The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks. I just enjoy seeing what is at the referenced spots now. In this case, if that’s the street address, it turns out to be a residence on a (rare) double lot. The side lot is forested now but could have been Mr Grey’s cactus farm!

The surviving line of palms across the front of the property, which is walled, might also indicate a prior interest in things tropical.

According to the yellow flyer I think they may have been imported.

"A MESSAGE TO THE USERS OF KACTI NEEDLES;

For a number of years we have been the agent for Kacti Needles in the United States. These Needles are fashioned by hand (each needle being a little different from every other needle in the package, there being no two needles exactly alike) from the long spines ofthe Mexican Cactaceae. Long popular among real lovers of music in South American--they have found a niche in the hearts of lovers of re-created music in North America wherever they have been used, which we believe can never be effaced."

Agent in the US, Mexican cactus, popular in South America-- Probably not a US-grown product. They were probably grown from the barrel cactus.

Sorry to continue the thread drift here, but - if anyone knows any more about the origins of Peter Grey Kacti needles, please let me know - I'm trying to research all this. I have a strong hunch that Captain Ramsay, who had started Burmese Colour Needles in South Africa but then left or was ousted from his own firm under a cloud, may have been involved. Around 1930 he started another short-lived needle product in the US and England, Electrocolor, and I wonder whether Peter Grey followed that.

Orchorsol wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:15 am Sorry to continue the thread drift here, but - if anyone knows any more about the origins of Peter Grey Kacti needles, please let me know - I'm trying to research all this. I have a strong hunch that Captain Ramsay, who had started Burmese Colour Needles in South Africa but then left or was ousted from his own firm under a cloud, may have been involved. Around 1930 he started another short-lived needle product in the US and England, Electrocolor, and I wonder whether Peter Grey followed that.

Well, the thread drift does not bother me--but if we were to start a thread on Fiber Needle Pioneers or Shady Characters who Sold Victrola Needles or Bragging Propaganda stuffed inside Derelicts then maybe we'd have something that'd get bigger.

The paper I have here (the yellow sheet anyway) suggests that long-playing records were invented. I suspect the short-lived 1930s RCA version used on some slightly later RCA-built Electrolas. He also says and I quote:

"These needles are particularly adapted to the automatic electrola, where it is desirable to play, 5 to 15 records without changing the needle: one Kacti Needle playing this number of records according to the condition of the records themselves (depending upon how much they have been used with metallic needles as well as the care that has been exercised in handling them) and the class of music."

Note that "electrola" is not capitalized, but is intended to be a genericization of the automatic record changer. Also note that the whole paragraph is a run-on sentence. Whomever he was he was not a linguist. The Kacti propaganda I have here is rather poorly written and has a distinctive, comma-heavy style. If I could see some ads it'd be neat to compare the ad copy for Electrocolor and for Kacti to the Burmese Colour Needle: exotic locations, claims that the records improve with use, similar manufacture process of a natural thorn cut to length, dried, doped, and buffed.

I bet this block of text could be the same:

Perfect Reproduction
Protection to your records
No surface scratch
Plays many records without repointing

Insurance against Needle abuse
Absolutely uninjurious to Records
All records improve with use
Plays all makes of Disc Records
Voice of Gold with the Volume of Steel.


See if that shows up in the Burmese/Electrocolor stuff.

Thanks! I will start another thread at some point. Meanwhile - yes, I have examples of some of these Peter Grey sales blurb sheets - and it's the hyperbole, in part, that seems to make a strong link for me. The BCN equivalents that I have are not as heavy-handed but rather similar, and incremental - small details such as the number of playings obtainable increase across various examples. Not all of this is exaggeration (I've proved that I can get 100 sharpenings of each thorn) but some was factually incorrect, such as BCNs being made of keratin - only found in animals!