Melville Clark, one of the great pioneers in the player-piano industry, was one of the first to market pianos and their players as a complete unit and was also the first (1902) to build a player unit to operate the entire 88-note range of the piano keyboard. Clark was a prolific inventor who secured many patents in the field - the most notable of which was the transposing device which permits a player-piano to operate in a number of different keys, obviously a great boon to the accompaniment of vocal music.
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.
Melville Clark died on November 5, 1918. He had recently retired from MCPCo.
Family Members
Spouse
Elizabeth Baughman Clark
1853–1923 (m. 1873)
Children
Kenneth Clark
unknown–1889
