of inflation and the economic fallout from World War I.

92 This decline in the value of the dollar cannot be ignored and is evident when one compares the two closest 1908 and 1920 dollar values to their 2000 counterparts. (The 1920 dollar value comes from the next price list below.)

1908 2000 US $ US $ $8.50 $703.00

1920 US $ $7.75 $217.00

In terms of 1920 dollars, the example’s 75¢ shortfall from the 1908 amount of $8.50 equals approximately $21. So the actual decline in value of the 1920 from the 1908 dollar could more clearly be expressed as follows:

1908 2000 $8.50 $703.00

1920 $8.50 $238.00

The decline in roll prices can be attributed to increased productivity which results from more efficient production. This is especially true when prices drop during a period of inflation. The prices below would appear to be veritable bargains, but are still far above what the average consumer could afford when viewed in terms of 2000 dollars. The highest price for any roll in the 1920 catalog is $7.75.

1920 2000 US $ US $ Busoni #443 Adelaide Beethoven-Liszt $5.75 $161.00 Carreño #361 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 1 R. Schumann $6.00 $168.00 #362 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 2 R. Schumann $5.00 $140.00 #372 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt. 1 $5.50 $154.00 #373 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt.2 $7.75 $217.00 Paderewski #1246 Sonata Moonlight mvmts. 1 & 2 Beethoven $7.75 $217.00 #1247 Sonata Moonlight mvmt. 3 Beethoven $6.75 $189.00 Emil von Sauer #876 Don Juan Fantasie Liszt $7.75 $217.00 #881 Etude Op. 25, No. 9 Staccato Chopin $3.00 $84.00

As can be seen from the lists that follow, the US dollar remained relatively stable from 1920 to 1927 as opposed to the period from 1908 to 1920. Not long after 1920, production of T-100 red-paper Welte-Mignon rolls was discontinued by the Welte-Mignon Corp. in the US. The focus changed to sales of organ rolls and the new Purple Seal Welte-Mignon rolls for use on their new Welte-Mignon “Original” piano which was scaled to play Welte-Mignon Licensee rolls as well. If the buyer of that 1907 Welte-Mignon wanted new music, rolls were available from Europe. How, then, do those prices compare to today’s? The German catalog, which was comprehensive to October 1925, priced our list of rolls as follows:

93 1925 1925 2000 D-Mark US$ US$ Busoni #443 Adelaide Beethoven-Liszt 24DM $5.71 $160.00 Carreño #361 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 1 R. Schumann 24 DM $5.71 $160.00 #362 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 2 R. Schumann 22 DM $5.24 $147.00 #372 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt. 1 22 DM $5.24 $147.00 #373 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt.2 24 DM $5.71 $160.00 Paderewski #1246 Sonata Moonlight mvmts. 1 & 2 Beethoven 24 DM $5.71 $160.00 #1247 Sonata Moonlight mvmt. 3 Beethoven 24 DM $5.71 $160.00 Emil von Sauer #876 Don Juan Fantasie Liszt 24 DM $5.71 $160.00 #881 Etude Op. 25, No. 9 Staccato Chopin 12 DM $2.86 $80.00

It’s interesting to note that if a German catalog had been issued earlier (say 1921-22), it almost certainly would have reflected the calamitous decline in the value of the Mark. The inflationary spiral in Germany during the early 1920s was of a far, far greater magnitude than that which occurred with the value of the dollar between 1908 and 1920. In 1921, a T-100 roll could easily have cost 2.4 million Marks! Even later, the 1927 catalog published in England continued to offer the buyer of the 1907 Welte-Mignon piano a source for music. How, then, do these prices compare to today’s?

1927 1927 2000 GB-Sterling US$ US$ Busoni #443 Adelaide Beethoven-Liszt 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 Carreño #361 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 1 R. Schumann 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 #362 Fantasie C major, Op. 17 part 2 R. Schumann 22 shillings $5.35 $142.00 #372 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt. 1 22 shillings $5.35 $142.00 #373 Sonata Waldstein Beethoven pt.2 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 Paderewski #1246 Sonata Moonlight mvmts. 1 & 2 Beethoven 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 #1247 Sonata Moonlight mvmt. 3 Beethoven 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 Emil von Sauer #876 Don Juan Fantasie Liszt 24 shillings $5.83 $155.00 #881 Etude Op. 25, No. 9 Staccato Chopin 12 shillings $2.92 $77.50

Clearly, the 1907 buyers of the Welte-Mignon were well-heeled indeed. While the cost of music rolls declined significantly from 1908, even the 1927 prices were anything but cheap. The introduction of the Welte-Mignon Licensee into the US marketplace in 1916 enabled more accessibility to the Welte-Mignon library at a much lower cost. Shortly after 1920, DeLuxe Licensee rolls were priced no higher than $2. Nevertheless, the Licensee roll was still a product most people could not afford. T-100 Welte-Mignon pianos and their music really were within the reach of only the most wealthy buyers.

94 FEBRUARY 1918

Liat Oar Liat 0... Price Price Price Price __7'- 2348 Oood-Dight Ladies .10.20 8988 Blue Bird Grant .71.30 " 23G DroWl1 Waters (Wa.ila.Da.) •..•..•.Ailau .&0 .20 8988 WUd, Wild, Womllll, !'he (Are K&k1Dg a lI8IiO I OaDnot 8iDg the Old 8oDgB .••••Claribel .&0.20 Wild IIa.n of lie) Piantadosi .'16 .30 Wl A. Life on the Ocean Wave Russell .10 .20 8'" Work, For the If'JBht fa Coming.•..Mason .'16 .30 2SI5S Wha.t fa Home Without a Mother..Winner. .&0 .20 89tl I Don't Want to Get Well Jentes .'16 .30 39'1t The AmericaD Hymn Keller .'16 .30 81M12 Oa.mon1lage •.•••••Gilbert and Friedland .71 .30 fi80 BrabaDCOJl118, La (Belgium) ..Campenhout .'16 .30 8998 Liberty Bell (It's 'fim.e to Jlinr Again) ...... Mohr .'11 .30 3224. Marseillaile, '!'he •••••••••.••••.De Lisle .76 .30 8994 Chin-Chin ChiDa.man Hanley .75 .30 " 8295 Battle Hymn of the Republic...... '16 .30 8995 Someone:mae May Be '1'here While I'm 343t lfatioDaJ. Hymn (PortugaJ) Dom Pedro IV .76 .30 Gone Berlin .76 .30 3981 We'll Xnock the Heligo Into Heligo Out (668 Oamp Outer. March and Two-Step.•.. of B:eligoland Morse .75 .30 ...... Schroeder 1.00 .40 899 Dixie Volunteen, The Leilie and Ruby .'16 .30 4657 Oaterpillar Oreep. Pox-Trot Johnson 1.00 .40 8988 Graveyard IDueB, The.Woods and Caldwell .76 .30 88U Sway Me. I'ox-'l'rot Hudson .'16 .30 4858 Spirit of '78 Ma.rch, The Panella 1.00 .40 3986 Mavia ••••.•••••••••••••••••••.Craxton .76 .30 4659 ':Neath the Ji'lag. March....•....Hudson 1.00 .40 8888 What a J'riend We Have in lens . 4860 A.ra.besque, Op. 18, :No.8 Schaaf 1.00 .40 ...... Converse .76 .30

8881 ~~.~~~~.~~~~~~ .76 .30 I 7006 so~~.~.~~.~~~.~~~:.~::: 1.75 .70

We will prepay carrying charies on all orders amounting to $2.00 or more. CONSUMERS SUPPLY CO., SlaUon H, BuUaIo, New York ~I I I I

IF lc Paid BUFFALO, N. Y. QUALITY, PRICE Pennit No. 135 and SERVICE INTEREST YOU, Mr. Arthur Maul SEND YOUR ORDERS 26 TUnill Ave TO US FOR Lapeer, Mich. Perforated Music Rolls SS·NOTE ONLY

Consumers Supply Co. ...J-.... STATION H

POSTMASTER-II unable 10 deli... with;" 6ye c1a~.. notify the eboye BUFFALO, N. Y. uul tetum ~ge will be lIeDt.

95 Submitted by Jerryl Neher 44 THE MUSICAL OBSERVER rlllnll'llllll_...... ~lUlRiIlIOUll/lUlfWlllllll&ll_IIt8I1l1\1llIllll.lIMIlftI\lIl..l!RIlill'lM1ilt~IWII1lI\III\llIlllIlIl~ItI~1Jl.DQI11 '· '. I Disc-Roll Review i .. ,;...... -, .~ I By DORON K. ANTRIM I .. ' 11l1r.D:I'la'J1UUllll'llllt!ljl~I;I:I:Il':I::Im_I.lII:tl!r.llll:W:"IlAJIla.~IUiftlllIlimllll'iJ:OiI,ra:laU:1Il01l(ll111rlRtlJmwllml"Ill1;&:lMI~:l:llIt~I'~IJlIDflljl~l~lIltlUlijl"I~IJIII11.\Jlllllm~ua~III':'lllItlUlllllllJ~ ~. I . ." Thi. departm"nt 0' TItE MUSICAL OBSERVER iJ devoted to a rcyJew of Toprescntaliv~ record. whtcb arc cO'l'1~idered to be tbo n_on desJrablo from th6 recent outP\Jt or the foremo.st m'-~J;."-" phonog'r:aph .nd reproducing pl:a.110 companlc3. It i. beUeTed that tlle deputment win prove ·Y,··· docidedl,. useful to man,. subllcrlbcn:, off'CTlng tllc:m pnctic;JJ and .a1aablc aid, and !lavh)~ them .~~. tt ~. considerabJe time la thr !IcJmlO11 of desirable new records fOT their collcction.. The 4'l.eltc-r.nolt" i, at the scrvico of re.aders having questiOona to .!Ilk: reprdine recorda and the ut.in. who JI:\ ...kc them. 't" • Three Stars in the Firmament of Musical JIiNflCI-:' P."IUt-:REWS1<.I Composition S.tR<;f·;J R/l.CIUfANINOJo'Jl

ISCHA ELMAN gave a conceli at obscurity althuugh sume of the others are just picture of long ago \\Ihel1 stately mil1\lcts Walk. Walla, Wnshington, recently, as deserving. were danced, and all of \IS like to revert to M which was included in his Pacific coast This n\lmber was in all probability writ­ the things of the past at timcs. Probably itincrary. It happened that his concert co­ ten in New York, although sources of infor­ it pictures a scene in the days of Louis XV, incided with a convention of the Oregon mation arc IInreliable on this point. At any amid the glitter and gayety of the court Fruit Growers' Association and naturally ratc, the opus number 101 is aftcr that of the ballroom, where the sparkle of lighls and the ally spendillg the summer in Spill­ its original form for piano, although it has ebard, hut little versed in 11l\lS1calliteratllre, ville. Iowa, a small community O'f Bohe­ submitted to divers treatments in arran~I:­ recognized one .picce on the entire progralll nlians. I-lere, as thc outcome of his enthusi­ ments for violin, band, orcheslra anrl many which he knew tboroug-hly und enjoyed jllst astic study or the folk music of the Ameri­ other illS! "lIllen!.>; in groups and in solu. as much. This was the ever poplliar t1\n negro, he wrote the symphony - From The reproducing- pianos have tlone consid­ Ilmnorcsqllc hy DVllrak, which Elman had thc Ncw World-and several string quartet.>:

