P. M. Keast was an editor of coin-operated rolls for QRS (1917-1921),
then for the Clark Orchestra Roll Co. (1921-1924), and finally for
Capitol (1924-1930). I corresponded with him in 1969, and then
interviewed him (with Dave Junchen, Dave Ramey and Tom Sprague) in
December 1970. Transcriptions of what we learned appear on p. 721-722
of Dave Bowers' "Encyclopedia," and on p.132-135 of "Treasures of
Mechanical Music," by me and Dave Bowers.
Mr. Keast said this regarding the selection of tunes for coin-operated
music rolls (quoted from "Treasures of Mechanical Music"):
"When I was working at Clark, I used to come into Seeburg once a
month and meet Mr. Kazecki for a music selection conference. He had
charge of that program. We would make up the content of the rolls,
and then I'd go back and we'd work them out. I don't remember any
instance of a publisher bringing us sheet music like they bring it
to a band leader to have a new song plugged. We never put anything
on the rolls that wasn't already reasonably popular. Ten songs per
roll was a limited number, and when Mr. Kazecki and I made up the
list we chose the ten that we thought were the most popular and
would 'sell' on a coin-operated machine. That's the name of the
game, I guess."
Art Reblitz
|