By now, everyone reading MMD knows that Pauline Alpert was indeed a
real person.  She attended two or three AMICA conventions.  In my
conversations with her, she said that the Aeolian staff was worried
about the speed of her playing.  They asked her to slow [her playing] a
bit to make sure the mechanism would not fail.

In her later years, Pauline had very limited funds.  She was concerned
about her rolls not producing residual income, and thought that her
contracts for rolls and records were very unfair in that residuals were
excluded.

In her conversations, she indicated without a doubt that she indeed sat
at a recording piano and made hand-played rolls.  Perhaps some rolls
attributed to her were of the arranged type, but not all.  If she
really slowed her playing for the rolls, it is obvious that the rolls
would not sound like the 78 records.  I heard her say that the rolls
needed to be sped up to sound right.

Pauline finished playing at one convention to the bravos of all,
including my table-mate [Duo-Art arranger/editor/performer] Robert
Armbruster, who shouted, "Pauline, I'd give anything if I could play
like that!"  The performance was videotaped and exists in the AMICA
archives.

Bob Taylor

 [ Lest confusion reign, I'll explain:  MMDer Robert W. "Bob" Taylor,
 [ who writes above, was very active with Chicago AMICA until his
 [ work took him to his new residence in Columbia MO.  Sharing the same
 [ name is Robert M. "Bob" Taylor of Philadelphia PA, who formerly was
 [ a partner with Keystone Music Rolls, and was responsible for the
 [ delightful catalogs several years ago.  Both Bob Taylor's have
 [ memorable anecdotes about Pauline Alpert!   -- Robbie