I am passing on this request for the loan of some Wurlitzer orchestrion rolls
from Harvey Roehl. Many of you know Harvey as the founder of the Vestal Press
and as one half of Marion Roehl Recordings. This is his request in his own
words:

                                         HELP !!    HELP !!

Harvey Roehl in Vestal, NY, (phone 607-797-9062 or fax 607-797-2624) needs 18
more WurliTzer "changer" tunes to have enough to produce a recording of their
CX orchestrion that features the best set of bells you've ever heard on one
of these models. They plan to make a CD as well as an audio cassette. He has
access to lots of rolls; the problem lies in finding tunes on the WurliTzer
APP scale that are worth recording and meet some special criteria:

  1) Tune titles should be known to the general public. (Exceptions can be
made, but most should be at least recognized.)

  2) Original tune must have been written in 1920 or earlier. (This means that
they are in the public domain, and this is important to many purchasers of
the recording because they can play the recording wherever they wish and not
be concerned with the possibility of having to deal with or to pay any
special fees for public use to copyright owners or their agents.)

  3) He's looking for good keyboard arrangements; the snappier and raggier, the
better !

  4) Only WurliTzer rolls after #1500 appear to feature any bell scoring. Of
course not every tune to be recorded will have to feature the bells.

(We're told that after QRS came in business in 1916, WurliTzer started using
many QRS arrangements instead of their own. We do know that after a certain
time, the music is appreciably better. Exceptions exist, of course, but most
of the stuff released earlier by WurliTzer -- which paid its house arrangers
5 cents per foot for their work -- is really "blah".)

Rolls without leaders are ok; Harvey can provide his own leader for the
"changer" mechanism.

                             ******************************************

Anyone loaning a roll to Harvey that gets used will, of course, get a credit
on the CD packaging and a copy of the finished product. If you have any for
sale or for loan that meet the criteria, please let him know as soon as
possible. Harvey isn't on the internet so please communicate through Bob
Conant <bobconant@aol.com> or call Harvey Roehl collect at the phone number
above.

Thanks,
Bob Conant