Mrs. Kathy Sablan, of San Jose, California, seeks memorabilia
and information about the music rolls recorded by her grandfather,
Charles Marian Wright, also known as Marian Wright or Marion Wright.

Born October 1, 1895, in DeKalb, Illinois, Mr. Wright died at 29
years age while performing on stage in New York, from complications
of typhoid fever, on June 14, 1925.

On page 719 Bowers' "Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments",
historian David L. Junchen says that Marion Wright did most of the
organ roll arranging at the Clark factory.  In a letter of the 1970s
reproduced on pages 721-722, Mr. P. M. Keast, chief editor of Clark
Orchestra Roll Company, recalls that Marion Wright arranged style "O"
rolls for Clark.

(According to Mr. Junchen, the Seeburg Style "H" instrument and
the Coinola instruments which play style "O" rolls have very similar
instrumentation.  It follows, therefore, that the basic music roll
arrangement could easily have been adapted for perforating and playing
on both Seeburg and Coinola instruments.)

In the Clark trade publication, "The Coin Slot" (excerpts reproduced
on pages 723-725 of Bowers' "Encyclopedia"), Mr. Wright is pictured
at the Clark recording piano.  The text accompanying the photo says:

 "Getting the jazz on paper while it's hot is part of the
  work of Mr. Wright in the making of Clark Orchestra Rolls.
  As snapped here, he is playing "Smilin' Through" for use
  on one of the standard 65-note electric piano rolls."

At http://www.bluesrolls.com/BT_MelvilleClark.html is an image of
a Clark "Red X" music roll label, Automatic X-7356, bearing the song
title "Smilin' Through" and "Played by Marion Wright".

Frank Himpsl reports that the 1918 song "Smilin' Through", arranged
and perforated by Clark Orchestra Roll Company for Seeburg Style "H"
instruments, was issued on these music rolls:

  MSR roll No. 545, tune #1
  MSR roll No. 718, tune #3
  H-roll  No. 717, tune #2

Mark Reinhart says that these experimental music rolls bear Wright's
name as the performer:

  Apollo 8002-8 "Vissi d'Amore" (from "Tosca") -- Puccini
  Apollo 8008-8 "One Fine Day" (from "Madam Butterfly") -- Puccini
  Apollo 8009-8 "At Dawning" -- Chas. Wakefield Cadman

The "draft" rolls are of waxed kraft paper, such as used by Clark for
orchestrion rolls, with Clark end tabs affixed.  After perforating,
expression control slots for the Apollo reproducing piano were cut with
a sharp blade.  Many pencilled notations appear by the added slots.

Mark surmises that the rolls were produced at Clark Orchestra Roll
Company on a test basis and later scrapped when Clark discovered how
difficult it was to produce a quality music roll for a reproducing
piano system.  He would like to hear about other Apollo or Art Echo
rolls numbered in the 8000 series.

At http://www.pianola.demon.co.uk/apollopp.htm is an image of an
advert for the Apollo player piano.  Mrs. Sablan says, "It shows
my Grandfather sitting at an Apollo piano and turning around towards
a young woman holding a book of what I surmise to be some sort of
editing book for sheet music."

Please write to Kathy Sablan <chogamo@sbcglobal.net> and MMD if you
have additional information about her grandfather and his music roll
performances.

Robbie Rhodes