Melville Clark is one of the great, unsung pioneers of player piano history. Along with his brother Ernest Clark he developed the first true 88-note player, the first inner player (as opposed to a vorsetzer, a.k.a."push-up" or "cabinet" player), and many other innovations in the piano, player piano, and piano roll fields.

Melville Clark was born in Oneida County, New York. He was initially a reed organ builder, working in California until 1877. He moved to Quincy, Illinois then to Chicago by 1880 where he made organs under the Clark & Rich name. He founded the Story & Clark Organ Company in 1884 with Hampton L. Story. They began building pianos in 1895, then Clark left in 1900 to start the Melville Clark Piano Company (MCPCo) in DeKalb, Illinois. Clark introduced an 88-note cabinet player in January 1901 and an 88-note interior player piano in 1902. MCPCo adopted the "Apollo" trade name immediately upon incorporation in February, 1900 and used it throughout their production life. The original MCPCo "Apollo" was a 58-note cabinet player (see illustration).

Melville's brother Ernest Clark was responsible for many of the ideas patented at MCPCo, especially in the roll production area. By 1905 MCPCo had a roll catalogue of thousands of rolls; Julian Dyer of the PPG found a catalogue of MCPCo's English subsidiary "Apollo" with 429 pages!

The QRS company started its life as a subsidiary of the Melville Clark Piano Company. It is not clear when the QRS name first appeared on a roll label, but evidence from a court testimony in 1903 indicates that the meaning of the name "QRS" was already unknown at that time! QRS 58-note rolls appeared for use on organs and very early push-up players, then 65-note rolls appeared. Both use 6-to-the-inch hole spacing on the tracker bar. Melville took this one step further with the industry's first full 88-note roll, but continuing the 6-to-the-inch spacing these rolls measure a whopping 15-1/4" wide! The standard 9-to-the-inch, 11-3/4" player roll was finally agreed to as an industry standard in 1908 (read more about this in the PPG web page's history section).

In 1912 QRS issued the first American hand-played rolls, made on a recording piano developed by Ernest Clark (see illustration above). The new "Autograph Hand-Played Music Rolls" made their debut in May, 1912 . This very same MCPCo recording piano may still be seen today (in operating condition!) in the QRS factory building in Buffalo, New York. Larry Givens told an interesting story about the MCPCo recording piano in the AMICA Bulletin a few years ago, and how it was almost lost. Several of these early hand-played QRS featured recordings of interest to ragtime and blues roll collectors.

Melville Clark died on November 5, 1918. He had recently retired from MCPCo and the company was being run by Tom Pletcher. When Melville died, QRS became an independent company in Chicago under the direction of Tom Pletcher. Ernest Clark chose to spin off the coin operated roll division as the Clark Orchestra Roll Company, which continued operation in DeKalb. It is this same Clark Orchestra Roll Company name that Don Rand has now trademarked and is using for the nickelodeon music rolls he now produces in Maine. The Clark Orchestra Roll Company is back in business!

(Note: most of the information relayed above, as well as the 3 illustrations, come from either volume of Alfred Dolge's books "Pianos and their Makers". Please see them for more information. Other sources include research in Music Trade Review magazines by Mike Montgomery and myself. Also see "The Piano in America" by Craig Roehl, and the study of QRS history in Volume 5 of the Billings Rollography - see my recommended reading list for details.)

QRS Automatic, Seeburg XP, and Clark "Red X" rolls all play the exact same expression system. This system was developed and marketed by the Melville Clark Piano Co. (MCPCo) for the home market, then sold later by Seeburg as the X expression piano. The Seeburg X piano was intended for use in public places.

When MCPCo originally sold these pianos, they sold QRS Automatic rolls to play on them (QRS was a division of the MCPCo at the time). These came primarily from the standard QRS Autograph hand-played roll masters, and to a lesser extent from the earlier arranged QRS roll masters. The QRS Automatic rolls used the exact same catalogue numbers as their standard QRS counterparts. To date I have found NO exceptions to this rule. See Illustrations #1 and #2 for examples of QRS Automatic rolls

Later, when Ernest Clark started the Clark Orchestra Roll Co. he also issued home player rolls for this system, on a label which featured a large red "X" across the entire roll label (see illustrations above). I have never seen a catalogue or vintage advertisement for the "Clark X" system, and I'm not sure exactly what they called them: Clark X, Red X, or whatever. Anyway, Clark X rolls came primarily from the same QRS masters as the QRS Automatic rolls. There are, however, several Clark X rolls for which I have found no QRS equivalent. I hope to expand on this in the future and present my findings here.

