Man that right-hand run from 2:39 to 2:41 is an Art Tatum run if I ever heard one! It is known that Art Tatum was heavily influenced by Lee Sims, however until now I had not heard a single Lee Sims run which was similar to an Art Tatum run; this is practically note-for-note identical to one of his famous runs! THANKS!!!
@@SuperNinjaFat Not to burst your bubble, but the lower note on later (1920s) piano rolls (extended to most of the high and low notes on later piano rolls), playing at the very end of the piece, is to trigger the automatic reroll on pianos so equipped.
It would be wonderful if some clever person could transcribe these rolls back into notation form so today's Pianists can have a crack at playing them, keep the flame burning.
Thanks very much for this - the only video of this song that is played in it's original form with both verses and chorus; a great find after trawling through all the tedious frantic manic finger-rapes of the song.
You may also like the Pete Wendling version on QRS rolls; that's my personal favorite version of the song and also includes both verses and several choruses: ruclips.net/video/7wjscvS14fA/видео.html
Thanks for the email. Although I, and a lot of other people on RUclips find Lee Sims to be a really wonderful artist, I do not know much about him. Wiki says Art Tatum was very influenced by him. If you read the emails in my various videos of Sims' rolls, you will see his fan club is alive and well.
Please add Lee Sims and piano roll and US Music to the tags for this roll so I can find it more easily. I tried finding it with a basic RUclips search for "Sweet Georgia Brown" "Lee Sims" and did not find it! It took some digging to find this again! Great roll, thanks for the post! I am going to try to send a link to this video to Dick Hyman, because I think it this roll is historically important and he should take a look at it!
What you are are hearing, and seeing, is the original US Music Co. Piano Roll from 1925. The roll has been very popular since then, and in the 70's or so someone added synthetic Ampico expression coding. While it is true that Lee Sims made a few rolls for Ampico in the 20's, this was not one of them.
Cool! I did not know that! Thanks! I know at least one Ampico roll was adapted for coin piano rolls, so I had thought there might be a connection with a company such as U.S.
Are you sure about that? When I worked at a piano shop for 6 months in 2007 and organized their entire roll collection (accumulated from buying lots all over the country), out of the 12,000 rolls the most common one we had was the Irish song "Macushla" on QRS Autograph Bluebird Ballad (word roll); I recall we had anywhere from 6 to over a dozen copies of this exact one. Other contenders included the ballad "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, and of course "The Rosary" by Ethelbert Nevin, among several others. Of course WWI songs were really popular, and classical music. There were many pop tunes popular, but we only had a couple rolls of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and I think they were on different labels. Perhaps you mean the recut of it... that might be right, although I would think "The Entertainer" has topped it by now.
I get the talent of Sims.I get the talent of Wendling. Wendling was born (IMHO) to make piano rolls in the teens and early 20s. Sims started playing chords in the later 20's, that were not played in the early 20's. Music evolved. I'm old enough (My grandparents were b. in 1896 1901) Who had a player in the 20's.. I wish I woulda/coulda/shoulda asked them, and may others .."Why did you buy certain roll companies?" Did they buy them for the 'artist'? Roll Company? Price? Just songs they liked? AND WHY DOES IT SEEM ... EVERYONE BOUGHT "THE PRISONERS SONG"!!!!!! LOL
LOL you bring up some interesting points. I'd like to see a list and histories of what must have been dozens of roll companies. Maybe some were primarily mail order though music stores were a huge business in those days.. And of course you are right, the Victor Orthophonic 78 of "Prisoner's Son": by Vernon Dalhart was immensely popular.
