All known Aeolian-American Corp (Klavier) master piano rolls have been
moved to Hyde Park, New York.  The inventorying and re-boxing operation
is now complete.  A detailed computerized inventory now exists listing
every item in the master library along with the name of the arranger
(or one of his pseudonyms) and the date each Mylar working master was
made, tempo, publisher etc.  A small percentage of the Mylars did not
have readable dates.  The dates range between April 1960 and June 1972
when J. Lawrence Cook retired.  106 Hi Babit arrangements range from
December 1966 to May 1972 and only six of them are not showing dates.
Those could have been done after Cook left.

Over 2000 new piano roll boxes and 86 new 12x14x12 cardboard cartons
are protecting the collection.  The first 38 cartons each hold 20 to 30
Mylar masters.  Cartons 39 through 71 each hold 20 to 30 paper lyric
layout rolls.  Cartons 72 through 77 hold the existing master-grade
paper stencil masters and cartons 78 through 86 hold spooled playable
rolls.  All items are in numerical order and the computer record allows
any roll or master to be quickly located.

The original rubber stamps for box and leader labels are enclosed with
the lyric layout rolls or with the Mylar for those titles which are
not word rolls.  New box labels were imprinted using the rubber stamps.
A few of the longer rolls are grouped together in larger roll boxes,
20 per carton.  All lyric stencil belts are boxed separately in random
order.  Those could be sorted later but I think more modern printing
methods will be employed in the future.  The computer inventory does
indicate which titles were word rolls.

There were a few surprises and I have left the best for last.  Most
important is how complete the collection is.  The only missing titles
I know of are

1561 'Tell Me'.  1561 became 'Among My Souvenirs' which I have.
1945 'Some Of These Days'.  1945 became 'Let It Be' which I have.
  The only known copy of Hi Babit's arrangement of 'Some Of These Days'
  was with his roll collection when he sold it in 1993.
1986 'Catarina'.  1986 became 'Hey Jude' which I have.

I am also seeking to borrow for scanning or to purchase:

2001 Silver Threads Among The Gold
2101 For Elise
2102 Turkish March
2103 El Capitan
2104 Girl With [illegible] One Eye
3070 Alexander's Ragtime Band (I do have this title under catalog
     number 1033 and M102)
1005KA Entertainer
1006KA Cascades Rag

Beyond catalog number 2068, the typewritten list (supplied with the
masters) becomes sketchy with some catalog numbers being labeled as
unissued.  A search on eBay turned up some newer Klavier medley rolls
which were not on this list and I was able to purchase them.  This
begs the question of what other newly added titles will be discovered?
I found some Klavier catalog listings and they may reveal some of the
added catalog numbers when I have time to review them.

Beyond catalog number 6126, there are no more Mylar masters which might
suggest Klavier (at that time being run by Harold Powell in North
Hollywood) had begun using their infamous pneumatic duplicator.  That
theory can be confirmed once some of the rolls from this period can be
acquired and scanned.  These include but are not limited to:

M108 Harbor Lights Medley
M1118 How Could Little Red Riding Hood
M1120 You've Got To See Mama Every Night
M1122 Who Takes Care Of The Caretakers Daughter
M1125 All Men Are Devils
M1211 Farmer Took Another Load Away! Hay! Hay!, The
M1212 She Had To Go and Lose It
M1213 Show Me The Way To Go Home (I have this title as catalog No. 1498).
M1214 I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream
M1237 How Ya Gonna Stop Their Petting Parties
M1244 Entrance Of The Gladiators
M1255 No, No A Thousand Times No
M1284 Dill Pickle Rag
M148 Famous Movie Themes No. 2
M150 Hits From The Sixties No. 1
(and more undiscovered titles)

Another surprise was the discovery of just how extensively J. Lawrence
Cook was remaking the music library.  Upon searching eBay, I discovered
quite a few older versions of songs by other arrangers.  Only the
latest versions of the masters were retained.  There were quite a few
Vern Elliott, Al Short and even a couple Clyde Ridge arrangements which
were remade by Cook.  I have been buying up all available older
versions of Aeolian rolls with the intent of re-mastering and giving
people a choice of which version they would like reissued.

In most cases, the remakes retained the original catalog numbers.  One
exception was to be a remake of Cook's own arrangement of 'A Good Man
Is Hard To Find'.  You would know this as catalog number 1439 issued
7/29/1963.  Cook did a remake as catalog number 1921 on 1/16/1968 which
later became 1921 'Bewitched' on 4/29/1970.  A letter from the sales
department accompanied the master saying they preferred the original
version of 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find' and I have to agree after
hearing both.  No word stencil belt or layout roll was present for the
remade version so I would have to conclude that this is one remake
which did not get issued and if it was, it had to be as an instrumental.

