Hi All,  I wanted to respond to Doug Rhodes' inquiry on the Apollophone
player piano.  But I need to regress a bit.  I received my AMICA
Bulletin recently and was surprised to hear that Frank Trotta had
passed away.  He died on his birthday at 78 years old.

I had been corresponding with Frank for about four years.  It was
always about different things pertaining to players.  But the
correspondence started with a customer of mine that had a gutted
Apollophone expression player.  With Frank's help we managed to
retrofit it with a stack that he had in his shop.  He sold us all of
the necessary parts, including the main spring-motor.  We did not get
the expression system working again, but it plays great.

Frank had a complete Apollophone player piano in excellent condition
that he wanted $1800 for, and he would even pay the shipping to
California from Chicago!  We wrote back and forth with him for a couple
of years.  We really liked the instrument but didn't have the room for
another piano.  This particular instrument was foot pumped and I would
have preferred one with an electric motor.  (I have three customers
that have electric motor players and one that has a pumper.)

The last time I spoke to Frank, he called to tell me that he had
found a book that I had been looking for, "Re-enacting the Artist".
He was very fair on the price and I received it along with pictures
of his "shop kitty".  That was about 6 months ago.  It was at that
time that he told me that he had finally sold the Apollophone player.
I don't know what it sold for but my guess would be between $1400-$1800.

Anyway, anyone needing any parts for players, Frank's brother Mike is
trying to empty the shop and close it up.  His phone number is
773-581-0684.  I'm going to miss him.

Diane De Tar
San Diego, CA