@@1276epr and Paul Gronemeier, you are in luck, I have been working on a website (not up / completed yet) transcribing the monthly roll listings in the Music Trade Review magazine from November 1911 to sometime in 1930 or whenever they quit printing the roll bulletins (I haven't gotten there yet). In addition to this, I've been taking as much info from original roll catalogs, bulletins and of course the rolls themselves, as possible. There were about two dozen main roll makers who produced the majority of the rolls in the USA. The other smaller companies, and their rolls, were very rare. Not all rolls were handplayed, especially in the early days (pre 1912), most rolls were arranged on the drawing board, and after about 1915-1917, so were most 'hand played' rolls, although most at least up thru 1929 were based on something someone actually played, like this one. Notice it is mathematically quantized, unlike Mr. Sims' actual playing on records (precise though it was). However, the arranger of the roll master (possibly Robert Billings, Mae Brown, Horace Prell, or another U. S. staffer) got the content and voicings of Mr. Sims' performance on the recording piano, just adjusted to fit their stepping grid. This was done by other makers as well (QRS, Imperial, Connorized, etc). Here's a synopsis of old-time, pre-Depression-era, USA roll companies: --- major and middling: Aeolian Co. (one of the biggest makers; made 20-note, 46-note, 58-note, 116-note reed and pipe organ rolls ("Celestina", "Aeolian Grand" , "Aeolian Orchestrelle", "Duo-Art Organ"); 176-note pipe organ rolls, 65-note and 88-note piano rolls : "Aeriol piano", "Mel-O-Dee", "Metro-Art", "Themodist-Metrostyle"; "Uni-Record", "Universal"; Duo-Art reproducing piano rolls) American Piano Co (made "APC", "Rythmodik", and "Solostyle" 88-note rolls; "Ampico" reproducing piano rolls, most still fairly common; and also a few very scarce "Soloelle" expression rolls) Atlas (88-note rolls; turn up regularly but not super often) Bennett & White (88-note rolls; "Artempo" and probably others; still fairly common despite the company going out of business in 1921 after a fire) Billings Roll Co. (88-note rolls; "Play-Rite" and "Staffnote" brands; some common, some quite rare; company later sold to the Roesler-Hunholz organ company who ran it a little while before folding) Clark Orchestra Roll Co (the main US maker of coin piano and orchestrion rolls such as A-rolls, G-rolls, H-rolls, M-rolls and O-rolls, but a few of their formats / types are exceedingly rare / near extinct, such as Empress L, Engelhardt Banjorchestra, Nelson-Wiggen Selector Duplex, etc; also made Apollo-X expression piano rolls which are rare, and various types of player pipe organ rolls that are extremely rare) Columbia Music Roll Co. (later became, in 1924, the Capitol Roll & Record Co); 88-note "Columbia" and "Capitol" word rolls still turn up, including on labels "American", "Cecile", "Red Star", "Starck", "Sterling", and "Syncronized"; instrumental 88-note rolls rare, and foreign 88-note rolls nearly extinct. Also made A- C-, G-, and O-roll coin op formats, plus OS/NOS and Unified Reproduco organ rolls. The latter format, plus C rolls, are each extremely rare today, the others more or less turn up. Late Capitol 88-note word rolls in the 5000-6000s extremely rare. Connorized Co. (65-note, 88-note; also made "Farrand Cecilian", "Dominant", and "Italianstyle" rolls) Filmusic Co (88-note rolls for accompanying motion pictures on the American Fotoplayer; also made "POP" song rolls) The Herbert Co. (later became the Rose Valley Co; made "Ideal" and "Mono-Roll"; the earlier Herbert 88-note and maybe 65-note rolls are pretty rare today; the later Rose Valley "Ideal" rolls are quite common) Imperial Music Roll Co. (made 88-note which are common- after 1921, QRS-made 88-note which are very common; also made "Imperial Automatic Electric" expression rolls which are rare, and "Solo Carola" expression rolls which are exceedingly rare; some Imperial rolls are also seen with other labels like "Symphony" and "Waltham") International Co. (mostly 88-note; late rolls have expression coding) Pianostyle Co. (also made "Majestic" rolls; mostly 88-note but made some green-label Recordo-type expression rolls later on) QRS Co (probably the biggest maker, also due to their longevity in the business. 58-note Apollo piano/reed organ now quite rare, 65-note piano, 88-note piano : QRS, Autograph; expression: Autograph Automatic, Apollo Art Echo, and the rare Soloelle. Also made coin piano and orchestrion rolls in the early days, some of which are very rare, others, like Berry-Wood and Electrova formats, are extremely rare) Republic Co. (later became DeLuxe and made Welte-Licensee rolls) Standard Music Roll Co. (made 65-note and 88-note rolls; brands included Standard Electra; Perfection; Arto; Voco; SingA, and Play-A-Roll; and secretly made the Supreme Music Co stable of brands like Globe, early Landay Bros, Regent, Simplex, and Supreme; bankrupt in 1924 and sold out to Atlas) Supertone (a Sears, Roebuck mail-order brand who made none of their own rolls but contracted roll manufacturing to at least six makers: Artempo, Columbia/Capitol, QRS, Republic, Standard, and U. S. Music, who all to my knowledge used their in-house arrangements when cutting Supertone rolls, although with Supertone's catalog numbering scheme) U. S. Music (their 88-note rolls are still common, 65-noters rare, coin piano rolls of at least 9 or 10 different formats VERY rare) (also made "Emblem" and "P-E-P" rolls) Vocalstyle (65-note and 88-note rolls) Wilcox & White Co. (made 20-note Symphonia, 44-note, 58-note player reed organ rolls; 65-note and 88-note piano rolls (Angelus, Melodant-Artistyle, Voltem), and "Artrio-Angelus" reproducing piano rolls; secretly shared most, but not all, masters with Aeolian. Most W & W instruments were marketed to a wealthier clientele than Aeolian) Wurlitzer (some formats like 65-note APP, Pianino, and 125 and 150 band organ reasonably common; other formats / types rare or extremely rare including 88-note Rolla Artis; coin op formats like Autograph Piano, Solo Violin Piano etc; certain band organ and pipe organ rolls) ------------------- minor (still absolutely worth collecting, just very rare): Adek Mfg. Co. / Automaton Piano Co (made rolls for the "Pianotist" mechanical action player piano retrofit system,AKA the "Nickelin" player; exceedingly rare rare today due to attrition and the method of playing) Altoona Co. (made Excello", "Superba" and a few other brands of 88-note rolls; very rare today) Artizan (made very rare band organ and calliope rolls; I've never seen an Artizan piano roll and likely none were made) Automatic Musical Co. / Link Piano & Organ Co. (made coin piano and orchestrion, and player pipe organ, rolls. I've never seen or heard of a home 88-note roll from this firm, although recuts have been made in the 1960s and beyond transcribing Link coin-op arrangements to 88-note format; the early Automatic Musical Co rolls are exceedingly rare today; the later Link rolls are fairly rare but do turn up occasionally) B. A. B. Organ Co (generally, band organ rolls; rare; some cylinders were pinned, and cardboard book music made, for various earlier organs, pianos and orchestrions; they may have arranged orchestrion rolls but I've never seen or heard of one) Bacigalupi, Louis/Luigi (made band organ rolls, including scales of his own devising to for roll players to be retrofitted to imported European organs; rolls and players nearly extinct) Globe Co. (Philadelphia; not to be confused with the Standard-made "Globe" rolls; are 88-note) Gulbransen Co (their instruction rolls are still fairly common, in various editions, at least 4 or 5 versions; their 88-note rolls of music are getting quite rare; some arrangements were bought/licensed from Bennett & White / Artempo, who when out of business in 1921; all Gulbransen rolls I've seen date to 1926-1928) Harmony (a Montgomery, Ward brand; all the few I've seen were made by Imperial) I-X-L (88-note rolls; extremely rare today) Kibbey (made Klean-Kut and Artistplayd [sic] 88-note rolls, both extremely rare; also, incredibly, made just about every single type of coin piano and orchestrion roll including Peerless and Wurlitzer types, also extremely rare and near extinct today) Kimball (a very major piano and organ maker, but their rolls are rare today) National Automatic Music Co, Grand Rapids, MI (made "National" roll-changing piano coin op rolls- now very rare due to attrition; also made a few "8-T-8" home player rolls that are extremely rare today) National Music Roll Co., St. Johnsville, NY (made 66-note "Harmonist"- nearly extinct - and 88-note "Master Record" and "Auto Inscribed" home player rolls - quite rare; and also made about 6 different types of "Peerless" coin piano roll for all the different styles of "Peerless" coin pianos and orchestrions - very rare rolls to find today) Niagara (rolls quite rare; mostly 65-note although a few nearly extinct Niagara coin piano and band organ rolls exist) North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works / Rand (great arrangements, very rare rolls; made several styles of coin piano, orchestrion and band organ rolls; believed to have quit making rolls around 1923) Regina Co. (made rolls for the "Regina Sublima" mechanical action coin piano; quite rare today due to attrition and the method of playing) Starr (88-note; the arranged rolls turn up infrequently; the hand-played rolls are extremely rare) Welte Co. (the Poughkeepsie-NY-made Welte Original reproducing piano and organ rolls are extremely rare today, much rarer than the Welte-Licensee rolls made by DeLuxe which turn up fairly often)
"The Prisoner's Song" played by Harry Snodgrass on QRS, is an example of the public sentiment of the day; Snodgrass was a convict who miraculously won a recording contract... he would reportedly be taken in chains and shackles from his cell to a broadcasting studio set up adjacent to the prison, where he performed solo piano on the radio c. 1925. He was so popular he got fan letters from all around the country, so when he made a few rolls for QRS, at least that one sold pretty well. He also made solo piano 78s for Brunswick that are fairly rare today. Not a *great* piano player but he was OK, and the 'prisoner' angle, for some reason, made him very popular for a while.
@Lowdenjim And thank you very much for your comment which is as important to me as seeing the original version of this song means to you. I have several other "original" lyrics on RUclips you might like, such as "Puttin On The Ritz" by Irving Berlin and "Let's Do It" by Cole Porter
I don't get how people get "prostitute" from the lyrics of this song. Sure the lady described in the lyrics is black, very attractive, and popular with the guys (and probably 'got around' like certain men and women did back then... and today), but I don't see anything about her being a paid professional in these lyrics. Maybe they were confused by the line about the porters slipping the tips... but they're to buy clothes.
