While I was a medical student at Duke University (Durham, North
Carolina) between 1982 and 1986, I was also at the time an amateur
ragtime piano player.  It frustrated me that a few particularly great
ragtime and jazz piano solos didn't exist as sheet music, but only as
hand-played performances on piano rolls.

I mentioned to my roommate, who was mechanically inclined and also a
capable woodworker, that it might be fun to find a broken-down player
piano and rebuild it.  My goal was to see if I could learn one or two
of these tunes by playing the piano roll very slowly and transcribing
the notes, one note or chord at a time.  My roommate thought this
project was a fantastic idea, to my surprise.

Soon after, we visited Doyle Lane's museum of mechanical instruments
in nearby Hillsborough, North Carolina, to seek some advice.  We met
one of Doyle's employees there, a skilled piano technician named
John Runge.  John agreed to help us find a worthwhile instrument to
rebuild -- which soon enough we did!  Within a few months, we had a
nice, shiny, refinished and rebuilt little upright player and we were
buying "Hot Piano Classics" piano rolls from Fred and Mike Schwimmer.
I built up a decent roll collection by the time I graduated.

Here the story takes an "O. Henry" kind of turn: when I left Durham,
my roommate kept the piano (since he bought the instrument) and I kept
all the rolls -- with nothing to play them on.  They have followed me
around, in four big boxes, ever since.

Now I'm getting to a certain age (61) <sigh> where I'm looking down
the road to retirement and wanting to simplify things.  I don't
see myself rebuilding another player piano, although I might
consider buying a working instrument (and getting rid of my current
two non-player pianos) if I could find one close to home that has
the kind of action and sound quality I prefer.  It would be great to
hear my rolls play again.  The other option -- and this is the solution
my wife is lobbying for -- is to sell the roll collection in toto and
move on.

So I'm wondering several things.  If I decide to let the rolls go,
where is the best place to sell them?  Of course there's always eBay
but I'm wondering if your newsletter might be a better venue.  Finally,
if John Runge is still kicking, I'm sending a shout-out to him -- with
pleasant memories of meeting him and Doyle Lane and receiving their
enthusiastic help with our rebuilding project.  Hope he's well.

Apologies for this long-winded story.  Thanks for your kind assistance.

Kerry Givens, MD
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
kgivens@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]