Melodee was an Aeolian roll brand, and Aeolian perforated all the
88-note rolls for Wilcox & White, including the Artrio rolls, and
it was clearly decided to (partially) share a roll catalogue.

The relationship between the two companies lasted for many decades,
notably [between] the adjacent factories in Meriden, Connecticut.
It started the day that Herbert Wilcox and Frank Morgan (founder of
Aeolian) jointly purchased the failed Monroe Organ Reed Company because
neither had the cash to buy it outright.  The relationship was not
straightforward and at times fraught -- and disentangling the threads
is challenging.

The lack of a full Melodee catalog makes it hard to determine the
relationship between Aeolian's Melodee rolls and their Duo-Art issues.
Not all Melodee pop rolls were issued in Duo-Art form, as was the norm
for roll companies who clearly felt that some music was unsuitable for
reproducing piano issue.

Generally, the "hot" music was issued in 88-note form, presumably
because the target audience was felt unlikely to possess reproducing
pianos.  But I (perhaps lazily) assume that if there were both Melodee
and Duo-Art issues the music is the same.  And by extension, that an
Artrio issue would be likewise similar.

I think the most interesting consideration is the slightly wider one
of how a particular roll performance found itself carrying differing
coding: 88-note only, Duo-Art, Artrio, or both.

And then there is the Artrio-only catalogue; the precise reason why
many Artrio rolls are from Duo-Art originals, but some are Wilcox &
White originals, is itself intriguing.

But you can imagine that printing stencils were shared, hence the
printing on an Artrio roll may well use the Melodee stencil.  It's more
interesting, however, that some _don't!_

Something similar happened in the UK.  Artistyle 88-note rolls were
cut at Aeolian's factory in Hayes, London (with some imported from
the USA).  The sole licensee for the Angelus in the UK was the Herbert
Marshall piano company, but clearly they inherited the Aeolian link
with their license.  All the Artistyle rolls in the UK were drawn from
Aeolian material, and the majority (all?) of Aeolian material was
issued in Artistyle form.  Because the Artrio sold in tiny numbers in
the UK all its rolls were imported.

Incidentally, I have the correspondence between Broadwood pianos and
Marshall about the poor performance of the Artrio instruments.  Broadwood
felt it to be damaging their brand name.  Marshall defend it for some
time, but later admitted the system didn't work reliably and abandoned
it in favour of the Ampico -- so there are some Ampicos in the UK with
Angelus pneumatic stacks!

In the UK, Duo-Art pop roll issues were often cut as 88-note versions
on various different Aeolian labels.  The "Meloto" brand name, used
from 1925 onwards, was strikingly similar to "Melodee".

I have a full catalogue of Meloto issues, created some years ago, and
have put together a concordance of all the differing issues. Two sets
of Artistyle rolls were issued. A 'single dance' roll that was
simply the Meloto roll labelled "Regent" (Marshall's headquarters
in London was called "Regent House"), issued right up to the end of
production in 1941. And from 1925-28 a 'double dance' issue having
two titles, sold as Artistyle. Double-dance rolls were also issued on
Aeolian house labels Metrostyle and Universal with somewhat-similar
numbering.

The UK branch of Aeolian clearly felt that some music was too hot for
their clientele so would create a special boring Meloto arrangement
when the Duo-Art issue was too interesting!  Artistyle issues got the
alternative 88-note issue.  Trying to figure this out for my Meloto list
has been interesting, but I have come to the conclusion that if there
was no British Duo-Art issue of a pop tune, then the Meloto is not
drawn from the Duo-Art master.

The separate issue of pop music in the two countries was because
musical shows tended to open at different dates in the USA than in the
UK (typically a year later in London), and tunes might be put into
different shows in either country.

Julian Dyer
Wokingham, Berkshire, UK
http://www.pianorolls.co.uk/