Thanks again to Matthew Caulfield for giving us further insight about
the music on Wurlitzer rolls.  The changes he notes in the publishing
business during 1924 also affected piano rolls.  Composer credits
mostly disappeared that year in favor of simply citing the publisher.

Thanks also to Adam Ramet for his thoughtful insights into how we view
past music.  It is easy, indeed, to let the revivals of intervening
years color our expectations.

Nevertheless, expectations were not part of my initial thinking when
trying to make "educated guesses" about the tunes Wurlitzer would
select for the missing style 165 band organ rolls in 1928 and 1929.
Rather, I tried to determine which songs were popular at the time.  The
listeners in 1929, like those of today, probably related best to music
that was familiar.  Familiarity is closely related to popularity.

One measure of popularity is the music played and recorded by dance
bands of the era.  Unlike later years, unfortunately, we don't have
good sales figures for recordings, sheet music, or music rolls.

Another measure of popularity is the success of Broadway shows and
talking films.  The shows "Follow Thru" ("Button Up Your Overcoat")
and "The New Moon" ("Lover Come Back to Me") ran for a year or more on
Broadway.  Cole Porter's "Paris" ("Let's Do It") ran for over six
months.  "Whoopee" ("Makin' Whoopee") also ran for a year and was
finally closed only to make a movie of the show.  Songs from these
shows were widely recorded and apparently very popular.  The U.S.
Billboard charts tell us that the recording of "Makin' Whoopee" by
Eddie Cantor was number one for ten weeks in 1929.

So I find it interesting (and puzzling) that none of the known style
165 rolls issued during most of 1928 and all of 1929 have music from
Broadway shows.  There were many songs in those shows, and I must
confess to letting later revivals color my choice of the "guesses"
mentioned above and in my first message.  But the question remains: why
didn't Wurlitzer select ANY music from these or other Broadway shows,
even after some the tunes moved on to hit movies as early as 1930?

None of this helps us to better project tunes for the other missing
rolls from this period.  But it seems a safe bet to concentrate on
motion pictures and forget about Broadway!

Adam raises another interesting point about choosing between music that
is familiar now and music that was actually played at the time.  My
preference is music that was actually played. That choice is a bit
biased by my being familiar with most of the fox trots and jazz tunes
of the 1920's and 1930's through thousands of records, music rolls, and
pieces of sheet music.

I would add that, in my opinion, a good band or roll arrangement can
make a mediocre song better and perhaps more popular and familiar,
while a bad arrangement can hurt an otherwise good song (e.g., using
heavy marimba on piano rolls).  It's always a treat to find a "sleeper"
song or arrangement beyond my realm of familiarity.

Gary Watkins