"orak was How Hachmaninoff hates this piere, jnst a' .: night yon played i( Illl the fiddle jllsl like il is rather impressed with the popular type of J';ldcrclVski hall's the Mi·m,cl principally !>e­ IlI1 the record:' music coming into vog-lle at that timc called t·,ltlSC of being required to play it to shl'ed~ History docs not rcnJrlI Elman's rejoinder. ragtime and sought to give his impression and tatters. The writer was present at a This incident started mc to thinking" lIf of it. At nny rate, it strnck home with the war benefit several years ago in which a several pit:ces, snch as JllltnorcsljlCll, which gn'al hulk of the peoplc. An arch pi'lu:l1wy number of prominent artists contriblllcri have enjoyed an ill\lllt'llse popularity; and comhilled with the plaintive note of il.~ mid­ their servic.es. Mr. R;\chmallinofT was re­ how thc reproducing" instruments and othcr dle section has constituted a form\11a that (JIICS1cd to play 1he Pre/ndc which he finally contributing fnctors l>;LV~ helped to put has heen taken in largc doses since it came consented to do but only after considerahle thcm over in such a large way. It is safc tIl illto heing. It is to he had on thc records persnasion and pressurc had he~n applied. say that most pcopl(, [rom Maint' to Cali· in almost evcry coneeivahle combiuation of Mr. Hachmaninoff has jllst calise {or fornia who are at all ("onver"ilnt with n1Llsi­ instrnlllents and nrrallgelllent~. grievance a~ainst tbis child of his brain. ,'al affairs art~ familiar with Jlu"'""':Sqll'" II With l'adc,-ewski'5 Mitllllrl, another hene!­ although it is the one piccc that helped t'S­ is rather inten;stiog tu speculate now and lincr, the fame of the composer no dO\1bt tablish his namc as a composer and his fanw lhen upon things that have. gainednotoridy hell't'd it along its rose-strewn palh, not in this country more than any ollH'r. Jk and why, although it is often quite impossible Ihal it lackt'd intrinsic merit to begin with. wrote it during- the early part of his career tu apply any logiral system of reasoning'. Fnr mrrit is absol\1tely neces5ary. llnt thcre as it heal's his opus 3. Jt was Ilrst puhlishcrl For mstance, why should (;OI1l:iSIll gain such :Ire a numher of pieces that have this and in 1\ nssia and had no intern.1tional copy­ tremendolls favur at this particular timc yet fail to get across nevertheless. right. Conse(jllently every publisher in this when the simple principle back of it has bccn A rather amm;ing story is told of this country and in others for that matter has pub­ known for years? "iere hy a German professor. Wc append it lishcd it and has heel1 reaping ~rcat rewards But to return La IflmLOrcsq1ll1. Elman's herewith hut do not warrant its authentic­ ever since, of which Rachmaninoff rec('ivcd re.cord of it was an important ClIlltribulion ity. "When Pnc1e.rewski was professor at not a single kopeck. Th~ piece wonld havl" to this number's popularity. Among the Warsaw Conservatoire, he was a frerplenl made a fortnne for the ("(lll1p(>scr had it hecn early records tha t Elman. made for the visitor at my house and onc evening- I re­ copyrig-htcd in1"crna!ional1y. Further than phonograph, it was S(lOll in the limelight and marked that no living composer could hc this, M1". HaclllnanlllofJ fel,ls that ht, has no doubt the compared with Mozart. Paderewski's only sin c e donl' pieec makes a reply was a shrtlg of the shoulders, but the t h i n g- s that greatel' appeal next clay he came back, and sitting- down at a re so mneh on the violin the piano said: '1 would like to play you a more worthy. than as a pi­ little piece of Mozart's whi('h perhap~ yon hilt thr Plli,­ ano number as (10 not know.' He then played the Mi".url. lie still hangs originally I was enchanted with it and cried: 'Now (.n to this first ,'"' ·r'~..•:\ WI' itt e n. It you will yourself acknowledge that nohLHly I" f fort with ~~ .~, ~~ was part of of onr time could fllrnish us with a COIIII"\­ tan t a I i 'l.­ '; ',' .~ . a collection sition like that!' 'Well: answrred Parlerewski. i n g persist­ ~f: >~~,: of Hml1iores­ this JvJ;lluct is mine.' " ency. ., ken for piano, Aside from the glamonr lent this pil'Ct' hy The heroic one of which the name of the composer, simpJirily. eharncter 0 f -/'- leaped in t 0 courtly grace, and an ele!("ance and rrl"lIIr'­ the nnmhrr ~ -' , fame and the ment of treatmcnt have served to make its i lYl pre s 5 es o the r 5 re- friends legion. It is vcry simple harmoni­ hoth t h (\ S I' mained in cally being basel! mainly on the tonic amI with cnltivnted Tnscli" SEID£L com]> a mtive dominant seventh chords. Then it recalls a mtlsical tastes 1.'·:OL'lILO (;OIl<)WSKY

96 THE MUSICAL OBSERVER 45

ful triumph above the fierce exultation of the CaU:;U1"'II(I, Op. 35 (Tsdlaikowsky), played by as well as thosc wilhout. It discloses its Slav­ Bronislaw Huut'rman is d~serving of mention. There onic origin and is vital and half~barbaric in its lhunes. The number stirs something of the is a good Jirm tone throughout whose quality has make-np. It is sometimes called the .. Bells of elcmcntal in all of us. heen duplica.ted all the record. Moscow" and Iras a historic signifJe-.l1Ice as the This Prrlude is one of the war-horses of the Allen McQuhae, who hails from the land where player-pianos and it is best snited for piano, the shamrocks grow, wonders Will She Come from story goes. Iltr Jiaslt in a song from "The Music Box Revue." Moscow resounding to the tread of Napol­ although many different arrangements have He does !lot conIine his inquiry to the east alone. con's victorions troops is suddenly ablaze in been made of it ano it has even succumbed tu uut asks the fOUf corners of the compass--east, north. every part, the torch applied hy the hanus of the jazz treatmcnt. So it is that one thing or an­ south and w(,'!'l. Itl the linal vcrse when he arrive:; other, or a combination of circumstances may itt the various loralitics just referred to, an interlude f,crcely sullen inhabitants. 0!apolcon's dream is illterposcd of 1ll1l~jC characteristic of that section, of shelter for four hundred thousand trooJls contribute to the popularity of a composition, Mr. M<:Quhae Ims an excellent tenor voice am! sings in the heart of a frozen desert is thus hanished and that the reproducing instruments give it a as though hc re.tlly wcre wondering as to the cxacl and victory is turned into defeat. WI;ile t1~e final impetus cannot he denier!. Uut given a location of his lad)" love. Mayhe he is? ponderous deep-throateo hoom of thc [\.remhn cerlain intrinsic merit to 'begin with, the fate of *** VIeTOR: Til' S"ow Maiden, an opera of which hell, sounding {lut the alarm is heard in fate- a lIlusical number is in the lap of the gods. Rimsky~K(,Irsakoff wrote the music, is based on an old folk-lore lcgend. The Snow-Maiden, daughter of old Willll'r ami Fairy Spring, has a sojourn on the titles givcs the iUl!)feSsiol1 that an attempt has ear·th where many adventures befall her. She is been made to exhume Illost of the music popular at cthereally heautiful hut discourages all the young r"""""·"""··~~"~o~:"':~·"~:~~~~: the time of King Tut-ankh-Amtn. Here are a few swains who fall in love with her on account of her of the titles at random: S,,,,gs of Otller Days, heart of ice. Howcver, her mother intervenes with ~ I Just a" Old Love Song, Tile Old Rugg"d CrO.fS, .tbe aid of the flowe,.s, and tbe Snow Maioen falls in t __ _ _ """ ,,, ,, ," "".."....i Come Back to Eri", Silver Threads A"WlII( Ihe Gold, love only to dissolve as a snoW flake at the lirst etc. This last lIamcd song, uy the way. is said to human kiss of her lover. Lucrezia Bori sings in AMPICO: Sergei Rachmaninoff plays his own hold the altitude record for salcs of any song that French I Kn01" the SanK of " Lark which occnrs Liu.tCS a tranSCl'iptHJIl 01 the SOJlg. Tlu~rc IS rumallt:c J was ever published in this country. Few pianos It l1Ull1lJc~. at the first of the opera. is a wistful little number and poctic appeal ill this fragile 111. It scallcred ahout the laud did nol hold a copy of this to which a wood wind arcompanhncllt lends distil1c~ R.1.chmallinoff shows his L1istiuctivc gift 01 cvok mg famous song, when it was in ils hey-dey. and stilI do, tion and it is sung with rare artistry. a nlOOd. It has tilallu:rlls and tendrils of m.elody, a::. no doubt. But it has r'l.thcr outlived its usefuhll~sS rm in Love frol11 llApple Hlossoms," is done by delicate as the scent of lilac blossom:;. and has not the stuff of which immortality is nlade. Fritz and t-I ugo Kreisler. The former wrote "Apple Eastwood Lane is all American composer who says There is one record, Iowa Corn. Song, that should BJossoms," a light opera, ami in this number presides things iu an individual way. His ,/1 Gringu Fango appeal to all who hail {roln Iowa, "Whcrl~ the t.dl at the piano, whiic Hugo plays th(,~ cello. Frilz is has a swing ahout it quite In·acing. The tallgo t'lI­ corn grows" as it is proba:bJy the song of that state. quite an accomplish('d piaJJist, as a matter of fact, and joyed quite a vugue i.lS a Lall-ruom dance several It is sung by the Criterion Male ~Jl1artcL. 'fht:n, the two Kreislers make an idl'al comhination. The years ;lgO and is still dOlle by professional c1anClTS IVe"ri"g Ihc Day, by Walter Sc,ullan and Elizabeth lay is tunellli and is otherwise a highly appropriatc and others. it is Olle: of the IIatlonal dances UI Spencer, has its points. The day referred to is thc sprinbrtimc Iluwucr. Spain and full of SCllSlIVllS grace autl l'roll~llIlC(,:d ,wedding d"y and the song goes into blissfnl details, The SCllt iment of all of liS, 110 doubt, coincides' with rhythm. "Gringo" is a rough ami ready term .glVCIl tv about such delig-hts as kindliug the firc, gettillg tht.: that of the sOllg I Lovc " I.;tl/e Coltog, hy Geoffrey all American by Ml'XICUU:-i. The llH1~1l' is silley alld eats, mornings in May, etc" with Cupid cver hover· O'liara, althuugh wc may 1I0t all have the ready cash <.Ioes nut seek to overcrowd the melodic with the iug ill tlw backgrn1Jllri. Oh! it's a great lif(', to judge lle(,'essary to materialize our dream of owning on~. ~xotic. Mr. Laue hit1l!:icl i Vlay::; it. IJ)' this sOllg. Ncverthekss, the song paints a picturc we like to SI.-villa) SuiLc Espagnoh.:, 1\0. J by AHJClli/, pailiis * * * sec ill 0111' imagination ::Illd Lamlwrt Murphy, tenor, a vivid, colorful pictun:: uf that CiIY.4!l g;l)dy amI DUO-ART: BcdllOvcn .wrote Rondo a CulJJ"icciu, sings it ill a way that revl"<.t1s all of its beguilements. pleasure disdo!:iiJlg' Iwth scrilJu~ 'lllU Irl\'ulul1~ mood Op. 129 (augcr uver the loss of a penny, vcnted Albeni1.,' a Spanish composcr, kno\\':"l wt.'!1 huw tu in a caprice) ill IH22, live years befure he died, allll apply his color:>, and iL seem:> thUl all)' cOlllposer. uf gives liS a glimpsc of Beethovl'1l thc mall. The para­ lJote call write wiLh more authurity

