Well, it looks like no other AMICA Convention attendee is going to give
a synopsis of this event, so I'll do one.  Might I premise this by
saying that the weather was perfect -- hot and sunny, the whole time.

The AMICA committee members met all day Wednesday amongst themselves.
For the rest of us, the day was spent travelling to Niagara Falls,
Ontario Canada.  I drove from the Boston area, a bit over 8 hours, to
the convention hotel, the "Skyline Brock Hotel", a 1920's hotel with
kind-of art nouveau decor with many pictures hanging in the corridors
of events and figures of the area.

The hotel was directly across the falls, and even from my cut-rate
room, the view was fine.  Upon signing in we were given a packet of
information we'd need for the events.  Harold Hodgkins was working with
a tuner tuning the two pianos he brought, an Ampico upright, and a
Canadian brand (forget which) pumper.

Thursday morning started with a buffet breakfast in the Grand
Ballroom, after which we were shuttled by bus to different attractions
in the US.

My bus's first stop was the QRS factory.  At the door was Bob Berkman
(COO), and Dan Wilke (Roll Auction Coordinator).  Dan saw my name tag
and said "Oh hi Karl ..  nice to finally meet you".  I asked if he
remembered my name from the mailing list, and he said "Oh yes, I
remember all of our good customers ..."

Bob then showed us a 20 year old but still relevant slide show on the
history of rolls and QRS, many of the photos shown can also be seen in
Roehl's "Player Piano Treasury".  A Tour of each segment of the
manufacturing operation was made.  I stopped to talk to the woman who
ran the roll stenciling machine.  She had been with QRS since 1969.
I asked her what were the good/bad aspects of working at QRS.  She said
the bad was the heat in the summer, the good was that her job (which
many are cross-trained for) is stress free, that Bob was a great guy to
work for!

Next bus stop was the Darwin Martin House, designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright.  The home, now owned by the local university, is typical Wright
-- layered, 3-dimensional earth-toned, distinctively American.  The
roof leaks, as do many of Wright's creations.  His response to this
problem was "Well, that's what happens when you leave a work of art
out in the weather ... "

After a buffet lunch at a local restaurant, we proceeded to the Riviera
Theater in N. Tonawanda NY.  They had recently finished renovations.
A III/17 Wurlitzer with many gaudy additions (including a non-standard
'toy counter') was spread out in the orchestra section, fitted with 45
degree mirrors on top so the audience could see the (unfortunately
painted with multi-colored fluorescent paint) piano et. al. traps
operate from their seats.

The 16' ranks were fitted outside of the chambers because there was
no room for them inside.  Half of the swell shades didn't work either.
The organist played for us, and we saw a rather silly silent short
feature accompanied by the organ.  At first, I thought the organist
was just so-so, until I talked to him and found out the 21-year-old
was completely self-taught and barely could read a note of music!

The Herschell Spillman Carrousel Museum in N. Tonawanda NY looked to
be a dumpy tourist trap, it's facade was a gaudy designed sign with
much of the paint missing or peeling.  I wouldn't have given it a
second look, but inside -- Wow!  You enter into the wood workshop,
where people are restoring or making carrousel horses.  Also present
were some of the perforators and all of the master band organ rolls
from the Wurlitzer Company.  One perforator was operational, one was
used for parts.  Another room of the museum had a wonderful display of
carrousel horses, and another room had a working full- sized carrousel,
which attendees were treated to a few rides.

That night was the foot-pumper contest.  All the pieces were enjoyable.
Dan Wilke was present to judge.  QRS's Hi Babbit was in the crowd, one
contestant playing one of his rolls.  In the end, Julian Dyer won with
his own Percy Granger roll that was so new, he had the only copy that
was yet to be themed and pedaled.  Julian did a fine job expressing
this piece; it never before appeared in piano-roll form!

Also displayed at the convention was the PowerRoll, demonstrated by
salesman and fellow music enthusiast Gary Rasmussen.  Again, the
function of this device is to open and close tracker-bar holes,
allowing the pneumatic piano owner to play pneumatic music.  It worked
flawlessly.

The only problem, unrelated to the device, was the enthusiasm of the
onlookers allowed the Ampico to play for over 60 minutes straight
without a break, causing a bit of a motor burn smell to emanate from
the instrument -- _not_ the PowerRoll's fault!  These instruments
apparently don't fare well when used constantly.

