The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This surfaced so I thought I would scan it. It's a photo taken, I believe, at one of the last Edison Nights at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange. The gentleman on the left with the crooked tie in the height of 70's fashion is Bill Bryant, the discographer and record collector extraordinaire. It was he who sent me this snapshot many years ago. I met Bill through Martin Bryan: we were all young collectors writing for the New Amberola Graphic . The other chap is the cellist Paulo Gruppe who recorded for Edison in the Amberol and early Diamond Disc era. Bill died in 1995 at the age of 44. His collection of early materials was amazing. He more or less viewed anything from post-1920 as practically new. Bill used to call the Edison events as " Nights of the Living Dead" but of course he was there with bells on. You've heard me moan my regrets at not having gone down to the first one of these . The list of attendees sounds like something from a record collector's fantasy: Theodore Edison, Gladys Rice, Edna White...it just went on and on.
And I missed it.

JRT