QRS Then and Now

I would like to post this information about QRS Music Rolls, Inc.
to eliminate some of the confusion caused partly by my posting in
the 20.06.11 MMD.

QRS was founded in 1900 by Melville Clark, who developed the player
piano as we know it today.

Max Kortlander joined the QRS NYC music roll operation in 1914.  He
bought the company in 1931, renaming it Imperial Industrial Corp.
Max Kortlander died October 11, 1961.

Ramsi Tick bought QRS in 1966 for $50,000 from Max's widow Gertrude.
Ramsi moved operations to Buffalo, New York.  In the late 1980's he
sold QRS to Richard Dolan.  Ramsi Tick died October 31, 2000.

In 2009 plans were made to move QRS Music Rolls to QRS's plant in
Seneca, Pennsylvania, that April, but complexities delayed the plan
and roll production continued at Buffalo.  In January 2017 Mike Walter,
a former QRS employee, reported finding one man still punching rolls
at Buffalo's QRS plant.

In 2019 QRS finally shut down its Buffalo operation, selling or junking
most of its production machinery that could not, or would not, be used
in Seneca.  In January the process of clearing the Buffalo factory and
preparing the equipment for the move to Seneca was begun.  From January
to April of 2020 no rolls were produced.  But other than that hiatus,
QRS has been manufacturing music rolls since 1900!

A QRS public auction was held September 11, 2019.  But the few items
auctioned were almost entirely office supplies and non-production
equipment.  The last rolls produced at the Buffalo plant were the
2019 and 2020 Christmas rolls, made in November 2019.   At least one
perforator had been moved to Seneca, a big four-cut perforator.
Another smaller perforator was subsequently sold, leaving a two-cut
perforator in the emptying Buffalo plant for eventual shipment to
Seneca.

The famous QRS "Marking Piano" was moved to an Arizona museum and is
on loan there today.  Mike Walter, who reports this, also believes that
the Arizona museum received the perforator used to punch QRS's large
roll masters used to run the perforators making music rolls.

The Seneca, Pennsylvania, QRS operation, owned by Richard Dolan, has
been renamed QRS Music Technology Inc.  Its main focus is on what it
calls "PNOmation" rather than on paper piano rolls.  But it is still
very much in the business of producing music rolls, and although the
rolls currently being sold are mostly from inventory moved from
Buffalo; the Seneca plant has the equipment, the know-how, and the
talent to produce new rolls as the market calls for them.  Its website
carries a complete online catalog of all available rolls.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York

P.S.  Mike Walter writes to us (Jody, Robbie, and myself) today:
"I did receive an e-mail from an individual at QRS in Seneca, PA, who
asked that the roll-buying public '...please be patient...'   I cannot
divulge the contents of the e-mail to anyone, but positive changes are
forthcoming."

 [ The QRS Music website is:  https://www.qrsmusic.com  There's lots
 [ there.  Rolls are listed under the "Music" pulldown    --Jody