•Robbie has asked me to write about a new museum for self-playing musical instruments in Speyer. Speyer is a romantic town at the river Rhine not far away from Heidelberg. In the centre you will find a big Cathedral. Not far away from the Cathedral (10 minutes to walk) you reach the "Technik Museum"...

•Mathew Caulfield reports in the 001010 MMD that he has identified a tune on his nickelodeon roll as Ching Chong, a 1917 song with music and lyrics by Lee S. Roberts, a QRS artist at the time. He points out, quite understandably, that the lyrics are not politically correct. Obviously, the image of t...

•Hello Victoria, I think "Die Forelle" means the name of the music, maybe by Schubert. The meaning of MAPSA is MAP S.A., it is the name of the company that produces these boxes. I could not found MAP SA in the Internet; the only thing found was a short description of the company: http://databank.swi...

•In MMD031007, Robbie wrote (in response to Benjamin Intartaglia regarding Thomas Waller's rolls): >[ I've heard he was brought to the QRS studio by James P. Johnson >[ when he was 19 years old and was still regularly playing the >[ church organ. This might explain why many Waller rolls sound >[ equ...

•On the continuing thread about Duo-Art Regulation, I have taken all the advice and attempted to re-regulate my 1925 Weber. I wish to thank all of you MMDers who unselfishly share your knowledge on this (and other) subject(s). I reported earlier that the vacuum ramped up too rapidly (causing me to f...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- History -- The Getz's steam calliope is a totally unique, one-of-a-kind musical instrument. It is, we believe, the largest steam calliope in the world. It consists of forty whistles of graduated sizes. These whistles are tuned by the amount of st...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- First, a 'thank you' to all who took the effort to help me on the questions I had about my Waddington player piano, 'specially Julian Dyer. Last Thursday I went to Utrecht, to the museum "Van speelklok tot pierement". They had this special event ...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- Hello! My name is Horacio Eusebi from Argentina and I have for sale 19-inch musical box discs. I am sending some pictures of them, and the titles too. Are you interested? The titles: God save the king America my country 2 Blue Danube, waltz [jon ...

•Hello Group; in yesterday's MMDigest George Karpel asked if anyone has any knowledge as to what TV show J. Lawrence Cook appeared on in the 1960s. It was "What's My Line", probably 1964 or perhaps a little later. Q.R.S. made a special "What's My Line Medley" roll (never issued in the general catalo...

•Hi MMDers, I'm seeking the identity of the musical movement that plays the current arrangement of the "Mr. Softee" jingle. (Yes, there is an older version.) Most ice cream trucks have an actual recording of the movement stored on a chip playing, should the real movement decide to give up the ghost...

•Back in 2005/2006, I was involved in a project for the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) of New York. As part of that project, I scanned (archival quality scans) 41 Picturoll piano rolls. I believe the intent was for MOMA to make recuts available of those rolls, but I don't know if they actually followed...

•I am in the process of transcribing my grandmother's memoirs. I had been aware of some of her jobs and just thought I might share some information with you and ask for a few details that you perhaps might know. She worked for the United States Music Company when she was about 16 or 17 years old and...

•Hello all, greeting from Wales in the UK. I am researching a writer and composer of Music Hall songs. His name was Henry (Harry) Beckett. He lived in Hoxton, Shoreditch, right on the East End of London, from 1867 to 1915. He described himself as a songwriter. He used the name Harry Beckett for his ...