The Gramophone (magazine) - question

[old country chemist]

Hi chunny, very good to hear from you, and a very BIG THANK YOU" to you. George Overstall did have some of the old gramophone magazines in his collectiom, but only earlier than 1940s as far as I remember, so he was never able to show me a small ad. It was only in passing that he mentioned to me many years ago, that he made soundboxes for Bratley to market and sell, through small ads. in "The Gramophone" magazine. It is great to read them.
When George Overstall went into a nursing home in the later 1990s, a house clearance firm was called in to, of course, clear the house-and that they did! There was in his little workshop which had a new lathe, many drawers of brass bits and pieces, also some EMG and Expert bits. The clearance folk must have dumped all the gramophone items, not knowing what was what, The only thing they "rescued" from the workshop was the lathe which George had hardly used. So we will never know what items of historical interest of Overstall soundboxes or whatever else was there. I did see some aluminium diaphragms at one time, and also watched George form them on his lathe. Only twice, have I had a feeling that an Overstall soundbox might have been for sale on e bay, but I could never be sure of their maker.
THANK YOU chunny. Sorry, I did not want to spoil the thread of this "Gramophone" magazine thread, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

[Dulcetto]

Why do some of the 'year bound' copies start in January and end in December and others start in June and end in May the following year ?

Was the publication not produced for a six month period maybe ?

Some have red covers and some are black - and I wonder why this is too.

I hope this makes sense and sorry if this thread is in the wrong area.

Thank you as always.

It all depends on who did the binding. Buyers of the magazines could send off their accumulated issues to the publishers for binding ,or of course they could have them bound privately by a local company. Also, the publishers of most magazines back then would offer up to 5 years after publication for their readers to buy back issues already bound into yearly or six-monthly runs. The first "Gramophone " issue was April 1923 , but often the first two or three issues of any magazine title sold out as printing runs were limited in the first few months in case the title proved not to be a success. I have several bound volumes of "Talking Machine News" and also of "Soundwave". The first " Soundwave " volume I have , which was bound by the publishers and bought in a volume after publication , starts during the year 1906 and goes through to 1908 , but the first two issues are not present , presumably because the publishers had none left. Incidentally , I have Talking Machine News volumes , one is bound with the covers of each magazine , but the others are not , so there was no hard and fast practice as to whether covers/ advertisements were included or not when binding into volumes. I have almost complete runs of the " Edison Kinetograph" an in - house fortnightly magazine issued by Edison to the cinema trade up until 1915 when Edison abandoned the cinema film side of the business. I have both US and UK editions and all are bound into six-monthly volumes , originally intended to be purchased from the publishers after publication -- my particular sets were rescued from the basement of Thomas A Edison Inc in London when they ceased trading in the late 1960's , unsold old stock from 50 years previously !

[Oedipus]

Talking of John Bratley, he used to come to CLPGS meetings in the early 1970s, and indeed I once went to see him at his house in Hampshire. I didn't know of his involvement with George Overstall, but he did talk of E.M Ginn as if he had known him well. He called him 'Mick' Ginn, and I wondered if that was how Ginn was known to his friends generally, or was it just a Bratley-ism?

[old country chemist]

Hello Oedipus, thanks for mentioning John Bratley. I never met him, but I did take George Overstall to the "house" in Hampshire once-a large wooden bungalow, still with many 78s in it. Bratley had recently died, and Margaret, his widow, a pleasant woman, let George and I look through the shelves of records which were the remains of many thousands that had been in the house. We spent several hours there. Most of the good stuff had gone, as collectors had been in and bought the best records, and I think, all the gramophones, as I never saw any there. Many of the records left were Viennese waltzes, and light operatic arias. As I am interested in these type of records, I bought many, I think at 10 pence each!-and they all had covers.I think there were some old "Gramophone " magazines there, but I wish I had bought them then. I did hear from George that Bratley did unusual things with gramophones, such as adding in extra pipework on EMGs, and cutting off bits of other machines, but I could not comment myself, as they had all gone. We were going to make another visit to the bungalow later, but If I remember correctly, George Overstall became ill, and had to move to a nursing home, so we never went back.

[phonosandradios]

Thanks to Chunny I was able to narrow my search for the original ads. Although the text has already been provided I have attached below scans of some of the original adverts in amongst the others so you can see them in their original form and context. If you click on the photo and then click on it again it will enlarge so the text can be clearly be read.

December 1948 - ad in Trade Section 8th advert down in that section
June 1945 - ad in Trade Section 2nd advert down in that section
March 1948 - ad on top left hand of page - 1st advert on page

[old country chemist]

Thanks very much "phonosandradios" for placing the three scans of the Bratley-Overstall advertisements. It is good to see them in the original magazines.
Thank you again-most kind. Great place this forum!