Does anyone here collect old (78 RPM) records? I do!
I went junk shopping yesterday and bought a bunch more.

I thought I bought a perfect 4 record Tommy Dorsey set, but upon closer exam the 3rd record had been substited with another.

I also thought I got a perfect 4 record Glenn Miller set... Little Brown Jug has a chunk missing!

It was my own fault for not being more careful when I looked at them, but now I will have to search for the missing links, which means I will be buying even more...

I did find a flat back copy of Enrico Caruso's "A Dream" tho! (1920)

Yes Bill I have a bunch some as big as a 33 1/3 some real thick cut on one side. Think I still have Der Tannenbuam in German on one of these thick acetate's. Would have to check and see what I have now. You did get some of my fAV'S there.
Jimmy

Oh my mom collected those. My brother got them when she passed away. She had thousands. I remember Tex Ritter singing "Blood" and a whole bunch of 'big band' stuff. My mom inherited 'her' grandmother's as well so she had some really old ones. A bout five that were 'tube' shaped and we never heard for lack of a player.
~Tina

I almost addressed the topic to you Jimmy, because I was sure that you had to have some!
I just listened to a Buddy Rich drum solo in concert with Dorsey!
Are your oversized records the old WW II USO records? I have an album of them....

After Dad died, Mom told my sisters and I to come down and get some of their 78s (there were hundreds)
We didn't want to be greedy, so we each took a few "special" memories. Mom thought that meant we weren't really interested in them, so she gave over 300 away to a friend....

I have several of Al Jolson's... If I had to pick a favorite, it would be a tough call between him and the Mills Brothers.... or The Sons of the Pioneers.... or Louis Armstrong or?

They sure made good music back in those days!

My mom used to have a ton of them. She gave them all away after I left home and I was crushed. I would LOVE to have all of those oldies now. And she had Elvis too. I still to this day cannot believe she got rid of all that.

I just hate it when I read something like this...when I get to my packed boxes I will have to post a pic of my dad's house...he was a collector...of everything...

Bill..he had almost all the FULL sets of anybody and everybody....his album collection was about 2000 strong...he had the old victrolia (SP) players..you name it..he had it. Unfortunately that isn't my "thing" so I didn't want to lug around packed boxes of the stuff...so we had collectors from 4 states come in and fight over them...I would have just gladly ..given them to you to get them out of my hair. We didn;t know what to ask for stuff...had no idea how to price the antiques and were limited on time to research things.
A dealer came in to help me and as a gift I was going to give her an antique vase that I knew would go with her collection..She wouldn't except it stating that is was too expensive..I was thinking it MIGHT be worth $75 bucks....it was appraised at $800.... I sure wish I had that stuff now!!!!
Do you collect all kinds of antiques...or just the album things..?

~V~

My mom had or has a ton of them...I used to get to play them sometimes. Good memories.

I have that also somewhere ether here or at Fort Sumner I have a KRUPA drum solo I can't remember if it was with Harry James or Glenn Miller. Had a friend give me some Sinatra's on 33 1/3. Two years ago I got a Billie Holiday, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman recordings on cd at Best Buy for $5.00 I have about played them to death them on CD's so I would have them. I have a Victrola at home need it so I can record my old acetates and get them on CD and preserve some of those old songs and musicians so they wont be lost .Listenign to Mother Mabel sing wildwood flower now on CD.
Jimmy

Are these 78's?

It doesn't have a speed written on it. I can't get to the other ones in the other side of the victrola...too many boxes to move to get the door open.

Check out this cool speaker!

