This BBC Radio programme has an interesting background: all of the
enthusiasts contributing were members of the recently-formed (1959)
Player Piano Group.  Sidney Harrison was a well-known musician,
educator and broadcaster, and was the PPG's first president.  Denys
Gueroult who produced it, Gerald Stonehill and John Farmer were all
stalwarts of the group (John still is).  And of course Frank Holland
founded the group.

This was made in the exciting early days of recently-discovered
interest when the people were young.  Gerald Stonehill was hooked
by the Duo-Art when he bought his house with its Weber Duo-Art grand,
about 1958.  John specialises in the Ampico.  Lionel Salter was a
highly-regarded music writer, but not a roll enthusiast.

A big part of the program is the contribution of Gordon Iles,
introduced as being from Aeolian's research department -- which he
wasn't really.  (He'd experimented in his teens at home using an
instrument his father, Aeolian's advertising-account manager, had
borrowed from Aeolian.)

Gordon was hooked on this, and after demobilization in 1948 bought
what was left of the London roll factory, eventually this becoming
Artona rolls.  To the nascent hobbyists he presented, and was accepted,
as an expert.  But, those who listen to the program will realise he
wasn't exactly a reliable source.  In 1959-62 there was nothing else;
it was before all the researched histories.

Weirdly, Iles describes the well-documented Duo-Art recording process
wrongly -- he talks Ampico's famous spark chronograph instead.  This
is flatly incorrect.  Nobody knows if he was confused, exaggerating
or spinning a line because it sounded better.  Iles then compounds
this by saying that audio records were made of roll-making sessions
and used to edit the roll dynamics.

As shown by 60 years of hard digging for any corroborative evidence,
this was a total fabrication.  None of the Aeolian employees ever
hinted at this.  In particular, Reginald Reynolds, who was the
recording and editing engineer in London, wrote several times about
what he did and never mentioned discs.  There is not a single trace
of any evidence that it may be true -- photograph, surviving record,
or mention by any recording artist (and the PPG has Reynolds' memoirs
and collection of pianola 78s).

To modern minds the idea that rolls were made without a sound recording
is so alien that this little fiction has enough credibility to keep
resurfacing; no amount of evidence, or lack of evidence, will squash
it.  It's pretty well adopted the form of a conspiracy theory.

The BBC program managed to interview several roll artists, pianists and
music commentators of the time.  Some simply accepted the reproducing
piano as presented, others simply couldn't.  And the debate hasn't
really changed much in the 57 succeeding years!  What a shame that it
was made about two or three years after the death of Reynolds, as
interviews of him would have been immensely valuable.

Full details of the program are on the BBC's website, which lists every
programme they have ever broadcast!

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/557d06ad92cf4642b96d40f2dcf2bc0e 

Julian Dyer