Attracting people to our hobby

[edisonphonoworks]

I take my phonographs and display them at the local fair and play them for 5 days straight, and I mould cylinder records during this time, I made 25 blanks at the fair last year. I also attend the Bureau County Antique Club show, where we show how threshing is done with a steam tractor, old make and break engines, and antique farm life displays I give recording demonstrations. Heck I have played my phonographs in Central Park, Tompkins Square Park in NYC a lot of interest there. I met Pablo Helguera in Central Park and he has been my best customers, we created the Conservatory of Dying languages which has over 300 wax cylinder voice recordings from Mexico, Native American, Central and Amazonian languages, I still use cylinders for Anthropological studies like Densmore, and Jesse Walter Fewkes. Our local museums all have phonographs. I just finished a machine Standard D with cygnet horn for the La Salle county historical Society, I service them about every 20 years. Yes some will walk past the display but many have said it was one of there favorite stops at the fair ect. So Yes there can be interest in young people

[SteveM]

I'm pretty new here, and I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but there are at least 3 reasons why young people are more interested in phonographs: Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey, and the "Bioshock" video game which seems to feature phonographs throughout the gameplay. I've looked at a number of youtube recordings where someone has commented "Bioshock brought me here."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsZ951_OXc[/youtube]

[obmcclintock]

There are many old movies that show, and some of them play old horn phonographs. Some are; The egg and I, The Mummy with Brandon Frasier, The old "Dark Shadows" 1970s T.V series in which the theme song is shown being played on an Edison horn machine, the Blue Butterfly episode of T.Vs. Castle, Pocket full of miracles (VV-VI, Indiana Jones and the last crusade-suitcase model, and many others. What is also interesting is that when an early 78 is played in a very popular movie, all of a sudden the price of that particular 78 skyrockets. Before the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" came out you could hardly give away the old 78 "My Blue Heaven". In the movie it was played on an upright victrola. Right after that I saw those same 78s going for $45. to $60. Years ago "Come Josephine" was of no real value except when the interest in Titanic discovery and movies came out. I have seen that one 7 to 8 years ago sell for well over $100. A good copy of a common early song "In my merry Oldsmobile" sold for $175 to $250 about that same time frame. Now many of those songs have been duplicated by several modern cylinder record makers which I believe has an effect on current pricing of originals. Its funny how trends affect many facets of the value our collections.

[zenith82]

Call me crazy, but I think the generation that are kids now (say, about 13 and younger) show promise when it comes to being future collectors. This past year on Halloween night, I had a tube radio I had recently restored sitting in the entryway of my house, playing some old time radio programs. Over half of the kids that came trick-or-treating were in total awe, as they had never seen anything like it before. You would have thought it was from another planet or something. One little girl about 8 or 9 years old even came back a second time just to see it again! All the parents I saw, who were mostly in the 25-40 range, looked like they could care less. Let's just hope these kids don't get corrupted by the parents into thinking this stuff is "junk" by years of brainwashing!

I've thought about doing the same with a phono this year and seeing what kind of interest it generates.

[wjw]

SteveM, that is a great version of Tainted Love (I would always turn the radio off when it was playing) Some game designer is really into vintage stuff!

[Steve]

17 years ago I posed the same question to the CLPGS in a letter, as it was painfully obvious to me, who attended most of the fairs, annual events and some local meetings, that there were never any new faces, and in particular, there were rarely YOUNG faces at these gatherings.

17 years on and the situation is predictably much worse given that many of the friendly older faces have now sadly passed on. The numbers in the UK are seriously dwindling. Call me the prophet of doom if you like but it appears that I was sadly right in predicting the ultimate decline of our hobby at home. The few dealers that I bother to keep in semi-regular contact with today all mention how the machines are selling to overseas buyers, never UK buyers. This is really quite sad.

However, one of the few dissenting voices to challenge my perception of the situation back then did wisely retort that you can't make anyone interested in something that they wouldn't ordinarily look at. If people are likely to become interested then they will find us and the hobby through their own paths, and not the other way around.

In other words, we CANNOT attract people to our hobby. We can only help to encourage those who are already interested.

[FloridaClay]

In other words, we CANNOT attract people to our hobby. We can only help to encourage those who are already interested.

Well, unequivocally no. People do not become "already interested" in the first place if they have never been exposed to the hobby, and that is precisely the point. You can't get interested in anything you do not know exists!!!

Much of the prophecies of doom are self fulfilling because collector groups wring their hands, circle the wagons, and close in on themselves instead of reaching out. As several people have attested here, if you are willing to do the work, and do it consistently in a positive way, results follow.

Clay

[obmcclintock]

I think what hurts now days, especially for us older collectors is that most people these days are so involved in just keeping afloat so to speak that there is little room for anything else. One thing that has kinda discouraged me is that although I have purchased most of what I have for fairly reasonable prices, I have also paid 10 year ago prices for a few machines that now days don't bring even half what they are worth today. I agree that our collections are more about the love of the hobby than the value of what we have but it still stings a little when I think about it. Now on the other hand I have to look at the more positive aspect of what is going on. With such a monetary value decrease also opens up a method for new collectors who have limited funds to be able to afford their first machines just as some of us did years ago. After all, when I am gone I hope that others can continue to enjoy what gave me a lot of enjoyment. For you new collectors, remember that some of us had to really struggle with paying rent, raising a family, or owning a machine or two. Times were really tough for some of us but we persevered and made both things happen. What one sometimes has to do is to just push past the negatives and make things happen. Am I alone on this one or what do others think on here?

[epigramophone]

Two or three years ago a good friend and fellow member of the CLPGS West of England Group died suddenly, leaving amongst other things an Expert Senior, an HMV163 in the rare golden oak finish and a pristine HMV102 portable.

His son, a primary school teacher with a young family and a small house, did not have room for the Expert but kept the 163, the 102 and his father's record collection. The Expert is now owned by a member of this forum, and the CLPGS West of England Group invited the son to take over his late father's membership, which he did.

The 102 is regularly taken to school and is very popular with the children. On one occasion the whole class dressed up as World War Two evacuees for a day out on our local preserved steam railway, and the 102 went along as well.

DON'T LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS OF DOOM! IT IS NOT ALL BAD NEWS!

[SteveM]

SteveM, that is a great version of Tainted Love (I would always turn the radio off when it was playing) Some game designer is really into vintage stuff!

Yes, I'm a big fan of that version!

My 14yo daughter has an F. Scott Fitzgerald presentation in school and needs a "prop." She'll be taking a 102 (her idea). Now we're trying to figure out just what records.