I just got home from cleaning out the apartment of a roll collector
named George Grossman, who is 87 years old.  His family is afraid he
isn't able to live alone anymore and put him is an assisted care
facility.

George always told me that in his will, he was leaving his piano and
rolls to me.  Since George has been collecting since the 1940s, you
can imagine how many rolls he has.  I am putting the majority of them
on eBay, but I found old music roll catalogues that I had never seen
before, such as Connorized, Vocalstyle, U.S. Music and many QRS catalogs.
Also, many listings of ethnic rolls, such as Italian, Polish, etc.

All of this stuff is from the 1920s and eventually I will put them on
eBay also.  Before I do, I wonder if someone is doing historical research
that these catalogs will help.

One problem is that the books are printed so that even a flatbed
scanner can't copy them without breaking the book's spine.  I think
there is software that can take a photo of a page in a book like this
and then process it so it looks like it came from a scanner.  In any
case, if these catalogues are of real historical value, contact me at
AeolianPiano@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

Randolph Herr