Dear MMDers,  A week or two ago someone asked about the Ampico Favorite
Fifty.  While I am far from the right person to answer this, I have not
seen a posting about it so I will offer my meager knowledge about it.

Ampico had several roll groupings called the "Favorite Fifteen", the
"Favorite Twenty Five" and the "Favorite Fifty".  These were sold as
collections, purportedly at a special price for the group but actually
with very little saving.  This was primarily a marketing technique
designed to appeal to the new purchaser of an Ampico piano to give the
owner a start on a roll collection.

The rolls are were identical to regular rolls but had special box
labels, and usually had a special roll leader with text explaining
a little about the music.  Most of these were classical, but not all.
Also, there was some crossover in the lists, but they were generally
introduced at different times so there wasn't much likelihood that
a customer would buy two sets and get duplicate rolls.

The "favorites" in the sets usually had a gold colored label in
addition to the inscription.  There were other sets as well including
the "Gold Seal Collection" and the "Recommended Fifty".

Richard Howe published a list of all the rolls in these sets in an
AMICA Bulletin sometime in 1981.  In addition to the aforementioned
groupings, I have a number of rolls labeled "Selected Recordings
Service".  These rolls, I believe, were sent to subscribers, much like
a book-of-the-month club.  Again, the roll label is the only difference
from the normally issued roll of the same title and number.

I hope this helps but, additionally, I am open to any corrections and
updates on the above information.

Bob Conant
Endicott, NY