97 agtime: No Longer a Novelty In Sepia

BY DAVID WONDRICH R FROM ARTS & LEISURE NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 21, 2001 SENT IN BY DIANNE POLAN

Ephemeralist (http://myweb.wwa.com/weese), as Mr. Ware, 33, said in an e-mail interview, aims to “provide a dense sense of the whole era, not simply a dissected examination of the music apart from it.” The problem, as he sees it, is that “the definition of ragtime has been whittled down to something that is only one small aspect of what it actually was to the people who lived through it.” In the brief period of its existence, The Ephemeralist has already gone a long way toward upsetting that view. Besides publishing newly rediscovered sheet music and articles on obscure ragtime composers and the like, it has pictures. Pictures of forgotten banjo-pickers, of small-town brass bands, of amateur pianists, of black people dancing and play- ing music - and white people made up as black people. In fact, there are dozens of minstrels - white, black, male, female, young, old - photographed, sketched and, of course, caricatured. All were a part of ragtime; as Mr. Ware comments, “the more I learn about it, the more fascinated and horrified I become.” You cannot read The Ephemeralist without beginning to understand just how intimately ragtime is bound up with the perennial issue in American music, race. Rather than being the genteel, refined African-American classical music we think we know, ragtime jumps out of the pages of The Ephemeralist as a sometimes morally compromised, often vulgar, always vital form of American popular music, perhaps closer in its articulation to rock and hip-hop than the jazz that was its immediate descendant. At any rate, ragtime was not above titillating the white middle class with big-beat A sheet music cover from 1900 evocations of the (often greatly exaggerated) realities of ghetto life. agtime is a whole world of music that has grown Rstrange to us. Sure, everyone knows Scott Joplin and The recordings confirm this with music’s characteristic the cheerful strains of “The Entertainer” from the movie “The vividness, over and over again. There were lots of them. Sting” - at least, everyone who remembers the 1970’s, when Among all the operetta and parlor ballads, harmony quartets the music enjoyed its strongest revival (there was another and brass band marches - the Victorian music - that the newly around 1950). But the popular image of ragtime today is established record industry was pumping out around the turn largely that of a jaunty, sweetly tinkling piano soundtrack to a of the century, there were thousands of ragtime records. The sepia-tinted world of shirtwaists and bowler hats. music was delivered by singers, both solo and in groups of all sizes. And by banjoists, That view may be changing, however. A new magazine mandolin, trios, brass bands, dance devoted to the music and a spate of new reissues of ragtime orchestras, stunt drummers, accordion as it was recorded in its day - roughly 1890 to 1920 - are virtuosos, novelty saxophonists, piccolo demonstrating that there was far more to it than it has been aces - everything, amusingly enough, but given credit for, and that in some ways the “real” ragtime is as solo pianists. The men who ran the industry up to date as Eminem and Britney Spears. left the piano music to the player piano. Chris Ware, the cartoonist whose heartbreaking and Even if they hadn’t, it’s still doubtful beautiful graphic novel “Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid we would have any records by ragtime on Earth” (Pantheon) was published last year to much “professors,” as Scott Joplin and his peers acclaim, is also the publisher of the Ragtime Ephemeralist, a fascinating, dryly amusing periodical (if you can call two The bandleader Arthur Pryor issues in three years periodical) devoted to ragtime. The in an undated photograph

98 The comedy team of Bert Williams case for ragtime as brass-band music. Pryor, who hailed from (left) and George Walker in 1895 St. Joseph, Mo., in the heart of the ragtime belt, had been the trombone soloist and ragtime specialist in John Philip Sousa’s were known: those same band until he struck out on his own in 1903. With his men drew the color line own band, he indulged his specialty with frequency and with determination and enthusiasm. persistence, letting In 1901, Vess Ossman cut a version of Arthur Pryor’s achingly few black most famous composition (also on the Archeophone disc). artists through. That act The song, a cakewalk - a kind of raggy dance - is as catchy of prejudice still leaves a and clever as you could want, the performance gloriously daunting variety of loose and funky. It’s the then customary announcement at the music, most of which has beginning of the record that pushes us into deep water: never been reissued. “Arthur Pryor’s ‘Coon Band contest,’ played by Vess L. That’s starting to change. Ossman, the Banjo King.” What to do with a song with a Unlike the previous racial epithet in its title? The standard practice has been to ragtime revivals, which ignore it. But this is one of the most popular rags of the whole were largely based on era - it’s the “real” ragtime. One solution is to edit: “Popular the song sheet and piano Band and Instrumental,” a recent release from roll (both, it should be www.tinfoil.com, includes an amazing version of the song by pointed out, easily edited Maurice Levi and his band, hiding under the title “A Band to preserve modern Contest,” and shorn of its announcement. But that strategy, sensibilities), the current revival brings with it a relative too, is falsifying the past. profusion of old recordings. Although Bertelsman and Sony, I think the only useful approach, albeit painful, is the one heirs to the ragtime era’s Victor and Columbia, have each advocated by Mr. Ware, “We’re a maturing nation that I think dipped their toes into this ocean of wax, and a few of the can look at its past, however embarrassing and horrifying, and established reissue labels have put out a CD or two, the real face up to it.” One does not necessarily have to share his action is with tiny, home PC-based operations. confidence in our maturity to see that full disclosure is All you have to do is burn some highlights of your necessary here. Modern American music springs from the collection of 78’s or cylinders onto CD, spit some labels out ragtime era, and it’s time we exposed its gnarled roots to the of your printer and you’re in the record business. Put up a sun. Web site, and you’ve got international advertising and distrib- Ragtime was black music and universally acknowledged ution. (Or, if you’re not commercially inclined, just post as such at the time. America had listened to black, or everything on Napster; there’s a surprising amount of ragtime black-influenced, music before: “Dixie” was born on the to be found there, lurking among the Christina Aguileras and minstrel stage. But ragtime was the first such music to inform Creeds of this world.) an era. Like rock, it had infinite varieties: it was a beat, it The total of what is available is still relatively was a rhythm, a complete way of approaching music, a social manageable, a matter of a few hundred songs. While not movement that encompassed the best and the worst in enough to present a comprehensive picture of the music - American culture. For the first time, blacks were, culturally most of these albums are exploratory anthologies, and hence speaking, in the driver’s seat, and white America had to somewhat spotty - there is nonetheless enough to get a pretty acknowledge that fact. good idea of what America’s first mass-marketed, recorded That didn’t mean whites had to be polite about it. Or popular music was like. respectful. On the most basic level, this attitude means that Some of it is pretty innocuous. Take a record like the ragtime songs - “coon banjoist Vess L. Ossman’s 1907 “Florida Rag,” available on songs” or “coon shouts,” Archeophone records’s excellent “Real Ragtime: Disc as they were known Recordings From Its Heyday” (www.archeophone.com). at the time - are rife Once you acclimatize yourself to the primitive recording with casually deployed technology - the best recordings of the time had a frequency racial epithets and every response of about 168 to 2,000 cycles; a good LP from the other ugly stereotype 1950’s offers 20 to 20,000 - the ancient grooves reveal a (purloined poultry, suppleness and swing that, critical orthodoxy has it, only brandished razors) in the entered American music with jazz, some 10 years later. A national closet. This is as confident ripple from Charles Prince on the piano, and much a part of the real Ossman launches himself into the song, picking tricky little ragtime as is the poised, cross rhythms, playing call-and-response between the bass formal piano composi- and treble, generally ripping things up. There’s not a trace of tion, but until now, as Mr. stateliness or stiffness. Ware points out, it is a There are even a few muffed notes, just to signify the side of ragtime that has humanity of the music (you won’t find that on a piano roll). been for understandable The singer May Irvin in an Or take Arthur Pryor’s “King of Rags,” also from 1907 undated photograph (from the same CD). Nimbly executing a herky-jerky riff bent up by trombone smears, Pryor’s band makes a convincing continue Ragtime on next page . . .

