Fwd: A VOICE FROM YOUR PAST!

[Uncle Howie]

-----Original Message-----
From: Uncle Howie <mossma...@aol.com>
To: artcraftrollsDouglasHendersonartcraftrolls <artcraftrollsDouglasH...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sat, Oct 29, 2016 11:50 am
Subject: Re: A VOICE FROM YOUR PAST!

Doug:
 How wonderful to hear, once again, from an esteemed member of Levnet such  as yourself.
 Allow me to extend my heartfelt sorrow for the loss of your dear wife for whom you tended with such loving care through her long illnesses.
 Finding buyers for RCA theremins is a tricky and tedious business, and, of course, there are inquirers who are curious about details with no intention of  buying.
 I found an RCA theremin, years ago, in a Philadelphia music store called Antique Musical Instruments. It was for display only and the owner would not sell it.
 He was the winning bidder for it at a prestigious auction house (Freedman,s), but would not reveal, to me, the price he paid for it. He did say he would have paid ANY price for it.
 So, Doug, you might be better off selling it on an auction-type of website such as E-Bay.
You could state the provenance you have amassed over the years and the pick-up requirements.
 E-bay has international coverage and private bidders could contact you for details.
If you have never used E-Bay, it is easy to find the necessary procedures to join the site by searching the web.
 You must have ample photographs of the instrument and the Radiola 106 to accompany the advertisement.
 Due diligence on your part is necessary to cover all the bases. Even if you do not sell, at least, through the bidding, you will glean an idea what the traffic will bear for this instrument.
 I had my 85 th birthday a few days ago and feel pretty good for an old geezer.
I wish you all the success in the world in your many endeavors, and hope you find joy and happiness in your life, without the companion you lost to share in your victories.
 With love,
Howard
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Henderson <artcraftrollsDouglasH...@hotmail.com>
To: mossmanhoward <mossma...@aol.com>
Cc: L. Douglas Henderson <artc...@wiscasset.net>; Douglas Henderson <artcraftrollsdouglash...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Fri, Oct 28, 2016 9:58 pm
Subject: A VOICE FROM YOUR PAST!

Hi, Howard –

 

            I am still alive and kicking at age 78 but so much has changed in the meanwhile.

 

            LevNet dropped me and I didn’t start it up again as I was caregiving for Lois for 8 years, with 2 water pipe floods in my Studio at the end of it (a faulty town water shutoff valve was the cause, but they wouldn’t admit it). She passed away at 95, peacefully, under my care; I took her everywhere so whether it was the town dump or sightseeing in Maine, she was never bedridden nor housebound with her periods of strokes.

 

            I am living alone and until my roll business is running again, I am on Social Security which is a pain to live by with dates. I finally got the Studio back in shape again and am running on a finite supply of 2007 rolls, hoping to get full scale processing back in a short period of time … which will free me from the pension date problems.

 

            Anyway, I need to raise at least 10,000 dollars rapidly for a project that will jump-start my business, viz. bringing a talented person here from the Philippines who hears in LINEAR PATTERNS (time scales) as I do, Lois did, and my Québec apprentice did for 20 years (who died just before he moved here to be with the two of us). An extra 1000 or two for my own bills would be helpful also.

 

            I don’t know the market for 1929 Theremins, restored, though got calls from England and abroad about it a few years ago, wanting the chassis # and the rest. The case says, I believe, #503 and it has an Aeolian player-piano decal near the sheet music support. Reid Welch rebuilt it and I heard the instrument on his Radiola 106 speaker (and the Jensen one) in Miami. It also has a cord for a 9v battery which he called “Claratone” – that sped up the response when engaged. I have a 2^nd set of tubes for it, plus the 1933 originals which were still working. The 106 Radiola cabinet has perfect tapestry panels (all 3) and the only damage in transit was the wooden frame at the back of the unit. I never heard this speaker but it was supposedly in good condition and looks it.

