[ Craig Sedgwick wrote in 090827 MMDigest:

> Can't someone at QRS authenticate the true story?  It seems that
> the company itself surely would know the origin of its name!

My money is that the truth was the story about the black guy selling
his business, and his initials being QRS.  To have it out that their
main roll maker was a black man -- and, up to the time we toured
there in the mid-90's was also, or maybe the same black fellow --
would have hurt sales, as things were far more biased against blacks
in the past.

To watch him work was to see a master, as smooth, fast, glancing at
computer screen, X-Acto knife in hand and surrounded with rolls and
tools, but even then all quietly out of the general public's view.
The tour guide "assumed" that it was the mail slot story, but he
said it like he didn't believe it but had nothing better to offer.

Wil Herzog

 [ I'm reminded of Harry Pace, who managed the Pace & Handy
 [ Music Co. before he established Black Swan Records.
 [ At http://www.redhotjazz.com/blackswan.html :
 [
 [   "The business using Pace's business knowledge and Handy's
 [ creative genius was very successful.  While the company was
 [ profitable and artistically effective, Pace was frustrated.
 [ He observed as white recording companies bought the music and
 [ lyrics from Pace and Handy and then recorded them using white
 [ artists. ... Pace was impacted by the wave of Black Nationalism
 [ sweeping the U. S. in the early 1920's post World War I period."
 [
 [ -- Robbie