Show us your records by Famous Historical Figures

[phonogfp]

Some more...

George P.

[phonogfp]

And a few more...

George P.

[FellowCollector]

George, How about a trade for that Cook record? (ha ha! who am I kidding?) I would settle for hearing the story about how you found it. It is a truly rare record. And one that I have wanted for years. I found the Shackleton cylinder years ago 'in the wild' and most of the Taft Grand Prize records but I have yet to find the Cook record and the Peary record. You are very fortunate indeed to have both of those. Would love to hear that Cook record. - Doug

[Tinkerbell]

And a few more...

George P.

Wow, George, your collection makes my head spin!

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Wonderful stuff Goeorge, but Tinkebell, you posted the only true Saint....
The Shackleton on a wax Amberol is very interesting indeed.

Jim

[phonojim]

You get 'em where you find 'em. I picked up my copy of the Commander Peary record at a garage sale where they had only 2 records in the whole place. $.50 ea. The other one was a Melba on the Red Seal Patents label. I got out of there as fast as I could with both of them!
George, I was planning to post the Lindberg set but you beat me to it.
For history buffs who actually listen to this stuff, I recommend the Edward R. Murrow "I Can Hear It Now" sets on Columbia from the late '40s (and later re-released on LP).

Jim

[phonogfp]

Thanks for the nice comments. Back in the 70s and early 80s when I couldn't afford phonographs at the shows, I'd dive into boxes of records - - and I was often the only one! Nowadays I'd be muscled right out into the aisles.

George, How about a trade for that Cook record? (ha ha! who am I kidding?) I would settle for hearing the story about how you found it. It is a truly rare record. And one that I have wanted for years. I found the Shackleton cylinder years ago 'in the wild' and most of the Taft Grand Prize records but I have yet to find the Cook record and the Peary record. You are very fortunate indeed to have both of those. Would love to hear that Cook record. - Doug

Here's where I could make up a great story about finding records. I have a few good stories, but unfortunately, not for Cook, Peary, or Shackleton. I bought the Cook and Peary records during the early 1990s on mail auctions (back when there were many of them besides Nauck's). I'd have to look up exactly how much I paid, but they were both cheap - every now and then, you'd get lucky. Still, not a very interesting story. The Shackleton record was bought from a dealer face-to-face. (It's virtually perfect, and can be heard on the CD that accompanies The Talking Machine Compendium, 2nd Edition). At the time I thought I paid a lot for it, but the intervening 15-20 years has made it a bargain too! That's the best I can do on stories for these particular records, I'm afraid.

Maybe I should make up the stories next time...

I second Jim's recommendation for "I Can Hear It Now." Mine is on 78; I didn't know it was reissued on LP.

Thanks again,

George P.

[FellowCollector]

Thanks for sharing the stories behind your finds of some of the records, George, even if they might have been seemingly unremarkable. It's always neat to hear the stories behind the finds. I'd nearly forgotten about the smaller mail order auctions of the 80's and 90's. Ah yes, the good old days of mail order / telephone call bidding before eBay and other Internet auctions when you were allowed to call literally minutes before a record auction ends (sometimes at midnight) to get the current bid and then increase your bid! It seems no matter how or where we find our historical figures records, even non-record collector sellers will recognize the famous person doing the recording, set it aside and increase the price. I can recall about 20 years ago going to a yard sale that had 3 milk crates of 78's. They were 50 cents each and less if you bought a lot. I found one of my Wm H. Taft Grand Prize Victor records in one crate (in beautiful condition too!) and so I picked it out along with some early comic recordings. When I went to pay, the owner looked through my records presumably to count them and seeing the Taft record he said, "Hey, I know this guy was a Senator or a Governor...I need to get more for it...gimme 5 bucks for that one....the others are 50 cents." I said, "He was a President." "Well, I'll take 5 bucks for it anyway..." I was just happy to get it. - Doug

[JohnM]

John D. Larkin didn't own a furniture factory, per se. He started making soap in the 1870's in Buffalo, New York, and eventually brought his brother-in-law, Elbert Hubbard, into the business as head of marketing. Hubbard conceived the idea of putting coupons into the bars and combination boxes of soaps that could be redeemed for merchandise. This concept caught on like wildfire and the soap company eventually morphed into a mail-order catalog and owned several manufacturing businesses including the Buffalo Pottery (later Buffalo China which supplied the American restaurant industry for decades), and the Symphonola phonograph and record brand. Hubbard retired in 1895 to found the Roycroft Shops in East Aurora, New York, a pioneering Arts & Crafts community, and he and his second wife, Alice, died on the Lusitania in 1915. The term 'soap salesman' was originally used in reference to Hubbard, and he also coined the phrase "If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door". The Larkin Company's headquarters on Seneca Street in Buffalo was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, as was the home of Hubbard's successor at Larkin, Darwin Martin. A very interesting company and more than just a "furniture factory". There was no 'Larkin Furniture Company'. My great-uncle, Will, worked for the Buffalo Pottery.

[epigramophone]

I do not normally risk buying records by post, but sometimes an exception has to be made.

This one was recorded by John McCormack on 27th May 1932 at the Kingsway Hall, London. The profits from it's sale were donated to the building fund for the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool.

Unfortunately the original design proved far too ambitious, and only the crypt was completed before lack of funds halted the project.

A complete rethink resulted in the world famous modernist building which stands on the site today.

The large label on the reverse of this single sided disc gives an impression of what would have been the second largest church in the world.