Much as been said about J. Lawrence Cook's work at the Q.R.S. Piano
Roll Co.  Most people associate Cook with his thousands of player piano
rolls that he arranged for nearly fifty years.  However, no mention was
made of his work at the B.A.B. Organ Factory where he arranged rolls
for military band organs, many of which today are not playing his fine
arrangements.

It's amazing that he was able to arrange piano rolls at the same time
that he worked at B.A.B.  While there, he arranged rolls for at least
five styles of band organs.  These fine arrangements are seldom played
or heard as they were intended to be played on organs that exclusively
play the B.A.B. roll.

To my knowledge, there are only four carousels in the United States
that have the ability of playing original B.A.B. rolls.  One is at
Spokane, Washington, where the Ruth organ plays the 87-key B.A.B. roll.
Another is the 87-key Gebrueder Bruder Organ at Flushing Meadows
Carousel, in New York (but that organ hasn't played in nearly fifty
years).

Still another one is the Tilden Park Ruth organ that plays the 66-key
B.A.B. roll, and finally, much to my disappointment, the B&B Carousell
that used to play J. L. Cook's arrangements when the carousel was on
Surf Avenue.  After that the organ was converted to MIDI it does not
play any of the original B.A.B. rolls.  Instead, much to my chagrin,
it plays music that sounds much like a European Organ.

What a crying shame that, aside from the transcribed rolls which can
be heard at several carousels, the result is that the full range of
instruments (including triangle, and castanets) are not heard in these
transcribed rolls.  The Glen Echo Carousel has almost all the 66-key
transcribed rolls, and if it were not for T.J. Fisher, who really
appreciates B.A.B. arrangements, the organ would be playing exclusively
Wurlitzer rolls.

One other organ that plays the B.A.B. original rolls is in the
collection of the Jerry Doring family in Arcadia, Calif.  I had the
pleasure of visiting the Doring collection on many occasions and
enjoyed listening to the wonderful Bruder organ.

Finally, it is a mystery to me as to why no mention has ever been made
in Cook's Internet biography of his work at the B.A.B. Organ Co.  Could
it be that he was under contract to Q.R.S. and was quietly working for
B.A.B. at the same time?  I would welcome some answers to this
puzzling question.

George Karpel,
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

 [ A list of 66-key B.A.B. rolls compiled by Larry Villano is at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/66keyBABlist.html and
 [ http://wurlitzer-rolls.com/appendix.html#ORIGINALS 
 [ A list of the conversions to Wurlitzer 165 format is at
 [ http://wurlitzer-rolls.com/index7.html  -- Robbie