The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Phono48 wrote:

dd2u wrote:Did you see the price that Vera Lynn's "White Cliffs of Dover" fetched on eBay recently?

I did,and immediately put my near-mint copy up for auction. I can't remember the exact amount, but the starting price was way, way below what the first one fetched. I put a fairly low reserve on it, again much lower, but the few bids mine attracted came nowhere near the price the first one fetched. I wonder why????

The only reasonable answer I can propose is because you are not Greg Butler, and do not have as many people following your eBay listings as Greg's Greats.

When buying individual records from eBay there are obvious benefits to buying multiple records from the same seller, especially if you have personal experience of that seller being reliable and honest in the past. Hence some people stick to certain sellers, even if it means paying "over the odds" (or maybe, in ignorance of that fact). The magnitude of this effect never ceases to surprise me.

(I have yet to buy a record from Greg, though I have purchased the Compact Discs from his eBay shop. One day I hope to attend the record fair he holds annually at his house, if only to sift through the bargain boxes)

It wasnt greg listing it, it was from another dealer called philip hutchinson

Is it? I just happen to have one.

That recording came out when the phonograph industry was at its lowest ebb, and the tunes popularity was "made" by radio exposure, and its use in a Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoon featuring Cab Calloway. So while the tune was very popular, I bet the number of discs pressed was modest.

During WWII, there was a musician strike in the USA from 1942-1944. So the big record companies put out many four disc record albums of "Jazz Classics" so they could re-issue records from the 20s and 30s. In America at least these "Hot Jazz Classics" albums are common and cheap at $5 to $10 per 4-disc album. These albums were put out by RCA Victor, Columbia, and Brunswick and feature artists like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and King Oliver. The Brunswick Cab Calloway album is not rare and includes some great early Calloway hits including Some of these Days, Bugle Call Rag, and Minnie the Moocher. Around 1950, Brunswick put this album out again in a 10" LP version. It should be easy to locate in the US.

I just won a copy of "Minnie The Moocher" from Alan Cooperman's jazz78s.com online auction, for a bid of $8.50. Also got a copy of "Kicking the Gong Around" for another $8.50 bid. Took me four months of looking to find these records.

Interestingly enough, both of these Cab Calloway records are on the Montgomery Ward label (originally sold in Sears stores).

Montgomery Ward repressed lots of titles that had been issued on the likes of Victor and Bluebird.

If you got the same record, they must have done some Brunswick titles, too.

CORRECTION: I misread the abbreviation on the auction list. Instead of "Montgomery Ward", the records are on the "Melotone" label. OOPS!

I won an original Brunswick on an auction list about 40 years ago. The flip side is "Doin' The Rumba" which I actually prefer over "Minnie". Met Cab at a book signing a few years later and he graciously autographed it for me. Calloway re-recorded it when he went to Victor for a short period around 1934 and that version is actually better than the Brunswick, in my opinion.

It is hard to find some of these records in decent shape as they have been played sooo much.
Cab Calloway did the song in the movie "The Blues Brothers", starred the late John Belushi and Dan Akyroyd.