Hello MMD readers,

I have 3 Leabarjan machines in my music roll Studio here in Maine, plus
many papers, brochures and letters from the Bartels family - who built
these perforators from 1911 through 1928 ... with a former employee
supplying parts, rebuilding and restoring them until about 1948 (since
letters to the Chamber of Commerce for Hamilton, Ohio were sent along
to him).

An illustrated article about the origins on the name and its history
appeared as a 2-part series in The AMICA player club magazine, during
the mid-'80s. I wrote this text just about the time that my Studio was
starting up as a separate enterprise, around the corner from our music
museum (The Musical Wonder House) - getting ready for its 37th Season
on Memorial Day weekend.

Members of the Bartels family have visited me, on occasion, and one of
them is a journalist in Freeport, Maine, who did an illustrated
newspaper article on the history of the perforators and my continuous
use of them (for 'almost' 50 years, in a few more months!).

The name is an acronym for "Lease" + "Bartels" + "Janzen" ... the
3 families in Hamilton, Ohio who were responsible for the manufacturing
company coming into being. "Lease" was the original inventor, who made
a 65-Note model for his own player, i.e. the prototype. Leo Bartels
took the idea and formed the company, backed by financing from Franz
Janzen - who, many years later, turned out to be a family relative under
a different name! Thus, the Bartels family - two generations with whom
I corresponded in the 1950s and the 1960s - were the guiding figures of
the Leabarjan Manufacturing Company. In 1921 they incorporated and
opened a branch in New York City - for theatre rolls, music publishers
and the export trade - renamed The Leabarjan Corporation (with the home
offices remaining in Ohio). With the radio and electric phonograph
cutting into the player roll arranging field, the corporation was
disbanded in 1927 after a 16 year history.

Back in the early 1950s, an expert? (intone that word with a question
mark!) told me that it was pronounced "LAY-bar-jan" when I had been
saying "LEA-bar-jan" ... believing, correctly as it turned out, that
this was a coined word. I still say "LEA" (lee-ah) but never tell the
"LAY" group to change their terminology. The surviving members of the
Bartels family said "LEA" with an implied "Lease" in it ... much as the
final Italian "e" in Corleone comes out as "i" or "one" in some English
bowdlerizations of another language.

To each his own, but Armenian the word is NOT! (This is a reference to
the MMD article, appearing today.)

You can see one of my 2 Model #5 Leabarjan machines and a closeup of my
#8-B on this URL - http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/studio.htm

Richard Dearborn, an advanced collector in NJ, built and gave me a
"hand crank" rewinding device for use on my Leabarjan machines. You can
see this, attached to a shelf via C-clamps, on the third picture in the
Web page listed above [for the #5 model perforator]. This has been of
great help in removing the rolls for "instant replay" ... as playback
has always been part of my arranging technique. So has the use (and
study) of audio, which accounts for an open reel recorder sitting behind
the Leabarjan, and there are several others - including Cassette decks -
out of the picture, to the right of this image. Today, I have the
benefits of remote control in order to check the audio sources while
running the mechanical hand punches on the old Leabarjan equipment. In
the 1950s I had to use a 'piano keyboard' control on a nearby open reel
Wilcox-Gay Tape Recordio (recorder) in order to study how to simulate
'keyboard attack' in the medium of music roll perforations. As with
Mr. Dearborn's rewinding mechanism, the modern remote controls for the
tape decks are a definite improvement!

    Hope the above has been of some help.

    Regards from Maine,
        (signed) Douglas Henderson

ARTCRAFT Music Rolls
PO Box 295
Wiscasset, ME 04578
(207) 882-7420
Website - http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/