I know of just one case where the same QRS master was issued on both QRS Automatic and on Clark X, and in this case I found the expression coding on the Clark X roll to be superior to that on the QRS Autograph: more expression coding overall, and more use of the accents (crash and semi-crash signals). I don't know if this is because the Clark arrangers had a different process, or if the Clark roll simply came later when more sophisticated coding was used, or what. The roll to which I refer is the famous gypsy dance by Sarasate "Zegeunerweisen", played by Ferdinand Steindel (originally on QRS 80599, then QRS Automatic 80599 and Clark X 7058).

Seeburg XP rolls were always longer rolls intended for long play in public. Originally XP rolls consisted of 10 rather short tunes, later typically 6 tunes, or 4 or even less) as opposed to the shorter rolls intended for home use. Seeburg also sold this system in the Phonogrand, which was also a home item; see Bowers' Encyclopedia for more details.

Roll catalogs: I have never seen a Clark X roll catalogue or any original advertisement. If anyone knows of a catalogue, please let me know! I have only seen one QRS Automatic roll catalogue, which dates from January 1, 1918. This catalogue has 44 pages, at a time when the full QRS roll catalogue had about 200 pages. Several dozen Seeburg / Automatic coin piano roll monthly bulletins are known to exist with listings of XP rolls.

Melville Clark died on November 5, 1918. I believe the Clark Orchestra Roll Co. began shortly after. There are probably many more facts waiting to be uncovered regarding the sequence of events with MCPCo, CORCo, QRS, and Seeburg (J. P. Seeburg Piano Co.). Not to mention Wurlitzer, who wound up with the MCPCo assets and trade name; they later reused "Apollo" for their Artecho reproducing piano system, which is completely different from this expression piano system. See examples of Wurlitzer-era "Apollo" reproducing roll labels below (illustrations 9 & 10).

QRS Automatic roll labels are shown in Illustrations 1 through 4 below. In all four examples the rolls are the exact same title and arrangement as the standard QRS release for that same catalogue number.

Illustration #1 is a QRS Automatic roll which features the word "AUTOMATIC" as part of the top, fluted border. "88 Note" is written in script, superimposed over "QRS" in outlined characters. This example is from a standard 30,000 series QRS arranged roll. I do not have any non-automatic rolls with this equivalent style, but I have seen 65-note non-automatic rolls with this style of script. Perhaps this was done during the transition from 65-note to 88-note so the consumer would not purchase the wrong type.

Illustration #2 is a QRS Automatic roll with similar features as Illustration #1, but "88 Note" has been replaced with "Autograph" - presumably to coincide with the introduction of QRS Autograph hand-played rolls in Spring of 1912. The "QRS" characters are still outlined, the border is still fluted, and the word "AUTOMATIC" is still part of the top border. One can imagine these outline borders created a printing tolerance which was difficult to maintain, and the example here is not very well centered. It is no wonder the outline was dropped for the next example.

Illustration #3 is a QRS Automatic roll which features the word "AUTOMATIC" written in script, superimposed over "QRS". The "QRS" characters are no longer outlined. The border has changed from fluted to four concentric, parallel lines running around the border. This example is from a QRS Autograph hand-played roll. The vast majority of Automatic rolls found today have this type of label.

Illustration #4 is a QRS Automatic roll made from a QRS Autograph hand-played Word roll. These rolls are rather uncommon and unfortunately the half dozen or so I have found to date are rather dreary tunes that I rarely (if ever) play!

Seeburg XP roll labels are shown in Illustrations 5 and 6 below.

Illustration #5 is a Seeburg XP roll (issued under their same Automatic Music Roll Co. name, which they also used for style A, G, and H coin piano rolls). This is the earliest example in my collection, and features 10 very short tunes which are probably from QRS Word Roll arrangements (this has not yet been confirmed). Note the earlier style logo (obscured here by a San Francisco dealer stamp).

I was able to locate 9 of the 10 titles in the Billings Rollography as follows:

1) K-K-K-Katy / QRS 618 / Oct. 1918 / played by Robinson & Kortlander
2) Everything Is Peaches Down In Georgia / QRS 620 / Oct. 1918 / played by Pete Wendling
3) Boy Of Mine / QRS 514 / May 1918 / played by Pete Wendling
4) Garden Of My Dreams / QRS 622 / Oct. 1918 / played by Max Kortlander
5) You Don't Know / QRS 630 / Oct. 1918 / played by Roberts & Kortlander
6) Starlight (no match in the Billings Rollography)
7) Sand Dunes / QRS 761 / March 1919 / played by Scott & Watters
8) Oh! How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning / QRS 623 / Oct. 1918 / played by Scott & Watters
9) We Don't Want The Bacon / QRS 627 / Oct. 1918 / played by Pete Wendling
10) When We Meet In The Sweet Bye And Bye / QRS 567 / July 1918 / played by Max Kortlander

Illustration #6 is a Seeburg XP roll (issued under their same Automatic Music Roll Co. name, which they also used for style A, G, and H coin piano rolls). This is the latest example in my collection, and features 6 tunes which are probably from QRS Word Roll arrangements. Note the later style logo.