I have a few questions about the player action: 1. What type of action is this? (Is it a Metrostyle Themodist action byany chance?) 2. What do the extra row of holes do? I would greatly appreciate the information, it would clear up a lot of fog.
Hi Pitor, this ia the YT channel of the late Mr Randolph Herr of New York, who is deceased. This was his 65/88-note Aeolian Pianola push-up piano player, pushed up to the keyboard of one of his Steinway grands. I wish he'd tuned the piano better. All of this was sold when he passed away. I don't know who now owns this push-up. The extra row of tracker bar holes is so it can play 65-note piano rolls in addition to 88-note rolls, a rare feature.
@@andrewbarrett1537 Thanks Andrew :) Since I wrote that comment three years ago I ended up finding answers to those questions bit by bit so it's ironic that 3 years later you end up doing it again xD
I was wondering if the piano rolls I have acquired are common. ?They say Cecilian on the box ends. Also, Farrand Organ Company. Or maybe you could point me in the right direction to find this information?
These rolls are rather rare today. I have a piano that plays these rolls. I'm guessing they have pin ends and are longer and wider than a standard piano roll, somewhere between 12" and 13" wide, right? These were used on the once-common Farrand Cecilian 65-note push-up piano player, the rare (few produced) Cecilian Inner-Player 65-note player piano which is what I have (most Cecilians extant are of the 1908-later 88-note variety), and also the Farrand player reed organ... I think it was called the "Olympia" but I might be wrong about that name... that is an exceedingly rare instrument. I'm interested if you haven't yet found a buyer.
Could you please tell me where you got this information from? It is pretty well known that the song was written by Maceo Pinkard with lyrics from Ken Casey. Pinkard added Ben Bernie's name as co-writer so he would plug the song. I don't think Bernie ever wrote songs, but he was a famous bandleader.
I have been transcribing the various monthly piano roll-release listings of the "Music Trade Review" magazine which from November 1910 thru 1932 or so, included most rolls issued by most USA companies in 88-note and reproducing formats. I have been doing this since 2015 and I hope to put this up on a website eventually to help list out all known rolls and their release dates. Not every MTR listing was 'complete' however... several months for several companies, were incomplete or partial listings, at the discretion of the MTR editor who did not wish to publish ALL listings, since, of course, the roll companies themselves all published their own monthly bulletins they issued for rolls, and yearly roll catalogs. These roll bulletins/flyers and catalogs are VERY rare today and some are not thought to exist any more, despite dozens, hundreds or thousands of copies having originally been distributed to the music stores that sold that particular brand of rolls in the 1910s and 1920s. This dearth of original printed information leads to gaps in our knowledge today, even though in many cases the rolls THEMSELVES may survive, albeit in diminishing numbers. When original roll flyers/bulletins and/or catalogs are sold today (for example on eBay or other internet venues), when properly labeled as to what they are, they can often go in the hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars, such is the demand by the small coterie of roll researchers.
This is the late Randolph Herr playing his rare Aeolian 65/88-note Pianola push-up piano player, pushed up to a Steinway grand piano, I think (though in need of a tuning here).
Since pianist Nathan Bello, of Oregon, did a presentation at Boston University on the music of Lee Sims, and specializes in transcribing piano rolls, if he hasn't done this one already, he could probably do it on commission for you: ruclips.net/channel/UCXC7oIwvJobtawNZyhKHiIw
Skip to 02:33 if you want to hear the chorus that inspired the young Art Tatum on his friend's player piano when he was growing up :)
Man that right-hand run from 2:39 to 2:41 is an Art Tatum run if I ever heard one! It is known that Art Tatum was heavily influenced by Lee Sims, however until now I had not heard a single Lee Sims run which was similar to an Art Tatum run; this is practically note-for-note identical to one of his famous runs! THANKS!!!
That 43131 ate the end was fantastic, made my day XD
and just before that, the lower note was essentially saying "check please..."
@@SuperNinjaFat Not to burst your bubble, but the lower note on later (1920s) piano rolls (extended to most of the high and low notes on later piano rolls), playing at the very end of the piece, is to trigger the automatic reroll on pianos so equipped.
It would be wonderful if some clever person could transcribe these rolls back into notation form so today's Pianists can have a crack at playing them, keep the flame burning.
I'm planning to do it soon!
oh man, i'd appreciate an update when you get that going! i'm very interested@@rowanbelt3612
I could be wrong but wouldn’t this have to be played as a duet? I mean one person probably could do it but gee it ain’t gonna be me
I could do it, a friend scanned the roll and I could turn the midi into sheet music.
