Melville Clark Piano Company--Apollo Pianos
Melville Clark, circa 1890. |
Born in 1850, Melville Clark, the inventor and developer of the Apollo piano line, was
one of the major pioneers of the player piano industry, and being both an aggressive
innovator and competent entrepreneur he became the holder of many important
patents relating to player and expression pianos. By the time that the Melville
Clark Piano Company came into existence, Melville had already enjoyed an illustrious
career in manufacturing reed organs (under the Clark and Rich name), and
both organs and pianos as a cofounder of the Story and Clark Organ Company.
To expand his horizons and maintain personal control over his myriad inventions,
the Melville Clark Piano Company was founded in 1900, and was first located
in Chicago, but than moved its manufacturing operation to a large new factory
building in DeKalb, Illinois, sometime about the end of 1904 or early 1905.
In The Presto trade journal of September 1, 1904, is the following
statement, which seems to describe the energetic Mr. Clark very well: "Of
course, in referring to the Melville Clark Piano Co., it is difficult to regard
that progressive concern as other than an industry long established. Mr. Clark
has been industriously winning fame for himself in the manufacture of musical
instruments for so long, and he had attained so such prominence in the trade
and industry before he established his present factory, that his own productive
plant seemed but a continuation of his former energies without interruption.
His capacity for work, and his genius as an inventor, made it seem a matter
of course that whatever he undertook must prosper. And so the result has proved."
A New Company; a New Beginning
From the February 17, 1900, issue of The Music Trade Review is the
following excerpt from page 15 regarding the formation of the new Melville Clark
Piano Company:
The Music Trade Review
- Volume XXX, No. 7, February 17, 1900, page 15.
Factories Open and
Men at Work
Chicago, Ill., February 14, 1900
... One of the most important happenings of the week in this city has
been the organization of the Melville Clark Piano Co. and the divorce, after
sixteen years of close association, of the interests controlled by Melville
Clark and the Storys, The Melville Clark corporation has been organized
with a capital stock of $100,000 all paid in, with Melville Clark as president
and treasurer. The other officers will be chosen later. The stockholders
are all prominent men of this city, and there is ample financial backing.
It is the intention of the Melville Clark Piano Co. to make the Clark piano
an instrument of high grade, and which by reason of Mr. Clark's scientific
ability and prestige, as well as the quality of its manufacture, will command
a special position in the trade field. This concern will also make the Orpheus
self-playing organ and the new Apollo attachment, to which reference was
made last week. Arrangements have already been consummated whereby the rights
of manufacture of the Orpheus organ and Apollo attachment for the Dominion
of Canada have been disposed of to the Bell Organ Company, of Guelph, who
will in future manufacture them, paying Mr. Clark a liberal royalty. I understand
that the Mason & Hamlin Company will also handle the Apollo attachment
for a certain territory, but of course, will not manufacture it, as it is
the intention of the Melville Clark Company to manufacture and control the
rights absolutely for the United States. Meanwhile the Mason & Hamlin
Company, by special contract with Mr. Clark, will make the Orpheus organ,
using their own special designs of cases. The Melville Clark Company have
not yet selected their factory site but several places are now under consideration,
and probably next week definite particulars will be forthcoming.
* * *
Regarding the Story & Clark Piano Company: The stock held by Melville
Clark in that corporation has been purchased by the Story family and the
officers of the company as reorganized are as follows: Edward H. Clark,
president; Hampton L. Story, vice-president; Frank F. Story, treasurer; and
J. O. Tyler, secretary. I learn the Story & Clark Company will relinquish
their present piano factory on May 1st next, and concentrate their business
in their factory on Canal street. The Story & Clark Company was organized
four years ago with a capital of $100,000 paid in. There is some talk of
Melville Clark securing the organ factory, which will soon be vacated by
the Story & Clark Company, but this may be mere talk. The separation
of Melville Clark and the Storys is not due to any friction. They part company
with exceeding regret. Mr. Clark for some time has been anxious to develop
his many inventions through an organization of which he would have absolute
control. As an inventor and Scientist he stands high and in his new field
he expects a more liberal return from his expert knowledge and the values
which he will embody in his products.
