In a 1969 interview of Adam Carroll by Nelson Barden, Barden asked
about Carroll's recollections of other Ampico artists. Here's what
Carroll said about Vincent Lopez:
Barden: Could he play well?
Carroll: I knew him quite well. He was not a pianist. He was an
arpeggio man. In other words, he had a trick -- played with his
right hand. Left hand, nothing. He'd have the orchestra play
softly. Once he came to do a recording. You know what happened?
He brought the band with him (laughter). Actually he couldn't
record the rolls. I made his rolls, Fairchild made them. He was
embarrassed one time up in Boston when someone asked him to auto-
graph one of his rolls. A little child, eight years old said,
"Mr. Lopez, now please play the song." A dame once said to me,
"Lopez couldn't even play with his *****," (laughter).
from "The Ampico Reproducing Piano - Edited by Richard J. Howe and
published by the Musical Box Society International, November 1987.
Ed Sprankle
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