@@rowanbelt3612 I have a scan that I should probably do something useful with xD I have a decent process of turning piano rolls into rough scores.
Thanks very much for this - the only video of this song that is played in it's original form with both verses and chorus; a great find after trawling through all the tedious frantic manic finger-rapes of the song.
You may also like the Pete Wendling version on QRS rolls; that's my personal favorite version of the song and also includes both verses and several choruses: ruclips.net/video/7wjscvS14fA/видео.html
@@andrewbarrett1537 That roll is fantastic and was turned into a Wurlitzer CX roll!
Genius Lee Sims arrangement!
I probably show my age and background when I say this makes me think of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Globetrotters -- first thing I thought of too!
Art Tatum once told Lee Sims was an important influence on him.
that piano's dynamite!
Thanks for the email. Although I, and a lot of other people on RUclips find Lee Sims to be a really wonderful artist, I do not know much about him. Wiki says Art Tatum was very influenced by him. If you read the emails in my various videos of Sims' rolls, you will see his fan club is alive and well.
Please add
Lee Sims
and
piano roll
and
US Music
to the tags for this roll so I can find it more easily. I tried finding it with a basic RUclips search for "Sweet Georgia Brown" "Lee Sims" and did not find it! It took some digging to find this again!
Great roll, thanks for the post!
I am going to try to send a link to this video to Dick Hyman, because I think it this roll is historically important and he should take a look at it!
What you are are hearing, and seeing, is the original US Music Co. Piano Roll from 1925. The roll has been very popular since then, and in the 70's or so someone added synthetic Ampico expression coding. While it is true that Lee Sims made a few rolls for Ampico in the 20's, this was not one of them.
Cool! I did not know that! Thanks!
I know at least one Ampico roll was adapted for coin piano rolls, so I had thought there might be a connection with a company such as U.S.
Lee Sims was the man
THE CATS PAJAMAS IS RIGHT....WHAT A GREAT ARRANGEMENT...SIMS IS WONDERFUL ON THIS GREAT CLASSIC. THANK YOU.
More piano rolls (by several artists) have been sold of Sweet Georgia Brown than any roll in history.
Are you sure about that? When I worked at a piano shop for 6 months in 2007 and organized their entire roll collection (accumulated from buying lots all over the country), out of the 12,000 rolls the most common one we had was the Irish song "Macushla" on QRS Autograph Bluebird Ballad (word roll); I recall we had anywhere from 6 to over a dozen copies of this exact one. Other contenders included the ballad "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, and of course "The Rosary" by Ethelbert Nevin, among several others. Of course WWI songs were really popular, and classical music. There were many pop tunes popular, but we only had a couple rolls of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and I think they were on different labels. Perhaps you mean the recut of it... that might be right, although I would think "The Entertainer" has topped it by now.
Player pianos. The aim-bots of piano playing.
Que maravilha !!!!
It seems that 'the cat's pajamas' is slightly more popular than 'the cat's meow' if you google them. Another phrase is "the bee's knees"
It has flipped since then.
I get the talent of Sims.I get the talent of Wendling. Wendling was born (IMHO) to make piano rolls in the teens and early 20s. Sims started playing chords in the later 20's, that were not played in the early 20's. Music evolved.
I'm old enough (My grandparents were b. in 1896 1901) Who had a player in the 20's.. I wish I woulda/coulda/shoulda asked them, and may others .."Why did you buy certain roll companies?" Did they buy them for the 'artist'? Roll Company? Price? Just songs they liked? AND WHY DOES IT SEEM ... EVERYONE BOUGHT "THE PRISONERS SONG"!!!!!! LOL
LOL you bring up some interesting points. I'd like to see a list and histories of what must have been dozens of roll companies. Maybe some were primarily mail order though music stores were a huge business in those days.. And of course you are right, the Victor Orthophonic 78 of "Prisoner's Son": by Vernon Dalhart was immensely popular.
@@1276epr and Paul Gronemeier, you are in luck, I have been working on a website (not up / completed yet) transcribing the monthly roll listings in the Music Trade Review magazine from November 1911 to sometime in 1930 or whenever they quit printing the roll bulletins (I haven't gotten there yet). In addition to this, I've been taking as much info from original roll catalogs, bulletins and of course the rolls themselves, as possible. There were about two dozen main roll makers who produced the majority of the rolls in the USA. The other smaller companies, and their rolls, were very rare.
