The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Show and Auction will CONTINUE with their scheduled dates!

Annual Vintage Music Show is scheduled for June 12 &13, 2020:

As they say, “All good things must come to an end”. So, after 44 years of hosting the Phonograph & Music Box Show, the Donley family has decided to make this year, the 45th, the final show to be held in Union. Larry will be turning 90 and will put his collection up for auction in May. We hope that you can make it for both the auction and the final show. There will be a lot of tears and sadness to be sure, but it is fitting that we will all have a chance to say goodbye, and together, close the book on the greatest vintage music show that ever existed. See you in Union.

Phonogragh Auction featuring the Larry Donley Collection is scheduled for May 16 & 17, 2020.

I am so happy to hear this directly from the source. I had already decided that by June it would be doubtful it would be canceled. I will be driving one last time from Oregon to Union in June with my friends Jerry Blais and Stan Stanford.

I have to say I owe a lot to the Donley's and the Union show. It is perhaps the largest and best influence on my phonograph collecting over the last 20 years I have been attending the show. I have had access to things I would have never found or seen without the show. I will miss it for sure, but it doesn't lessen the impact the show has had on the hobby.

And, perhaps more importantly than the phonographs and such, are the friends I have made at the show. I see many of these people only once a year at the show. I don't know how life will be not seeing them every year. I just hope that something new and wonderful will come along in the midwest that will allow us to gather again. But, I have real life long friends as a result of the show. Something I am very grateful for.

Really sad that it's coming to an end, but I will be going! I cant wait to meet you guys there and attach some face to the names that I've become so familiar with.

Martin

Well said Dan.

Jerry B.

I have always thought of the Union Show as sort of a "Re"Union Show. I have been attending since 1982 back when there were two shows a year, one in June and one in October. I have to agree with Dan that my interest in collecting phonographs only grew greater from this show. I have met MANY other collectors I now consider good friends at this event. I will be sharing in the great sadness as this great event comes to a close.
Ken Brekke

Mormon S wrote:Really sad that it's coming to an end, but I will be going! I cant wait to meet you guys there and attach some face to the names that I've become so familiar with.

Martin

How do you plan to get there? Illinois is a long way from the Carolinas.

I wouldn't miss it, but it's going to be bitter sweet to be there for the last time. I sure hope another show can be organized for next year, but it will be hard to compete with the Union show.

Maybe for the show the next year after Union. I have often thought of a show in Princeton IL at the fairgrounds, I could see how much that would be. It is right off interstate 80 at Exit 56, 100 miles west of Chicago, but easily accessible. I will miss the Union show, having gone since the mid-1980s. The Donley's are great people. I will miss the show.

I have attended every Union Show since 1996. I know some of you have been there since the beginning. As others have said, it's as much about the wonderful friends we have made as it is about the phonographs. Thanks to the Donley Family and all others who have made this such a great experience. Hopefully there will be another Show in the mid-west beginning 2021. Until then, I look forward to seeing everyone in June. Stay Healthy, Stan Stanford (Portland, OR)

I'm ready to go