Mechanical Music Press announces its registry page devoted to the
Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, Illinois, at

  http://mechanicalmusicpress.com/registry/mills/mnc.htm 

We include a brief history of the company, the mechanical evolution of
the Violano-Virtuoso, a description of mechanical differences between
early and late Violanos, types of music rolls made by Mills, and a
database currently including information on over 360 existing Violanos
including serial numbers and original dates found in mechanisms.

We also include a detailed survey form so you may register your own
instrument, either with your name included in the registry or without
if you wish the information to remain private.

Major contributors to this project include the late Art Sanders
of the Musical Museum in Deansboro, New York, co-founder of the
Violano-Virtuoso Society, who contributed his card file of instruments
known to him from the 1950s through the 1980s.  Ed Hattrup was also
a major contributor; he collected information submitted on a survey
form that originally appeared in "The Mills Violano-Virtuoso" by
Kitner and Reblitz.

Ed eventually turned his large file over to the Musical Box Society.
In turn, the late Ralph Schack, former president of that society,
loaned the files to Mechanical Music Press for inclusion in our
database.  Terry Hathaway, Mechanical Music Press webmaster, then
created a relational database connected to the survey form, input all
of the existing information, and continues to keep it up do date as
readers submit more details.

As the database continues to expand, we can all learn more about the
musical and mechanical development of the very popular Violano-Virtuoso.

Art Reblitz
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
http://www.reblitzrestorations.com/