Not all rolls were handplayed, especially in the early days (pre 1912), most rolls were arranged on the drawing board, and after about 1915-1917, so were most 'hand played' rolls, although most at least up thru 1929 were based on something someone actually played, like this one. Notice it is mathematically quantized, unlike Mr. Sims' actual playing on records (precise though it was). However, the arranger of the roll master (possibly Robert Billings, Mae Brown, Horace Prell, or another U. S. staffer) got the content and voicings of Mr. Sims' performance on the recording piano, just adjusted to fit their stepping grid. This was done by other makers as well (QRS, Imperial, Connorized, etc).
Here's a synopsis of old-time, pre-Depression-era, USA roll companies:
---
major and middling:
Aeolian Co. (one of the biggest makers; made 20-note, 46-note, 58-note, 116-note reed and pipe organ rolls ("Celestina", "Aeolian Grand" , "Aeolian Orchestrelle", "Duo-Art Organ"); 176-note pipe organ rolls,
65-note and 88-note piano rolls : "Aeriol piano", "Mel-O-Dee", "Metro-Art", "Themodist-Metrostyle"; "Uni-Record", "Universal"; Duo-Art reproducing piano rolls)
American Piano Co (made "APC", "Rythmodik", and "Solostyle" 88-note rolls; "Ampico" reproducing piano rolls, most still fairly common; and also a few very scarce "Soloelle" expression rolls)
Atlas (88-note rolls; turn up regularly but not super often)
Bennett & White (88-note rolls; "Artempo" and probably others; still fairly common despite the company going out of business in 1921 after a fire)
Billings Roll Co. (88-note rolls; "Play-Rite" and "Staffnote" brands; some common, some quite rare; company later sold to the Roesler-Hunholz organ company who ran it a little while before folding)
Clark Orchestra Roll Co (the main US maker of coin piano and orchestrion rolls such as A-rolls, G-rolls, H-rolls, M-rolls and O-rolls, but a few of their formats / types are exceedingly rare / near extinct, such as Empress L, Engelhardt Banjorchestra, Nelson-Wiggen Selector Duplex, etc; also made Apollo-X expression piano rolls which are rare, and various types of player pipe organ rolls that are extremely rare)
Columbia Music Roll Co. (later became, in 1924, the Capitol Roll & Record Co); 88-note "Columbia" and "Capitol" word rolls still turn up, including on labels "American", "Cecile", "Red Star", "Starck", "Sterling", and "Syncronized"; instrumental 88-note rolls rare, and foreign 88-note rolls nearly extinct. Also made A- C-, G-, and O-roll coin op formats, plus OS/NOS and Unified Reproduco organ rolls. The latter format, plus C rolls, are each extremely rare today, the others more or less turn up. Late Capitol 88-note word rolls in the 5000-6000s extremely rare.
Connorized Co. (65-note, 88-note; also made "Farrand Cecilian", "Dominant", and "Italianstyle" rolls)
Filmusic Co (88-note rolls for accompanying motion pictures on the American Fotoplayer; also made "POP" song rolls)
The Herbert Co. (later became the Rose Valley Co; made "Ideal" and "Mono-Roll"; the earlier Herbert 88-note and maybe 65-note rolls are pretty rare today; the later Rose Valley "Ideal" rolls are quite common)
Imperial Music Roll Co. (made 88-note which are common- after 1921, QRS-made 88-note which are very common; also made "Imperial Automatic Electric" expression rolls which are rare, and "Solo Carola" expression rolls which are exceedingly rare; some Imperial rolls are also seen with other labels like "Symphony" and "Waltham")
International Co. (mostly 88-note; late rolls have expression coding)
Pianostyle Co. (also made "Majestic" rolls; mostly 88-note but made some green-label Recordo-type expression rolls later on)
QRS Co (probably the biggest maker, also due to their longevity in the business. 58-note Apollo piano/reed organ now quite rare, 65-note piano, 88-note piano : QRS, Autograph;
expression: Autograph Automatic, Apollo Art Echo, and the rare Soloelle. Also made coin piano and orchestrion rolls in the early days, some of which are very rare, others, like Berry-Wood and Electrova formats, are extremely rare)
Republic Co. (later became DeLuxe and made Welte-Licensee rolls)
Standard Music Roll Co. (made 65-note and 88-note rolls; brands included Standard Electra; Perfection; Arto; Voco; SingA, and Play-A-Roll; and secretly made the Supreme Music Co stable of brands like Globe, early Landay Bros, Regent, Simplex, and Supreme; bankrupt in 1924 and sold out to Atlas)
Supertone (a Sears, Roebuck mail-order brand who made none of their own rolls but contracted roll manufacturing to at least six makers: Artempo, Columbia/Capitol, QRS, Republic, Standard, and U. S. Music, who all to my knowledge used their in-house arrangements when cutting Supertone rolls, although with Supertone's catalog numbering scheme)
U. S. Music (their 88-note rolls are still common, 65-noters rare, coin piano rolls of at least 9 or 10 different formats VERY rare) (also made "Emblem" and "P-E-P" rolls)
