•Probably all of you know that George Gershwin got some of his earliest musical inspiration from listening to automatic music. In his first biography, he is quoted as saying that he remembers that when he was 10 years old, he heard an automatic piano in a penny arcade playing "Melody in F". This wou...

•Re: Stephen Kent Goodman's request on how to deodorize a piano. Obviously, a physical cleaning comes first. After that, there are two techniques that can be used singly or in combination. The first involves household bleach. You wipe down everything in the piano and then do a second pass with a bar...

•Re: John Dewey's request about decals: John Tuttle has a web page that lists Decals Unlimited in Michigan, along with a few other suppliers. You can get to John's fine page by looking at the links page of MMD. You have to be a little careful here: Once you get to the homepage, go to the Technical s...

•Hello again. I just realized that John Tuttle's page has quite a bit of information about deodorizing pianos. Fortunately, there was nothing to contradict my advice. Whew! Randolph Herr

•Adam Ramet pointed out a web site that was in German; by a coincidence, a friend emailed me a web site that should be able to translate it. http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn Randolph Herr

•This is in response to the article by Albert Petrak on "The Hootchie Kootchie Dance". This rang a bell for me as I was wondering the same thing a few years back. By a fortunate coincidence, I am a friend of David Jasen who is an extraordinary scholar with many definitive books on ragtime and popula...

•A friend of mine moved to Washington D.C. recently. He owns a Weber Duo-Art Grand. It seems a couple of tubes got pulled off by the movers. Can anybody recommend a good tech in the area? Are there others he should specifically avoid? Any help would be appreciated. Randolph Herr

•Paul Manganaro's article about hot glue reminded me of a story some of you might like. About four or five years ago, I was walking down an unfamiliar street in Queens, N.Y. I noticed an elderly man down the block trying to saw some tree branches that had fallen from his tree (there was a big storm ...

•This is in answer to Ed Chaban's question about moving a Duo-Art. My first comment is that there is no need to remove the upper action for a move -- only for a rebuild. My second comment regards the moving of Steinways, and certain other grand players. These pianos have a relatively large piece of ...

•I recently came across a beautiful item in Connecticut that is engraved "Annie Mand Votey" from the late 1800's. Does anybody know if she was related to Edwin Votey who helped perfect the Pianola? Did he live in Connecticut? Any information or leads will be much appreciated. Randolph Herr ...

•I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the number of responses to my article "Cabinet Maker Hates Hot Glue". (It generated almost as many responses as phonograph turntable speeds!) The subject of gluing has so many facts, figures, opinions and errors that it seems a lifetime is not enough to ...

•In the 8/31 issue of MMD, Brian Thornton wrote that plastic hot melt glue has no redeeming value. I agree with him 99%, but there is one nifty use: After removing the lead tubing from a drawer, it is a miserable job to try to hold 100 springy rubber tubes in place. A little dab of hot melt glue her...

•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...

•"A Brass Band In A Piano? Give Me A Brake!" Pete Knobloch gave a very good analysis of the play-brake problems encountered on player pianos in 001023 MMD. The reason I say that is because he came to the same conclusions I did when I analyzed the problem a few years back! While I doubt that there ar...

•[ Ken Vinen wrote in 001106 MMD: ] > What you describe in the 001105 MMD is virtually the exact brake > system used in the Ampico "B" player. Howdy Ken, Thanks for your comment. If you will look again at my article, you will see that I say that my gizmo is based on the Model B Ampico roll brake. Th...

•More information about Ralph Rainger is available in the Obenchain Ampico Catalogue. His real name was Ralph Reichenthal, and one of his most familiar compositions is "Louise" ("Every little breeze seems to whisper Louise..."), made famous by Maurice Chevalier. Randolph Herr

•Once again, a Matthew Caulfield article in MMD (00/11/10) has inspired me to write a "follow up", if that's the correct term. Mr. Caulfield was writing about identifying pop songs, and he mentions the similarities between "Dardanella" and "Ka-Lu-A". Boy, did that bring back memories... It was back ...

•"Putting A Damper On My Enthusiasm" I was doing some repair work on a fancy Steinway Duo-Art at a friend's piano showroom a couple of weeks ago. Next to me, a fellow was finishing the installation of one of the modern computer players into a Korean grand. When he finished, and began playing it, I w...

•I thought I would set down some recollections of Clarence Hickman. I was lucky enough to meet the great man himself sometime in the early 80's. Both of us lived in Queens, NY, one of the five boroughs. Queens is a notoriously hard place to find your way around since it was not laid out as a grid, l...

•Hi gang -- Here is a little suggestion. I find it frustrating to see an article in MMD (uh oh, capitals) with a title like "Wind Motor Timing" or "Valve Travel" only to discover that it is a question, like "How do I time a wind motor?". I suggest that questions have a Q: prefix to the title so peop...