So, with a good sendoff the Melville Clark Piano Company was up and running.
Between 1900 and 1919, when the piano manufacturing operation was purchased
by the Apollo Piano Company, the company manufactured an extensive line of pianos,
pushup piano players, Apollo player pianos, Art-Apollo and Solo Art-Apollo expression
pianos and variations thereof. The bulleted items below highlight some of the
major innovative and commercially successful accomplishments to come out of
the Melville Clark Piano Company:
- The Melville Clark Piano Company developed some of the first player
and expression pianos.
- Push-up piano players.
- The first 88-note player piano.
- The first 88-note grand player piano.
- Pianos that played several types of rolls.
- Built-in phonographs, both spring- and electric motor-driven.
- The Art-Apollo, Solo Apollo, and Solo-Art Apollo.
- Remote expression player cabinets for grand pianos predating the
Duo-Art and Ampico.
- Later connection with Wurlitzer.
- QRS, which became the largest piano roll maker.
- Involvement in a major copyright suit that established the concept
of the mandatory mechanical license.
- QRS Coin-Operated division, supplying the first rolls to Marquette,
Seeburg, and many others.
- Evolution into the Clark Orchestra Roll Co.
The first Apollo player pianos played 58-note rolls, then 65, 88 and other
types. Some Melville Clark pianos could play 5 different kinds of music rolls,
and the Solo Apollo had two pneumatic stacks and specially arranged rolls
that allowed the human operator to accent any melody notes while leaving all
other accompaniment notes subdued.
Melville Clark Piano Company expression pianos included the
Solo Art Apollo, and later the Art Apollo. The Apollo Recordo expression
piano and Apollo Art-Echo full reproducing piano were made under Wurlitzer's
direction sometime after 1919 when that company acquired the Melville Clark
company. Various types of Apollo expression pianos were offered in both
upright and grand pianos offered by Melville Clark and Wurlitzer. Other variations known to date include spring
powered roll motor or vacuum motor; foot pump, electric pump or both; optional
self-contained phonograph, and a progression of design improvements for the
pneumatic stack including one or two that pushed down on the front of the keys.
As an interesting side note, Ernest Clark, Melville’s brother, was an important
pioneer designer of roll perforators and other production equipment, and was
instrumental in producing rolls for coin-operated pianos through the coin-op
era.
The DeKalb Era
On August 24, 1904, the papers were signed for a deal between the Melville
Clark Piano Company and the City of DeKalb, Illinois. On September 1, 1904,
it was officially announced, with the company expecting to inhabit the new brick
and mortar facility no later than January 1, 1905. Thus, the DeKalb era began
sometime around January 1, 1905. The following official announcement appeared
in The Presto trade journal:
The Presto, Number
947, Chicago, Thursday, Sept 1, 1904, Page 21.
MELVILLE CLARK PIANO
COMPANY GOES TO DE KALB
Progressive
Manufacturers of the Apollo Piano Players and Melville Clark Piano to Have
New Enlarged Factory. In last week's PRESTO, on page 23, our DeKalb, Ill.,
correspondent said: "Only a few more details are to be arranged before
our citizens can announce the Melville Clark Piano Company's factory as
one of the established industries of the town." In this issue THE PRESTO
is authorized to announce the removal of the Melville Clark Piano Company's
factory from West Madison street, Chicago, to DeKalb, III., as a definite
deal. Mr. Clark had said all along that he would not consider any verbal
promises or agreements; he wanted the town that was prepared to deal with
him to lay a contract in black and white on his table, then he would talk
business.