Vocalstyle (65-note and 88-note rolls)
Wilcox & White Co. (made 20-note Symphonia, 44-note, 58-note player reed organ rolls; 65-note and 88-note piano rolls (Angelus, Melodant-Artistyle, Voltem), and "Artrio-Angelus" reproducing piano rolls; secretly shared most, but not all, masters with Aeolian. Most W & W instruments were marketed to a wealthier clientele than Aeolian)
Wurlitzer (some formats like 65-note APP, Pianino, and 125 and 150 band organ reasonably common; other formats / types rare or extremely rare including 88-note Rolla Artis; coin op formats like Autograph Piano, Solo Violin Piano etc; certain band organ and pipe organ rolls)
-------------------
minor (still absolutely worth collecting, just very rare):
Adek Mfg. Co. / Automaton Piano Co (made rolls for the "Pianotist" mechanical action player piano retrofit system,AKA the "Nickelin" player; exceedingly rare rare today due to attrition and the method of playing)
Altoona Co. (made Excello", "Superba" and a few other brands of 88-note rolls; very rare today)
Artizan (made very rare band organ and calliope rolls; I've never seen an Artizan piano roll and likely none were made)
Automatic Musical Co. / Link Piano & Organ Co. (made coin piano and orchestrion, and player pipe organ, rolls. I've never seen or heard of a home 88-note roll from this firm, although recuts have been made in the 1960s and beyond transcribing Link coin-op arrangements to 88-note format; the early Automatic Musical Co rolls are exceedingly rare today; the later Link rolls are fairly rare but do turn up occasionally)
B. A. B. Organ Co (generally, band organ rolls; rare; some cylinders were pinned, and cardboard book music made, for various earlier organs, pianos and orchestrions; they may have arranged orchestrion rolls but I've never seen or heard of one)
Bacigalupi, Louis/Luigi (made band organ rolls, including scales of his own devising to for roll players to be retrofitted to imported European organs; rolls and players nearly extinct)
Globe Co. (Philadelphia; not to be confused with the Standard-made "Globe" rolls; are 88-note)
Gulbransen Co (their instruction rolls are still fairly common, in various editions, at least 4 or 5 versions; their 88-note rolls of music are getting quite rare; some arrangements were bought/licensed from Bennett & White / Artempo, who when out of business in 1921; all Gulbransen rolls I've seen date to 1926-1928)
Harmony (a Montgomery, Ward brand; all the few I've seen were made by Imperial)
I-X-L (88-note rolls; extremely rare today)
Kibbey (made Klean-Kut and Artistplayd [sic] 88-note rolls, both extremely rare; also, incredibly, made just about every single type of coin piano and orchestrion roll including Peerless and Wurlitzer types, also extremely rare and near extinct today)
Kimball (a very major piano and organ maker, but their rolls are rare today)
National Automatic Music Co, Grand Rapids, MI (made "National" roll-changing piano coin op rolls- now very rare due to attrition; also made a few "8-T-8" home player rolls that are extremely rare today)
National Music Roll Co., St. Johnsville, NY (made 66-note "Harmonist"- nearly extinct - and 88-note "Master Record" and "Auto Inscribed" home player rolls - quite rare; and also made about 6 different types of "Peerless" coin piano roll for all the different styles of "Peerless" coin pianos and orchestrions - very rare rolls to find today)
Niagara (rolls quite rare; mostly 65-note although a few nearly extinct Niagara coin piano and band organ rolls exist)
North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works / Rand (great arrangements, very rare rolls; made several styles of coin piano, orchestrion and band organ rolls; believed to have quit making rolls around 1923)
Regina Co. (made rolls for the "Regina Sublima" mechanical action coin piano; quite rare today due to attrition and the method of playing)
Starr (88-note; the arranged rolls turn up infrequently; the hand-played rolls are extremely rare)
Welte Co. (the Poughkeepsie-NY-made Welte Original reproducing piano and organ rolls are extremely rare today, much rarer than the Welte-Licensee rolls made by DeLuxe which turn up fairly often)
"The Prisoner's Song" played by Harry Snodgrass on QRS, is an example of the public sentiment of the day; Snodgrass was a convict who miraculously won a recording contract... he would reportedly be taken in chains and shackles from his cell to a broadcasting studio set up adjacent to the prison, where he performed solo piano on the radio c. 1925. He was so popular he got fan letters from all around the country, so when he made a few rolls for QRS, at least that one sold pretty well. He also made solo piano 78s for Brunswick that are fairly rare today. Not a *great* piano player but he was OK, and the 'prisoner' angle, for some reason, made him very popular for a while.
