[ Ref. James Williams in 210624 MMD ]

Jim, Greetings from north of The Bronx! Regarding your inquiry about
the Picturoll program medley rolls, they are actually composites of
several rolls, selected by Ray Siou and then assembled onto one roll.

The Picturoll rolls would generally consist of incidental music
that accompanied silent movies. Some rolls actually were comprised
of complete musical selections, such as marches, waltzes, classical,
and semi-classical compositions. Otherwise, the rolls would consist of
comments such as: good for chase scenes, love scenes, light dramatic,
heavy dramatic, or comedy, etc.

A lot of the themes would be borrowed from old 'standards', otherwise
they would be comprised of selections composed for Picturoll by either
in-house artists, or by composers who arranged sheet music folios for
pianists and organists to accompany silent pictures.

Ray Siou was an incredibly prolific roll 'provider'. Besides the
'Picturoll' composites, he also provided similar composites of Ampico
and Duo-Art rolls, as well as 'A' rolls, 'G' & '4X' rolls, 'O' rolls,
'OS' & 'NOS' rolls, 'M' rolls, Wurlitzer 'APP' rolls, Wurlitzer Band
Organ rolls (Styles 125, 150, 165). He also touted Bursen's Arburo
Dance Organ rolls.

I am quite sure I've probably left a few out, but all the varieties
mentioned were all offered at incredibly low prices! Without Ray, we
would've had much smaller roll collections, some even non-existant.

Hope this sparks some memories, and helps in your search,

Dale F. Rowe
Bronx, New York
FredsOrchestrion@aol.com