As we understand it there were several other towns after the Melville
Clark factory and a number of localities in Chicago wanted it besides; so
that De Kalb may consider itself very lucky in capturing the prize. Details
were arranged and the preliminary papers signed August 24, and by the terms
of the contract the Melville Clark Piano Co. receives the deed to five acres
of land, favorably situated, being less than a mile from the court house,
and gets besides a large cash bonus. The negotiations were brought about
through the activity of the Commercial Club of DeKalb, which counts among
its members some of the wealthiest and most enterprising citizens of the
town. Back of this commercial club, the prime movers to get the Melville
Clark Piano Company's factory for the town were Isaac Elwood and his son
W. L. Elwood. The senior Mr. Elwood is a millionaire several times over
who is greatly interested in the prosperity of his home city and also takes
a deep interest in the welfare of the Melville Clark Piano Co. This town
of DeKalb, by the way, is only 58 miles from Chicago, and is known as one
of the hustling manufacturing points in Illinois. Here the Melville Clark
Piano Company will have the best railway facilities, for two roads now run
through the city and a third is being constructed which will pass directly
in the rear of Mr. Clark's new factory. The new road will build a switch
for the factory which will be used by all three railroads when pianos are
to go out or raw material to come in.
Mr. Clark says he thinks the new building, for which plans are
being drawn, will be finished before January 1, 1905, and that the company's
force will be in it at work not later than New Year's Day. It will be a
$60,000 brick structure, three stories high, the two main elevations to
be 300 and 175 feet long respectively, and the power house 40 x 50 feet.
Nothing will be too good for the new factory in the way of appliances and
completeness of electrical equipment. The capacity of this modern factory
is estimated by Mr. Clark at 2,500 pianos and 4,000 piano players per year
and he even mentions having space to enlarge this structure to accommodate
the demands of his rapidly growing business. This new factory will enable
the company to produce their pianos and piano players at a minimum of cost
and this will give the trade a new benefit.
Most of the employees have expressed themselves as delighted with the
opportunity to go into the country with the establishment, as a large number
of homes are to be built for their accommodation by the capitalists of De
Kalb. Many of them have been wishing for years to get out of the dust, confusion,
and grime of the big city, provided they could continue at their chosen
calling, and now they have the opportunity in sight.
From the same The Presto trade journal dated September 1, 1904,
comes the following brief notations regarding the Melville Clark Piano Company
and its future move from Chicago to DeKalb, Illinois:
The Presto, Number
947, Chicago, Thursday, Sept 1, 1904, Page 7.
The prospective site of the Melville Clark factory is one of the pretty
Illinois towns, located in such proximity and possessing such railroad facilities
that it seems almost at the big city's doors. DeKalb will afford many advantages
enjoyed by toilers in only the smaller places. It is but little more than
fifty miles from Chicago and is a terminal of a branch of one of the great
railroads. The Illinois Central runs through the town, and it would be difficult
to improve upon the shipping facilities in any direction. DeKalb is not
only a pretty place in which to live, but its business activities are considerable
and already embrace several factories.
* * *
For some time past it has been evident that the present [Chicago] factory
of the Melville Clark Piano Company has been inadequate to the demands of
trade and public for the Melville Clark pianos, the Apollo and the other
well known products of that industry. We congratulate DeKalb in securing
the Melville Clark Piano Company, and we believe that Mr. Clark and his
associates are equally to be felicitated, while Chicago must be content
with the fact that the offices will remain here, and that the progressive
industry will in effect continue to be a Chicago industry.
Melville Clark, circa 1911. |
But the wonderfully prosperous years and previously indefatigable innovative
genius of Melville Clark were to eventually come to an unanticipated end. In
October of 1918 it was reported that Thomas M. Pletcher bought controlling interest
in the Melville Clark Piano Company and Q R S Company, and became Vice President
and general manager. Not long thereafter, in November of 1918, Melville Clark,
founder and president of Melville Clark Piano Company, and one of the most prominent
men in the piano and player field, passed away in his Chicago home. In the December
28, 1918, edition of The Music Trade Review the following brief notice
appeared under the general heading of The Important Trade Happenings of
the Year: "The Grim Reaper has unfortunately taken a rather heavy
toll from the ranks of the leaders of the industry. Melville Clark, J. A. LeCato,
Ben F. Owen, Robert B. Gregory, and others of almost equal prominence in the
trade have passed to the Great Beyond and left gaps in their several spheres
in the industry."
Thus, in essence, the Melville Clark Piano Company was no more. Its outstanding
legacy continued on for many more years, however, up through the WWII years,
when the aging piano factory was converted over to wartime production, and then
back to piano manufacturing when peacetime once again ensued.
