[ This prolific arranger and Mae Brown virtually established "the"
 [ grand arranging style of the early New York Era.  Although most
 [ of the rolls were originally arranged for the 65-note Pianola,
 [ they were so popular that production continued for many years
 [ in adaptations for the 9-per-inch format.  -- Robbie

 --- begin forwarded letter ---

Dear Robbie,

I am a collector of player piano rolls.  For several years it
has been a consuming passion with me to find out anything I can
regarding a piano roll arranger by the name of Herman Avery Wade
who worked for the Aeolian Corporation from 1904 through 1923
approximately.

Mr Wade, if that was, in fact, his real name, also wrote some
music of his own and had it copyrighted with the now defunct
Joseph W. Stern & Co. of New York City.  The titles were "I Want
To Be Loved Like a Leading Lady" (1908), "Hindoo Honey" (1907) and
"I've Got a Pain in my Sawdust" (1908).  I've been told that the
copyrights were renewed in the early 1950s.

Another arranger working at Aeolian during the same period was
Edwin E. Wilson, possibly the same man as Wade; in any case the
arrangements sound identical.

This is all that is presently known about Herman Avery Wade at
this time, and there is a sizeable group in the United States
that desperately wants to learn more about this very talented
individual.  Don Rand and Ed Sprankle and several other piano
roll collectors have also been working on this.

We need to locate descendents in order to possibly view pictures
and find other personal data regarding this person's career with
Aeolian.  All of the company records of those early years have
long since disappeared.  I have taken advantage of the local
library research staff, and I recently wrote to the New York
Public Library, but their reply was very discouraging.  I
examined volumes of records belonging to the Mormon church,
to no avail.

Any help the Mechanical Music Digest readers can provide
in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

Denis McMenamy
2675 SW Reindeer Ave.
Redmond, Oregon  97756
(541) 548-0322