This message is in reply to Tom Steuer's question about "I Love
A Piano" in the 1948 movie "Easter Parade" [000416 MMD].  I was
sufficiently intrigued to rent the movie, and allow me to describe
the scene:

Fred Astaire is seated before a player, and asks Judy Garland if
she is familiar with the song.  When she answers "yes", Fred grabs
the rightmost brass lever in the keyslip and flips it to the left!
Incidentally, there are several Ampico roll boxes on top of the piano,
one of which appears to be a tracker bar pump.

The music sounds as though it might be a roll, but the keys that move
up and down look like they're playing the storm scene from William Tell
(well, almost).  Before long the studio orchestra is playing along with
the piano as Judy sings.

Up to this point, I thought that it might be possible that a roll was
used, but then comes a section where the orchestra is playing the
melody and the piano is reduced to playing staccato chords to accent
the orchestra.  This would not be done on a roll, and so I feel if a
roll was involved, it was to inspire a human pianist to give the music
the right feel for the first few moments before the orchestra took
over.

Coincidentally, this same song was central in another piano roll
mystery a few months ago: I came across a Keystone Duo-Art recut
of "I Love A Piano" played by Merrigan Daly.  As I played the roll,
I was not particularly impressed.  It wasn't really bad, but the
arrangement was a little too straightforward.

Just as the roll gets to the mid point, however, a marvelous new
melody is introduced.  After perhaps 30 seconds, the pianist returns
to Berlin's song.  This little improvisation really fascinated me,
and I tried to find out more about this pianist.  There is no real
information about Merrigan Daly in the recent book by Charles Davis
Smith.  It was a strange coincidence that brought me the answer.

I was looking through an antique shop when I spotted a copy of Oscar
Levant's book "A Smattering of Ignorance".  I bought it, and began to
go through it.  This is Oscar's first book, written a few years after
his friend George Gershwin's death.  The book contains a number of
Gershwin anecdotes I have never seen before, and I recommend it for
that reason alone.  More to the point, Levant makes a reference to one
of George's friends, William Merrigan Daly.

Boing!  Suddenly the light bulb clicked on!  I had heard the name
Bill Daly for years.  He was not merely a friend of Gershwin, but a
colleague.  They wrote music together, and Daly was hired by George
to help with arranging and orchestrating.  So close were these two
that sometimes in the 1930's a story appeared in print that Gershwin
had Daly writing his music for him.  Nobody really doubts that Gershwin
had the genius to compose what he claimed but Bill Daly must have been
tickled pink!

Daly made several rolls for Duo-Art, and some for the Red Welte.  If
anybody has any of them, see if they have any great improvisation
sections!  If there is any interest out there, I might try to set up
a sound file so you can hear this roll for yourself.

Randolph Herr