99 Ragtime continued . . . George W. Walker, he was the reigning black singer of the ragtime age. More than that, he went on to become America’s reasons “all but ignored.” Yet “ignoring something only first black superstar, integrating Broadway along the way and grants it more power.” creating the first significant body of records by a black artist When these songs are dragged up from our collective in America. Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington wrote basement and into the light, they certainly possess the power tributes to him. Yet there has never been a comprehensive to shock - it’s like the scene in Thomas McGuane’s novel reissue of the 80-odd discs and cylinders he cut: he sang coon “The Sporting Club,” when the members of a hunting and songs, you see. fishing club break open a time capsule, only to find a group For the first time, however, most of his oeuvre is widely photograph of their grandparents naked and engaged in available for inspection: much can be found on Napster, more unspeakable pursuits. But once the shock wears off, you can can be gathered from Web sites like www.besmark.com and begin to categorize the songs. Many, like Collins and Harlan’s www.homestead.com/vaudeville archive. “Bake Dat Chicken Pie,” available on Napster (www.napster.com) - are crude and horrible. Most, however, The excellent Jazz Oracle label plans to release its often are actually funny, if unintentionally. delayed two-CD set in the spring. His drawling, elastic voice as he half-talks, half-sings his way through his trademark Take the “Bully Song,” recorded in 1907 by the Scottish- joke’s-on-me tales of woe is not only harbinger of a century of Canadian May Irwin (also on Napster). When she sings, in blues and jazz singing but also a wry commentary on the her clear, polite soprano voice, the words “I’m a Tennessee absurdity of a culture that can look upon his virtuoso clown Nigger,” it’s impossible not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it act and not see that it is an act. all. She’s Vanilla Ice in a whalebone corset. (The tradition of inept white imitation of black culture is a venerable one.) And “Nobody,” Williams’s first big hit, is no ordinary coon yet the song itself is infernally catchy, with strong beats and song. Over a Pryoresque moaning trombone, he lets the lots of vintage gangster slang (it helps that the song was words out one or two at a time; they assemble into a swiped from Mama Lou, the house singer at the Castle Club, a lugubrious tale of loserdom with a raggy kick in the chorus: black St. Louis brothel of high repute). “I-I-I-I ain’t never done nothin’ to nobody/I-I-I-I ain’t never got nothin’ from nobody, no time:/O-o-o-oh, until I get some- And then there are a precious few that manage to thin’ from somebody, sometime,/I-I-I-I’ll never do nothin’ for transcend their genre. Sophie Tucker’s first version of her nobody no time.” The joke might be on him, but the threat is signature song, “Some of These Days,” from 1911, is a directed at us. magnificent, heartfelt moan without appreciable racial content beyond the informal diction (look for the 4,065KB version on It’s an irony of history that the white coon shouter Arthur Napster). Of course, the greater sensitivity of the song can be Collins was the first to cut Williams’s song, in 1905 - the song attributed to the fact that Shelton Brooks, its composer, was would ultimately put him and most of his kind out of the coon black. In fact, blacks wrote many of the songs the white business. It’s not that white folks gave up on imitation ragtime singers recorded; writing such songs gave blacks an blackness once they got a taste of the “real” thing - as the entry into Tin Pan Alley and the possibility of establishing phenomenal success of Elvis Presley and Eminem prove. But careers of such solidity that they would no longer have to they at least learned to demand that it be executed with some produce such material. Some succeeded, at least to a degree. subtlety and humanity, some fundamental sympathy for the imitated. It’s not the cork on your face, but the quality of your Chief among them was Bert Williams, today perhaps the act. That, too, is a legacy of ragtime. least honored genius in American music. With his partner,

BY KATHRYN LINDERMAN INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY SENT IN BY JOHN MOTTO-ROS Piano Maker Henry Steinway His Determination Helped Set The Worldwide Standard For His Instrument

For Henry Engelhard Steinway, determination was the 1812 lightning struck a small hut where Heinrich, his three key to survival. remaining brothers and their father were taking shelter from a Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (1797-1871) was born in storm. Only 15-year-old Heinrich survived. the small mountain community of Wolfshagen, Germany. His Penniless, the young Steinweg supported himself by father was a forester. doing odd jobs. In 1815, he joined the German army, in The youngest of 12 children, Heinrich lost his mother and which he served until he was 22. all but four siblings in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. In During peaceful years, Steinweg used his time in the

100 army to learn woodworking and cabinetmaking. He built He provided for his mandolins, dulcimers and zithers. He discovered he loved family by living on a working with his hands and especially making musical modest budget. He found instruments. work in a piano factory. Honorably discharged from the army, Steinweg decided it His sons worked in was time to pour himself into his work. He found a job at an cabinetry shops in town. organ-building firm in Goslar, Germany. But Steinweg was They made pianos at home too impatient to work the seven- or eight-year apprenticeship after hours and sold them normally required. With only a year’s training, he moved to on the side. Seesen, Germany, in 1820 and set up shop as a cabinetmaker All of Steinweg’s and pipe organ repairman. children eventually worked In his brief time at the organ-building firm, Steinweg had in the family business. found an instrument that fascinated him, the piano. Steinweg Despite the hardships decided to learn more about the popular instrument and how of becoming accustomed to to build it. a new country, Steinweg NEW APPROACHES: He studied every aspect of the instrument. He was determined to succeed. Steinway’s innovations experimented tirelessly with different woods, looking for just Because of discrimination included a cast-iron frame and an the right tone. He worked long hours perfecting the cut of the against Germans in New upright model that earned 11 patents keyboard and the regulating of the action and stringing. York, he realized that if he wanted to be a success He tested his theories and put them to work. His trials there, he would have to integrate. At the age of 54, he paid off. He developed a piano stronger than its predecessors Americanized his name and became Henry Engelhard by introducing a cast-iron frame that made it possible to put Steinway. greater tension on the strings. This structure resulted in a heartier piano - a bigger sound, a more dynamic range, He kept innovating, too. On March 5, 1853, he increased brilliance. established his Manhattan business as Steinway & Sons. Steinway’s company prospered. By 1860 his business became In 1825, Steinweg married Julianne Theimer, presenting a so great that the concern moved to another location. In 1862 double-strung (bichord) square piano as a wedding present to at the London Exposition, Steinway won a medal with a her. According to Fra magazine, Steinweg “played the organ cross-strung grand. for his own wedding with his wife-to-be pumping the bellows; then they descended from the loft, and the ceremony was In 1864, Steinway announced the grand opening of his performed.” new factory. To entice curious onlookers to become customers, he made the showroom as attractive as possible. His piano was tremendously successful, and Steinweg Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper reported on the open spent more and more time in his workshop. He put his six house celebrating the new salesroom. It “is so beautiful sons to work as soon as they were old enough to hold a architecturally, that it is an ornament to the city, which can tuning fork. Steinweg knew it was important to teach his now boast of having the finest pianoforte store, probably, in instrument construction process to the youngsters to preserve the world.” his methods. But more family sorrow was to befall Steinway. Son Steinweg completed his first grand piano in 1836 in his Henry Jr. died of tuberculosis, and son Charles died of typhoid kitchen. It was an immediate success. He took a gold medal fever, both in March 1865. Steinway’s grief was compounded at the 1839 Brunswick State Fair for a grand piano and two by labor unrest at the factory, which culminated in a strike in square ones. The Duke of Brunswick purchased the grand May. piano for 300 marks. The 68-year-old Steinway was left to manage the factory Steinweg soared into full production. With the help of his and showrooms with his two youngest and least experienced sons, he was able to produce as many as 10 instruments a year sons. Again he refused to give up. He garnered family in his small workshop. support by persuading another son, Christian Friedrich However, political trends in Germany in 1830 upset the Theodor Steinweg, who had remained in Germany, to come to economy and caused a severe recession. The piano business New York. Giving in to his father’s convincing entreaties, lagged. Steinweg stuck with his craft, but the situation looked C.F. Steinweg moved to New York in 1865 and changed his bleak. Finally, after the failed German Revolution in 1848, name. Steinweg began looking for new opportunities. With this additional support and the fresh direction that At age 53, he uprooted his family and business from their Christian brought, Steinway focused on increasing his homeland to move to the U.S. The Steinweg family arrived in business. He kept coming up with improvements, too. Aware New York City on June 29, 1850. that customers’ homes weren’t always large, he designed a His tenement in New York was far less gracious than his piano to fit in smaller spaces. The company’s first upright garden home back in Seesen, but Steinweg resolved to meet piano was built in 1862, and upright models became highly any obstacles he faced. popular. Steinway received 11 patents for his innovations for

101 Maximillan Schern

Nelson Eddy & Jeannette MacDonald, in a scene from the MGM film of Noel Coward’s “Bittersweet”

102 Karl Ellison gave a treasurer’s report, and has had a good response to his dues notice. Allan Jayne brought two Mr. Christmas musical boxes. Both had automated characters that moved with the music. Ken Goldman brought an animated musical watch crafted by News Henry Capt. We had members attend that we haven’t seen for a while, so there was much to talk about. We have offers for future From meetings at locations that we haven’t been to for a long time, and we have added some new members too. The Chapters

BOSTON AREA CHAPTER Joe Lavacchia and Ed Patt check out the theater. Reporter: Don Brown President: Ken Volk

The Boston Area November mid-winter meeting gathered at the home of one of our newest members in Lexington. They are Beni and Matt Jaro. The turnout was enhanced by the list of interesting things to see and hear. We heard that there is a 1920 band organ, restored by Mike Kitner, just before he died. There were also a nickelodeon, a small pump organ, and a newly restored player grand. There is also a theater, complete with two 35mm projectors, two 16mm projectors, and even a video projector! All this was true, and more too. The home is new, and the theater is on the 3rd floor. The musical instruments are playing in a room off the front door on the first floor. Our members were able to talk and snack finger goodies in nearby living and dining areas, The twin 35mm projector booth in the theater. while the music played. Rooms upstairs contained hundreds of CD records, piano rolls and band organ rolls. The theater had 200+ movie reels, so entertainment possibilities were many. Matt Jaro had roots near Knotts Berry Farm in California, and the working nickelodeons inspired him to one day own one. The MBSI group expanded his interest in other instruments and films too. Beni was from Baltimore. She said that there were a pair of orioles here in her backyard in Lexington, but none in Baltimore. President Ken Volk opened our business meeting with some news about the possible player piano restoration or replacement for the Charles River Museum. A suitable “plain vanilla” player has not been located, and no contact from the museum folks about our offer yet. We are looking for a Simplex or Standard player in a piano worthy of the museum. Our April 29th meeting will be at Charlie Jackson’s Piano Barn in Hopkinton. There are many vintage pianos in the bar, and we should have a good group attending the meeting. The music room with CDs, records, LPs and more.

103 Computers, piano rolls and band organ rolls.

Matt Jaro and his 1920 band organ.

Matt’s Pump Organ

Joe Lavacchia, Ed Everett, Ed Patt, and Charlie Randazzo

Ampico Player grand with vacuum gages showing bass and treble pressure levels.

Lois Brown, Norman Daly, Matt Jaro, Ken Volk, Ed Everett by horse, and Ken Goldman.

