There have been a lot of recent posts to the MMD about mechanical music
in the movies. On Memorial Day, while watching Mister Rogers with my
2-year-old, to my surprise, I received an education on how QRS
manufactures rolls.
Mister Rogers first hand-played a piano, then visited the local music
store where he played a newer, studio size, foot-pumped 88-note pumper
player. I could not see the brand of the piano. Mister Rogers then
showed a film of rolls being created and manufactured in the QRS
factory. This film confirmed a question in yesterdays MMD. QRS does
punch many rolls at one time, so if there were an error in one, there
would be an error on all in that batch.
In the last scene, they showed a person in the QRS quality control
department playing a roll to confirm that the batch was manufactured
correctly. If they are really doing this for all roll batches, no bad
ones should be able to get shipped.
I noticed that the Mister Rogers episode was copyrighted 1982, so I
assume this has been shown many times. It is good to know that even
little children are at least being made aware of roll played player
pianos. I am looking forward to seeing the QRS factory during the
AMICA convention in Niagara Falls next month.
Gary Rasmussen
Mason, Ohio (Cincinnati area)
|