All the cartoon songs reminded me of a few notable songs.

If you like "When the merry go round broke down,"  you must hear the
Sydney Torch 78 of it.  Sidney Torch was one of the finest English band
leaders of the 30's, and he started out playing the "Cinema Organ", at
which he also excelled (theatre organ to Americans).

In his "Merry go round" he plays with all the verve and spice he was
known for.  In the middle of the record when the oom-pah-pah ends the
verse, he turns the Compton organ off and lets the calliope sound die
off, so the Merry go round actually breaks down.

This was only possible on the theater organs of the day because they used
a generator attached to the blower motor and this allowed the DC current
to stay on longer than the wind to the reservoirs did.  He ends the
record that way as well.  Another great one of his is "Hot Dog" where he
uses the tuned bird whistles in one verse.

Does anyone remember seeing a piano roll of "When the Kaiser does the
Goose-step to a Good old American Rag"?  I found the sheet music and it
looks like it would be a fun roll.  The cover art is replete with WW1
GI's goosing Kaiser Willy in the butt with their bayonets.  Wilhelm's
dachshund is also depicted.

Has anyone seen any of the Leroy Shields music on piano roll?  He wrote
all the musical snippets for the Little Rascals, Charley Chase, Laurel
and Hardy, and other comedies of the same studio.  Several of them grew to
be full-fledged popular songs.

Was "Powerhouse" ever made onto roll?  This is the well used music for
Warner cartoons depicting big factories or robots.  I believe it was
written by Raymond Powell?

D. L. Bullock Piano World St. Louis

 [ Editor's note:
 [
 [ "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is on a Weber Unika orchestrion roll;
 [ how the mid-30s sheet music found it's way to Waldkirch is a mystery !
 [
 [ "Powerhouse" and "Toy Trumpet" and many others were written by Raymond
 [ Scott, and used extensively in Warner Bros. cartoons.  The songs were
 [ recorded recently by "Beau Hunks", a fine ensemble in the Netherlands
 [ which accurately re-creates the sound of the 1930's studio ensembles.
 [ These same musicians also recorded the music of Leroy Shields, after
 [ laboriously transcribing the sound tracks of the Hal Roach films.
 [
 [ The "Beau Hunks" CDs are distributed by Koch International USA,
 [ 2 Tri-Harbor Court, Port Washington, NY 11050
 [
 [  -- Robbie