 

            Would it be possible to get 11,000 to 12,000 dollars for this? The purchaser would have to pick it up or hire a mover to crate/ship it, I suppose.

 

            If I cleared 10,000 dollars before Nov. 5^th, I’d consider selling it. Everything about my co-worker hangs on this date. We have been on daily Internet (mostly video) communications for 6 years and he has many skills beyond that unusual listening ability … plus is mechanically inclined. Orders for my rolls never stopped coming in during the 8 years I was a caregiver, and I did fill a few here and there in order to say I was “still in business”.

 

            My rolls, as you know, have been played at The Louvre on 2 series called “Ciné Memoire”: restored Vitaphone shorts of opera arias with my ARTCRAFT Rolls being played as the phonograph discs and movie reels were being changed. They were also commissioned in ’91 by Swedish-TV for a broadcast of Antheil’s BALLET MECANIQUE, shown with the truncated film that exists today. I can go on and brag about my work, but the music does the talking. I don’t use notation based formula but cut down to 128^th of a note to similate a specific keyboard attack, starting this work in 1952.

 

            Please let me hear from you. If I cannot raise this much rapidly, I’ll hang on to my treasured instrument.

 

            The last decade has been rough but I’m still here and have not given up. Rolls are on the horizon in my thoughts, always.

 

            I saved your LevNet postings (until the service quit on me) so you are part of my “interesting letters” file.

 

            Best wishes, weird but musical, Douglas

 

PS: This Duo-Art roll was based on a 78 rpm disc by Jack Fina, pianist with the Freddy Martin orchestra of that day. The customer had an auto. Volume control camera so the PP to sFz dynamics are compressed but even so it’s good listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZtOad7FPbk

 

 

--

L. Douglas Henderson | ARTCRAFT Music Rolls

PO Box 295, Wiscasset ME 04578 USA

(207) 631-1761

http://wiscasset.net/artcraft/

 

 

 

[Mike Buffington]

Hi Howie,

Andy Baron and I would be happy to step in and help enable a better chance of finding a buyer for Doug’s RCA, but if you could at minimum pass on this information to him, we think it would be very beneficial.

In the past, eBay sellers have referenced the entry of their RCA on our rcatheremin.com registry—the official registry originally started by Jason over at thereminworld.com back in 1996. This provides legitimacy and peace of mind to potential buyers that auction is real, as fake auctions and craigslist ads have popped up in the past. 

If Doug were to provide us with more information on his RCA, we could give it a proper spot on our registry. What is needed is not the cabinet serial number of 503 but the stamped RCA serial number on the metal chassis that uniquely identifies the instrument and its place in manufacturing. We very strongly encourage a photo of the serial number, as they can be hard to read correctly.

Identifying the serial number can be accomplished with information at this link: http://www.rcatheremin.com/identification.php

And the other information that we request for the registry can be found here: http://www.rcatheremin.com/addingtoregistry.php

Best,

Mike Buffington

also on behalf of Andrew Baron

exp...@rcatheremin.com

www.rcatheremin.com

[Uncle Howie]

Doug:
 I am forwarding this correspondence to you from our good friends Mike Buffington and Andy Baron'
 The gist of this message is self explanatory.
Good luck to all.
Uncle Howie
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

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[Uncle Howie]

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Henderson <artcraftrollsDouglasH...@hotmail.com>
To: Uncle Howie <mossma...@aol.com>; mike.buffington <mike.bu...@gmail.com>; experts <exp...@rcatheremin.com>
Cc: L. Douglas Henderson <artc...@wiscasset.net>

Sent: Mon, Nov 7, 2016 10:26 pm
Subject: RE: [levnet] Re: A VOICE FROM YOUR PAST!

Hello, Mike, Andy and Howie –

 

          I hope to get the Thermin pictures done tomorrow. This was another busy day.

 

          My hope is to raise 10-M for the Theremin for a specific cause and 1500 for me to pay off my brother for a loan involving the sale of it “in a hurry”.

