As many know I am now in the market to buy an Ampico or Duo-Art piano.
I am now 52 and my love for these fine and unique pianos goes way back
to the years 1955-1962.  My grandparents had a very large home just
outside Philadelphia.  This large home had a large "music room" with
what seemed to me to be at the time an ancient carved art-case grand
piano.  I was told by grandmother that it was a "very special Duo-Art"
piano.

The unusual thing about this Duo-Art was a fairly large cabinet with
a roll-changer located under a large bookcase.  There were at least
eight or more rolls on this changer.  Also located near the bookcase
was a remote push button control.  A slightly smaller push-button unit
was located near a big stuffed chair on a lamp table.

Grandmother and I would spend hours listening to the wonderful music
from that fantastic Duo-Art.  I remember her letting me push the buttons
to select the tune I wanted to hear.  You could also push a button to
play all the music rolls one after another.

In the dining room on the floor were two brass foot switches.  One was
for a butler's telegraph outside the kitchen.  The other foot switch
would remotely start the Duo-Art in the music room.  It would then play
all the music rolls.

At first the piano was badly out of tune.  After Grandmother saw that
I enjoyed the piano she had it tuned for me.  As a child I loved to
watch the wonderful mechanics of both the piano and its remote changer.
No small wonder that today I am a mechanical engineer.

Grandmother always told me that one day the grand piano and remote
changer would be mine.  I believe she also hoped that some day I would
learn to play that piano.  Sadly, Grandmother passed away in 1962 and
the great old house was soon sold.  Despite my protests the piano
stayed with the house!  I was given an old Victor Victrola, which
I still own today, as a consolation prize.  I never learned to play the
piano; in fact, there was not a piano at all in my parents house.

The great old house is still there; I have often wondered if the
Duo-Art my Grandmother wanted me to have, _my_ Duo-Art, still lives
there?

Does anyone own one of those fantastic Duo-Art remote roll changers?
I would like to see a photo of one!  I have seen many Duo-Art grand
pianos, but never a remote roll changer.  Do many exist today?

Regards,
Brad Hunter
silverghost1926@mn.com