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MMD > Archives > August 2015 > 2015.08.18 > 03Prev  Next


Ampico Roll "Nymph Errant" by Cole Porter
By Richard Groman

Frank Milne recorded/arranged the "Nymph Errant" Selections piano
roll (with Ampico coding) in mid-1934.  The original roll was in
a collector's library since the 1950s.  Larry Givens borrowed this
roll sometime in the early 1960's and made a 3-to-1 stencil master
[production master] from it.  All existing playable rolls -- made
by Givens, Powell, Klavier and Keystone -- have been cut from this
Givens stencil master.

I had a chance to study the original roll back in the 1980s.
Mr. Milne's musical corrections, as well as Ampico coding corrections,
were all over the original roll!  Needless to say, the roll was never
100-percent finished for issue.

As speculated in other postings the reasons for not issuing the roll
could be many.  The show playing in Great Britain, starring Gertrude
Lawrence, was undoubtedly considered to cross the Atlantic to play
to U.S. audiences.  I'm sure finances, Miss Lawrence's income tax
problems (that surfaced about this time), and skittish Broadway
investors all contributed to the show never reaching New York.  The
songs from the show -- many recorded by Miss Lawrence and Ray Noble
(as dance records) -- were issued on the British HMV label and because
of cross licensing on the RCA Victor label in the U.S. as well.

By 1934, after the merger of American Piano and the Aeolian Co.
in 1932, all decisions about the player roll company were highly
scrutinized.  The free wheeling days of "we will take a chance and
record such and such a song" were gone.  Frank Milne was now solely
in charge of the Artist & Repertoire Department of the new Aeolian
American Corp.

Also, the company was now totally concentrated in Rochester, New York.
The ease of getting together with other composers, lyricists,
performers, publishers, song pluggers, etc., when the two individual
companies were located in New York City back in the heady days of the
1920's, no longer existed.

I'm sure the decision was made to stop work on this roll and shelve it.
New song hits from other sources that would be more salable were
considered far more important.

Richard Groman - Keystone Music Roll Co.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania


(Message sent Tue 18 Aug 2015, 21:38:57 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Ampico, Cole, Errant, Nymph, Porter, Roll

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