Hello MMD.  This is a query about Pianostyle rolls -- the ones made
in the U.S., not the post-WW2 ones made in the U.K. by a small company
that used the Pianostyle name and an amazingly similar label design.

My query is: does anyone have any catalog information about Pianostyle
roll No. 30682, played by B. G. Howard?

Here's the story.  About six months ago a Parex roll appeared in
Frances and Michael Broadway's Post-Bid Enterprise mail auction.  It's
title was "Indian Cradle Song", and it was listed as a Recordo roll.

I couldn't believe it.  Parex was an obscure piano roll company that
operated in the U.K. for a while in the 1950s.  The Recordo system was
never popular in the U.K.  I suspect (on no firm evidence) that the
number of Recordo players there is about the same as the number here
in Tasmania, which has a population of roughly half a million, and I've
come across about half a dozen in the last 40 years.  Why would a
struggling roll company cut an almost unsaleable roll?

Unable to resist this mystery, I bid for the roll, won it, and it
eventually arrived here soon after this last Christmas.  It is indeed
a Recordo-coded roll, and after some edge repairs it plays quite well.
The leader is made of dark blue cloth, rather like the cloth leaders
found on U.K. Imperial Linenised rolls.  The labels on leader and box
are Parex labels, with "Song Roll" and "Indian Cradle Song" typed,
not printed,  into blank spaces.  This suggests that the roll wasn't
a regular production number.  Even more suspiciously, the box bottom
is a Melographic Roll Co. box, not a U.K. company at all, as far as
I know.  On the right-hand side of the roll, just before the music
starts is printed  "30682  Played by B.G. Howard".

I suspect that this is really a U.S. Pianostyle roll, that found it's
way to the U.K., suffered the loss of its leader, and was repaired by
somebody who had access to spare Parex labels and maybe leaders (I've
never seen a genuine Parex roll).

Why do I think it's a Pianostyle roll?  Because in Volume 3 of the
Billings Rollography (QRS and Recordo Pianists), page 155, Bob Howard
is listed as being pianist on five Pianostyle rolls; he isn't credited
with recording for any other company.  Further, in Volume 2 of the
Rollography (Recordo and its Kin), page 171, 19 Pianostyle Recordo
rolls are listed.  Their serial numbers range from 24096 to 31235.

The Parex roll, 30682, lies within these numerical boundaries.
However, one piece of evidence points elsewhere.  The Rollography
states that Pianostyle Recordo rolls did not use the soft position for
the bass hammer rail.  This roll definitely does.

Bob Billings doesn't think there's enough evidence to include this in
the list of known Pianostyle Recordo rolls, and he knows far more about
Recordo than I do.  Unfortunately he has very little Pianostyle catalog
information.  If anyone does have the information, please, please tell
me what you know about no. 30682

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.

 [ I find two songs entitled "Indian Cradle Song":
 [
 [ (1) by Charles Wakefield Cadman, 1923
 [ (2) music by Mabel Wayne, words by Gus Kahn, 1927
 [
 [ -- Robbie