104 Myth No. 41 Ozarkians believe a discussion on hog-calling techniques is interesting and appropriate dinner party conversation. Springdale, Arkansas 2002

GATEWAY CHAPTER Reporter: Mary Wilson President: Yousuf Wilson

Gateway chapter’s last meeting in 2000 was held at the home of Jane and Tom Novak in Chesterfield, Missouri. Ten members were in attendance. Tom and Jane have a Stuber 20 note Street Organ that they take to various organ rallies. Tom is also in the process HEART OF AMERICA CHAPTER of building a street organ, which plays the Wurlitzer 125 rolls. Reporter: Robbie Tubbs Another hobby of Tom’s is the carving of carousel horses. President: Ron Bopp - 918-786-4988 The following new officers were elected at this meeting: President: Yousuf Wilson President Ron Bopp called the December 3 meeting to Vice-President: Tom Novak order and thanked Sandy and Mike Schoeppner for hosting the Holiday Meeting. He also thanked Linda and Galen Secretary/Treasurer: Jane Novak Bird for having an open house. We welcomed new members, Reporter: Mary Wilson Kay and Jim Fletcher, from Overland Park, Kansas. Board Rep: Gary Craig The minutes were read and approved from the last meet- ing, as was the Treasurer’s report. Ron Connor reported that It was decided to have our annual street organ rally at the plans were being finalized for the International Convention in St. Louis City Museum in October. As a chapter project, Australia in February. Yousuf offered to oversee the building of a chapter Street Organ along the lines of John Smith’s organ. The chapter Blaine Thomas has invited the chapter back to Manhat- agreed and also decided to try their hand at arranging and cut- tan for the Spring 2001 meeting. It was later decided that the ting rolls for the organ. meeting would be held April 28/29, 2001. Possible meetings and activities for 2001 were discussed. Elections were held for Heart of America officers. Ron Our annual “Rob-your-neighbor” gift exchange was conduct- Bopp was elected president, Tom McAuley Vice President, ed, after which refreshments were served. Robbie Tubbs Treasurer/Secretary, and Ron Connor was elected Board Representative. Kay Bode agreed to serve as Reporter. There were no Floridians present, so no recounts were necessary. We were given the sad news of the passing of Ramsi Tick and Harvey Roehl. It was agreed that we should send $50 for each person to the AMICA International Memorial Fund. The chapter ordered more enameled pins. We will mail pins to members of good standing who have not yet received theirs. The meeting was adjourned and we look forward to our meeting in April at the Thomas’.

Myth No. 77 Left to right: Bob Bullock, Mary Wilson, Gary Craig, Dorothy Molasses is considered an Ozark household staple. Not Crowley, Tom Novak, Jane Novak, Cynthia Craig, Bob Crowley, only is it used in the kitch but makes a great fly strip Yousuf Wilson, Dan Hoadley refurbisher, denture adhesive and caulking compound. Springdale, Arkansas 2002

105 Myth No. 65 People from the Ozarks think the only need for more than one spoon is for musical purposes. Springdale, Arkansas 2002

LADY LIBERTY CHAPTER Reporter: Bill Maguire President: Bill Maguire - 516-261-6799

Here are the dates for the first few meetings for this year. On Sunday, April 1, we will be visiting Ray and Jane Scheffy in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Saturday, June 2 will be at the Edison National Lab in PACIFIC CAN-AM CHAPTER West Orange, New Jersey. The Lab just underwent a multi- Reporter: Kurt Morrison million dollar, 2-year renovation. The second and third floors President: Kurt Morrison will be open to the public for the first time, ever. Our meeting that day will be at John Ellems of Cranford. The holiday Chapter Meeting was held at the Kenmore, WA, home of Wes and Bev Spore on December 9, 2000. Sunday, August 19, we look forward to a meeting at Aldo Bev must have spent months turning their beautiful home into and Leasa Mancusi’s, in Brooklyn, New York. Aldo has a a winter wonderland of snowmen, Christmas trees and twin- kling lights. Wes demonstrated his recently MIDIfied pipe great Edison collection, as well as his fabulous Caruso organ as well as his new pressure Orchestrelle. The instru- Museum, which, he tells me, rivals the one in Milan, Italy. ments preformed flawlessly and beautiful music filled the house all day. A meeting notice has been mailed out. Check the mailing Chapter President Mark Smithberg, presiding over the label to confirm that our records show your membership is last meeting of his term, announced the slate of new officers paid up for year 2001. Also please be sure your national for 2001: Kurt Morrison, President; Don McLaughlin, Vice President; Bev Spore, Treasurer; and graciously continuing membership is current. If you think our records are in error, on as Secretary, Halie Dodrill. please contact our Secretary, Richard Karlsson, 718-273- Treasurer Ward Folsom reported that we currently have 1763, [email protected] 62 individual members and 39 households represented. Carl Dodrill gave a report on the AMICA Convention 2003. He reported that the committee is now seriously con- sidering Portland, OR, as the site for the Convention. Norm Gibson gave a report on the plans for the Organ Rally in Ocean Shores, WA. He asked for volunteers to help staff an exhibit where the general public would have a chance to pump an upright player piano. Visit the The “white elephant” gift exchange followed. Chocolate seemed to be the gift of choice and many gifts changed hands. AMICA Web page Joe Launderville took the prize for getting to open the most at: gifts. He had a knack for finding the good ones. The gift exchange worked up everyone’s appetites and the potluck dinner that followed left no one hungry. http://www.amica.org The next meeting will be on March 31, 2001, at the home of Norm and Sally Gibson in Ocean Shores, WA.

106 The ever vigilant and gratefully retired chapter treasurer Ward Folsom collects the dues while our host Wes Spore adjusts the Our hosts for the holiday gathering, Bev & Wes Spore holiday decorations

Leigh Champlin, Aileen Mark Smithberg and & Ted Miholovich, and Bob Wilson watch as Sally Gibson admire Wes Spore puts the Aileen’s gift from the Aeolian Orchestrelle exchange through a workout

Fran Willyard, Ina Spady, Don McLaughlin, Ted Miholovich, & Norm Gibson, Jack Becvar, Ward Folsom, Phil Dayson enjoy coffee Maury Willyard enjoying the potluck and conversation and a chat in the kitchen

107 TEXAS CHAPTER Reporter: Bryan Cather President: Jerry Bacon

May, 2000 Chapter Meeting: Good Food, Good Music The whole gang at our May meeting in front of Roma’s What a great meeting!! Those of us (and there were many) who attended the May 2000 Texas Chapter meeting hosted by Joe Uher had an absolutely fantastic time. We met for lunch at Roma’s Italian Restaurant in Decatur, just north of Fort Worth. The food was superb, and the service genial. Liquid refreshment was supplied from a well-stocked cooler, due to the “BYOB” policy at Roma’s, and musical refreshment was supplied (much to the delight of AMICA members and other patrons as well) by Joe’s monkey organ. After filling up on Lasagna, Fettuccini and other Italian gastronomic delights, we caravanned the few miles to the lovely home of our hosts, Joe and Barbara Uher. There we were treated to the magical sounds of Joe’s scratch-built band organ. We were all amazed by its complexity and perfection in construction. Upon seeing the “UHER” name across the “If you build it, they will come.” Joe Uher built this band organ, front, someone commented, “I guess if you build it yourself, and the Texas Chapter came . . . to see it. It was magnificent. you have the right to put your own name on it!” It truly was magnificent. Also present was Joe’s beautiful Hamilton player piano, which was kept busy pouring forth melodies when the band organ was silent. Scattered throughout the house were several August, 2000 Meeting beautiful and unique musical boxes as well. And I would be Jerry Bacon Hosts Fabulous Meeting . . . Again!! remiss in my duties if I neglected to mention the delightful finger foods that were available to our ever-hungry chapter Jerry Bacon did it again. Once again, the president of members. Thanks again to the Uher’s for a tremendous the Texas Chapter hosted a great meeting. We all converged meeting! on Jerry’s house on August 27, 2000, and really did have a great time. Jerry’s collection includes both a Seeburg “A” roll nickelodeon, and a similar machine built by western Electric. We found that the machines are remarkably similar, not by accident, but because Seeburg and Western Electric were both owned by none other than Mr. J.P. Seeburg, himself! Apparently J.P. Seeburg felt there wasn’t enough competition to keep his Seeburg company “on the cutting edge”, so he secretly formed Western Electric to insure that Seeburg had the competition he felt it needed! Its almost as if Bill Gates had secretly created Apple computer to insure that Microsoft would have some competition! But Jerry’s collection didn’t stop there. In addition to the coin pianos, Jerry had a beautifully restored Gulbransen upright player piano. I say “had”, because, since the meeting, yours truly has come to possess this marvelous instrument. Why would anyone want to get rid of such an instrument? Why, to make room for a Photoplayer, of course! As I write this, Jerry is eagerly awaiting the arrival of just such an instrument, which he has Joe Uher (with his sidekick) and his monkey organ were a hit with recently purchased. He promises, too, that once it is Texas Chapter members and restaurant patrons at our May meeting. fully ensconced in his home, Jerry will once again have us over. And you’d better believe that that meeting will be well-attended! These instruments are quite rare, and the chance to see and hear one is reason enough to come . . . not

108 to mention the chance to see all your friends in the chapter! Seeburg was playing an absolutely delightful Christmas roll, As is usual at Jerry’s house, everyone had a great time. and Tony provided such an ample supply of nickels that the Thanks for having us, Jerry, and keep us posted about the machine got a real workout. In addition to the pianos, we photoplayer! were entranced by the sounds of two Regina musical boxes, including a Bowfront changer that was incredibly beautiful. Topped off by three outstanding Wurlitzer jukeboxes, Tony’s collection insured chapter members had plenty to look at - and listen to! But just in case you thought our last meeting of the year was all fun and games, I should mention that we did have a business meeting. All the officers have agreed to serve another term, so it looks like we are once again insured of capable and energetic leadership for the chapter. We have several meetings “in the works” for 2001, and, as always, you will be able to read about them beforehand in our Chapter Newsletter, The Old Piano Roll News, and afterward, in the AMICA Bulletin.

Jerry Bacon makes a point at our August meeting in his home, while Haden Vandiver’s attention is drawn elsewhere.

Helen and Jerome Hill at the Palmers.

Mike Barisonek and Haden Vandiver enjoy Jerry Bacon’s Seeburg at our August meeting.

Texas Chapter Christmas Party a Festive Success The Texas chapter held its last meeting of 2000 on Saturday, December 2, at the home of Tony and Myriam Palmer, in Arlington. After socializing for quite a while, and delighting in Tony’s outstanding collection, we all sat down to dinner. Tony and Myriam provided what has to have been some of the finest baked ham I’ve ever eaten, and everyone else brought a dish of their own to contribute to the meal. As usual at potluck dinners, there was more than enough food, and I must say there are some fabulous cooks at the Texas Chapter. I could have made a meal of Jerry Bacon’s deviled L to R: Jerry Bacon, Joe Morris, James Kelsey, Bryan Cather. eggs alone, but, had I done so, I would have missed many other fabulous dishes. But food was not the only reason to come to this great meeting. Tony’s collection of instruments is outstanding, including a Knabe Ampico grand, a Steinway Duo-Art upright, and a great Seeburg KT Special nickelodeon. The

109 rolls they have perforated available to us on a collection of diskettes, and Chapter members took great delight in perusing the list and playing their favorite titles. We did have a very productive business meeting, where a goal was presented to chapter members of having six meetings this year. It is significant to note that just a few years ago we were struggling to have three meetings a year; now we are looking at six and it doesn’t seem unlikely that we will do just that…maybe more! One of the meeting places we are considering is Houston, where we have not had a meeting in about fifteen years. These truly are exciting times for the Texas Chapter! Our thanks to Richard and Janet Tonnesen for hosting a fabulous meeting. Thanks also to the many multitudes of Texas Chapter members, who came, especially Bill Hoot and Glynn Childers, for whom this was their first L to R: Barbara Uher, Joe Uher, Myriam Palmer meeting as Chapter members, as well as Rich Clayton and his sister from Austin, and James Quashnock from Wichita Falls, who all drove a considerable distance to attend.