I was able to locate the 6 titles in the Billings Rollography as follows:

1) Where The Cot-Cot-Cotton Grows / QRS 4191 / Feb. 1928 / played by J. L. Cook
2) Normandy / QRS 3229 / Oct. 1925 / played by Victor Arden
3) The Sweetheart Of Sigma Chi / QRS 2206 / Apr. 1923 / played by Osborne & Howe
4) It All Belongs To Me / QRS 4183 / Feb. 1928 / played by J. L. Cook
5) Mine - All Mine / QRS 4169 / Feb. 1928 / played by Max Kortlander
6) Where Is My Meyer? / QRS 4171 / Feb. 1928 / played by Max Kortlander

(BTW, those last two tunes are particularly good!)

Clark "Red X" roll labels are shown in Illustrations 7 and 8 below.

Illustration #7 is a Clark "Red X" roll, showing the most common style of "Automatic" expression roll issued by the Clark Orchestra Roll Co. Note that the manufacturer's name and location are shown at the bottom of the roll label. Also note the "Apollo" logo, originally used by MCPCo and later used by Wurlitzer (see below).

Illustration #8 is a Clark "Red X" roll with an alternate style. This is the only example of this roll label style that I have ever run across. The artist does not appear in the Billings Rollography, so this must either be from a non-QRS master, or from a non-issued QRS master. Has anyone ever seen this artist on any other roll label?

This roll also features a Clark Orchestra Roll Co. printed tab, the same as used on Clark "A" nickelodeon rolls. All Apollo "Red X" rolls that I have seen (as in Illustration #7 above) feature a plain tab.

Non-Automatic "Apollo" and "Art Echo" roll labels are shown in Illustrations #9 and #10 below. These were issued for the full reproducing piano eventually sold by Wurlitzer under the "Apollo" name, which occurred after Wurlizer bought rights to the Apollo name in 1919 (following Melville Clark's death). These Wurlitzer reproducing pianos were known at various times as "Apollo", "Art Echo", "Artecho", and originally "Celco". Please see Bowers' Encyclopedia, page 293, for more information on the Artecho system ("Understanding the Artecho" by David L. Saul).

Mr. Saul tells us that "Artecho's business interests were originally controlled by the [MCPCo], although the Artecho mechanism itself was built by the Amphion Company ... [MCPCo] offered the Artecho [reproducing roll system?] in its line of Apollo pianos". The text indicates that MCPCo sold these pianos as Artecho reproducing pianos (see Illustration #10 below), even though though the mechanisms went into the firm's Apollo line of pianos. Next we learn "Wurlitzer, using the Apollo name instead of Artecho, then installed the Amphion-produced mechanism in its own line of pianos". The original "Apollo" Automatic expression roll system must have been discontinued by the time Wurlitzer began using the Apollo name for their Artecho system, but the transition date is unknown.

Illustration #9 is a Wurlitzer-era "Apollo" roll, using the same style of "Apollo" logo as was used earlier by MCPCo for Automatic expression pianos and rolls (for example, see Illustration #7 above). These rolls are NOT Automatic expression rolls, they are Apollo reproducing piano rolls. They were manufactured by QRS for Wurlitzer. This example is "Georgette", played by Pete Wendling, Apollo roll # 4008-6. It is the same performance as QRS 2003, which was issued in September 1922. This roll has no marking of any kind to indicate it is a QRS product, and yet it has the distinctive square punched holes of vintage QRS rolls, as well as the same dark blue rubber stamped tempo indication and "Pete Wendling" autograph. Even the black flanges were made with no QRS markings! Although the style looks earlier, this is actually a later issue than the following label.

Illustration #10 is an earlier "Art Echo" roll, which uses the same expression as the Apollo reproducing piano roll shown above (Illustration #9). This roll was apparently manufactured for the Art Echo system as it was being sold in MCPCo pianos. This example is "Cuban Moon", played by Baxter & Kortlander, Art Echo roll # R3162. It is the same performance as QRS 1171, which was issued in September 1920. Oddly enough, while this roll is marked as a QRS product, it does NOT have the distinctive square punched holes of vintage QRS rolls. The labels, end tab and black flanges have the usual QRS marking of this vintage, but the perforations are round and look like those of Welte (Licensee) rolls. Perhaps this roll was made by someone other than QRS, or perhaps QRS had acquired a perforator from someone else and used it for some of their roll production.

