The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I can not remember the member who said I should buy a Victrola, and to collect 78's, but I wanted to Thank You!


Paul

You have posted a great topic. My thanks go to a friend I had known in Pennsylvania. We kept in touch by sending each other tapes with messages, along with letters after our family moved to California. (way before the advent of e-mail)

My beginnings in the old music hobby came from an old record that had been put on tape by a friend of mine when I was in high school. When I put the tape on the reel-to-reel recorder, I really liked the tune...a fox trot. Then I searched through records at swap meets and antique stores. After buying about a dozen records of various labels and types, I stumbled on to the Victor Talking Machine Co. label and the Brunswick label. When I played them on our family's hi-fi, I realized that was the type of music like my friend had sent. An elderly lady had a VV-50 for sale near us and after some pleading with my parents, who were wondering what I was getting into, my father helped me finance the portable for $25. That started my hobby and yes, thanks to my friend Tom in Pennsylvania for that tape!

In my case (being something of an antique myself) I have always known about 78s. Recall them being played in homes of family members, having a small phonograph of some sort as a child, and occasionally being able to talk my parents into buying me a new 78. (Vaughn Monroe's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" was one. As a kid I loved Westerns.) So in later life when I turned to collecting it was a matter of becoming reacquainted with old friends.

And the Sirius radio in my car is more or less permanently tuned to "40s on 4."

Clay

Little did the Mr know when he said "we should get a phonograph. I always liked my brother's" that it would turn into my addiction. 6 phonographs in under 3 months. The 78s just go hand in hand. I can say the post office is getting quite familiar with my house.

I would have to thank my recently deceased father who had quite a passion for music. He served as a Naval radioman during WWII, followed by an early career as a radio repairman before becoming an electronics instructor for TWA.

While we never actually owned an antique phonograph, (well, actually the RCA console stereo we did grow up with is still in my mother's home... so I guess that could be considered an antique now! ) my father collected antique radios, had quite the collection of 78's, and spent countless hours over his lifetime recording music... first to reel to reel, followed by cassettes, CDs, etc.

Exposure to music and antique radios was a very big influence in my formative years, and I have to admit that I probably owe my love of tinkering with things to dear old Dad.

What a gift he unwittingly passed along to me...

I come from barren grounds, music wise. My mother had the musical sense of a pebble, my dad liked music, but found anything that was not 'stereo' archaic. So when I started to collect 30s and 40s music on LP he thought that I was crazy. An when I bought my first HMV 101 wind-up he was convinced that I had lost my marbles. So I had to swim against the current, but many years later when I was married and they visited us, I went upstairs, took my little portable and a few handfuls of records and had him reduced to tears. He, a big strong Friesian, never showing any emotion, because that was not done, crying like a baby when I played 'In the Mood'. And then the stories came. How he liked jazz, his younger brother Watze was totally in love with Greta Keller etc. Music has such an enormous impact on us. My absolute favourite 78 is 'Savoy Blues' by Bob Crosby and his band> It was already shot when I bought it, but I must have played it at least 500 times. I now only have it in a digital version, but I still cry everytime I play it.

syncopeter wrote:...I still cry everytime I play it.

“...let's get one thing straight: I'm not crying. I'm just sweating through my eyes.”
— Buford Van Stomm

Big thanks to myself.

Thanks to my Mom, who piqued my interest in records and phonographs. She was a casual collector of antiques in general, and she exposed me to a number of things when I was a child, hoping that something would take hold of me as a hobby interest. Perhaps her theory was that a hobby would keep me out of trouble. (I guess I only traded one form of "trouble" for another.) One day she brought home a couple of Edison Diamond Discs and said, "Look at these old thick records". I had seen 78's before, but nothing like those. I was immediately intrigued. Next she brought home a couple of wax cylinders, which I got to hear on her cousin's Edison Standard. The "Bug" bit me hard that day at age 12, and I haven't recovered since. When she sees my house full of phonographs, I wonder if she regrets creating a monster? So Moms, be careful what you wish for.

Wow! I didn't even know anyone had posted here? I thought I marked the box Notify me when a reply is posted, but never got an automated email. Wired?

I was just trying to find the member of this board, or maybe it was a different board? Oh well it's been so long.

I'm glad I posted an interesting topic!

Paul