Pat DeWitt asked in 090514 MMDigest about Clyde Ridge making piano
rolls for Aeolian.

When Ramsi Tick bought QRS and moved the whole factory to Buffalo,
New York, I was asked by Aeolian to work for them.  That's when I met
J. Lawrence Cook, and I worked opposite him until he passed.   He
mentioned many times about Clyde Ridge making rolls for Aeolian.

I think that Ridge sent written arrangements to Cook, and Cook cut the
rolls from his arrangements, just like Dick Watson used to send written
arrangements to QRS and Rudy Martin would cut the rolls using Watson's
written arrangements.

I never met Ridge or had any contact with him, and all I knew of him
was what Cook told me.  Cook told me that he was a great arranger, and
that he did a lot of playing in the Los Angeles area.

I doubt that Ridge made roll arrangements [using a machine] like Cook
and I did.  We used that monster, slow punching piano, that Cook would
fix with spit and glue and paper clips.  I tell people that making
a piano roll was a tedious and boring job, but the end result could be
"Wow!"  It all depended on how the arrangement was made and who did it.

When Cook passed, I went to his house and asked his wife if I could buy
that monster machine, but she said no.  I never used a Leabarjan punch
machine, but I guess it would have been fun and interesting.

Hi Babit
Florida