Hello folks,  In my opinion that piano roll on YouTube of Lothar Perl
tunes ("Zebra Stripes" and "Crazy Top") is a great roll, and it's a
great video.  Thanks, Dave Haibach, for the post and the mention in
MMD!

Here's a little more about Lothar Perl, including a link to a video
on YouTube of a short film featuring a composition by Perl with the
man himself on the piano:

  http://weirdovideo.com/wv68/content/jazz-etude-1930s 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx12Y8QVVNg
  [better audio]

 [ -Snip!-  Andrew has lots of information about audio recordings,
 [ contact him for details.  Many Lothar Perl tunes are available on
 [ CDs from Shellwood, http://www.shellwood.co.uk/  -- Editor (Robbie)

Just as a teaser, you might enjoy this YouTube video of Alex Hassan
performing the beautiful "Hollywood Stars", composed by Lothar Perl:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYwnsXvJBpg
 

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Andrew Barrett
rag1916@yahoo.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

P.S.: If you're wondering what this post has to do with mechanical
music, since Lothar Perl himself is not known to have made any piano
rolls, I should mention that many of the other folks (composers and
performers) also represented on the above CDs _did_ make piano rolls
(including, but not limited to, Billy Mayerl, Lee Sims, Pauline Alpert,
and Cliff Hess), and were highly influential in the field of popular
piano playing in their day.