Bumper Crop at First Meeting of 2001 The Texas Chapter of AMICA’s first meeting of 2001 was on Saturday, February 10, 2001, at the home of Richard & Janet Tonnesen. And what a meeting it was!! I arrived late, having a standing appointment the time the meeting was scheduled to start, and found Richard & Janet’s home literally brim-full of AMICAns. While I don’t have the final figures in front of me, I would speculate we had close to thirty people in attendance, which is far more than any meeting I have attended in my ten years as a chapter member. This remarkable turnout is heartening, especially as I remember those days, not so long ago, when a turnout of five or six members was about average, and ten or twelve constituted a “goodly crowd”. Richard & Janet Tonnesen are, as many will already know, the people behind Custom Music Rolls, the firm which does the perforating for many of the “specialty” roll labels responsible for many of the fine recuts currently available. Were it not for Richard & Janet being able to offer their fine Richard Tonnesen demonstrated his computer driven perforator service at remarkably affordable prices, many of us might not have as many high-quality recut rolls in our collections as we now do. Of course, for many of those in attendance, the highlight of the meeting was getting to see the computer-driven roll reader and perforator Richard designed and built, on which so many of the rolls in our collections were perforated. Their setup is quite honestly remarkable, and Richard’s skill and expertise in designing and building it is a testament to his mechanical genius. It goes without saying, as well, that Janet’s combination of personal goodwill and uncanny ability to find time to do the massive amount of work that goes into keeping our hobby supplied with quality recuts has also helped make Custom Music Rolls the unparalleled success it has become. For those of us in the Texas Chapter lucky enough for the perforator to be “old hat”, there was another, equally enticing attraction. Richard & Janet had acquired the Yamaha Disklavier that had belonged to the late Richard Barnes, and it was hooked up to a laptop computer running Chapter Member Standing room only at the Tonnesen’s Richard Brandle’s program “Windplay”. This program allows one to play roll image files on one’s computer, or, in this case, on an electronic player (or even, as we learned, on the Broadmore “Poweroll” system). Richard had many of the 110 influenced my entry into music roll arranging, starting in ‘52. (The only other person was Howard Lutter and I don’t know how well he could play, but his Welte Licensee rolls were the zenith of mathematical arranging, for me.) HEY SHALL BE All three pianists who influenced me were Latins: Carle (Italian), Wally Rose (Portuguese), and Jack Fina (Italian). Carle’s recordings of “Entertainer’s Rag” by Jay Robert and T “Crazy Bones Rag” were highly influential; I “tuned out” the REMEMBERED tacked-on “rhythm” which was often added to piano solos in the past (and wasn’t needed for good pianists). Wally’s music you already know about . . . and Jack Fina - who played at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland and on records with Freddy Frankie Carle: Martin’s Orchestra - was the basis for my bumble boogie roll Big Band Leader Had Hit Songs With His Daughter (which includes “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” for comparison’s sake). Frankie Carle, a big-band leader in the 1940s and ‘50s who created the popular standard “Sunrise Serenade,” died Good Latin pianists don’t play in “note clusters” of Wednesday in Mesa, Arizona. He was 97. dynamics, as cocktail lounge musicians often do. This gives a sparkle and effervescence to the performance, where every A pianist known for his light, buoyant touch and finger has an individual “touch”. Of course, a Pianola never romantic, danceable melodies, Carle also was a composer really achieves INDIVIDUAL NOTE DYNAMICS, but my with several hits to his credit, including “Carle Boogie,” graduated perforations certainly convey the illusion . . . and “Lover’s Lullaby,” “Sunrise in Napoli” and “Dream Lullaby.” one’s manual interpretation or the “reproducing” score (if it His “Oh, What It Seemed To Be” was made popular by Frank exists) can take the rendition from there. Sinatra. “Sunrise Serenade,” however, was Carle’s best- knowncomposition, rising to No. 1 in the nation in 1938 and I have some Mercury 45s of titles like “The Old Piano selling more than a million copies. Carle also had several hits Roll Blues” with a pseudonym pianist called “Feb September” with his daughter, singer Marjorie Hughes, including “A Little and his “Bay Rum Boys” (for a vocal quartette). The piano On the Lonely Side,” “Rumors Are Flying” and “It’s all Over playing is very good. If it isn’t Frankie Carle under a fake Now.” name - as was often the case in those days - then it could be Frank Froeba (Carle). Born Francis Nunzio Carlone in Providence, R.I., Carle was the son of a factory worker who could not afford a piano. Doug Henderson So Carle practiced on a dummy keyboard devised by his uncle, pianist Nicholas Colangelo, until he found a broken-down instrument in a dance hall. He performed as a Dear Robin, piano soloist when he was 7 and had his first band ten years Just a note to enclose the obituary for a Grand Rapids later. He went on to play alongside such greats as drummer area AMICA member, Joe Gula. He was at the Leedy Gene Krupa and trombonists Jack Jenney and Jack Teagarden. AMICA meeting last fall, and I had seen him at the local In 1939, he joined Horace Heidt and His Musical library about two days before his death. At the time I last saw Knights, performing with singer Gordon MacRae, future him we joked and he talked about rolls. bandleader Alvino Rey and singer Art Carney. He eventually I visited the church visitation and his family had picked a rose to co-bandleader and music director before forming his roll from his collection to place at the casket - a recent QRS of own band in 1944 with his daughter as the featured vocalist. “Pump that Player Piano” which was appropriate for his He disbanded the group in the 1950s but continued to record general enthusiasm of the instrument. piano pieces and play with an all-girl rhythm quartet called Bill Burkhardt Frankie Carle and His Girl Friends. Joking that he was out to “get some of the money they’re giving to rock ‘n’ rollers,” he went on tour for the last time in Joseph Charles Gula 1983, appearing with the Russ Morgan orchestra and singers Joseph Charles Gula, aged 70, died Thursday, February 8, Roberta Sherwood and the De Castro sisters as the Big Band 2001 peacefully in his sleep. He was preceded in death by his Cavalcade. The last stop was in Milbank, S.D., on the day parents, Joseph and Mary (Panyrek) Gula. He will be greatly before his 80th birthday. A former resident of Westlake missed by his sister, Dorothy (Harry) Stark; and brother, Louis village, he moved to Arizona about 20 years ago. In addition (Arlene) Gula; his aunt, Donna Panyrek; and many favorite to his daughter, he is survived by two grandchildren, a great- nieces and nephews, cousins and other extended family. He granddaughter and companion Betty Scott. will be missed by many people who knew and loved him. He Funeral services were held at Holy Cross Church in was retired from Grandville Printing Company, but continued Mesa, Arizona. Donations may be made to the Arizona to work there part time. Joe spent much of his spare time and Humane Society. energy helping people by doing volunteer work including serving at God’s Kitchen and a member of the Pastoral Coun- Dear Amica Bulletin, cil at Holy Name Church. Visitation was at the Holy Name of Jesus Church, 1630 Godfrey SW, in Grand Rapids, where the Earlier I sent you the obituary notice about pianist vigil Service was held. Mass of Christian Burial was Frankie Carle which was in the Ragtime Newsgroups in celebrated at the church, Fr. Donald Weber celebrant. Burial Yahoo, to which I subscribe. With his passing, that ends the was at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Cemetery in Gun Lake. three people whose recordings (and radio performances) Memorial contributions may be given to the charity of choice.

111 both of Florida. Stan Freeman Sent in by Dianne Polan Carl Doll Los Angeles - Pianist, By Zachary R. Dowdy composer, raconteur, pungent Sent in by Dianne Polan wit. The name was Oscar Carl Doll, a retired BOCES teacher and counselor whose Levant. family pioneered the manufacture of player pianos, died Sat- Or was it? The acerbic urday after a brief illness. He was Levant, known for radio’s just shy of his 81st birthday. “Information, Please,” his wry Doll was born in upstate Round books, concerts and motion Top, where his parents had a country pictures, died in 1972. home and farm. While their primary But he was resurrected residence was in the Bronx, the fam- memorably in the late 1980s ily spent summers and weekends at and early ‘90s by the equally Round Top for many years, family multitalented - some critics members said yesterday. thought more talented - Stan Freeman in his one-man show, Doll was a World War II veteran “At Wit’s End.” Freeman, the lauded Levant impersonator, who served as a staff sergeant with concert pianist, composer of two Broadway shows, conductor the Third Army in Europe. After the for Marlene Dietrich and contributor to the television variety war, he attended New York Univer- shows of Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett, died January sity, where he met his future wife, Diane Cinquini. The cou- 13 in his Los Angeles home. He was 80. ple, who married on December 28, 1946, recently celebrated When Freeman took the stage as Levant at Los Angeles’ their 54th wedding anniversary. Coronet Theater in 1989, Los Angeles Times drama critic Dan Doll was a third-generation descendant of Jacob Doll and Sullivan wrote: “Stan Freeman, of the baggy eyes and the Sons, who were pioneers in the manufacture of player pianos. strong piano technique, is just the man to portray him. The family firm, which was in business from 1871 to the Freeman isn’t the grouch that Levant was, but he understands mid-1930s, was “. . . one of the leading factors in the piano the disappointment that lies under so much of Levant’s wit.” industry in the United States,” according to “Men Who Have Freeman’s act, which he personally called “The Oscar Made Piano History,” a book about the industry. Show,” was a collaboration with Levant’s widow, June, writer Many of the Doll pianos are still in existence today, Joel Kimmel and producer Ron Lachman. It played for including one in the Smithsonian Institution. several years in such venues as Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles; Michael’s Pub in New York; Doll made a career change from pianos to education in Charles Playhouse in Boston; and Halsted Theatre Centre in 1970, when he decided to work in Nassau and Suffolk Chicago. Counties BOCES. He worked in that capacity for 17 years before retiring from Western Suffolk BOCES in Dix Hills. Nervous about the acting requirements of “At Wit’s End,” Freeman told the Los Angeles Times in 1993 that the program He was an avid reader, loved to travel with his wife and nevertheless had become “the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever friends and adored the environment, spending much of his attempted.” Freeman met the real Levant while playing piano time enjoying the natural resources of New York and beyond. with Paul Whiteman’s Army band during a war-bonds tour in His sense of humor was legendary, as was his ability to World War II. tell the truth. “Oscar was one of the celebrities with us. He played “If you asked his advice he would tell the truth in the “Rhapsody in Blue” every night,” Freeman said in 1992. most compassionate and loving way, even if the answer More balanced in temperament than Levant, Freeman may wasn’t the one you wanted to hear,” said his daughter-in-law have shared the better-known entertainer’s frustration over Toni Doll. His wife has been getting cards and calls relating scattered talents. stories of how he touched many lives and made a real differ- Although he performed with symphony orchestras in New ence on many occasions. York and other cities, Freeman said he often regretted Doll is survived by his wife, Diane, two sons, Henry of diverting his talents into so many entertainment fields instead Port Jefferson and Paul of Silver Spring, Maryland; and a of focusing solely on piano concerts. daughter, Lisa Doll Bruno of Bethpage. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Freeman studied Also surviving are daughters-in-law Toni Doll of Port Jef- classical piano and composing at the Hart School of Music in ferson and Jill Doll of Silver Spring, Maryland, and son-in- Hartford, Connecticut. After serving in the Army during the law Daniel Bruno of Bethpage. He is also survived by four war, he joined Tex Beneke’s jazz band in 1946. He made his grandchildren. Viewing and a memorial service took place at classical piano debut at Carnegie Hall in 1947. Dalton’s Funeral Home in Hicksville. Through the late 1940s and the ‘50s, Freeman performed nightclub shows. He also played piano and joked on radio shows and on early TV variety shows. Freeman is survived by two brothers, Marvin and Fred,

