Many years ago I acquired an original QRS catalog dated June 20th,
1922.  Inside the front cover is an insert entitled "Important Notice."
You might find it interesting, as I did:

  "For years we have had a catalog in which were listed over seven
thousand titles.  For years there have been more of these catalogs
circulated to the general public than there were player piano owners.

  "Yet with all those catalogs being circulated all those years, 95
percent of our sales covering a period of several years, has been
limited to approximately one thousand of the seven thousand titles
listed, and 60 percent of that business done was on titles listed in
the monthly bulletins, and those titles never did appear in the big
catalog.

  "Since the sales records and your orders show the one thousand titles
which you are continually selling and re-selling, we have arranged ten
classified bulletins of specially selected Player Rolls to list these
1,000 numbers.  The rolls listed in these ten classified bulletins will
give the player piano owner the best selections in the music world in
their respective classes.

  "These ten classified bulletins are made up in ten separate 8-page
folders, for your use in distributing to the player piano owners.

  "This catalog is for your reference, and is NOT to be distributed to
the buying public.  This catalog makes up the QRS Merchandising and
Purchasing Plan from which you may stock Player Rolls with absolute
assurance of your Player Roll Department being worth one hundred cents
on the dollar, as long as you remain in business.

  "A complete reference catalog of every number in Q.R.S. Player Rolls
is now available, for your reference only.

  "The Q.R.S. Music Company, 306 South Wabash Ave, Chicago, Ill."

Here is the numbering system in place at that time, June 30th, 1922.

  "Refer to the numerical list as follows:

   Domestic Word Rolls 100 to 10,000
   Foreign Rolls, both Word and Arranged  6,000 to 10,000
     with prefix F or WF
   Arranged Rolls  11,000 to 60,000, embracing Domestic and Foreign Rolls
   Accompaniment Arranged Rolls   70,000 Series
   Hand Played and Concert Series Rolls  80,000 to 400,000
   Accompaniment Hand Played Rolls  500,000 Series
   Story Rolls  Prefix D, from No. 1 up, will be found at the end
     of the numerical list."

It has ten thousand five hundred titles -- Just think of keeping track
of all those masters!

The catalog makes fascinating reading, for example, there were no less
than seven _different_ versions of "Old Black Joe" alone, and eight
different recordings of "O Sole Mio", including one as an accompaniment
for Victor Record 87243!

The catalog came from the personal effects of Lena Hughes, head of the
music roll department at San Antonio Music Company during those "golden
days", and is one of my proudest possessions.

Ed Gaida