[ Ref. Luca Pastore in 220703 MMDigest ]

I was confused by the recent list published for Frank Milne pseudonyms.
Scottish-sounding name attributions seemed an odd manner of providing
"evidence" of false names. Unfortunately, in many cases, the names
mentioned were, in fact, real pianists. In a quick read-through of the
list, I found the following who were certainly real pianists. (There
are likely more.)

Alan Moran
Constance Mering
Edythe Leslie
Gene Kerwin (Erwin Koiffer)
Hayward Headden
Jaysnoff Sisters (IRIS and JUNE)
Lilian Jay
Newell Chase
Paul Rickenbach
Pauline Alpert
Phil Ohman
Ruth Ferguson
Walter Donaldson

With a little research, I'm certain even more will be found to be
actually pianists as well.

Unfortunately, for too long now, good piano roll scholarship has
stalled. Books published in the 1980s and 1990s, while trailblazing
at the time, are today found to be rife with errors. Unfortunately,
these errors get perpetuated again and again in citations when many
"facts" turn out to be assumptions which can easily be refuted with
period documentation found online today.

Thanks to new searching tools such as online newspapers and library
records, more information than ever can be found about nearly all
of these people from the comfort of one's own computer.

It goes without saying that Milne assisted in roll editing of all
popular rolls after 1929 but to say that he used the following names
as pseudonyms for himself is going a step too far. I hope before the
next discovery proclamation in musicological research related to
piano roll artists, researchers will do more basic online research
before attempting to announce new knowledge on the subject.

Adam Aceto
Orlando, Florida