 

          There is a date of November 10^th, a deadline which if missed abroad, cancels the potential of a visa for about a year. Bureaucracy and paperwork are horrendous in some of the Asian countries. That would mean my friend and future co-worker here on player rolls (who hears music in LINEAR PATTERNS as do I, and Lois did) might have to wait until 2018 until I earn enough money to get the gears for the visa and all that it entails going again.

 

          Am just tossing out this out, as it was the reason for marketing the Theremin in the first place.

 

          I don’t know the market but it is a small and specific one I should imagine. Have had this since about 1960 and then later had Reid restore it in Florida in the ‘90s. It sounded so much better after he rebuilt whatever it required!

 

          Photos tomorrow. It will take some work to access the instrument and the 106 speaker, then bring them down a flight of stairs in this 1830s brick house

 

          People who hear in “time scales” (linear patterns) are rare and most have their own lives, not wishing to produce music rolls – a dead industry today but fine for my quality of work – so almost 6 years have been spent educating/cultivating this Filipino via Webcams and downloads … and 3 years have been spent on trying to get the visa. The last Manila trip to our Embassy failed because he didn’t have a bank account. I wasn’t on Social Security “only” when we started this plan, but am now. My roll business is starting in spurts but only on 2007 rolls … so I need to get the photos off to you and then try to find all my processing/editing equipment. Being a caregiver for Lois and then having 2 Studio water pipe floods in the next 2 years meant I was out of work for 8 years. Finding 30 years of work boxed up by others to save the items has been a slow process. Right now, I can fill many orders with 2007 rolls.

 

          That’s my soap opera, anyway.

 

                    Regards, Douglas

 

PS: Here are 2 clips of my work – played on a customer’s piano … which could stand a tuning. The Jelly Roll Morton number sounds more like his 78 of THE NAKED DANCE than the ‘fake’ Morton rolls, which were the work of Mary Allison at Vocalstyle in the ‘20s, sold as his playing. ROBERTO CLEMENTE – if played with sensitivity can approach the composer with this work; I can mirror his recordings on my (tuned) 7’ Steinway player grand piano. Happy Listening!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzTmCK053Y0 [The Naked Dance]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4PWqwmTJWU [Roberto Clemente]

 

While the dynamics don’t register that well on these clips you can tell from the “striking” (key depression times) how my rolls sound different from the commercial releases, past & present. I perforate down to 128^th of a note (and could do 256^th as required in some musical I’ve cut – changing it to 128^th – but rolls don’t travel that fast). This method eliminates homogenous clusters of perforations which, for me, make most rolls boring after a short period of time.

 

If you saw the release # stamped on the rolls, they were early copies. Most are above 200 processed/sold so far.

 

More bragging – this came in a day or so ago from a customer of over 4 decades:

 

Your rolls have always amazed me Doug. I have seen how you do it mechanically, but how you then achieve such life-like sound is something very special indeed.

--

L. Douglas Henderson | ARTCRAFT Music Rolls

PO Box 295, Wiscasset ME 04578 USA

(207) 631-1761

http://wiscasset.net/artcraft/

 

 

.

[Uncle Howie]

Doug:
 PLEASE be careful moving your theremin. It is very heavy....surprisingly so. I do hope you can enlist someone of considerable strength to assist you in this.
 You have not mentioned if you will be able to provide a high-fidelity recording of the theremin, not only its range capability but a recognizable song played by a skilled thereminist.
 No one will buy the instrument, if they are willing to spend a princely sum for it, without hearing it.
 I doubt if you have modified the theremin's audio output with a proper matching transformer so it can be played through a modern non-electrodynamic speaker. As you know, the Radiola 106 speaker you have constrains you to use it for the demo. Also you might have to move it too.
 You are such a remarkable and multifaceted individual that you must have the energy of a teenager.
 Best of luck to you in all of your endeavors, my dear friend.
I hope you have had time to vote. I just did, and found out I was in line with a lovely lady that happened to be a neighbor, and was on the ticket for State Representative!
 Small world, isn't it
Uncle Howie