The Wurlitzer Era
On August 2, 1919, it was announced in the Music Trade Review that
the Apollo Piano Company had purchased the Melville Clark Piano Company, as
follows.
The Music Trade Review
- Volume LXIX, No. 5, August 2, 1919. page 5.
APOLLO PIANO COMPANY
PURCHASES MELVILLE CLARK PIANO COMPANY
Plant,
Business, and Other Assets of Long-established Piano Manufacturing Concern
Bought by Newly Organized Company — Q R S Company Continues as Separate
Organization.
The plant, business, patents, trade-marks and good-will of the Melville
Clark Piano Co., manufacturers of the Apollo in its various forms, have
been sold to the Apollo Piano Company, recently organized and soon to be
incorporated with something over one million dollars capital. The Apollo
Piano Company will be under the management of Edwin S. Rauworth.
Thos. M. Pletcher and his associates retire from the Apollo business
and will devote themselves exclusively to the expansion of the business
of the Q R S Company, manufacturers of player rolls, whose new plant is
now under course of construction in Chicago.
The new company will make no changes in the successful policies of the
Melville Clark Piano Company The manufacturing organization at DeKalb will
go to the new owners intact. Not only will the high, artistic character
of the past be maintained, but it will be increased wherever and whenever
possible. An Apollo line of higher artistry is already assured through the
completion
of a new reproducing mechanism, recently perfected and which
will be incorporated in the Apollo line early this fall.
The new owners give assurance to all loyal Apollo dealers that no agency
changes whatever are contemplated. They also state that they are prepared
to discuss with Apollo representatives the matter of agreements looking
to the continuation of the agencies for a period of years.
The Apollo Piano Company will take possession of the building in which
the Q R S plant is housed at DeKalb, Ill., as soon as the new Chicago plant
of that concern in Chicago is ready for occupancy, which will probably be
about September 1 [1919]. The acquisition of that plant will permit an immediate
increase in the output of Apollos.
The Apollo line consists of two upright foot-treadle players, two upright
foot-treadle reproducing pianos, the Apollophone, one five-foot grand, one
five-foot reproducing grand, one six-foot grand and one six-foot reproducing
grand, and is handled by leading piano houses in every large city in the
country.
The Apollo Piano Company's management states that Apollo dealers have
a pleasant surprise in store for them when they receive the Apollos with
the recently perfected reproducing mechanism. This reproducing piano marks
a distinct step forward in the development of that type of instrument. All
who have had the privilege of listening to this instrument admit the accuracy
of this statement.
The executive offices of the Apollo Piano Company will be at DeKalb,
Ill. To facilitate the handling of orders and the transaction of all business
the main offices will be DeKalb, Ill., to which all mail should be addressed
after September 1. Location of Chicago display rooms will be announced later.
According to press releases in various trade journals, one would surely think
that it was the newly organized Apollo Piano Company, and none other, that purchased
The Melville Clark Piano Company, sometime around August 2, 1919. There is nothing
said to suggest who might be behind the Apollo Piano Company, nor exactly when
the new company took control. However, the following excerpt from an article
in The Presto, Number 1727, Chicago, August 28, 1919, Page 21, and titled
Activities of the Apollo Piano Company, provides a hint: "The
new concern [Apollo Piano Company] will be in full operation at the big plant
on the first of the coming month and already is giving evidences of the increase
in production that is to come with the new management." This sentence suggests
that the Apollo Piano Company was already in possession of the DeKalb facility
before September 1, 1919, and that it would be fully operational by September
1, 1919. But whatever the trade publication were happily proclaiming, inspection
of certain Wurlitzer Company records makes it seem clear that it was the Wurlitzer
Company who had in actuality acquired the Melville Clark Piano Company of deKalb,
Illinois, and it quickly became an important part of Wurlitzer’s business. Wurlitzer
pianos commenced being manufactured at the DeKalb facilities, but under a variety
of names that included the Apollo Piano Company, the DeKalb Piano Company, and
the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company, with the differing legal entities retailing
pianos of a different quality and price range.
