Matthew Caulfield wrote in 080907 MMDigest:

> Today I received a note from Ray Siou.  Anybody with an instrument
> using Wurlitzer rolls knows who Ray Siou was. ... This all brought
> back fond memories of what once was.

Matthew Caulfield's post brought back fond memories of what once was.

I met Ray Siou three or four times at Robert Heilbuth's house in San
Francisco between 1970 and 1980.  I had an apprentice-teacher-mentor
relationship with Robert in piano tuning, repair and player piano
rebuilding.  When Ray showed up he usually had three or four rolls and
he and Robert would go upstairs while I was left to finish a task in
the downstairs work shop.

Soon there would be music from one of three band organs Robert had
built put together himself, and soon I would think of an excuse to go
upstairs.  They would be talking about 'Wurlitzer this' and 'Wurlitzer
that', and the 'horrible arrangements' (according to Robert) on the
various types of Wurlitzer rolls.

Soon the talk became 'Waldteufel this' and 'Waldteufel that'.
Then Robert could be cajoled to play one of his rolls, an original
composition.  He wrote the music out on staff [music paper], arranging
it on the piano, drew the punching marks on the roll and punched it
out by hand using a perforator he made.

Reading the posts in MMDigest about Ray Siou I wonder if Ray ever made
reproductions of Robert's rolls?  Besides his hand-made ones, most of
Robert's rolls were old ones that he brought over from Germany, but
I thought I saw and heard some rolls on new white paper.  Those could
have come from Ray as Robert wasn't the avid, outgoing collector type.
He mostly stayed in a small circle of friends.

Richard Moody