The recent posts about Larry Givens and his roll production, along with
the discussion of the custom roll cabinets that originally belonged to
Charles Fuller Stoddard, has brought up a question that several of my
collector friends and I have wondered about.

The question is about three recuts that Larry Givens produced and the
source of the original Ampico rolls that Larry copied for these recuts
or the methods he used to produce them.  One of the rolls is known to
have been amongst Stoddard's Ampico roll collection housed in those two
cabinets; however, the source of the other rolls is unknown.

The first roll is documented to have been originally commissioned by
Stoddard and is the only known original copy.  It was recut by Givens
as Ampico NI#2, "Minuette, D Flat - Oiseaux Tristes (Ravel)", played by
Dimitri Tiomkin, the famous Hollywood film composer.

Another roll of unknown origin was issued by Givens as Ampico NI#4,
"Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desire (Bach)", arranged by Myra Hess and played
by Ford Hill.  In all my years of collecting I have never seen a copy
of this particular recut and other collectors that I have asked about
it also did not have it.

My suspicion is that this roll was a performance by pianist Ford Hill,
who went to graduate school in Indiana in the 1950s or '60s, that was
coded by Givens.  Can anyone verify this?

Another unknown roll that Givens might have produced is Ampico NI#5,
"Sonata A minor (Longo 241) (Domenico Scarlatti)", played by John
Thomas Brooker.  No information can be located on pianist John Thomas
Brooker.  Does anyone have a copy of this roll or does anyone have any
further information about its origin?

I have talked to Richard Groman, owner of Keystone Music Rolls, one of
the successors to Larry Givens original operation, about these rolls
and he does not have copies nor does he have any information about
them.

Back to the first roll mentioned, the Ravel pieces played by Dimitri
Tiomkin, a number of us would like to see a new archival recutting of
this roll.  I'm very happy to have a copy of the Givens issued roll,
but with modern optical roll scanning and processing along with
computerized perforators, we can do so much better now.

Does anyone know who has the original copy of this roll?  Since it is
the only known original it should be scanned, at the very least, but
it is my hope that whoever owns this roll will allow it to be scanned
and recut one more time.

Michael Swanson