With the help of Matthew Caulfield and other readers and contributors
to the MMD, I have slowly been putting together a comprehensive catalog
of Wurlitzer APP and Caliola rolls.  Most of the rolls of this 65-note
Wurlitzer scale are interchangeable between orchestrions and band organs.

Tom Grace's collection of Caliola rolls comprises about 90 percent of
the post-1946 T.R.T./Doyle Lane catalog.  This has been well documented
as many copies of Doyle Lane's booklet from the 1970s has survived.

In combining this catalog into a large spreadsheet -- along with catalog
data from Ray Siou, Player Piano Company of Wichita, and Play-Rite, and
with eBay listings and MMD postings -- trends of what survived into the
1960 can be seen.

Despite requests for more information, only two original Wurlitzer
catalogs have come my way.  These, according to Matthew Caulfield,
date from the mid 1920s.  Matthew is not aware of any other catalogs.
While I am in the process of entering this data into the spreadsheet by
hand, I can cross reference rolls that have survived to be recut in the
1960s and 1970s.  Only a handful of rolls are found in the 1920s
Wurlitzer catalog.

It would be nice to locate sometime a "Wurlitzer" catalog documenting
the rolls that date from the 1930s to the start of production by T.R.T.
in the 1940s.  I am also open to acquiring new APP/Caliola rolls for
price or trade.  From Tom Grace I inherited the desire for rolls which
have been lost from this collection: 30329/6103, 30312/6120, 30319/6110
and 20465.

Many of these rolls dating after the 1940s have either a 5-digit APP
number or a 4-digit Caliola number.  As far as can be determined the
rolls are identical.  Even with in the case of my rolls both numbers
written at the end of the roll, it is unclear if this was a T.R.T.
practice or if Wurlitzer did the same.

The information on this has been lost.  Memories of those involved
are unclear and present conflicting and circular evidence printed and
reported as fact now thought to be false.

A few large Wurlitzer band organs were cut down to play Caliola rolls.
Most likely this was done post 1946 and probably later despite printed
and repeated memories to the contrary.  Why this was done is only
a guess.  The result has been confusion as to roll numbering and
production counts.  For that reason I will use both numbers when
referring to a roll.

The irony of the situation is that while large Wurlitzer organs were
cut down to play Caliola rolls, many large European organs were cut down
to play Wurlitzer 165 rolls.  Existing production records in Matthew
Caulfield's collection indicate no shortage of rolls of either scale.
This tends to invalidate the argument that only Caliola rolls were
available as no new 165 rolls were produced.  Comparing the T.R.T.
records as recorded in the Doyle Lane catalog show that the same
popular songs were issued on both scales at close to the same time in
the T.R.T. sales ledger.

With the large spreadsheet (currently at 2539 song title entries) some
trends can be seen.  Sorting the data by roll number gives an
approximation of the era the roll was issued.  The last rolls (not
counting modern production) date from about 1968 when Ralph Tussing
stopped production.  Matthew Caulfield has copies of Ralph's sales
ledgers, which give an indication of the final date.

The lowest numbers are what I call "high brow" classical, the sort of
songs one would find in "Etude" magazine.  This is your operatic or
concert music: Carmen, La Traviata, Wedding of the Winds, etc.  These
arrangements date back more than a century from this writing.  Many of
these rolls survived to be re-cut in the 1970s.

The next era would be the ragtime era, early jazz, and WW1 patriotic
songs.  These rolls also survived to be recut, however, there is a
problem: in the 1920s catalogs there are gaps where these roll numbers
should be -- blank spots.  It is my opinion that these catalog entries
were deleted!  A decade later this music was no longer popular, so the
entries were removed.  I suppose it is hard to predict what will
survive a century and what will not.

Documented in the catalog are "ethnic" songs: Polish, Lithuanian,
Irish, German, Jewish, Spanish, etc.  Few of these rolls have survived.
(Every now and then one shows up on eBay.)

The rolls that did survive to be recut from the 1920s catalog are the
ever-popular Broadway show tunes and early movie music.  Movie music
can either be "picture rolls" which were used to accompany silent
films, or theme songs and pop songs from the sound era.  In my large
collection of 2000 or so MIDI files there are a surprising number of
these sound era song titles that have survived to make it to be
converted to MIDI.  A cross-check on the Academy of Motion Pictures
web site shows that often these songs were nominated or won an Oscar.
This remains true today as often I hear on Muzak in the supermarket,
or in elevators, similar songs from forgotten films played in the
background.

By combining data from the later 1970s catalogs with records of eBay
sales and postings on MMD and other web sites, some of the 1930s era
songs can be documented, filling in gaps between the roll numbers.  Here,
in addition to Broadway and film show tunes, is a scattering of big band
music.  In addition there is the start of songs I call Coney Island or
circus style.  These are the songs that define the "traditional" sound
of the merry-go-round or the circus carnival atmosphere.

Marches are interspersed throughout the catalogs.  A number of them
date from the "high brow" era, others tend to date from the War times,
centered on the two big wars of the 20th century.  I suspect, though,
that from the T.R.T./Doyle Lane catalogs that both the Korea and Vietnam
wars caused an interest in patriotic songs.  Late in the T.R.T.
production in the early 1960s rolls were made by combining earlier
masters to provide more "evergreen" rolls.  Often these included a
patriotic march.

Starting in the 1950s rolls are not "Themed."  The collection is more
a mix of top 40 songs, like a film song plus some fillers which could
be patriotic or high brow.

The existing spreadsheet mostly documents long 6- and 10-tune rolls.
There are also a number of 5-tune rolls, which were probably made from
the same masters.  In some eras it can be clearly seen what 10-tune (or
in some cases long 6-tune) rolls have been split.  Often in the eras of
the long 6-tune rolls one song was dropped to make a 5-tune roll.  Later
in the catalog these dropped songs were combined to create an additional
5-tune roll.  So far all the song titles in the existing 10 tune catalog
have been found listed in the 5-tune catalogs.  Whether or not these
are the same arrangements will require access to the existing rolls or
MIDI files for comparison.

Something I just noticed when writing this article -- a class of song
is missing!  Can the reader see it?  There are no popular hymns or
religious music in these 2539 song titles.  I just did a search for
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and "The Old Rugged Cross."  Not
there.  I have these in the Wurlitzer 150 scale (a unique sound!).
Possibly some of the "ethnic" or "high brow" music is of a liturgical
nature.

I guess it makes sense that I get the reply, "Microsoft Excel can not
find Jesus."

Julie Porter