Troy Taylor's comments concerning player pianos and the younger
generation struck a chord with me.  I am 30 years old and am often amazed
at how many people of my generation not only have never heard a player
piano, but never even knew they existed.

I do volunteer work at our local historical museum, which has a player
piano.  Most of the third-graders in our school district come through the
museum, and I always play a roll for them.  The look on their faces
begins with a sort of detached curiosity as I talk about the player and
show them a roll.  However, as the first few notes play, a look of awe
and wonder flashes over them.  They grin from ear to ear, focusing their
entire attention to the instrument, something they rarely do while
touring the other exhibits.  Many of their teachers have them write us
thank-you notes, and they seldom fail to mention the piano as one of
their favorites.

I try to play the piano for all our visitors.  Many of the adults over 40
or so make comments like "You know, when I was a kid my great aunt Edna
had one of these; we used to pump like crazy to make it play."  When the
generation encompassing their parents hear me "interpreting" an 88-note
roll, they often remark that they never knew you could do that, and that
it sounds so nice.

But it is those of us under 40 or so who concern me most.  I have talked
to many of them who have no idea that there ever WAS (or is) such a thing
as a player piano.  For them, it is completely foreign (regardless of
what music it plays).  For the most part, too, they are fascinated by
these instruments when they hear one for the first time.  There is a
terrible public misconception that player piano are loud, tinny
noisemakers -- something we all know is not true.  I'd venture to say
that most people don't think of player pianos as serious musical
instruments.

If our precious hobby is to continue _after_ the present generation of
player owners and restorers, we need to take a serious look at getting
these instruments into the public mind-set as being capable of artistic
performances.  Historical museums many times have a player in the
collection.  Also, in my area there are a lot of antique malls with tea
rooms.  For years, one of the antique malls here had a completely restored
pumper near the tea room, but nobody in the mall had rolls, so it sat
there, silent, until it finally was sold.  I kick myself for not arranging
to provide music on Saturday afternoons.

On vacation a few years ago I found a restaurant in Colorado with a
perfectly functional player in the dining room, and one roll.  The roll
was a fairly new one, but the piano sat idle because the tab had torn off
and nobody had tried to fix it.  I can see why: with only one roll to
play, I'm sure everyone was sick of it.

There are opportunities out there to generate public interest in players,
but we have to be alert to them.  Otherwise we are to die on the vine.
The artists who recorded their generation's hopes and dreams into their
music rolls deserve not to be forgotten.  As collectors we have the
awesome responsibility to keep their memory alive.

Bryan Cather