I would really like to thank my new friends at MMD for the interest
and advice you have given me on this subject.  To answer a couple of
questions, 'my' Estey (the organ on which I cut my teeth as an organ
builder) is Opus 2727, built in 1928 for Memorial Coliseum in Marion,
Indiana.  It had a luminous console and a roll player in a separate
cabinet.  The main console was to the right of the stage proscenium
in a loft; the player was in a similar loft to the left of the stage.

I wrote a booklet on the history of this instrument, which I am
presently revising for reprinting.  If anybody is interested, I will
let you know via this web site when it is available.

The organ is 3 manuals, 28 ranks.  It was a memorial gift and the
intention was to use the player to allow school students to hear great
works of music played 'live' on the pipe organ.  Here's the kicker.

During the entire life of this organ, until I started working on it
in 1975, the school system owned exactly _one_ music roll.  Estey sent
a guy around to collect it in the early 1930s because they had never
paid for it!  The player was cut loose (with an axe) in about 1960.
The main console was cut loose in about 1968.  I started my work on it
as a college project in 1975, and had it concert-ready in about nine
months.  I couldn't resist the urge to reconnect the player and, with
the help of a knowledgeable friend, I got it going.  (Forgive, if this
is getting too long.)

As part of my research, I called the information operator in
Brattleboro to see if the defunct Estey company still had offices or
a receiver.  She was wonderful!  She told me her whole family had
worked for Estey, and she connected me with Hyacinth Renaud, who I much
later learned was Estey royalty.  I told him about the player, and he
promised to send me a few rolls.  A week later seven boxes of rolls,
totaling nearly 50 in all, arrived on my doorstep.  Some were obviously
used and in terrible shape.  Many of them appeared to be new, however.

One last story.  Our school corporation offices and board room were in
the old Coliseum building.  The board members had to walk through the
5,000 seat gymnasium to get to their boardroom.  It was the Halloween
night and they were just finishing a board meeting.  Most had no idea
that a pipe organ could even have a player.  As they walked through
the dark gymnasium, I had the luminous console faintly lighted with all
the other lights out.  As they started across the room, I started the
player with 'Danse Macabre' playing.  Needless to say, it was a choice
moment, especially with the stop controls flashing 'by themselves' on
the unoccupied console!

I still have the player, although it is disconnected, but I look
forward to preserving as many of these rolls as I can so they can be
heard when the organ breathes again.  You can hear some samples of 2727
at my web site, http://www.reynoldsorgans.com/sounds.html  Scroll to
the bottom, or listen to everything else on your way!

Thanks again,

Thad Reynolds