Phonograph Shops - Then and Now

[JohnM]

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Thanks Covah!

[Covah]

Reviewing photos of downtown Los Angeles reminds me of the loft solution. Since these big old office buildings are good for nothing the space can be rented out as lofts. With people- "urban pioneers"- living downtown shops have business and there is some life there.

Los Angeles has its culture of despising the old and worshiping the new. I don't live in Los Angeles. My little town, which borders LA, is a total historic overlay zone. Every block is its own historic district. This is to circumvent high density zoning from go-go 60's. No one can tear down a house and put up an apartment even if the lot is zoned for it.

The guy in the Bumiller building #624 did not sell phonos but fixed them. He must have had a shop on the sixth- top- floor where the rent was cheapest. Now the Bumiller building is lofts.

[JohnM]

Ray Phillips told me that at least from the late-1930's (when he started collecting) until some time in the 1950's, that the Goodwill store in downtown Los Angeles had a room in the basement with a number of wooden barrels filled to overflowing with assorted unsorted cylinder records. The price was ten cents per dozen!

John M

[Nat]

wow - that all bring things back..

I grew up (sort of!) in Seattle. The Fifth Avenue Records Shop, standard Records and Hi Fi... The latter used to let me play any number of records to see if I liked them and Mrs. Smith made it clear I was not expected to buy everything; she loved music, and they sold music. All gone...

when I was in High School, Goodwill sold 78 rpm records for 79 cents. I used to troll through the bins every ten days or so, and usually brought home a dozen or so Caruso's, etc. Wound up with maybe a thousand 78's that way.

Nat

[Covah]

In a hundred years people will say, to think thrift shops used to sell these rare and valuable LPs for only one dollar!

Of course in a hundred years one dollar will be like one penny today.

[Nat]

Yes, bot those nasty LP's won't hold up as well as our lovely 78 rpm's!

The dollar is already like a penny - until you try to earn it!

[EdisonSquirrel]

In a hundred years people will say, to think thrift shops used to sell these rare and valuable LPs for only one dollar!

Of course in a hundred years one dollar will be like one penny today.

In a hundred years I will still be buying cylinders on Ebay. Hopefully I will have less competition.



Rocky

[Guest]

BTW - do squirrels eat cylinders?

[EdisonSquirrel]

BTW - do squirrels eat cylinders?

Yes, squirrels do eat cylinders, and most gluttonously.

Rocky