The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Zwebie wrote:When I was a kid, growing up in Whiting, IN, my brothers and I used to watch re-runs of the Three Stooges on TV.

With 7 kids, my parents were rather poor, so we would go hunting for discarded toys in the alley behind our house. Seemed like after Christmas or birthdays we would always have good luck. We would take old broken toys and fix them, and now they were new to us!

One summer day, we found boxes of albums of old phonograph records. Of course we immediately became Stooges and started breaking the records over each other’s heads! (They also made good Frisbees).

I often wonder what great, rare, or desirable titles we destroyed! But hey, we had a blast!

Cheers, Bob S.

Hey your from Whiting... I lived there for a while then in nearby Hammond, IN. Nice little town.

In my life I broke roughly the following:

as a kid 3 country records (Hank Williams Sr. - 2 records)
(Duke Ellington - 1 record)

Recently tight crack in the cabinet (LuluBelle and Scotty)

Cylinders (2 minute wax and Amberols) probably 8

I imagine my total is:

3 78's
8 cylinders

So far I have never broken any red seal 78's or any hot jazz (in recent years).

I am usually pretty careful. The ones that I seem to break have a hidden hairline crack in them.
Usually they are later 30s records, they seem to be more fragile.
Is there a rule that says, "If you find a book of records, the best or most interesting ones will be cracked or broken"?

howardpgh wrote:I am usually pretty careful. The ones that I seem to break have a hidden hairline crack in them.
Usually they are later 30s records, they seem to be more fragile.
Is there a rule that says, "If you find a book of records, the best or most interesting ones will be cracked or broken"?

I believe that rule is in fact true. I got a batch of rather boring records once and I saw a pristine Original Dixieland Jazz Band recording of Tiger Rag. Well, at least it would have been in pristine condition if it weren't for large hairline crack.

-Steve

Oh, gosh, dozens if not more, starting with accidently stepping on some of the few records I had as a child long, long ago up to a nice Deutsche Gramophone 78 I broke about a week ago. It was in a stack of records recently acquired at a junk shop I was cleaning and broke in my hands. Apparently it had a hairline crack I hadn't noticed and it snapped when I picked it up to clean.

And then there are wax Amberoles that break when I so much as look at them across the room. I think they are possessed.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:And then there are wax Amberoles that break when I so much as look at them across the room. I think they are possessed.

Clay

I have heard quite a few people say that wax Amberols tend to be really fragile. Is there a certain way they should be handled to avoid breakage? I haven't had much contact with wax amberols and I don't currently have a machine that plays them, though I expect I will have one sometime in the future. After all, Edison did develop the Blue Amberol as a remedy of the complaints of customers who were saying that wax Amberols were too fragile and wore out quickly.

-Steve

oldphonographsteve wrote:

FloridaClay wrote:And then there are wax Amberoles that break when I so much as look at them across the room. I think they are possessed.

Clay

I have heard quite a few people say that wax Amberols tend to be really fragile. Is there a certain way they should be handled to avoid breakage? I haven't had much contact with wax amberols and I don't currently have a machine that plays them, though I expect I will have one sometime in the future. After all, Edison did develop the Blue Amberol as a remedy of the complaints of customers who were saying that wax Amberols were too fragile and wore out quickly.

-Steve

Personally, I think the best treatment of wax Amberols is to avoid them entirely. The next best treatment is to keep them in a perfectly climate-controlled case, and never try to play them.

Bill

oldphonographsteve wrote:
I have heard quite a few people say that wax Amberols tend to be really fragile. Is there a certain way they should be handled to avoid breakage?
-Steve

You might be interested in this recent thread:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... ls#p142309

George P.

*bump*

In my ten years of collecting I’m not proud to say I’ve probably broken about 15-20 78s The last one being “Barrel House Boogie” by Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons a couple of months ago.

As for wax cylinders I haven’t broken any of those YET...


As for blue amberols, I’ve damaged about two of them. The first time I tried to play my Amberola 30 it was very out of adjustment. So I ended up trashing “Sailing Down The Chesapeake Bay” By the American Quartet.

The second time was back in February when I stupidly ordered a BA from eBay during a week of really cold weather. Record showed up with a nice split on the side. That’s one copy of “Grandma’s Mustard Plaster” by Murray K. Hill that will never play again... Thankfully I didn’t pay too much for it and I sure learned my lesson!

I started collecting 78s when I was 10. . . I used to keep them on the third shelf of an oak bookcase. One day, I walked into my room, to see a broken shelf and several hundred records smashed on the wood floor. I still have a few of the survivors, all marked with a noticeably deep chips on the edge. Terribly heartbreaking for a young collector
And my dad was pretty pissed about the deep gouges in the floor