Other fun instruments were MMDer Dave Kerr's 1950 Pianola, a keytop
unit that connected to a blower unit the size and shape of an old
portable sewing machine case (that weighed even more!).  He also
brought a Theremin he built.  Also present was a Violano Virtuoso
(see picture on the cover of Bower's "Encyclopedia of Automated Musical
Instruments") that was played a few times, but didn't seem too
operational much of the time -- it was unplugged most of the time
(who owned it?!?).  It was fun!

Friday was workshop day.  Each scheduled workshop ran 3 times in 3
hours, allowing you to attend 3 sessions of different workshops.  Bob
Taylor's "Ampico A to B conversion" workshop was entertaining and
informative, using slides from Douglas Henderson's Artcraft studios,
and physical props.  Harold Hodgkin's "Tools and Techniques for Player
Piano Rebuilding" filled the hour with a presentation of gizmos,
gadgets and techniques designed to make repairs easier.

Bob Berkman's "Pianomation MIDI" workshop was mostly a discussion of
QRS history and Sales, since Bob admitted he wasn't up on the extreme
technicalities of the device.  Pianomation MIDI uses one side of the
stereo channel for recorded music, and the other track for the MIDI
signal to the piano.  Bob had a keytop unit, very low profile, sitting
on the keyboard of a piano.  The hour passed quite quickly!  These were
just 3 of the 6 or so that I attended.

Friday afternoon was the Mart, held on the U.S. side for duty purposes.
I was told it was one of the better ones.  My cash didn't last as I
quickly scanned the room for both new roll issues and other older
treasures.  The room was crowded, and the energy high.  Vendors includ-
ed Bennett Leedy, Keystone, QRS (Dan Wilke) , Slottime (table manned
by Durrell Armstrong and George Bogatko, who signed his rolls if you
asked), and many others.

Not in my musical taste, so I didn't attend, was a Friday night Welland
Mandolin Orchestra concert held in the great ballroom, which I heard,
was beautiful.  I did step in to see it briefly -- a full orchestra,
comprised mostly of (surprise) mandolins!

Later that evening, I did attend Bob Berkman and his "push-up" attached
to a wonderful ebony grand giving an entertaining presentation of a
non-published 2 roll story roll of "Peter and the Wolf".  This event
was titled "QRScapades".  The music played, and Bob read the
penciled-in story off the roll into the microphone.

The presentation was filled with humorous sidelines, and in between
rolls, Bob performed an satirical commercial message for "Khrushchev
Cookies" on his crank music box.  Fun!  An encore followed his standing
ovation -- I forget what the piece was that he played, but it was so
beautiful on that grand piano, it was a near tear-jerker.  Fireworks
over the lit Niagara Falls completed the evening.

Saturday was "Canada Day", where we were bussed around in 1960's
British- styled red double-decker city busses to sites and events.

The Butterfly Conservatory was first on the list -- an astrodome-like
structure filled with plants to simulate a lush forest, filled with
many species of butterflies.  Interesting how the point was made that
you weren't to harm any of the specimens under any circumstances, yet
the gift shop (and our convention souvenir) had real butterflies in
them ;)

Lunch was at a beautiful restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, NY, after
which followed a tour of one of three wineries, depending on which bus
you were on.  The specialty in the area is "Ice wine", made when the
grapes are frozen, it yields a very sweet wine that I liken to a
cordial.  $US 59 per half-liter.

Saturday night was the banquet, not your usual rubber chicken dinner --
quite good.  Max Morath presented a show on "Ragtime", incorporating
historical lecture with music he played.

Sunday was a farewell buffet breakfast followed by an AMICA business
meeting.  Yes, the MMD was duly advertised at the microphone!  May I
suggest that the MMD have some brochures or photo-copies of some
promotional item on the "hospitality table" at next year's convention?

Dorothy Bromage gave a short slide presentation to the attendees (all
were present) of sights they will see if they attend the Boston AMICA
convention in 1998.  Events are well under way for this event, and it
is hoped that the turnout will equal or exceed that of this year's
convention.

On a scale of 1-10, I give the experience an 8.5.  This was my first
convention, and certainly won't be my last!  I have photos taken during
each of the paragraphs above, and will Email them (1.9 Mb zip file of 44
JPG files) to anyone who asks me via off-line Email.

Karl Ellison
Ashland, Massachusetts
KarEllison@aol.com


 [ Karl, I'd like to feature this article and your photos at the
 [ MMD Events page.  Please transmit to Jody at <kravitz@foxtail.com>
 [ Thanks.   -- Robbie