@Lowdenjim And thank you very much for your comment which is as important to me as seeing the original version of this song means to you. I have several other "original" lyrics on RUclips you might like, such as "Puttin On The Ritz" by Irving Berlin and "Let's Do It" by Cole Porter
he certainly had a unique style not comparable to most piano roll artists....does anyone know much about him?
"... and Ken Casey, although the white bandleader Ben Bernie..." Casey was white.
I am not aware of sheet music for this performance
I don't get how people get "prostitute" from the lyrics of this song. Sure the lady described in the lyrics is black, very attractive, and popular with the guys (and probably 'got around' like certain men and women did back then... and today), but I don't see anything about her being a paid professional in these lyrics. Maybe they were confused by the line about the porters slipping the tips... but they're to buy clothes.
Exactly this. I can't find any decent source for this supposition; even the University of Nebraska repeats it without giving a source.
I have a few questions about the player action:
1. What type of action is this? (Is it a Metrostyle Themodist action byany chance?)
2. What do the extra row of holes do?
I would greatly appreciate the information, it would clear up a lot of fog.
Hi Pitor, this ia the YT channel of the late Mr Randolph Herr of New York, who is deceased. This was his 65/88-note Aeolian Pianola push-up piano player, pushed up to the keyboard of one of his Steinway grands. I wish he'd tuned the piano better. All of this was sold when he passed away. I don't know who now owns this push-up. The extra row of tracker bar holes is so it can play 65-note piano rolls in addition to 88-note rolls, a rare feature.
@@andrewbarrett1537 Thanks Andrew :) Since I wrote that comment three years ago I ended up finding answers to those questions bit by bit so it's ironic that 3 years later you end up doing it again xD
I was wondering if the piano rolls I have acquired are common. ?They say Cecilian on the box ends. Also, Farrand Organ Company. Or maybe you could point me in the right direction to find this information?
These rolls are rather rare today. I have a piano that plays these rolls. I'm guessing they have pin ends and are longer and wider than a standard piano roll, somewhere between 12" and 13" wide, right? These were used on the once-common Farrand Cecilian 65-note push-up piano player, the rare (few produced) Cecilian Inner-Player 65-note player piano which is what I have (most Cecilians extant are of the 1908-later 88-note variety), and also the Farrand player reed organ... I think it was called the "Olympia" but I might be wrong about that name... that is an exceedingly rare instrument. I'm interested if you haven't yet found a buyer.
Could you please tell me where you got this information from? It is pretty well known that the song was written by Maceo Pinkard with lyrics from Ken Casey. Pinkard added Ben Bernie's name as co-writer so he would plug the song. I don't think Bernie ever wrote songs, but he was a famous bandleader.
PS why's there no expression coding on this Ampico roll?
NOT "Cat's Pajama's"!!! But, "Cat's Meow", and I may be old, but I thought it was still a common slang. -Gosh dern fool.
Sir, how am I able to know what year my vintage piano roll was released in?
You can ask me... I can usually figure out the approximate year of most rolls.
I have been transcribing the various monthly piano roll-release listings of the "Music Trade Review" magazine which from November 1910 thru 1932 or so, included most rolls issued by most USA companies in 88-note and reproducing formats. I have been doing this since 2015 and I hope to put this up on a website eventually to help list out all known rolls and their release dates.
Not every MTR listing was 'complete' however... several months for several companies, were incomplete or partial listings, at the discretion of the MTR editor who did not wish to publish ALL listings, since, of course, the roll companies themselves all published their own monthly bulletins they issued for rolls, and yearly roll catalogs.
These roll bulletins/flyers and catalogs are VERY rare today and some are not thought to exist any more, despite dozens, hundreds or thousands of copies having originally been distributed to the music stores that sold that particular brand of rolls in the 1910s and 1920s.
This dearth of original printed information leads to gaps in our knowledge today, even though in many cases the rolls THEMSELVES may survive, albeit in diminishing numbers. When original roll flyers/bulletins and/or catalogs are sold today (for example on eBay or other internet venues), when properly labeled as to what they are, they can often go in the hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars, such is the demand by the small coterie of roll researchers.
is this a push piano or is the player piano installed inside the piano?
This is the late Randolph Herr playing his rare Aeolian 65/88-note Pianola push-up piano player, pushed up to a Steinway grand piano, I think (though in need of a tuning here).
Is there sheet music for this?
Since pianist Nathan Bello, of Oregon, did a presentation at Boston University on the music of Lee Sims, and specializes in transcribing piano rolls, if he hasn't done this one already, he could probably do it on commission for you: ruclips.net/channel/UCXC7oIwvJobtawNZyhKHiIw