The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

There is always going to be a portion of the population that does not understand the pleasures of collecting and there are certainly many more who watch those cable shows about pathological hoarders with trash piled to the ceiling and who have no clue as to the difference between that and an ordered, well-cared-for collection. Of course if I get to the point where phonographs are stacked on top of each other and inaccessible and there is only a narrow path through the house, then people would have a right to be concerned. Not quite there yet.

Clay

Your term "pathological hoarders" is apt. The general public may not appreciate the fine distinction between a zealous collector and a true pathological hoarder. I have been to the homes of both kinds, both old batchlors.

One guy had 400+ machines, by his estimate, jammed rather tight in a large house, but it was reasonably ordered and very clean, and no phonographs lurked in the kitchen or bathrooms. I certainly had no premonition that something would crawl from a dark corner and bite me!

Another guy's house looked like a city dump in every room, with truly rare machines jumbled among huge piles of old newspapers and every other conceivable form of junk piled nearly to the ceilings. There were holes in the floors and ceilings. I had to jump across piles of refuse passing through the kitchen in order to reach the basement. I won't mention the smells. At least the kitchen had not been used for its intended purpose for years. In the basement there were stacks of wooden horns and mahogany Edison Homes sitting on the floor, rotting. An amiable recluse, he seemed oblivious to the whole problem. I was creeped out for the rest of the day having seen that.

this could be debated for eons I'm sure, and opinions will certainly differ based on how much a person assesses a given collection/hoard in light of his own holdings or approach to collecting. I've always thought the real distinction turns on the balance between appreciation (for what you have) and acquisition (of more and more of what you don't)... when you're leaning too far toward the latter and can only think about when you'll find the next one, you're more inclined toward hoarding tendencies, I would think. not that that would necessarily make you a hoarder, especially if you don't, or just can't (say, for financial reasons), act upon all those impulses.

either way, it's still hard at times to refrain from considering anyone with a massive stockpile of machines as anything but a hoarder to some extent. but for the sake of the machines' well-being, at least, I'd much rather see the mr. victor or victorian palace types than the sort typefied by that guy, I can't remember his name, in the carolinas area, with the rural property that has all those outbuildings full of piled and stacked machines stored with no rhyme, reason, climate control, etc.