Ellen S. Pratt has been playing dulcimer for twenty-three years, banjo for about twelve years, and teaching about/showing crankies at festivals for about ten years. She was first introduced to crankies by Anna Roberts-Gavelt and Elizabeth LaPrelle while in Swannanoa, North Carolina for an Old Time Music week. Immediately taken by the idea, Ellen went home and constructed her own wooden crankie. She has crafted several scrolls using a variety of materials to go along with old time ballads and folk songs.

Crankies are the pre-curser to modern day motion pictures. Long ago, people would travel around from town to town with their crankies in a wagon and put on shows for townspeople. Crankies in those days were made of paper and often backlit by candles. They are called crankies because you crank the handle to advance the scenes on the scroll.

Ellen has performed with her crankies at numerous open mics and taught at festivals throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Students often construct small hand-held crankies based on ballads that they choose in the workshops she teaches.

​Ellen plays dulcimer and banjo in the elementary school where she teaches second grade and has demonstrated crankies to students in her school.