Hello MMD readers and Julian Dyer,  Having read the posting about
Mel-O-Dee rolls, I decided to contribute a few lines about them.

Aeolian realized that its jerky, inadequate and essentially "phony"
system of recording rolls via vibrating pneumatic cutters was not
suited for the Jazz Age and music of the '20s, with the coming-of-radio
and the phonograph ever-improving.

Previously, they had Universal Music Rolls for general music stores
(i.e. non-Aeolian outlets) and for competing player-piano manufac-
turers, who could glue their own labels on the bottom of the Universal
ones (designed for this purpose in the 58/65/88-Note arranged roll
days).

In 1920 Aeolian renamed Universal to the Mel-O-Dee brand (keep in
mind that Universal would be revived in the late 'Twenties for a
cheaper roll line, often foreign selections) and announced their "new
system".  The "new system" was back-to-arranging!

The old system -- mentioned in a 1921 letter from the States to Mr.
Reed in England -- was this business of 'recording' from a piano
keyboard with the pneumatic apparatus, often using Pianola rolls and
NOT a keyboard artist.  (Metrostyle roll "recycling" was prevalent
then!)  Duo-Art rolls in the erratic #1500 (popular) and #5500-series
(classical) series were to be phased out, esp. those by Pugno, Zadora,
Carreno, Volavy and others of the period -- according to this 'home
office' communication.

Aeolian also stated that Mel-O-Dee rolls were "arranged from the
recorded music of famous artists" -- meaning that the final rolls were
not reflective of hand-playing, and none of them are if you compare
them to the audio recordings of the day.  A 'record' in Pianola
terminology could also mean sheet music or a gramophone disk as the
source, but the formula arranging by Milne and Erlebach, for the most
part, dominated the Mel-O-Dee catalogue.

The first Mel-O-Dee publication also stated that "hand-played rolls"
were being phased out for classical and salon music, "since many people
prefer to introduce their own interpretations".  Fake artists were
retained for the popular (arranged) rolls and photos of the alleged
pianists -- both classical and popular -- were sprinkled throughout the
large 1920 roll catalogue.  (Generally speaking the Fake artist was
dumped when it came to the roll leaders, for the music title and
composer were of paramount interest to the customer.)

Mel-O-Dee was a catch-all name for Aeolian, recycling the old Universal
and Metrostyle library, Metro-Art and even 65-Note arrangements going "way
back" into their perforating history.  Some had Audiographic-style large
photographs from talking movies printed on the leaders, especially for
French-Canadian export ... and others had accent (Themodist) holes with
and without the Aeolian/Angelus hammer rail lift (Soft Pedal).  Almost any
roll could be a Mel-O-Dee product!

Most popular Duo-Art rolls were retrofitted from existing Mel-O-Dee
releases.  A vaudeville pianist, such as Art Gilliham, would tour and
make stops at Aeolian agencies ... posing with his phonograph record
and Mel-O-Dee posters for the local press.  (The rolls were all fakes
by Milne in his case!)  Then, when some titles sold well in 88-Note
form, a few expression rolls were churned out, often with a lackluster
dynamic score.

'Swanee' (which has the striking essence of Erlebach and not Gershwin!)
has a great Mel-O-Dee score -- if one follows the dynamic suggestions
-- but is a dying swan with the retrofitted Duo-Art expression, more
suited to 'A Perfect Day' or 'To a Wild Rose' than something then being
sung by Al Jolson!  (Fortunately the Duo-Art -- being "duo" -- has
Pianola controls, and the unfortunate owner of 'Swanee' can override the
'nothing' expression and make the roll soar, like the Mel-O-Dee release
of slightly earlier vintage!)

More and more people are coming to realize that the Pianola and
'reproducing' piano are an _arranged music medium_, and that there
is/was no pianist involved with the Master for the duplicated roll.
Moeller (player) organs in a recently published in-house memo said that
they should be "more like Aeolian" -- who keeps the artists and the
players completely separate.  The 'publicity' should be stressed to the
musician, the letter stated, since that promotes him more-in-advance
than anything else.

There's a real bait-and-switch nature to Pianola sales, past and
present.  We hear all too frequently "There's Gershwin" on MIDI
transcriptions of rolls that weren't reflecting the composer in the
first place!  (Ditto for Rachmaninoff, Friml and Goldsand.)

Anyway, I hope this sheds some light on Mel-O-Dee, which often
licensed its arrangements to other companies, Wilcox & White (under
Theo. Brown/Simplex) for example.

Regards from Maine,

Douglas Henderson

PS:  Am attaching some 'html' for my in-progress web site, now up to the
end of "S" for Duo-Art.  Read through some of the texts and what
applies to commercial Aeolian Duo-Art 'reproducing' rolls would be the
same for Universal/Mel-O-Dee releases ... esp. since they were the
source for many of the expression rolls!

 [ Thanks for your report, Douglas.  The html file is much too big
 [ for MMD; readers can view it soon at the Artcraft web site,
 [ file  "music_rolls.htm"   -- Robbie ]