Apparently the DeKalb townsfolk were quite enamored with and very appreciative
and excited to be the home town for the big Melville Clark Piano Company plant.
This appreciation was published via The Presto, Number 1728, Chicago,
September 4, 1919, on page 21:
The Presto, Number
1728, Chicago, September 4, 1919, page 21.
LOCAL PRIDE IN APOLLO
EXPRESSED
De Kalb, Ill., Paper Shows Appreciation of Citizens for Big Piano Industry
and Its Management.
The pride of De Kalb, Ill., in its big piano industry and gratification
at the prosperity it means for so many citizens, is well expressed by the
De Kalb Chronicle: "Few De Kalb people have a sufficient realization
of the importance to this city of the change in management and ownership
that has recently taken place at the piano factory," says a recent
issue. The city's interest in the company is further expressed:
The purchase of the big-institution by the new concern, to be known
as the Apollo Piano Company, means that this already big business is to
be enlarged and modernized in such a manner that it will in time become
one of the city's biggest institutions. Already the new owners have taken
charge and Edwin S. Rauworth, the new general manager, is on the job and
directing affairs at the plant. He is going to prove a valuable acquisition
to the city's manufacturing interests and the energy and executive ability
he manifests will be of great value to the business life of the city in
the future.
The plans of the concern are to so enlarge this institution that it will
not only be one of the biggest manufacturing institutions in this immediate
vicinity but one of the biggest piano concerns in the world.
As a forerunner of what De Kalb can expect in the future it can be said
that as a preliminary to the working out of the policy of expansion and
efficiency and utilization that is planned. Orders are already placed and
being filled for over $100,000 worth of new machinery to be used in the
manufacture of the Apollo piano.
The present buildings, at the plant will be fully occupied at the start
and it seems inevitable that the normal growth of such a big enterprise
will mean more and bigger buildings in a short time.
The entire section of the buildings which was devoted to the manufacture
of the Q R S music rolls is to be devoted in the future exclusively to the
manufacture of grand pianos.
The new concern announces that all of the policies of the Melville Clark
Piano Company, which has given the name of the Apollo its high place in the
piano industry will be maintained and every effort made to improve and
better the instruments.
The Apollo business has been highly prosperous and the plant has now
on its books orders that will require many months to fill. The Apollo is
handled and featured by such houses as Wiley B. Allen Co., on the coast;
by the Knight-Campbell Music Co., of Denver; by Kieselhorst, of St. Louis;
by the Goggans and Carter in Texas; by Hollenberg, of Little Rock; by Howard,
Farwell & Co., St. Paul and Minneapolis; by the Wurlitzers in Chicago
and Cincinnati; by the May Co., in Cleveland; by the Hudson Co., in Detroit;
by Bradford, in Milwaukee; by Grunewalds in New Orleans; by Pearson of Indianapolis;
Droops in Washington, and numerous other houses of like eminence.
By December of 1919, the Apollo Piano Company was taking steps to close out
its Chicago offices and move its operation entirely to DeKalb. The official
announcement of this move occurred on December 22, 1919, when the following
notice appeared in The Presto:
The Presto, Number
1744, Chicago, December 25, 1919, Page 13.
APOLLO PIANO COMPANY MOVES
EXECUTIVE OFFICES
Chicago, Ill., December 22.—The Apollo Piano Company is sending an announcement
to all Apollo dealers to the effect that beginning January 1 [1920] they
will discontinue their Chicago office and conduct all business from their
executive offices at DeKalb, Ill. Since the business of the Melville Clark
Piano Company was taken over by the Apollo organization in September, a
Chicago sales and advertising office has been maintained at Suite 1111,
25 East Jackson boulevard, under the direction of Edw. E. Blake. In making
the announcement of the change the company emphasize the fact that they
desire every Apollo dealer to visit the factory. They believe it is important
to his success as an Apollo dealer that he should do so. The executive office
and factory at DeKalb are readily accessible from Chicago and the company's
officers feel that it is well worth the dealer's time to see the actual
making of Apollo player-pianos at the factory, particularly in view of the
many improvements that are being made in the factory under the direction
of the new president, E. S. Rauworth.
