On 11/16/2004, Tom Hutchinson wrote:


>> First, does anyone know where a complete listing of their musical
>> publications might be found?


By musical publications do you mean recordings?  These were organized
under Marion Roehl Recordings and sold as a group to Dave Miner who
publishes many of them today.


>> Secondly, if there was to be a republishing of some of their titles
>> what would be your choice for the top 5 or 10?


"Rebuilding The Player Piano", Larry Givens.  By the 13th printing
in 1982, nineteen years after the original publication, there had been
49,000 copies printed.  There were probably later printings, but that
is the one I have.

"The Music Box Handbook" Vol. 1 & 2, by Graham Webb, is bringing high
prices in the used market so there must be demand.

"Player Piano Treasury", by Harvey Roehl.  It needs reprinting in
memory of Harvey and because it's a book I don't have!

There are several books that are important to a few people for their
technical and historical information but would probably lack sufficient
sales to warrant a reprint.  I'm thinking here of books such as the
"Mills Violano-Virtuoso" written by Mike Kitner and Art Reblitz.
I suppose people with a interest in the Violano-Virtuoso have found
a copy of this somewhere along their collecting journey.

There are many other books that would be fun to have but would probably
not enjoy good sales.  The Vestal Press hallmark was a symbol of
assurance that a book was fun.  Vestal Press was successful only
because of the energy Harvey put into it himself.  Not just in
designing the volumes with authors, but in encouraging and teaching
authors and promoting and selling the books.  The entire catalog would
be fun to browse for almost anyone.

Many people learned about Vestal press at public events where Harvey
would hawk his books and tapes.  I've seen him happy as a jay-bird
under a tent top in the rain and mud just happy to be there with his
books, giving out catalogs to the uninformed and spreading the good
word.  Running that kind of publishing business today with paycheck
employees would make profit-potential for the volumes difficult.

If you have not read Harvey's Vestal Press story before, you should
take the time to do so :
  http://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/articles/vpr.htm

I would like to see the House Organs and Technical Series reprinted
in bound volumes.

Harvey Roehl introduced me to MBSI and gave me the application I used
to join MBSI a long time ago.  As Harvey said, "The Vestal Press was
a lot of fun while it lasted!"  There's that word again.

Don Shenbarger