Meditations of a Luddite

Well, I've been playing paper for 50 years, and I'm worried.

- I remember buying new old stock with mom, as a kid at H. L. Green's
in Philadelphia.

- I remember our left over "factory technician" who kept the Ampico
running saying there would never be any more rolls made.

- I remember when Larry Givens began perforating.  What a thrill
to get his lists!  ("Oh, ma, please can I?  Pleeease?")

- I remember the other kid on the school bus saying, "my dad has
a player piano, and lots of rolls in the attic".  I called.  Dad
said yes, but I wouldn't want them rolls, they were all Eeetudes &
Rapsodeeee Hungrooozees. I bought my first 150 Duo Art Rolls at $.07
per roll.

- I remember when got my first Steinway.  I was about 15, and went door
to door, rang the bell, and asked if they had a Steinway player piano.
Finally, a somewhat stunned old man said yes, and asked how I knew he
had one.

- I remember falling in love with the Duo-Art.

- I remember The Powell's getting Larry Givens to make Duo-Art rolls
on "cut-rite" crinkle paper... but we were glad.

- I remember the Powell/Malone break-up.  For a while competition
resulted in some really good copy.

- I remember Ray Siou.  By then I had a L.P. spoolbox grand, and L.P.
rolls were a god-send, and cheap at that!

- The list of buyers for recut Duo-Art rolls seems to have declined in
recent years, along with the quality of the copy.  Nothing from Keystone
for years now.  Will Dave Saul actually get into production and provide
us with the top quality for which he is so revered?  I hope so.

And here's why I'm worried.  It's this electronic computer thing
that allows people to run their piano without rolls.  Turn it on and
ignore it, like a CD, no longer watching the roll go by, seeing and
anticipating what's about to happen (yes, it still holds my enraptured
attention).  No, just a tracker-bar smothered under Saran Wrap.

Reminds me of a movie I saw where there was this cadaver staring at me
with Saran Wrap wrapped around its face and over its mouth.  Not that
the electronic doodad isn't a neat, high quality invention.  I'm not
dishing the wizardry that brought it into being.  It's this:

Each one of these electronic things represents Duo-Art rolls that will
not be cut.  Each one makes roll production more precarious.  Each one
means a tracking action that might not be as well maintained, and more
likely to rip a real treasure someday.  With each one installed in a
piano, we all loose, and I worry that we may loose it all.

But then this is a thread that runs through my life like a recurring
melody -- lamenting changes that I can't do anything about.  Perhaps
I'm genetically a Luddite.  Maybe this is why I've always loved my
player pianos, and probably will till I die.

Bruce Grimes