The Apollo Piano Company
The End of Apollo Expression Pianos
With the decline of automatic musical instrument sales during the 1920s and
early 1930s, coupled with the rising popularity of radio, production of mechanical
musical instruments ceased, leaving only regular house pianos as the Wurlitzer
company's mainstay product. The first juke box was manufactured in 1934, and
for a brief time radios and refrigerators were made by the Wurlitzer controlled
All-American Mohawk Corporation. Unfortunately, the manufacture of radios and
refrigerators was not a successful venture and this activity ended by the mid
1930s. But the depression years brought about other problems. Apparently many
of the old Wurlitzer retail outlets had fallen on hard times. Once prosperous
locations were now suffering from demographic changes, whereby once high traffic
locations had turned bad and the old showrooms needed significant repairs. Wurlitzer's
solution to this confluence of mounting problems was to reorganize the company,
which occurred in 1935. Many lagging retail stores were sold, while piano manufacturing
was consolidated in DeKalb, and many subsidiaries were dissolved or absorbed
into the Wurlitzer Company.
During World War II, Wurlitzer halted production of all musical instruments
completely. The company’s defense production efforts were recognized in 1943
and 1944 when its North Tonawanda and DeKalb plants received the Army-Navy “E”
Award. In 1946, peacetime piano production resumed and the Wurlitzer Company
introduced two new instruments: the electric organ (1947) and the electric piano
(1954).
In 1956, the Wurlitzer Company celebrated its centennial. That same year
a new plant at Corinth, Mississippi, was completed. Later, plants were opened
in Holly Springs, Mississippi (1961), Logan, Utah (1970) and Hullhorst, West
Germany (1960). The new facilities replaced those at North Tonawanda and DeKalb.
The North Tonawanda plant ceased production of juke boxes in 1974, becoming
the company’s engineering and research center. In 1973, the DeKalb plant ended
production of pianos, thereafter maintaining only marketing and administrative
offices. In 1977, the Wurlitzer Company’s corporate headquarters moved to DeKalb,
including the engineering and research center from North Tonawanda. Today it
is all gone.
Now the once grand DeKalb manufacturing facility is nearly derelict, and
some of the old buildings are literally falling apart, while some of the better
condition buildings have been divided up into potential rental spaces. The old
factory looks sad, forlorned, and nearly forgotten, as the photographs accessible
by clicking on the thumbnail image at right clearly show.
The Apollo Piano Database Project
The primary information that has gone into building up the Apollo Piano database
has been meticulously gathered over a period of years by Jere DeBacker, a longtime
player piano enthusiast and expert in the restoration, history, and music of
player and expression pianos. Whenever he has had access to an Apollo expression
piano he has carefully recorded mechanical and historical details of interest.
The result of his thoughtful analysis is presented in an orderly, easy to read
format in the report offered below.
By default, current ownership information is not displayed in database reports,
but a provision exists whereby the current owner's name can be accommodated
and then shown in database reports when specifically authorized. Doing this
requires that specific written permission is granted to the Mechanical Music
Press specifically authorizing us to show and/or distribute individual ownership
information. Moreover, if and when such authorization is granted the Mechanical
Music Press and/or its authors shall assume no liability or responsibility of
any kind, nor to any extent, regarding any inferred, purported, or actual privacy
intrusions, incidents, or claims resulting from the dissemination of any ownership
information.
Database Definitions and Explanations
A few items in the database report are technically a little out of the ordinary.
Consequently, the necessarily terse headings and/or line descriptions
intended to keep the report clean, simple, and easy to read can sometimes
unintentionally be the cause of some confusion. The report header itself
contains a couple of style notes to clarify the most easily confused items,
i.e., "Case Height" vs. "Overall Height" and "Scale." But there are other
items that might be confusing to the uninitiated, too, and so to forestall
any awkward bewilderment, as well as not clutter up the report with endless
style notes, the following explanations are offered in alphabetical order,
which may help the reader
to more fully understand and/or relate the database information to their own
Apollo piano. The list that follows does not include every item in the
database report, but anything not covered here ought to be self-evident:
- Action Date: This date is often hand written on the
bass end of the piano action. Frequently, it cannot be seen unless the
action is removed from the piano. Sometimes, the date is stamped, and
again usually on the bass end of the 2-3” wide wood rail onto which the
action parts are screwed. Often it is handwritten in red or green.
