I have a very interesting book in front of me:  "1900-1935 L'aventure industrielle des frères Coupleux", by Olivier Carpentier.  The brothers Coupleux were the people who imported the instruments and ran the Aeolian business in France.

It was in 1901 or 1902 that Aeolian came to France in two ways: they opened an agency at Avenue de la Opéra in Paris, and at the same time the brothers Coupleux met in Bruxelles a piano maker, Léon Delgay, who advised them to take the Pianola business over to France.  A contract was made which gave the Cie Coupleux a Lille (Coupleux Co. of Lille) the exclusive representation for Northern France to start with -- this developed into a rather fantastic business.

The book has 283 pages filled with very interesting photos from the remarkable activities that the brothers Coupleux created: phonograph business, music recordings, cinéma, exhibitions, Aeolian Hall of Lille, their piano-making and Pianola making.  Many Pianolas were made in France and some pneumatic stacks for the Duo-Art too.

In 1929 they joined with Armand Givelet to go into the field of electronic organs.  The Coupleux-Givelet synthesizer is well mentioned in the book with an illustration.  In fact, the brothers Coupleux and their sister, Heloise, were some kind of universal geniuses, reminding me of the brothers Lumières, Thomas Edison, etc.  The electronic organ was really a remarkable technical development and an artistic success which unfortunately put them into bankruptcy -- it was too early for the market.

The books author, Olivier Carpentier, 22 years old, is a really brilliant writer coming from the Coupleux family.  The book was created as a memory of the Coupleux frères for a university diploma -- which was received with the highest mention.  This work has moved Olivier into a great interest for the Pianolas and reproducing pianos, although we have decided with a base of my experiences and huge archive to write a book together, which will include much information which evidently no one knows about.

The actual book is a real gold mine in the automatic piano field in France, and I recommend it to everyone reading French.  We are looking for a printer to make a reasonable number of this, so at the moment I can't say when we can deliver the book.  If we can find enough interest it could be translated of course, but it's a question of economic support.

Best regards from Montmartre,
Douglas Heffer
France
7 Feb 2002 20:41:23 +0100