Hi All,  Jamie Brewer wrote about Kay Harmas. I grew up in Evanston,
Illinois, and I knew Kay Harmas well.  The last time I saw him was
more than 20 years ago.  I believe someone sent me an obituary notice
of his passing but I cannot find it now.

Kay loved mechanical music and was an obsessive hoarder.  He had
several garages around Evanston loaded with stuff.  He did some
piano restoration and loved to chat about pianos, roll perforating,
collecting, etc.  He told me of his trips to East Rochester to the
Aeolian company headquarters and how he'd advertised in the local
paper for reproducing rolls and other Ampico and Duo-Art memorabilia,
visiting with former employees and haunting junk and antique shops for
items of interest.  He also mentioned his acquiring a 9-foot Steinway
Duo-Art from a Northshore Mansion, but I never saw it on its feet,
only a shadow in a packed garage.

When I was in high school in the 1970s Kay would call me and say he
wanted to sell something and he'd tell me that whatever it was would
only available that day.  So I'd meet him at one of these garages which
was filled to the gills and he'd point out a Steinway Duo-Art lying on
its side, or a juke box, a pile of Ampico rolls or even a Duo-Art
master roll.  But by then he would have changed his mind and didn't
want to sell anything.  This went on for a while until I got frustrated
and stopped responding to him.

After I moved to California to pursue my career, a high school
friend and fellow antique collector remained in Evanston working for
Commonwealth Edison as a meter reader.  As you can imagine he got
into a lot of basements and found many cool collectible items.  As he
walked his rounds reading meters, he also kept an eye on Kay's garages.
I got a call from him that one of Kay's garages was being emptied, but
I couldn't respond in time.

I later learned that while one of the garages was being emptied someone
had the wisdom to contact Roger Dayton of Pedals, Pumpers and Rolls in
Villa Park, Illinois.  Roger was able to rescue Kay's 9-foot Steinway
Duo-Art piano, but told me that he thought hundreds if not thousands of
rolls and other parts had already been destroyed.  That Duo-Art piano
is now in the collection of Mel Septon of Skokie, Illinois.  I spoke
with Mel about this last year and he tells me he has it playing in
excellent condition.  I haven't yet accepted Mel's invitation to see
it, but Mel was gratified to hear the story about Kay and the origin of
his prized possession.

Kay was an eccentric collector.  A mutual friend called him "Mechanical
Music's Knight of the Holy Grail", meaning that he found all this
amazing stuff and saved it but wasn't himself able to really enjoy it.
Fortunately, some of his collection was rescued, but we'll never really
know what else there was.

Maybe someone knows what happened to the Ampico perforator Kay was
rumored to have stashed away?

Marc Sachnoff
Seattle