The most popular and still easiest found movie music rolls are those
made by the FilMusic company in Southern California. I don't have much
info on this company. I know of two basic types of rolls: strictly
silent movie accompaniment and straight popular tunes of the day. Some
of the popular rolls were arranged to serve either as home player
piano rolls OR as movie accompaniment rolls.
Photoplayers came in various sizes AND used rolls in several formats
(i.e. Wurlitzer 65 Note APP rolls, standard 88 note and probably some
more exotic formats, like Seeburg H rolls). As far as | know, FilMusic
rolls were available only in 88 note format. Because of this they
play very nicely on any standard 88 note player piano.
Caution: Not all FilMusic arrangements are wonderful. Some are simply
dreary steals from classical composers. If possible they should be
auditioned prior to purchase. All have labels specifying the type of
mood they are designed to accompany, i.e. dramatic, hurries, chases,
romantic, villain and so on. But those which sound exciting based on
the action specified are not necessarily memorable.
I had two FilMusic rolls on my recently closed auction if memory
serves, one brought $8.00 and the other, $12.00. Just before leaving
the USA to visit John Farrell, I bought about 80 for a buddy who
collects them (and owns a photoplayer with two 88 note roll frames)
for 90 cents each! Based on $30.00+ realized I should have placed them
for sale on the EBAY auction!!
I've collected rolls for about 40 years and conduct occasional mail
auctions of them. I specialize in ragtime and blues material and
reissue 88 note and 10 tune nickelodeon A rolls on my ECHOES label. My
current focus is with all-blues rolls issued on the CAPITOL label.
This has been Ed Sprankle masquerading as John Farrell, I plan to get
online within the next month or so. See you later . . .
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