Roger Robinson wanted to know about any "O" rolls that include the tune
"Sonny Boy" [170112 MMDigest].  He's in luck!  This song was super
popular in the late 20s and was issued on a couple of different Capitol
O-rolls.  Thanks to Mr. Rick Crandall's excellent O-rollography here
http://www.rickcrandall.net/operators-o-roll-rollography/ 
we find it on Capitol O-885, tune 3; Capitol 895 (1929); and Clark
O-2211 "Easy Winners" (1928).

Full line-up:

Capitol O-885 (1928)
1. Dusky Stevedore
2. Early in the Morning
3. Sonny Boy
4. Two Little Love Birds
5. Roses of Yesterday
6. Someday, Somewhere (We'll Meet Again)
7. Think of Me Thinking of You
8. Sleep Baby Sleep
9. Then Came the Dawn
10. That's What Put the Sweet in Home Sweet Home

Capitol O-895, (1929):

1. Who Wouldn't Be Jealous of You?
2. Carolina Moon
3. Me and the Man in the Moon
4. Sonny Boy
5. I Loved You Then As I Love You Know
6. Pompanola
7. Withered Roses
8. You're the Cream in My Coffee
9. I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
10. I Wanna Be Loved By You

The Capitol O-roll arrangement of "Sonny Boy" was adapted from
Capitol's 88-note word roll of the tune (#5176), played/arranged
by Johnny Honnert (with assistance from Capitol editor-in-chief
Roy Rodocker, whose "musical fingerprints" appear on almost every
Columbia and Capitol roll arrangement, regardless of pianist).
I don't know if this roll has ever been recut, but it should be!

More on pianist Johnny Honnert (1908-1997), who was later an AMICA
Honorary Member, can be found on his page on the AMICA site here:
http://www.amica.org/Live/Organization/Honor-Roll/honnert.htm 

Capitol 88-note roll 5176 was originally issued sometime in 1928;
I'm not sure the month.  I don't have consistent Capitol 88-note roll
bulletins from after about 1926 or so, both because original paper
88-note roll bulletins and catalogs from this company are exceedingly
scarce to extinct (or nearly extinct) today, and also because after
about 1926, Capitol apparently became terrible at sending their new
monthly roll bulletins in for publication in the music trade journals,
meaning most of the information on Capitol 88-note rolls from 1927-1933
(roll numbers in the 1900s, 5000s, and early 6000s) has to come from
the existing rolls themselves.  (If you know of any for sale, even if
shredded or missing pages, _please_ email me!),

For all MMDers entertainment, here's a _real_ Coinola X orchestrion
playing the Capitol / Johnny Honnert / Roy Rodocker O-roll arrangement
of "Sonny Boy", although I'm not sure from which Capitol O-roll it
comes, and who recut this roll and when.  The video was posted by The
Mechanical Music Workshop of Wisconsin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8nRyclC34c 

You can always try asking Tom Neuhaus of the Mechanical Music Workshop
about where they got the roll in the video, and where to get another
one: info@themechanicalmusicworkshop.com.geentroep (drop ".geentroep"
to reply)

Also, Clark also put out their own version of "Sonny Boy" on an O-roll
in a different arrangement, derived either from the QRS or Imperial
versions of the tune, which by then were both made by QRS, and by then
may well have had identical arrangements.  By the time QRS got well
into making the "0-series" Imperial 88-note rolls (series started circa
1926 with 06000, I think), the formerly different Imperial arrangements
(produced by QRS in the "X-series" from 1922-1925) were starting to
become more and more alike, until the Imperial and QRS arrangements
eventually became identical, at least by the Depression if not before,
the only real differences probably being paper quality and also the use
of (according to J. Lawrence Cook) a different gear on the perforator
allowing the same arrangement to be punched using less paper (and/or
maybe the omission of some repeated verses or choruses).

According to "Billings Rollography" Volume 1, the QRS word roll of
"Sonny Boy" was QRS 4452, played by Max Kortlander and originally
issued November, 1928.  This will probably be the same arrangement
heard on the Clark O-roll.

Here's the line-up of the Clark O-roll of "Sonny Boy" (thanks again to
Mr. Crandall for this info):

Clark O-2211 "Easy Winners" (1928)

1. Here Comes the Show Boat
2. Everywhere You Go
3. Our Bungalow of Dreams
4. Girl of My Dreams (I Love You)
5. Mary (What Are You Waiting For?)
6. Waiting for the Rainbow
7. Changes
8. Sonny Boy
9. Sailin' On
10. Keep Sweeping the Cobwebs Off the Moon

As to the song itself, this song has a funny origin story.  Supposedly,
Al Jolson wanted the ace songwriting team of DeSylva, Brown and
Henderson to write him a sentimental ballad, and so as a joke they wrote
what they thought was (to them) the most over-the-top, heart-on-sleeve
ballad, that they thought sure Jolson would reject out of hand (after
all, it was intended as a joke), and to their surprise, Al loved it!
It went on to become a smash hit and one of several songs strongly
associated with Jolson throughout the rest of his career.

Now, as to a recut of the O-roll version of "Sonny Boy", I would first
recommend trying Mr. Paul Gottschalk of Illinois, as to my knowledge he
still has a pretty big stock of O-roll recuts he would like to sell,
and he might have a recut of that one (either the old roll with the
original tune lineup, or more likely a newer composite recut of only
the 'best known' tunes taken from a bunch of different rolls -- in my
opinion an "overly worn out warhorse" roll.  (I like lesser known tunes).
Though generally not punch-for-punch exact duplicates, his recuts are
known to be of decent quality and play well.

Mr. Gottschalk has recut Clark O-roll #2211 pretty much tune-for-tune
as it is, and it is listed on page 8 of his roll catalog here:
https://sites.google.com/site/capitolmusicrolls/orolls 

You can just contact Mr. Gottschalk directly via the info here:
https://sites.google.com/site/capitolmusicrolls/ 

If for some reason you can't get hold of him, I recommend then trying
his current agent, Mr. D. L. Bullock of Piano World, Alton, Illinois:
http://www.thepianoworld.com/connect 

If worse comes to worst, you can find used copies of his recut rolls on
eBay from time to time.

Another option would be to buy the roll from Ragtime Automated Music
in Ceres, California, and I think their rolls are cut by Play-Rite in
Turlock (but I'm not sure).  Their rolls are also not punch-for-punch
exact duplicates of originals, but they play okay.  Here are their roll
listings: http://www.ragtimewest.com/we13000.htm 

"Sonny Boy" is so-2211, probably again from the Clark roll:
http://www.ragtimewest.com/we13009.htm 

A third option would be to buy from John Motto-Ros of Johnny's Music
Rolls.  His rolls are punched by Tim Baxter in Georgia (this perforator
formerly with Bob & Ginny Billings of Nevada), and are of very high
quality.  I think most or all of his are punch-for-punch exact
duplicate recuts, and should play perfectly, but you can always ask.
They don't have one of the "Sonny Boy" rolls listed on the website,
but I recommend emailing or calling to see if they have one in stock or
will be making another recut run of them soon:
http://www.johnnysmusicrolls.com/goodies/php/info.php?type=contact 

Hope this helps!

Andrew Barrett