Mike Kukral wrote in 110509 MMDigest:

> Nine times out of ten when I ask visitors, young and old,
> if they have ever seen a player piano before, they answer,
> "Only in the cowboy movies about the Old West." ...
> Why do people always say this?  What started this myth?

My ol' friend, Dave Bourne, has been playing old-time piano and
band music for more than 50 years, and he has performed in several
western TV shows and films.  I asked him about the player piano in
the westerns.

  Player pianos are heard but not seen in the early westerns.  Lots
  of early westerns used player pianos for the sound track music,
  including the "mandolin" attachment with the metal clips.  Many
  of the piano rolls were 4-hand arrangements.

  The use of tremolo effects in the player piano rolls was another
  factor that contributed to what people think of as a proper saloon
  piano sound.

  In the absence of recorded "saloon piano" music (like my own
  CD series), coin-operated player pianos were often used in
  "Old West" amusement parks, such as Knott's Berry Farm "Ghost Town"
  with its Cantina full of automatic musical instruments and with
  small keyboardless "A" roll pianos in the saloon and on the street.

  There's no mystery as to why this illusion prevails.

  The player piano in "Deadwood" was seen only in the first (pilot)
  episode.  The regular piano was delivered in the ninth episode and
  I played it (ostensibly) in the Gem Saloon in the last four episodes
  of the first season.

  All of the recorded saloon piano music used in the three seasons of
  "Deadwood", with the exception of the first episode, was my music.
  Throughout the three years of the show they used 63 of my tunes.

  Dave Bourne
  Agoura Hills, Calif.

"Heard but not seen" -- I think that's the basis of the confusion.
The player piano sound is so well-known that the mind unconsciously
inserts the missing Pianola into the scene.

Visit Dave Bourne's web site at http://www.saloonpiano.com/ and hear
him play "Snow Deer Rag" at http://www.saloonpiano.com/video.html 

Robbie Rhodes
Etiwanda, Calif.