-- forwarded letter, please reply to sender and MMD --

I have a very interesting book in front of me:  "1900-1935 L'aventure
industrielle des freres Coupleux", by Olivier Carpentier.  The brothers
Coupleux were the people who imported the instruments and ran the
Aeolian business in France.

It was in 1901 or 1902 that Aeolian came to France in two ways: they
opened an agency at Avenue de la Opera in Paris, and at the same time
the brothers Coupleux met in Bruxelles a piano maker, Leon Delgay, who
advised them to take the Pianola business over to France.  A contract
was made which gave the Cie Coupleux a Lille (Coupleux Co. of Lille)
the exclusive representation for Northern France to start with -- this
developed into a rather fantastic business.

The book has 283 pages filled with very interesting photos from the
remarkable activities that the brothers Coupleux created: phonograph
business, music recordings, cinema, exhibitions, Aeolian Hall of Lille,
their piano-making and Pianola making.  Many Pianolas were made in
France and some pneumatic stacks for the Duo-Art too.

In 1929 they joined with Armand Givelet to go into the field of
electronic organs.  The Coupleux-Givelet synthesizer is well mentioned
in the book with an illustration.  In fact, the brothers Coupleux and
their sister, Heloise, were some kind of universal geniuses, reminding
me of the brothers Lumieres, Thomas Edison, etc.  The electronic organ
was really a remarkable technical development and an artistic success
which unfortunately put them into bankruptcy -- it was too early for
the market.

The books author, Olivier Carpentier, 22 years old, is a really
brilliant writer coming from the Coupleux family.  The book was created
as a memory of the Coupleux freres for a university diploma -- which
was received with the highest mention.  This work has moved Olivier
into a great interest for the Pianolas and reproducing pianos, although
we have decided with a base of my experiences and huge archive to write
a book together, which [will] include much information which evidently
no one knows about.

The actual book is a real gold mine in the automatic piano field in
France, and I recommend it to everyone reading French.  We are looking
for a printer to make a reasonable number of this, so at the moment I
can't say when we can deliver the book.  If we can find enough interest
it could be translated of course, but it's a question of economic
support.

Best regards from Montmartre,
Douglas Heffer
France