Western Electric A-Roll Piano (#1) (The original "Nickelodeon")

This Piano was manufactured in Chicago in 1924 and delivered to Herb's Bar, in Portage, Wisconsin on 10/16/1924. It remained there, in operation, till at least July, 1961. It was maintained during that period by Bill Lucassen. It took nickels and played A-Rolls. The Rolls usually had 8 to 10 songs. The customer had no choice of which song it played, as it went through the roll song-by-song and then re-wound back to number 1. The Rolls were changed every few months by a "Route" man, who either sold the new Roll to the owner, or took a share of the coins.
These two tunes are "Carolina Shout" and "Rattlesnake Rag", as arranged and played by the late John Farrell.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• A-Roll Piano
• Coin-operated Piano
• Western Electric Piano
• Ragtime piano
• Nickelodeon

[max9046]

I have to admit I like the slower version. This is the tempo that John Farrell apparently liked - if they punched the roll at the original speed.

Thanks,

Max9046

[max9046]

Thanks so much! I just did some additional work and it should last a long time. New Roll arrangements deserve a lot of the credit for the wonderful sound. .

[bartonorgan]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful collection!

[max9046]

Thanks for the comment. I just received a new Roll of John Farrell's Ragtime music. I plan to post new videos this weekend.

[Rigilkentarus974]

J'en veux un !!!

Trop géniale!!!

[max9046]

Merci!

[HESOYAM442]

This is so great!

[supersonicdrawer]

its like synthesia

[anglerfly]

You like music machines!

[KawhackitaRag]

While, as far as I can tell, "Carolina Shout" is Farrell's own arrangement, I know for sure that this version of "Rattlesnake Rag" is transcribed from the 1950s Joe "Fingers" Carr recording. Thanks!

[KawhackitaRag]

John Farrell really knew how to create a tasty arrangement of Carolina Shout! THANKS for posting this!!!

[max9046]

Thank You.

[AAErikCO]

@Matthaeus42

These weren't around in the old west sorry! Hollywood reinforces the notion that ragtime was old west somehow. Nickelodeons werent really popular until around 1910 or later. The old west was gone and done with long before 1910. Only meaning to educate here :)

[AAErikCO]

@JamesPJ

These A-rolls can be played on a 65/88 note "regular" player piano if you're able to find one of these players. The tracker bar will have 2 rows of holes, one ontop of the other, one wider than the other. Taping off a few coding holes on each edge of the 65note scale allows these to be played on the 65 note setting. You'll have to splice the songs onto 88 note flanges & roll cores, but it works like a charm instead of having to special order 88 note roll conversion sets of A-rolls.