Dear Brian,  Greeting from New England to REAL England!

The diatonic (standard) Rolmonica and the chromatic (later, rarer model)
used roll-film camera spools for the music -- at least in the States.

Demand for the Rolmonica "fell off" about the time that the more
versatile -- and slightly more expensive -- chromatic edition came out, and
many stores here were 'stuck' with unsold rolls.  One sees chromatic
rolls, still sealed in boxes, from an old store's inventory -- here -- from
time to time.  The "Melody Player" -- an orguinette of the mid-1930's
shared the same Rolmonica-style arrangements also, or perhaps the QRS
Play-a-Sax ones, I forget.

These are good sounding but hard to repair, due to a fan-assembly that
was made into the design, not unlike a spring-wound Marx toy of the same
era.

Baltimore, Maryland, was the centre of the Rolmonica activities, which
continued until about 1941 with a late, plastic model that had a "radio
grille" front ... and probably a non-Hohner interior, due to the war
looming in Europe.  Few were sold of these last models, using the
diatonic music rolls.

Easton, Maryland is on the "Eastern Shore" -- still a remote location,
and it's a mystery why ANY type of manufacturing of this sort was done
there.  Perhaps the company was a marketing address, since the
metal-stamping would be more typical of the New York City (Marx -
trade-name) toy industry of the time.  I suspect the cases were farmed
out to NYC, the interior to Germany (probably Hohner) and the rolls
continued to come from Imperial Industrial Co., Max Kortlander's Bronx
QRS factory -- where I worked for the last 3 years of his ownership.

 - - - -

The Theremin Festival in Maine -- so far -- is terrific, but none of the
modern instruments appear to have the "tone" of my old 1930 Aeolian-RCA
model, sadly needing a new transformer to get back into use.  The new
models -- some of which duplicate the old cabinetry -- appear to have a
faster response in dynamics and pitch, but at the expense of tone
quality.  Perhaps this is due to transistors vs. vacuum tubes.  If
there's another Festival next year, mine -- which used to be used in the
late '60s to accompany Duo-Art rolls I made for the purpose, on our
museum's Guided Tours -- can be part of the presentations, this time with
my traveling Pianola: 1929 Story & Clark Reprotone + the Aeolian-RCA
instrument.

Lydia Kavina, grand-niece of the inventor, who also scored the film "Ed
Wood" recently, opened with the outdoor concerts yesterday.  Her
renditions of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Summertime "Porgy & Bess" and
Somewhere Over the Rainbow were nothing short of breathtaking.  She's
pushed the Theremin to limits similar to what I've done in music roll
arranging/performance, viz. single note control in both instances.
(Cluster playing on music rolls is a total bore -- which is why I find
Ampico rolls, esp., to be so lackluster ... plus most of the Aeolian
library for Duo-Art.  The only exception would be, in my opinion,
Lutter's 100% arranged Welte-Licensee brown box rolls from 1922-1931,
marketed in the names of other pianists for the most part.)

The performers are so friendly and accessible, and the general public,
as well as die-hard Theremin enthusiasts, were glued to the open-air
sound stage in downtown Portland.  I'll return on Sat. for an all-day
indoor symposium and demonstration, which includes Robt. Moog, Lydia
Kavina and theatre organist Dennis James.

Regards,

Douglas Henderson
artcraft@msn.com
artcraft@wiscasset.net

 [ The complete text of the above article is available upon request from
 [ Douglas at the above email address.  -- Robbie