Dear group,  After first reading it months ago, I've finally gotten
around to replying to Mark Reinhart's email about Lind and Kibbey
music rolls.  From what I understand, Lind was a sales organization
that just bought Clark rolls and pasted their own label over them
(this is as per Dave Junchen's comment in Bowers' "Encyclopedia").
The Lind roll listings in "Music Trade Review", etc., seem to bear
this out, with tune-for-tune identical lineups for Clark and Lind
rolls.

So much for Lind rolls.  Now onto the much more interesting Kibbey
rolls.  I don't know much about the history of the Kibbey firm and
have not devoted any time (yet) to researching them, what with first
trying to complete my other, already-started projects.  However,
I believe this firm was mainly active in the teens, particularly the
1910-1920 era.  They appear to have used their own in-house musical
arrangements for all their issued rolls, and I haven't yet heard of
Kibbey borrowing or stealing (or licensing) an arrangement from
another roll company.

Apparently Kibbey issued a variety of coin-op rolls, since I could
swear I read somewhere that they issued Berry-Wood rolls (of which
formats?), as well as what we now know as "A" and "O" rolls and
possibly "G" rolls.  They might have issued endless Peerless "D" and
"44" rolls as well (like U. S. Music did) but I'm not sure about that.
They might also have issued Automatic Musical Co. / Link RX rolls (like
U. S. also did), but I'm not sure about that either.  I'd love to see
a list of all known coin-op formats issued by Kibbey.

I think they may have issued endless "A" rolls for the Standard and
National endless-roll coin pianos made in Oregon, Illinois, and if so
I would like to buy some of these, or recuts of them.

I know so little about Kibbey coin-op roll production it's not funny!
There needs to be something more substantial in print about them,
either here in the MMD or in the AMICA Bulletin or similar, or both,
and/or other sites and journals.

This company apparently operated on a very small scale and so their
output is presumably nearly extinct today.  I'd love to know what,
exactly, survives of both the actual rolls they cut, and also any
company advertising, literature, catalogs, bulletins, etc.

I have never seen or touched an original Kibbey roll so don't even know
what the label looks like!  However, I have something more substantial
to contribute here:

FIRST: Kibbey made some very interesting hand-played 88-note rolls,
issued on the "ArtistPlayd" [sic] label.  These appear to date from
1914-1915 (Jimmy Monaco's composition "Pigeon Walk" is actually
copyright 1915, not 1912 as is mistakenly put on the website), so
I would assume that is when the ArtistPlayd label was in existence.

It must have had a short life since the rolls Robert Perry has
found and scanned have the numbers A901, A903, A906, and A909.
Here they are (thanks again to Robert Perry for saving and scanning
these):

Roll A901 - "Back to Dixieland"
(Jack Yellen, the lyricist, is credited as composer)
played by Harry Auracher:
http://www.pianola.co.nz/public/midi/Back%20To%20Dixieland%20-%20One-Step%20(Artistplayd)%20[Harry%20Archer].mid 

Roll A903 - "Darlin'"
(comp. Harry Auracher)
played by the composer:
http://www.pianola.co.nz/public/midi/Darlin'%20(ArtistPlayd)%20[Harry%20Archer].mid 

Roll A906 - "Pigeon Walk"
(comp. James V. Monaco)
played by Harry Auracher:
http://www.pianola.co.nz/public/midi/Pigeon%20Walk,%20The%20(ArtistPlayd)%20[Harry%20Archer].mid 

Roll A909 - "For You"
(comp. Harry Auracher)
played by the Composer:
http://www.pianola.co.nz/public/midi/For%20You%20(ArtistPlayd)%20[Harry%20Archer].mid 

To me, although jerky, these have a much more authentic "real pianist"
sound than do most other "hand-played" rolls that were really arranged
based upon what a pianist played (since after all, the pianists'
playing doesn't magically quantize itself in real time; live musicians
don't play in perfect mathematical ratios!).

The rolls here were all played by Harry Auracher, also known
professionally as Harry Archer, (born February 21, 1888, Creston,
Iowa, USA; died April 23, 1960, New York, USA) who was a pianist,
brass instrumentalist, and composer.  More about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Archer_(composer) 

I'm mainly familiar with him via his excellent 1911 ragtime composition
"Switchback Rag", published by Witmark, which I first heard on a
Wurlitzer PianOrchestra recording nearly 20 years ago.  This piece is
decades ahead of its time in my opinion, since it makes use of Major
7th and Suspended 4th tonalities as actual integral chord types, at a
time when they were only being briefly touched on as "non chord tones"
or "passing tones" by most American popular composers.  I really wish
he'd written more rags than just this one (maybe the manuscript to
another, if any, will surface someday), but at least we have his many
wonderful songs.