112 Paderewski Says: UThe only objection I have to the "Mignon" is founded exclusively on its name. as the latter is not in keeping either with its powerful effect or its enormous importance." And Arthur Nikisch, the world-famous conductor, states regarding the marvelous work of this creation of genius that­ "The reproduction of any composition played for this device by an artist is in all respects so amazingly true to the original both as to merely technical perfection and in regard to the musically poetical element that it really creates the delusion of having the artist personally before us and of listening to his own playing." To you who listen to the musical fascinations of the great Paderewski we extend an invitation to visit our warerooms on Monday, Wednesday or Friday afternoons of the week be­ ginning Nov. 11, 1907, after 2:00 o'clock. In the quiet of our recital chamber you may close your eyes and listen again to the actual playing of Paderewski exactly as he plays on the platform in the orchestra concerts. The Welte-Mignon is the most marvelous and in~enious musical instrument the world has known. It is a plano of beautiful tone quality and power enclosed in a cabinet which also contains a wonderful reproducing device by means of which the piano playing of Paderewski, D'Albert, Carreno, Hambourg, Nikisch, Grieg, Strauss. Hofman, De Pachmann, and seventy other world-famous musicians is given exactly as these artists performed in the Welte studios in Leipsig. No words can describe the marvelous work of this instru­ ment. It must be heard to be understood. And to an early hearing you are cordially invited. The Welte-Mignon is not sold for use 111 any public place. PRICE, $1,500. The S. Hamilton Co. HAMILTON HALL, S31~533 WOOD ST., PITTSBURGH. MASON &. HAMLIN PIANOS 5

113 FOR SALE ADVERTISING AMPICO ROLLS for sale. Over 200 classical and popular GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT originals and recuts in top condition. For list and prices by email ALL ADVERTISING IN THE AMICA BULLETIN or fax, contact [email protected] or telephone 1-415-398-4898. (3-01) All advertising should be directed to: Robin Pratt RARE CARLTON A roll phono / see Bowers guidebook page 77, 630 East Monroe Street CHICKERING Ampico A upright. 4 SEEBURG E pianos, See- Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708 burg G parts, pump, spool frame, pipes and misc. ROOS DUTCH Phone (419) 626-1903 ORGAN. J. Pohlpeter, 503-656-9757. (2-01) e-mail: [email protected] WURLITZER 125 Military Band Organ, trailer, generator, many Ad copy must contain text directly related to the product/service 125 rolls. Rally ready package or separate. Retired owner, delivery being offered. Extraneous text will be deleted at the Publisher’s possible from Iowa. Bob Brandel, 319-583-7537 or e-mail discretion. All advertising must be accompanied by payment in [email protected] (2-01) U.S. funds. No telephone ads or written ads without payment will be accepted. This policy was established by a unanimous vote of PIANOLA 65 note Piano Player, circa 1903-07, restored. 45+ rolls the AMICA Board at the 1991 Board Meeting and reaffirmed at (pin end), $1100. Photo on request. John 503-297-9684. (2-01) the 1992 meeting. AMICA reserves the right to edit or to 1927 SOHMER 6’ Welte-Mignon, Spanish Renaissance art deco reject any ad deemed inappropriate or not in keeping with case in suntone walnut and wrought iron accents, from Jean AMICA’s objectives. Harlow’s Home. (See its twin on Roehl pg. 73 in Tom Mix’s The BULLETIN accepts advertising without endorsement, home.) Original finish, mech. Restored. Photos on request. implied or otherwise, of the products or services being offered. John 503-297-9684. (2-01) Publication of business advertising in no way implies AMICA’s 1918 KNABE Ampico Upright, top of the line American Piano endorsement of any commercial operation. Company upright in semi-mission/arts and crafts mahogany case, AMICA PUBLICATIONS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO large full tone like a six foot grand, unrestored, good condition, the ACCEPT, REJECT, OR EDIT ANY AND ALL SUBMIT- Rarest of the Ampico uprights! Asking $1375. Piano located in TED ARTICLES AND ADVERTISING. northeastern Ohio with easy access for moving. Mike Kukral, 812-238-9656. (2-01) All items for publication must be submitted directly to the Will trade 1995 London Convention piano roll for Sacramento Publisher for consideration. 2000 roll and table favor. Ken Hodge, 42846 Cinema Ave., CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: $.20 per word, $5.00 minimum Lancaster, CA 93534; 661-945-4702. (2-01) for AMICA members. Non-members may advertise double the MUST SELL!!! Personal Collection of AMICA Honorary member rates ($10.00 minimum). Because of the low cost of Emmett Ford — 1921 J. & C. Fischer Ampico Grand, restored, advertising, we are unable to provide proof copies or “tear sheets”. includes bench and 15 rolls - $8,500.; 1922 George Steck DISPLAY ADVERTISING Duo-Art, restored, includes bench and 15 rolls - $8,500. Full Page — 71/2 " x 10" ...... $150.00 Contact Emmett Ford - (316) 683-2508 (2-01) 1 3 Half Page — 7 /2 " x 4 /4" ...... $ 80.00 MASON & HAMLIN, Red Welte upright. Exceptionally clean, 5 3 Quarter Page —3 /8 " x 4 /4" ...... $ 45.00 operating original. Matching bench and 140-roll library - $7900.00. 1 Business Card — 3 /2 " x 2" ...... $ 30.00 Paul Ciancia, 437 Sicomac Ave., Wyckoff, NJ 07481; days: Non-member rates are double for all advertising. 201-569-8255, eves: 201-891-6842. (3-01) Special 6 for 5 Ad Offer - Place any ad, with no changes, for a 1922 KNABE Ampico A Grand Reproducer. Excellent unrestored full year (6 issues), and pay for only 5 issues. Payable in advance. condition. $4450 including 36 rolls. Reproducer mechanism not Photographs or halftones $15.00 each operating, but has not been tampered with. Ivories, piano action, Loose Sheet or Insert Advertising: Inquire soundboard, bridges excellent. Mahogany cabinet 5’6”, is checked We recommend that display advertisers supply camera-ready but free from gouges which would show as flaws when refinished. copy. Copy that is oversized or undersized will be changed to In family since new. Serial No. 92991. Phone: 858-518-4394 and correct size at your cost. We can prepare advertisements from 858-279-8155 San Diego, CA (2-01) your suggested layout at cost. Beautiful 5’8” 1919 CHICKERING AMPICO #130428, piano PAYMENT: U.S. funds must accompany ad order. Make check completely rebuilt approx. 20 years ago. New strings and new payable to AMICA INTERNATIONAL. Typesetting and hammers. Exquisite hand-rubbed lacquer finish on case has been layout size alterations charges will be billed. returned to the original brown mahogany color. This Stoddard DEADLINES: Submissions must be received no later than the Ampico is the “universal” Ampico: it plays all Ampico rolls first of the odd months (January, March, May, July, September, beautifully with ease from the earliest Stoddard rolls to the late ‘B’ November). The Bulletin will be mailed the first week of the rolls. Includes matching bench and thirty-five Ampico rolls. Asking even months. (Rev. 6-98) $15,000. David Wallis 708-366-3103 (Chicago area). (2-01) NEW PIANO ROLL BOXES - Large and Small available. Small boxes (2 x 2) are covered with White Litho (bottom), and either Black Leather or Brown Leather paper (top). Large boxes (3 x 3) are covered with Black Leather paper (bottom), and Black Alligator “ Ninety percent of the work done paper (top). Prices are: $1.20 each (small), $2.50 each (large), plus shipping. A 20% discount will be given for orders over $100. in this country is done by Many other repair supplies available (leaders, tabs, tubes, flanges, people who don’t feel well.” repair tape). New QRS Rolls 20% off catalog price on orders over $100, 5% on orders less than $100. Refurbished 88-note rolls (new leader, tab, labels and box), $6.00 each. Hundreds of used rolls starting at $3.00 each (guaranteed playable). California Player Roll Teddy Roosevelt Co., www.calroll.com, (760) 244-ROLL (7655) (6-01) AMPICO B stack for 5’8” Mason & Hamlin $1,000 / offers considered. Mel Septon (847) 679-3455. (2-01) 114 AMPICO, DUO-ART & WELTE Rolls, great selection of popular, classical and medleys. Also, 88-Note Piano Rolls, hundreds of used rolls, - $3.00 each plus shipping. Also New Old Stock QRS Rolls, $5.00 each. Will furnish lists on request. Dave Caldwell, 400 Lincoln Lake Road NE, Lowell, Michigan 49331; John Wrasse (616) 897-5609 (6-01) WELTE-MIGNON RECUTS!!! 32 titles in our current catalog. Piano Moving THRILLING CLASSICAL and HOT LATE POPULAR selections! Rolls are limited in quantity so order now! Robin Pratt, Specializing in: [email protected], ARTISTS’ CHOICE MUSIC ROLLS, Player Grands, Nickelodeons, & Orchestrions 419-626-1903, http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/pratt.htm Anywhere in Continental US & Canada CD’s and Tapes of the San Francisco Starlight Orchestra. Recordings available are: Charleston Is The Best Dance (tape ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ only), Doin The Raccoon (tape and CD), Cheerful Little Earful 25 years experience (tape and CD), Rose Colored Glasses (CD only). CD’s are $18 each, tapes are $12 each which includes shipping and handling. Knowledgeable Rebuilder and Collector Payment is by personal check or money order - no credit card sales. Well-known ¥ References Available Orders/Inquiries: San Francisco Starlight Orchestra (SFSO), c/o Jim Brennan, 442 Skylark Street, Windsor, CA 95492; Insured phone 707-973-6107 (2-01) ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ 1923 CHICKERING 5’8” Grand Ampico; 1921 HAINES 5’4” Your instrument is wrapped, padded and Grand; 1913 JACOB DOLL Welte Upright; 1911 STEINWAY secured for transport in an insulated and 65/88 Upright. All refinished and restored. 1921 CHICKERING 5’8” Grand and 1923 WEBER 5’8” Grand Duo-Art walnut clean custom-built heavy-duty trailer. unrestored. Ashley J. Benson, 217 Madora Lane, Powell, TN Professional and personal service. 37849; phone 865-947-0481. (2-01-G) WANTED John P.Wrasse AMPICO, DUO-ART, WELTE, RECORDO rolls wanted. I’ll Phone: 319-872-3495 - Cell: 630-542-4298 buy small or large collections. Now is the time to clean out E-mail: [email protected] duplicates and unwanted tunes! Contact: Dave Caldwell, 31449 216th St., Bellevue, IA 52031 400 Lincoln Lake Rd. Lowell, MI 49331, phone: 1-616-897-5609, (6-01) email: [email protected] (1-02) WURLITZER Model A harp, Ramey repro. Banjo. J. Pohlpeter, 503-656-9757. (2-01) All kinds of disc & cylinder music boxes and rare ones as well. Orchestrions of German origin. Organs of German origin. Related instruments. Small to medium collections welcome. Offers to: H.P. Kyburz, Jubilaumsweg 10, CH-5036 Oberentfelden/Switzerland. (6-01) We buy all types of standard pianos - “concert grand to miniature grand” - we sell wholesale to the trade. We exchange pianos for A pneumatic restoration service for reproducing what you are looking for! Jay Mart Wholesale, “The Piano Store pianos, nickelodeons and player pianos. Factory for Piano Stores”, 800-411-2363; 216-382-7600. (4-01) new restoration techniques will insure many years Lively ethnic rolls, particularly Arabic and Yiddish. Also need rolls for harmonica, and Recordo rolls, any condition. For personal of trouble free operation. UPS shipping cartons collection, not for resale at mart. [email protected] furnished for any style action. Phone 617-864-0808. (2-01-G) 464 Dugan Rd. • Richfield Springs, NY 13439