Tracker Bar Layout for Apollo Automatic and Seeburg "X" Expression Pianos:

1	Semi Crash or Accent (this allows an adjustable vacuum increase to be let into the stack)
2	Sustain pedal (same position as on all standard 88-note player rolls)
3	Expression softer, 4-step ratchet
4	Expression louder, 4-step ratchet
5	Rewind
6	Shutoff (primarily intended for Seeburg "X" pianos in public use, but my Clark Apollo piano uses this as well)
7 to 92	Playing notes, B to C (86 notes; bottom 2 piano notes not used)
93	Bass hammer rail lift (this softens bass notes from the bottom up to the E above Middle C)
94	Treble hammer rail lift (this softens treble notes from the F above Middle C to the top)
95	Loud Crash or Full vacuum to stack (this allows full vacuum to be applied to the entire stack)
96	Play (primarily intended for Seeburg "X" pianos in public use, but my Clark Apollo piano uses this as well)

NOTE: The above information is verified in the Service Manual discussed below. The data published in "Treasures of Mechanical Music (see BluesTone Reading List) incorrectly reversed the "Loud Crash" (full vacuum) and "Semi Crash" (accent) from what is shown here and in the Apollo manual.

Playing Automatic rolls on regular 88-note player pianos: automatic rolls are layed out so that they will play fine on any standard 88-note player. If you wish, you can use a piece of Scotch tape to cover channels 3-6 on the bass end so that no extraneous notes are played on your piano.

Apollo Expression Piano Service Manual

"Instructions for Repairing, Adjusting and Regulating Apollo Player Pianos" is a small, 16-page booklet (plus a 2-sided foldout illustration of service parts) which includes key adjustment criteria for the Apollo expression piano system.

The service manual shown here was located by Robin Pratt and reprinted by AMICA in 1995. This reprint is still available through AMICA. Please contact either Robin Pratt or myself (Rob DeLand) for more information. Contact information for both can be found on the AMICA web site (see BluesTone Links page)

Dynachord Art Expression Player Service Manual
An additional Apollo-type service document was available through the Vestal Press in the 1970's, but is currently out of print. It is a large-format, 8-page service document with excellent photos and descriptions of a late style Apollo player called the Dynachord Art Expression Player. This piano uses the same expression devices as other Apollo-type expression pianos, but the diagrams show a much later piano stack with modular ("unit") valves. The technical explanations and diagrams are nearly identical to my 1913 Melville Clark Apollo expression piano, so this is a very valuable document to find if you are servicing an Apollo piano.

"88-Note Artapollo Adjustments" card
My good friend Jere DeBacker has restored a number of Melville Clark Apollo expression pianos. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and provided several of the Melville Clark player photos used by Art Reblitz in Art's Player Piano Servicing & Rebuilding book.

Jere found a service instruction card on the inside of one Melville Clark Apollo expression piano which he restored. The card is approximately 5" wide and 8" tall. The text is as follows:

88-Note Artapollo ------- ADJUSTMENTS 1. Turn screw No. 1 to right to get more volume on softest position, to left for less volume. 2. Turn screw No. 2 to left to get more volume on intermediate or second position and to right for less. 3. Turn screw eye No. 3 to left for more volume on third position. --------------- NOTE When expression lever is moved to extreme left it opens crash valve same as crash slot in music roll. MELVILLE CLARK PIANO CO. DE KALB, ILL. CHICAGO, ILL.

There are no illustrations or other labels in the piano to positively define which screws are referenced, but I found similar screws on my pump which worked as described. Thanks to Jere DeBacker for making this service information available!

My comments and opinions on the expression coding used in Automatic rolls: I've always wondered why QRS used so much soft bass coding on their rolls - I don't soften the bass when I pump 88-note rolls very often, especially on dance rolls! I'm guessing from the number of dance medley rolls as appeared in the Automatic roll catalogue, that these rolls were intended for dance parties in the home. That still doesn't explain to me why the bass was softened so much more than the treble.

Also, I've noticed many very short breaks in the soft pedal coding, both treble and bass, and often in non-musical points in the roll. It makes no sense to me for the soft pedal to be quickly released and re-depressed as it is so often. This doesn't look like a perforator error. I've heard of coding tricks used on Ampico pianos to allow the mechanism to perform other behind-the-scene functions, but I can't think of any applications here. If anyone has an opinion on this I'd like to hear it!