Roll Harmonica
By Angelo Rulli
Troy Taylor asks about the harmonica with rolls. This is the famous Rolmonica, made in America from at least 1928. It was heavily advertised in comic books of the day for $1 and the rolls sold for 10 cents each. This was one of the earliest commercial uses of Bakelite.
The Rolmonica is a great novelty piece and it actually can sound almost good, but it takes practice to be able to learn to breathe through one's nose. Of course, one can blow and draw, but the drawing phase generally pulls the paper roll off the harmonica, which creates an interesting wheezing sound.
The Rolmonica can generally be purchased for about $75, sometimes more, with a few rolls. It is possible to find a Rolmonica in excellent original condition, with unused rolls in original boxes. One can expect to pay more for items in pristine condition. I would not buy such an instrument unless I heard it play as the reeds are quite often damaged or missing.
Another foible is that the rolls are often found to be reversed on the spools. Apparently children of another era were bored of hearing the music played in the proper direction. With patience, one can re-spool the rolls.
The Rolmonica was one of at least seven various roll-playing harmonicas. Each represents a unique contribution to the family of automatic instru- ments directed at children. Among the lot was a Rolmonica with a fully chromatic scale and The Playrola, which uses rolls interchangeable with the Play-A-Sax and Clarola, two related toy roll-instruments. These latter instruments are more rare, especially the Clarola. Each sounds about the same as they all use the same roll.
Happy cranking.
Angelo Rulli
St. Paul, MN |
(Message sent Sat 1 Mar 1997, 16:36:57 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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