315-858-2164 (6-01) Magic Melodies 360 LAWLESS ROAD - JAMESTOWN, KY 42629 Reproducing and 88 Note Rolls Program Rolls Collectibles AUCTIONS AND FIXED PRICE SALES! ALL ROLLS IN PERFECT PLAYING CONDITION WITH GOOD BOXES For Periodic Lists Write or Call Tel. 270-343-2061 Laura Shelby (5-01)

115 FOR SALE - TWO E.XQUISITE PIANOS

Weber upright Themodist-Metrostyle 65-note ~ foot-pumper in an incredible Sheraton-style inlaid _ case which has to be seen to be believed. Serial number 62012; dates from 1908. Restored some time ago including hammers and dampers, origi­ nal pins (tight) and strings, original ivories are perfect. Could use new bass strings, needs veneer repair at bottom, case finish is near perfect, but looks "tired;" could use a top coat or French pol­ ishing. For most of its life this piano sat in a Sheraton-style dining room and was never played, thus ex<;;ept for the bottom veneer and the pneu­ matic restoration, the condition is nearly perfect original. With non-matching slant top bench. In­ cludes a library of 173 65-note rolls collected over 25 years, primarily popular, dozens of ragtime, musical shows, and operatic fantasies including a mind-blowing Barber of Seville. If music of this period and/or ornate pianos are important to you, this piano and its roll library is "must-have." $10,000

"'- -,-'"' Kranich and Bach 5' 4" single-leg Queen Anne ma­ hogany case Welte Licensee with matching bench, Serial number 70514; dates from 1929. Restored some time ago with new pins, strings, hammers, dampers, lacquer finish, original ivories with a few small cracks on front edges. Matching bench needs new fabric top. Reproduces magnificently. Offered together with a roll library painstakingly collected over 35 years of 419 rolls, 85% classical. It would be difficult or impossible to assemble these rolls today and, if done, would be very expensive. You would be the fourth owner ofthis piano. $20,000

Additional larger close-up color photos available on request or visit at a mutually agreeable time to inspect andplay these instruments.

Bill Edgerton, P. O. Box 88, Darien, CT 06820 ,~-­ Tel: 203-655-0566 Fax: 203-655-8066 '\! -./ Email: [email protected]

116 Meliora Music Rolls NOTICE TO AEOLIAN-HAMMOND Is now pleased to announce its offering of rare ORGAN OWNERS!!! Welte Licensee We are offering two sets of Aeolian-Hammond Organ rolls. Set #1 is 35 rolls representing a mix of the better music. classical rolls in addition to its regular catalog Set #2 of 55 rolls will augment Set #1 making a nice library of original and recut 88-Note and Duo-Art rolls. of great music for those desiring a larger variety of music. Rolls are recut on high-quality paper with quality boxes Reproducing rolls are chosen for recut and labels. Sets may be ordered separately or as one. Rolls on the basis of musicality, expressiveness will have labels, but will not have printed on your instrument and rarity. expression or stop information on them. Set #1 35 rolls @ $1085 Set #2 55 rolls @ $1705 Call, write or e-mail for our list of titles: Terms: 1/2 down when reserving your set(s). Meliora Music Rolls Balance and shipping ($1.50 per roll) due when paper, 939 Briarcliff Road, NE boxes, flanges and cores arrive. Shipping is anticipated in several months. Atlanta, GA 30306-4664 Selections are subjected to minor changes. (404) 377-1220 Orders, selection list or questions: e-mail: [email protected] Dick Hack HACK MECHANICAL MUSIC Please visit our web page at: 2051 Chesapeake Road • Annapolis, MD http://members.aol.com/meliorarol 410-757-2965 • [email protected] (2-01)

WANTED!!! AMICA BROCHURES Can You Help??? (Free) and Looking to buy in orginal and unrestored condition BROCHURE HOLDERS an Aeolian Company built ($3.00 each Post Paid) THEMODIST-METROSTYLE Order from: ROBIN PRATT Pianola pedal player piano 630 East Monroe Street Sandusky, Ohio 44870-3708 Please call Carl Guhlow Phone: 419-626-1903 1-909-677-7007 e-mail: [email protected] (3-01-G)

117 Pacific CAN-AM Chapter invites AMICAns to its

Sept. 1-2, 2001 (Labor Day Weekend) in scenic Ocean Shores, Washington

Join us at the Ocean Shores Convention Center for a weekend of American and European fair organs, street organs, a steam calliope, and a host of other mechanical musical instruments. Enjoy the large organs outside, then go indoors to the exhibit and demonstration rooms. Registration fee includes a mart, banquet, two box lunches, open house, door prizes, and discount coupons from local businesses. Located on the Pacific Ocean, midway between Seattle and Portland, our rally site is only minutes from beautiful sandy beaches. Galleries, shops, good restuarants, and recreational activities abound, all within easy walking distance of the rally. The host hotel, Linde's Landing, is offering special rates.

Information: Norm or Sally Gibson, 125 Taholah St. SE, Ocean Shores, WA 98569-9549 E-mail: [email protected]

WANTED TO BUY ~IUSIC BOXES NIUSICAL CLOCKS MEUIIJ1NICAL ORGANS Always in the market for better quality disc and cylinder music boxes, musical clocks, singing birds, band organs, player organs, monkey organs, Wurlitzer 78 rpm jukeboxes, slot machines. Any condition. MARTIN ROENIGK 75 Prospect Avenue Eureka Springs, AR 72632 (800) 671-6333 • (501) 253-0405 www.mechantiques.com·[email protected] (6-02)

118 AMICA ITEMS FOR SALE

Get the Whole Story ! Shipped Immediately ! In Stock Now The AMICA Bulletin remains the single source of complete information about the technical and social aspects of our hobby. No home library would be complete without a FULL SET of the AMICA Bulletins, bound into sets by year. In addition, technical articles published in the bulletin have been extracted and published as invaluable reference volumes. More than 30 years of knowledge, discovery and revelation can be found in the TECHNICALITIES, a complete set of which takes less than 30 inches of shelf space! ORDER TODAY! In stock for immediate shipping via United Parcel Service or US Mail. AMICA Technicalities The AMICA Bulletin Since 1969, AMICA has been publishing into bound vol- umes, collections of technical articles written and con- 1971 through 1999 bound annuals tributed by its members for publication in The AMICA Bulletin. They may be purchased as follows: of the AMICA Bulletins Vol 1 - 1969 to 1971 ...... $10.00 $24.00 (U.S. Dollars) per year postage paid Vol 2 - 1972 to 1974 ...... 8.00 Vol 3 - 1975 to 1977 ...... 9.00 Make checks payable to: AMICA International Vol 4 - 1978 to 1980 ...... 7.00 Send Orders to: Stuart Grigg Vol 5 - 1981 to 1988 ...... 20.00 Vol 6 - 1989 to 1993 ...... 20.00 Grigg Graphic Services, Inc. Postage Paid 20982 Bridge Street Please note: Supplies of the earlier volumes may be Southfield, MI 48034 temporarily unavailable as stock is depleted. Fax: (248) 356-5636 Overseas orders may take longer than domestic shipments. e-mail: [email protected]

Attention Chapters!

AMICA AMICA Brochure Holders STATIONERY are now available and for $3.00 each. ENVELOPES They are clear plastic This is a reduced with AMICA Logo imprinted sample of the small letterheads on a gold label. which can be purchased. Included will be as many AMICA New Member Info Brochures as you wish at no charge. Make checks payable to AMICA International. AMICA STATIONERY & ENVELOPES For Quantities and Pricing contact: Order from: Stuart Grigg Grigg Graphic Services, Inc. Robin Pratt 20982 Bridge Street AMICA Publications Southfield, MI 48034 630 East Monroe Street Fax: (248) 356-5636 Sandusky, OH 44870-3708 e-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

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

A. Brown on buff B. Black on ivory C. Black on ivory D. Black on ivory (For early red label boxes) (Area for reusable (Most common) (Very late rolls by combined artist photo) Aeolian!American)

Note: Early Welte's with blue leaders may be repaired with this brown leader. Many of these when reissued had brown leaders.

E. Green on ivory F. Green on ivory G. Welte (Most common) (Favorite Fifty & Brown on buff Selected Roll Service) (Most common)

Please make checks payable to Checks or money Price: $ 1.00 each Style Quantity AMICA INTERNATIONAL, orders from for­ Minimum Order: $10.00 A And send to: eign countries B must be drawn C BRIAN K. MEEDER on U.S. bank. D 904A West Victoria Street Postage and Handling $ 5.50 ------:'/--~. Santa Barbara, CA 93101-4745 E v/ Roll Order $ _ F ------'/ e-mail address for orders: G [email protected] Total Amount (US. $) $ _ Total Quantity _

120