There were some additional revelations upon inspecting the items
with the masters.  There were notes revealing the existence of four
perforators.  Keystone had only gotten two of the more modern Aeolian
perforators from Powell, yet there were extra magnet banks.  I have
them.  Notes with a few of the masters reminded the perforator
operators that the enclosed Mylar master ran best on unit 3+4, or unit
1+2, as the case may be.  Quite a few of the notes warned to watch the
master where marked.  It seems they tended to wander off track or jump
off the feed sprockets.  I have one of the master reading machines and
will do some testing with it.

Perhaps some MMD readers could confirm whether all of the perforators
were moved to Rochester, New York, when the roll cutting division moved
from Oregon, Illinois.  Perhaps someone who had visited Powell's
operation in North Hollywood, Calif., remembers how many Aeolian and
Ampico perforators were there.  Richard Groman of Keystone has some
photos and negatives he intends to give me which could shed some light
on this question.

Each perforator ran 16 copies and pairs of perforators were ganged
together with a common drive shaft.  The tally sheets with each master
confirm the number of rolls they ran was always some multiple of 32.
(32, 64 or 128)

I'm not sure when the use of the Aeolian name was discontinued.  If I'm
recalling correctly, Gibson Guitar Company asserted their rights to the
Aeolian name.  The same rubber stamps were used for the roll leaders by
simply cutting away the border and Aeolian name.  Quite a few of the
unaltered leader stamps are still there which is a good indication that
those titles were not re-run after the name change and the rolls would
be more scarce.  Titles like the theme songs from TV shows like "All In
The Family", "Batman" and "Secret Agent" had the uncut leader stamps.
The Batman roll gave me a chuckle because Aeolian decided to make that
one a word roll.  The words are Bat-man...Bat-man...Bat-man...Bat-man!

I found a special in-house production marked catalog number 0000,
'Santa Is A Dirty Old Man'.  There is a Mylar master but no lyrics.
Does anyone out there have this roll?  There is also a special test
roll for factory use only which was created for some special purpose
by Cook.

The biggest surprise was the discovery of 19 un-issued titles that
J. Lawrence Cook and Hi Babit made in the three months before Cook
retired.  There is some rather strong evidence of these not having been
issued.  The hand-autographed paper master was present along with all
of the rubber type for the lyric belt, box and leader stamps but the
lyric stamps were never cut apart and none of the rubber type was ever
inked.  No Mylar was ordered or made according to the enclosed job
traveler sheets.  No word stencil belt was assembled.  So here we have
some of the very last works J. Lawrence Cook and Hi Babit did for
Aeolian which are yet to be heard on a piano.

The titles are by Cook except as noted:

2077 Heart
2078 Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?
2079 Abracadabra
2080 Never My Love
2081 Our Love [Babit]
2082 Please Be Kind
2083 Never Been To Spain
2084 For The Good Times
2085 Second Time Around, The
2086 Mother And Child Reunion
2087 Brown Eyes, Why Are You Blue
2088 This Love Of Mine [Babit]
2089 Caldonia
2090 Sailing Down The Chesapeake Bay
2091 Heart Of Gold
2092 Just Because You're You
2093 Give Me Your Heart For Christmas
2094 Get Out Of Town [Babit]
2095 Sweet Gingerbread Man

I did send Hi Babit a recording of his Warsaw Concerto Mylar master
playing on my foot pumper.  When I get time to tune it, I'll do some
better recordings for him.

Speaking of Hi Babit, I did get a copy of his manuscript of 'I Left My
Heart In San Francisco'.  This is the same manuscript he had prepared
for Larry Givens to be cut on the Mel-O-Dee label (but the roll was
never made).  Well, I have transcribed it to a MIDI punch master.
Mr. Babit has heard it and desires to have the roll made, but that's
another subject.

I plan on offering a printed copy of the Aeolian catalog for a fee
sometime in the near future, once the information gathering is as
complete as possible.  New information comes in almost daily as
I search listings of rolls for sale and try to acquire them.  I'm sure
this article will bring forth some important revisions to the database
as well.

Wanted: Does anyone have at least 2000 sets of new cores and flanges
for sale?  Mostly small and some large.

Larry Doe