I've been intrigued by the various letters in the last few days saying
"I never realised XXX was a real pianist."  I've wasted (?) years
collecting old records from the 20s onwards and know that a lot of roll
artists' names turn up.  Some of them were quite famous or influential
musicians.  I can't imagine how anyone can be interested in 20s popular
music and not know about Phil Ohman and Victor Arden!  I believe Ohman
is actually credited as an inspiration by Gershwin in his 'Songbook'
(I'm sure I saw it years ago, but may be wrong).

Perhaps this is something that someone would like as a little research
project -- try and find out who was real and who wasn't.  And then find
out who made their own rolls and who didn't.

There are number of good books that should help.  The Ampico, Duo-Art,
Welte-Mignon and earlier QRS catalogues have all been comprehensively
covered and include to greater or lesser extent artist details of even
fairly obscure popular artists.  Anyone who has a reproducing piano and
is interested in its music should get the relevant catalogue and some
of the other literature which is around.  Knowing a bit about the
history of the subject, or just having a picture of the artist whose
roll you are playing, really adds to the fun!

Julian Dyer