View of record collecting from 50 years ago

[Brad]

In the records that I brought home from my recent weekend haul, I found this article tucked into one of the record albums. It offers an interesting little glimps into record collecting from almost 50 years ago.

So are you a collector in the true sense, or one of the "lunatic fringe"?

[larryh]

People in New York were always paying prices that were many times the going rate else where. No doubt due to the vast amount of people attracted to the Arts in that city. The same records they mention that sell for hundreds were selling for a dime a record here in that era.. I wish I had known which to buy then. I can recall at a popular Book Fair run in St louis that they had at least 30 tables of nothing but 78 records piled high. Most selling for a dollar or two an album or much less. Single records were often a dime or a quarter. I knew people even then who knew what good collectable rarities were and would leave with shopping carts filled to the top with those. I in turn was buying semi classical and piano and others that mostly no one wanted then or now!

[Lenoirstreetguy]

This is interesting indeed. The lunatic label collector bit is amusing. But like Larry , O! for the halcyon days of the early 70's when 78's were two for a quarter at the Goodwill in Sarnia. The only trouble was that they were never particularly plentiful to find up here in small town southern Ontario. Cheap yes; common no. And cylinders were always scarce and relatively expensive. The last gasp of a collector'sEl Dorado in Toronto was the late lamented Toronto Symphony Rummage sale which was the mother of all rummage sales. I mean huge :it was held in the Colluseum at the Exhibition grounds and I have never seen anything like it before or since. I used to take a long suffering friend to act as a porter and stagger out of it with so many 78's that I had to hail a cab to get home, and on a student budget that's saying something. It's the last place I've ever found really rare stuff...like Lilli Lehmann Odeons and Vienna G&T's in the wild.

Jim

[Jerry B.]

In Portland, Oregon back in the seventies, there was a record and phonograph sale at a business named "Cal's Books". Cal's must have been an empty store front and the temporary renter was selling the contents of several storage units. I remember walking into the store and seeing knee deep rows of 78's that seemed to fill the store. In the back of the store there were several dozen wind-up record players and maybe an equal number of treadle sewing machines. At the start of the several week sale, the 78's were $1 each, your choice. The next couple of days they were fifty cents and the last week or ten days, records were a dime each. I remember the real record collectors were able to face to the records for the entire day without coming up for air. One friend by the name of Bud Cannon went home with several stacks of records including many Berliners, small Zonophones, and Vogues. I have always considered myself a machine collector and I didn't have the patience to plow through pile after pile of records. A few days into the sale the price was lowered on an oak Opera that was missing the elbow and horn and I bought my first Edison Opera for $550. At the end of sale there was still a huge amount of unsold records. A collector by the name of Joe Pittaluga bought all the unsold records for something like 1.5 cents each. It took him numerous trips with a full size van to move his records and he had a heart attack from the effort and died within a year or so.

[hillndalefan]

Back when I started collecting at the age of 12, my favorite place to go was on Cass Ave., just east of Grand Blvd. in north St. Louis, Mo. It was called Father Dempsey's Charities and had an incredible corner of the basement filled with records. I never saw a cylinder there, but 10" shellac 78s were 10 cents each and 12" shellac 78s and Edison discs were 25 cents. I never left there without something I found interesting. Unfortunately, in my youth and inexperience I passed up at least one Autograph record and also a Merritt, not knowing what they were. Someone got bargains there. The sad story is that when the store moved onto north Grand, several blocks away, they just had the records that were left trucked out to the dump. I was in college at the time, and only found out years later. Bob Ault

[larryh]

Bob,

That really brings back memories.. Father Dempseys! I remember going down in that basement loaded floor to ceiling with records. If I recall the were 10 cents a piece. I know that was from the late 50's and early 60's for sure. Don't know what happened to that place or so many others that were scattered though St. Louis. I guess we were fortunate to have been around in the period similar today when people are dumping video tapes and LPs. Our first Radio Record player set a I recall it was a Zenith Blond set, it was in the late 40's and had a 78 turntable, but just out FM, which flopped that try. Of course at the same time 45's and LPs were just being introduced so by the late 50's 78's were being given away right and left. I think my recollections of those early 78 albums just never left me, sort of like the Golden Days of Radio stuck with me all this time. We were fortunate to have seen it all.

[hillndalefan]

Out of curiosity, does anyone remember A. Nugent, Jr.; and Dave Houser in Minersville, Pa.? Good dealers in the mail trade. Also, Collector's News that used to be published in Grundy Center, Iowa? Bob

[wjw]

A. Nugent, Jr. I haven't thought about that name in 40 years, and last weekend at the Orlando show I ran across several record sleeves with his name stamped on them.
In the late sixties, when I was fifteen or so, I wrote to RCA to inquire about parts for a Victrola. The sent me a letter suggesting I contact a certain A. Nugent, Jr. Nice little coincidence!

[JohnM]

I remember those fellows . . . and Lloyd Davis of Prarie Village, Kansas. And Karl Frick, Neumann Miller, and Tom Pollard on the West Coast. Does anyone remember Chuck Mandrake of North Kingsville, Ohio? He used to publish the 'Zonophone News'.

[phonogfp]

Sure - I remember all of those guys. I still have old catalogs and price lists from some of them!

I recall back in 1972, Tom Pollard was selling clean Edison 2-minute cylinders in boxes for something like $1 apiece. At that time I only had a couple dozen, so I sent Mr. Pollard $75 IN CASH for a bunch of cylinders. A few weeks later a big box arrived with all the cylinders (well packed - no breakage), along with a note. Mr. Pollard thanked me for my business, and then advised me in a fatherly way that I shouldn't be sending cash through the mail! I never did again...

George P.