The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I spent lots of time at my grandparents' growing up. Most of that time I would spend entranced with the HMV 109 tabletop and huge pile of 78s they would fetch down from the loft. One day the spring broke and they got me a little Philips radiogram to replace it - which was never the same!

When they cleared the place (when my grandmother moved to a much smaller house) the question came up, did any of us want to save anything? A no-brainer for me! (I WISH I'd also thought to save the 1920s dressing-up bear suit, i.e. you could turn yourself, albeit very uncomfortably, into a live vintage teddy bear.) Somehow I jammed a needle into the spring canister and made it work, kind-of. Later on I fixed it properly. Although I have some much better and rarer machines, it's a treasured heirloom.

I always had LPs and 45s when I grew up. My older brother once brought home an LP from the Comedian Harmonists, who were Superstars in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s until the Nazis drove them out. This got me interested in this era of music and I started looking for 78s on flea markets etc. I always used a 1960s record player to listen to them. Then a few years ago my wife called me from a furniture auction and told me she bought a gramophone. It turned out to be an Edison BC-34, which did not help with my 78s but got me into Diamond Discs as well. Then I started actively looking on eBay, Craigslist, auctions etc and found a small table top HMV 1a and a Columbia 239. By that time I was completely hooked and machines are happily multiplying in mu house ever since.
My wife supports me in my hobby, but makes sure that I stay somehow within the space limitations of our house.
Andreas

Fancy being given an EMG horn! I've never heard anything of the like before and doubt I ever shall again.

Most collectors are squirrels by their own admission and most collectors do not share information freely. The European collectors are uniquely 'tight' with information, it has to be said! But to be given anything these days is really a coup and an EMG horn is something else altogether. Well done!

Thanks for the responses!, edisone, i was and am the same!, i may detail mine a bit more, since i only started collecting 4 years ago (still a long time for a 14 year old! ) i remember alot!, i first got hooked watching videos of lp's and 45's on youtube i was interested then but when i ran into videos of gramophones i got even more excited! (This was 4 years ago when i was 10), infact the 2 videos i remember most were both crapophones, obviously then i didnt even know there was such a thing!, one playing the third man theme and another playing the black and white rag, however when i ran accross some later videos of emg gramophones my head nearly exploded!, i then whent on the hunt for a record, my dad said "john (my dads friend) may have some" (he works for the council so he finds these kind of things all the time) so we went to see him, he went upstairs and got a lp brought it down and gave it to me, even though it was cr*p i was dancing with excitement and i nearly wet myself with excitement when i removed it from the cover, it was like i had found the holy grail!, obviously i didnt then have a record player so i made one from a paper cone and a pencil with a sewing needle, and it worked! But i wanted more, my mams boyfriends friends grandma had died and they were clearing out here house, in which they found a huge stereo stack from the 80's with a record player on top, that did the job however later on i wanted a older record player, at the same time i liked old radio's and i had got a very nice one from someone local to me called david boynes, i went to him and asked for a record player, i got a murphy record player that was missing its cartridge (and still is now) but i did get a cartrige rigged up to it, when i went back to see if he could repair it but instaid he gave me a dansette major record player which did work, i had this for a while along with alot of lp's and 45's but i wanted to get into 78's, i told my grandma about my wants and she said to have a look, sure enough, she had one 78, cigareets, whusky and wild, wild women by red ingle and his natural 7, from that i wanted a gramophone, so i did alot of saving and bought a hmv 101 for £75 from ebay, it was and is a faantastic machine!, my collection was then slowly expanding from there but i had always wanted a phonograph but i could never afford one and i could never get my brain around how to use them BUT, earlyer this year in january i went to newzealand, i did find some good 78s and went to a museum with quite a few machines ( a cheeney and a amberola 30/50 with some others, after i pay off a columbia q i will be wanting one of those amberolas!) After seeing that phonograph i really wanted one but when i came back i checked gumtree and sure enough there was a wrecked edison fireside on there for £50, i knocked him down to £35 and bought it, £105 later i had it running, my collection has been growing ever since!

Steve, yes graham has been very kind to me!, i couldnt beleive it myself when he offered it to me, it is sagged but still very good

Steve wrote:Most collectors are squirrels by their own admission and most collectors do not share information freely. The European collectors are uniquely 'tight' with information, it has to be said!

I agree that this seems to be true for collectors in the UK, but both here in the US and on the German forum I find many collectors openly sharing high quality scans and images of machines, parts, catalogs and other ephemera. Everyone also is very helpfull with any kind of information regarding technology, repairs, history etc. Even sharing parts for little or no money is very common. Not sure about other countries, but in the UK it seems that "sharing" a piece of ephemera means showing a picture of it from an angle, so people can admire, but not reproduce it. To me this seems more like showing off than sharing.

Especially here on this forum I was humbled several times by other collectors just giving me things when I was expecting to purchase them. Especially those from the pre-eBay era understand that every collector profits from sharing. This understanding of free information sharing and helping others has really changed my perspective and I am deeply thankfull for all the help from everyone here.

Thanks
Andreas

Will I suspose the "who" is myself. My venture into phonographia (if there isn’t such a word, there ought to be) results from a combination of things—a love of things mechanical and curiosity about how they work, a love of craftsmanship from before the days of plastic and computer controlled design and manufacture, affection for bygone music, a big dose of nostalgia, and time to indulge all these things in retirement.

Clay

Im only 19, and like many guys my age I love anything mechanical, old, or needs fixed. Plus, through band and music appreciation back in high school I acquired my taste and love for the early 1900s music. It was my girlfriend of 8 years who inspired me, because she had been wanting one for the holidays to play the Bing Crosby records on. It was in the process of searching for a phonograph that I got hooked. I realized that my passion for music and mechanics/old things came together through this hobby. I LOVE taking something from our past and fixing it like new, I breathe new life into it. Its neat to think about what all that phonograph has "seen" and wonder who it belonged to before. Now, after restoring hers, ivr moved on to my silvertone and I love it. And, as long as I keep finding them abandoned, ill keep fixing them.
I owe it to my girlfriend and family who have supported me, because my girlfriend has also caught thr "bug" and its something we share. My family enjoys the music and the machines as much as I do, and it keeps me from spending thousands on old junk cars to fix up. I think this hobby is here to stay
Lastly, this forum and the people ive talked to keep me going. Its nice to have a place for inspiration and information in a world that is quickly tossing it away. It reminds me that im not alone.

Orchorsol wrote: (I WISH I'd also thought to save the 1920s dressing-up bear suit, i.e. you could turn yourself, albeit very uncomfortably, into a live vintage teddy bear.)

Oh dear: O.o Did your grandparents get involved with the British Bear Cult? (check the link):


http://books.google.com/books?id=wCJqql ... +Bear+Cult

Off topic, but I just had to post it.....

Age 12 I saw a coin-operated piano in an antique arcade. It piqued my interest and I started reading about the 1920s at the library and saw an upright phonograph (Victor Victrola) in a museum behind glass. I knew at age 16 that I had to have one. I got my first Victrola at age 18. More followed...

Damon
St. Louis, MO