The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My father Herbie was the only family member to be interested in my machines and records. He would come to the house and stay for hours while I played 78's and Edison DDs for him; he truly enjoyed it. In his declining years, the enjoyment from the music seemed to really help him. My dad passed away in 2010, and I miss him very much.

Mike

I don't care.

My father never cared for music, especially as played on an old acoustic phonograph. My mother always thought I had too many machines and phonograph records. During the last couple years of her life she did ask for a console to put in her house for decorative and furniture purposes. She chose my Edison BC-34. My three brothers are all totally indifferent to my phonographs and records. If I died, I'm sure they would sell the whole collection over to an estate sale or auction. If I'm trying to find a girlfriend I usually don't mention the hobby as it would not interest most women. I knew a guy who rented a section of an antique store and stocked it with phonographs all the way from cylinder Edisons to Credenzas hoping to sell them to antique shoppers. That business venture failed because phonographs just are not the type of thing a lady buys on impulse when walking into an antique store. I got into the hobby because I'm a big music lover, especially the music of distant decades. I have a love of old wooden furniture, and the quaint mechanisms and horns in them; and I collect records. But people like me are getting rarer and rarer, you have to admit. My brother thinks future phonograph prices might go way up. I asked him, how so? He said he meant in another hundred years when they are even rarer. I wonder how many will still exist in 2114: 80%, 50%, 10%?????

Most of my family and friends are not too excited about my phonograph collection. I should mention that I'm retired and my hobby is repairing broken machines. I have a collection of about 10 machines for myself, but pretty soon, the repaired machines begin to stack up. I'd like to be able to sell them as fast as I repair them, but that doesn't happen, so I have ended up giving a few to friends and family (they make great Christmas, wedding, house warming, birthday presents, etc.) and invariably, that machine turns into one of the favorite conversation pieces of their visitors. These are folks who would never have considered buying a 'Victrola', but now wouldn't be happy without one.

Also, I find that many young people, ones that have never seen a record before, are fascinated by this ingenious yet simple and extremely durable technology. That is encouraging for the future of phonograph collecting, I think, if enough young people get exposed to the 'Victrola' experience.

Cliff

The views of our spouses have already been discussed in another thread.

My son and daughter-in-law are professional musicians with an interest in antiques and collectables. When my name is added to the list of deletions they will know what to keep and how best to dispose of the rest of my collection. The grandchildren are as yet too young to know much about "Grandad's Toys".

Most of my friends are themselves collectors. How could it be otherwise?

Most of my friends are tolerant and just smile politely when I begin talking about phonographs and records as their eyes glaze over.

But now and then somebody comes along you just know is a candidate to catch the collecting bug. A few weeks ago I had to have a refrigerator repaired. A rather gruff middle-aged repairman came and set to work. He had a young apprentice along with him. The latter spotted my oak C-19 and you could just see his eyes light up. I told him what it was and he began admiring the case and started talking in hushed tones about the level of craftsmanship he was seeing. Somehow I think there will be phonographs in his future some day. That sort of thing keeps me optimistic about the hobby.

Clay

My in-lays frequently bring visitors over to see the basement and I always consider that to be a huge compliment. A couple of brother-in-laws have asked when I am going to sell some of this stuff. They really have no idea how much I buy and sell over a years time. They don't realize that collecting is in my blood. It's what I do. I'm happy and DeeDee is also. That's all that matters. Jerry Blais

Of all that have seen my small and quickly growing collection, I get comments ranging, as I'm sure the rest of us do, from "why?" to "COOL"! I don't entertain the "why"s, just as with my first love (stereo audio) I don't think they'll ever understand. As for the "COOL"s, I take them on the "Grand Tour" and explain all that I can to them.

The most priceless comment I've had so far was from my eldest granddaughter (23) when she recently asked me, "When you die, which one do I get?" She really couldn't care less about them and I hope she was just being cute!

Unfortunately, I believe my Dad and Mom (especially Dad, whom was the very reason for my life-long audio obsession in the first place) would have been very interested in them, but they passed on years before I got serious and acquired what I have now (mostly the past 8 months). Too late for that.

My wife is interested and very accommodating, but I don't believe she would miss most of the collection. She does, however, love the Home B with H&S horn that was her great-grandparents and will probably never part with it. Our children are interested but not inspired to pursue most of my many passions in general.

Fran

Most have no interest or think it is weird. I live in a town where lots of people know each other. A friend of my wife relayed a comment from one of my neighbors who said in reference to me, "He's a bit of an eccentric. He has all those players."

In my 45 years of phono collecting, only a tiny handful of people have shown any real interest, but most are polite. That's why this message board, the phono shows and organizations like APS are so great. At least there you can relate to people with similar interests.

When I mention my phonograph/gramophone collection to other people outside of the home, they usually give the impression "that's interesting", but I can tell they're not really understanding what I'm saying. I generally don't talk about collecting to a muggle unless there's a really good reason to do so.

For most people the hobbies and interests which dictate the subjects they like to talk about usually revolve around sports, guns, vacations, their child's activities, and the weather. Antiques is not a common subject for most people.

When folks visit my home, occasionally they may ask about the machines, however most ignore them. If I happen to play a record for a non-collector, they are glassy eyed within the first few bars of the tune. Once, a neighbor asked "You don't actually listen to them, do you?". I replied "Yeah sometimes".

My family likes my collection, they don't mind the music, but they'd rather have the TV on than 78s on. My wife is OK with having the machines dominate the front room of the house. The formal dining table is usually covered with her projects which doesn't bother me too much.

My daughter is really into the Manga/Anime/A-Kon stuff so the wife understands having an obsession for a particular hobby.