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MMD > Archives > July 2012 > 2012.07.24 > 02Prev  Next


Unknown Tunes on Wurlitzer APP Rolls
By Jack M. Conway

Hi Group,  For many years I have been trying to identify my original
green paper Wurlitzer Automatic Player Piano (APP) rolls.  These rolls
(644, 750, 1845, 2666, and 20798) had no box or roll labels but do
have the tail end pencil numbers.

Over the years many MMDers have agreed to listen to a recording of
my unidentified rolls and have provided information on many of them.
Those that I can remember who have helped are Matthew Caulfield, Frank
Himpsl, Don Teach and a few others.  I sent all of the information that
I had on APP rolls to Julie Porter who has amassed a huge spread sheet
on APP rolls.

Robbie had contacted me about APP rolls recently and I asked if he
would be willing to give the tape a listen and see if he could come up
any of the titles.  He agreed and said he would post them on the MMD
Sounds site.  He has converted them into MPEG audio files.

Robbie asked that I tell you about the instrument that was used for
the recording.  It is a Wurlitzer BX orchestrion with piano, mandolin,
violin pipes, bass drum, snare drum, and triangle.  The "X" indicates
that it has a roll changer.  The changer holds six 5-tune APP rolls.
Each roll has a book cloth and wire leader that allows the roll to be
automatically threaded for play.  It can be set to continuously play,
up to 30 tunes, or to allow the customer to select a roll to play after
rewind.

I would love to identify the tunes of these last five rolls so I can
make labels for them and add the information to Julie's listing.

Jack M. Conway, Los Angeles, California, USA

 [ Visit http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Sounds/index.html 
 [ and http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Sounds/APP/unknown01.html 
 [
 [ I removed duplicated choruses from some of pop tunes, to reduce the
 [ the file size.  That's why the duration is about 1 minute instead
 [ of 2 or 3 minutes.
 [
 [ Tune 1845-2, "We're Gonna Have Weather, Whether Or Not", sounds
 [ like J. Lawrence Cook swinging happily at a dance party!  -- Robbie


(Message sent Tue 24 Jul 2012, 19:10:48 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  APP, Rolls, Tunes, Unknown, Wurlitzer

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