I've contrived a roll scanner and am beginning to scan the rolls I've
accumulated over the years. One of the rolls was an abused specimen
which was salvageable with a little care, and plainly a QRS roll
because there was a visible fragment of the standard "To The Player
Pianist" text on what was left of the leader. Doing a bit of Google
searching turned up a YouTube video of a similarly-named MelODee
roll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFOny1_AFLI
MelODee Party Rolls 1129 Just a Little Drink
Imagine my surprise to discover that the roll was musically identical
to my QRS roll, the only difference being the lack of QRS's dynamic
indicators and the QRS leader-printing. The printed lyrics and font
were also identical. My roll had no box with it, so all I could go
on was the roll number printed at the end (3194) to compare with the
MelODee roll number (1129). I have no publication year info for
either roll.
Is this normal? I can find no suggestion on the web suggesting that
MelODee and QRS shared content. Does anyone have any illumination
on this topic? Thanks!
Marshall Jose
[ About QRS 3194, the Billings Rollography, Vol. 1, page 95, says
[
[ 9/25 JUST A LITTLE DRINK (Fox Trot) . . . . . . . . 3194
[ [Byron Gay] Victor Arden & Max Kortlander
[
[ "MelODee Party Rolls" were recut rolls published in the 1960s by
[ Givens-Gourley Co., Wexford, Pennsylvania. The "MelODee" logotype
[ was previously used by Mel-O-Dee Music Co., Inc., a subsidiary of
[ Aeolian Company. -- Robbie
|