- Case Height: Measuring the case only, along the
side of the piano, on the outside, with the lid up. Do not include the
casters or the lid.
- Case Type: Upright or Grand Piano - or maybe a push
up player, or a remote player.
- Case Veneer: Usually either Mahogany, Walnut, or
Oak, but sometimes a fancy grain or burl-wood. Sometimes brown stain, or
red stain on Mahogany.
- Glass over Spool: Indicates whether there is a
sliding glass door in front of the spool box, or not, or is blank, or is
unknown. Please note that if the track that holds the sliding spoolbox
access doors has an extra, or unused track, then the piano almost
certainly originally had a sliding glass door.
- Number of Ribs: Ribs can be observed and counted on
the back side of the piano. Ribs are approximately one inch wide and run
diagonally, and are glued across the back of the sound board. Some
pianos have 15 ribs, some have 14, some have 12.
- Overall Height: - Measuring from the floor to the
top of the lid on the piano. This can vary with carpet, replaced
casters, etc.
- Plate Date: In early pianos, this seems to be cast
into the very bottom right hand corner of the plate. Somewhat later it
was cast into the plate behind the bass strings and above the bellows
and below the keybed. In even later pianos, the number is often behind
the strings and behind the key bed, where it is hard to see without
removing the player action. Often the year will be first, for example:
16 1 26. This translates into this plate was cast on January 26, 1916.
- Plate Height: Measured from the bottom of the cast
metal gold painted plate to the top of the plate, usually easiest to do
on the treble end of the plate.
- Plate Number: This number will be cast into the
plate on the bass end about a foot down from the top of the piano.
Numbers to date range from 0 to 20. This is a one or two digit number
and it is clearly visible with the top lid open.
- Serial Number: The serial number is painted on the
plate, or it may be may also be stamped in the soundboard just under the
plate number. The serial number may (or may not) be stamped on the
player action, but if so usually on the bass end on top of the valve
chest.
- Scale: in the form of ##,##,## representing the
number of notes in the bass section, the number of notes in the tenor
section, and the number of notes in the treble section.
- Spring / Air Motor: The spring motor was probably standard in the
early pianos, and optional in some later pianos.
- Stack Type: Stacks were made by Melville Clark
Piano Company until sometime near or during August of 1919, whereupon
Wurlitzer (Apollo Piano Company) took command of the company. From this
point onward Amphion stacks were used in at least some models. Variations in pneumatic stack construction include:
- 3-tier early stack with pneumatics facing forward, and pushing
down on the keys.
- 4-tier early stack with pneumatics facing forward, and
pushing down on the keys.
- 3-tier common stack with pneumatics facing rearward, and with a
lever system pushing down on the keys just behind the fall board.
- 3-tier late stack with pneumatics facing
rearward, and with ordinary strikers that lift up on the action.
- Solo Stack above the keyboard.
- Solo
Stack below
the keyboard.
- Type of Player System: This could be a 58/65/88
note multi-roll player, a regular
88-note, a Solo Apollo, an Art-Apollo, a Solo-Art-Apollo, or something
else.
Updating the Database and Reporting Errors
To facilitate the reporting of errors and/or to submit new information regarding
Apollo pianos, please go to
Jere's Player Piano Company web site and navigate to the Melville
Clark Apollo Piano Registry page. Please note that a detailed
Registry Instructions page is available under "Need Help?,"
and any survey information is welcomed, whether it be all of the requested information,
or not. We realize that it can be difficult (even for an experienced restorer)
to ascertain certain information without partially disassembling an instrument.
Nonetheless, please submit a survey information regardless of how many spaces
you can currently fill in.
- Please be aware that the Jere DeBacker, Jere's Player Piano Company,
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Last Updated on April 2, 2012
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