I don't know if Auracher/Archer was the only pianist to make rolls for
this company, or one of a few, or what.  I also don't know if he was in
charge of their "recording department" or merely hired on from the
outside to make their initial few hand-played rolls, as a kind of
experiment.  I don't know but it would be great to find out.

ArtistPlayd 88-note rolls are so rare today that I have _never_ seen a
single one for sale anywhere in the USA, either on eBay or Craigslist
or in roll auctions.  (If Robert got these from eBay he got them during
a week or two I wasn't watching, or might have missed them in a big box
lot).

Of course, too many of these auctions/sales happen for me to monitor
all of them at once, but as I have, by now, seen at least one example
each of some other very scarce roll types for sale (somewhere), I would
have thought I'd have seen one of these by now.

I really have to wonder how many were produced and sold, and how/where
they were distributed.  I'd love to buy one (any kind of music or
condition) or even an empty box or orphan label to one, should someone
have one in their collection.  I do hope Robert posts photos of the box
and roll labels so we can all see what an ArtistPlayd roll looks like,
and start searching for others!

SECOND: One entire, and part of two other, Kibbey coin-op rolls have
been recut by Frank and Amanda Himpsl as "Valley Forge Music Rolls" in
the mid-2000s.  I don't know how many copies of each were cut, but here
are the details from their now-defunct website:

A rolls

Kibbey Mfg. Co.   Roll No. 416   (Incomplete Information)
1. American Beauty Rag
2. Rag-A-Muffin Rag
3. Donkey Reel
4. Minstrel Man Rag, The
5. Happy Feet Rag
6. I'm On My Way To Mandalay
7. Isle D'Amour
8. "Unknown Title  (Includes ""..Just For You"")"
9. "Unknown Title  (Includes ""..e Leaves W..."")"
10. You Can't Get Away From It

G rolls

Kibbey Mfg. Co. G-Roll No. 1038
(Composed Of Kibbey Rolls No. 652 and 653)

1. When You're Away. From "The Only Girl"
2. Hello Broadway. From George M. Cohan's "Hello Broadway"
3. Goodbye Girls, I'm Through. Song From "Chin Chin"
4. Same Sort Of Girl. Song From "The Girl From Utah"
5. Show Us How To Do The Fox Trot. From "Watch Your Step"
6. Love Moon. Waltz Song From "Chin Chin"
7. Personality. Song From "The Only Girl"
8. Fascinating Night. From "Suzi"
9. Syncopated Walk, The. From "Watch Your Step"
10. Settle Down In A One Horse Town. Song From "Watch Your Step"

Based upon the tunes on the two rolls, I would date the A roll
(No.  416) as being from 1913, and the composite G-rolls (652 and 653)
as being from 1914.

Given that the only known (so far) Kibbey 88-note rolls date from
1914-1915, I would guess that the firm lasted from at least 1913 to
1915.  Perhaps they were active earlier and later, but I don't know.
Certainly, the three-year range of extant rolls suggests a short-lived
firm.

While at the AMICA 2016 convention in Princeton, New Jersey, last
August, I heard my first-ever Kibbey coin-op roll, which was that same
recut A-roll (no. 416) listed above, played on Glenn Thomas' Seeburg K
coin piano.  I didn't know what the roll was but I recognized the waltz
"Isle d'Amour" by Leo Edwards immediately (I'd actually played it
during my piano concert at the convention!) and I recall that the
arrangement was so excellent that I started dancing around the room.

Then, the next tune started and I immediately recognized "I'm Crying
Just for You" a great Jimmie Monaco song from 1913.  However, the
machine was shut off either in the middle of that tune, or before the
next tune, so I didn't get the chance to hear tune #9, but I did go
over and photograph the box label, and that photo (of the Valley Forge
recut box label) is attached to this email.

I also tried telling Mr. Thomas the correct tune ID for tune #8 of that
roll, but what with all the commotion of the other convention-goers,
and the schedule of the tour groups, I think it got lost in the
shuffle.  If he feels like it, I'd welcome the opportunity to hear it
again and also try to identify tune #9.

From the partial title, I'd guess tune #9 could be "Rose Leaves
Waltzes", by Charles B. Brown, a waltz published by Will Rossiter in
Chicago in 1910, but I'd need to hear it first to confirm.  If it is
"Rose Leaves", that would be doubly weird since I've been playing that
one for years!

It would not be unusual for a 1910 waltz to be on a roll with 1913
pop songs, since instrumental compositions were generally considered
longer-lasting in fame and trendiness than were songs (unless the
instrumental tune was associated with a short-lived dance fad), and
I've seen rags, marches, waltzes etc.  over 5 years out of date issued
on a roll later, just because they were still considered "good" at the
time of issue.

I'd appreciate hearing more about Kibbey rolls from more members of
this group!

Andrew Barrett

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