Yes Cindy that is a 78. They didn't put speeds on them then. why should they there was only one speed back the. Love that Victrola Speaker is beautiful. Is that a 1918 or is it older?
Tina what you ahd was a Gramaphone tube too bad you didn't have a Gramaphone to play it on. Do you or your family still have it? Vanessa I have some lamps of Billie's that were made in Russia USSR in the 1800's don't remember the date. Gave my sister my old Waffle Iron made for a Wood Range you had to turn it over to cook both sides. Have a few other things but they will go to a musuem one item is a Damascus Double Barrel made in Damascus Belgium imported by standard Iron and Machine works in 1830? Best I remember it is locked up in a steel fire proof safe.
Jimmy

Yup, Cindy. I believe those are 78's you're teasin' Bill with.
~Tina

Don't tease me like that, Cindy!!!

When I was getting my ears lowered today, the patron before me told me that she has "boxes" of old 78s I could possibly buy....

Guess I will be building a new cabinet for them....

I found a lot of mine in top of an old second hand shop in Las Vegas N.M in the 60's think I may have paid the exorbant sum of 5 cents each might have been 10 cents too long ago to remember. I will be right there Bill your making me drool now.
Jimmy

I have no idea...I've had it for as long as I can remember...and a huge stack of records...a bunch of Al Jolson ("Mammy"...I love that one!)

So, Bill...do you play your records on a Victrola, or a regular record player?
I have to crank this thing up to play them...

I play them on my 1953 Magnavox Imperial Micromatic Stereophonic High Fidelity Console (thats the real name of it, believe it or not! )

Mammy?

Ahhh...I love that song.
My dad used to sing that when I was a kid.
It will always remind me of my dad.


Too cool!
That thing is older than ME!

I don't like to play these records on the Victrola...the needle looks like some kind of nail! It is HUGE!

The old Victrola "nails" had a tendency to gouge out the grooves.... Sadly they ruined a lot of good records. When I started to digitalize my records on the puter a friend insisted that I use filters to get rid of the scratchy sounds, but I personally consider that noise to be the "patina" that belongs with the record.... If you hear that "noise" on my records, it is because I want it there!

...and I love the sound before the song starts...
...when the needle hits the record...then there's a few seconds of scratching before you hear the song.

I remember my mom and dad would crank up the Victrola sometimes and dance to the records...even though we had a good stereo and new albums.
Didn't understand it then...but I do now.

So...what are the "tube" albums called ? My dad had a ton of them and a player...

~V~

Actually, there's a whole cabinet full of those sitting next to me. It is full of 70's, 80's and early 90's classic rock and metal

All that I know them by is "Cylinders"

That may be it...I thought dad called them "something" else...but he had the player and they were REALLY neat. I hardly ever see any of those floating around anymore....but then again I am not an antique~ie collector of any kind.

~V~

I have a bunch of old 78's of my dad singing (he was told he sounded like Caruso) and nothing to play them on. My family did that same get rid of it all thing so most of it is gone and he is too old and feeble anymore to capture his voice on tape.

Beautiful speaker Cindy.

Those Cylinders palyed on a Gramaphone which was the for runner to the Victrola except the cylinder was placed over the round horizontal thing (not sure what it was called) when it runed a little anvil type thing like on a music box activated it to play the recording. Bill I will Pm you a link on Gramaphones.
Jimmy

I have some 78s, but they're packed away in the garage somewhere, along with the fifty 33 1/3 "singles" that I won from KJR radio's weekly "Fabulous 50" contest, in I think 1962! I still have most of those. ("Quarter to Three" was #1 that week!)

The only 78 out in the garage that I can remember the title to, is the Tweety Bird Song... "Tweety's my name and I don't know my age, dum dum dum dum, in a bright guilded cage. I got a trapeze & dum dum dum dum"... (guess I've forgotten some of the dum dum words!!) He says "I tot I taw a puddy tat" in there, too!

Oh, & I have Jimmy Boyd singing "I saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus" on a 78RPM.

A couple years ago, I went to a store in search of a phonograph needle, & asked 1 of the (young) clerks where I could find one, & she said "phono... what?" I explained to her that it's a needle that you play records with & she looked at me like I was from Mars, & said "Well, the needles are in Notions,,,, aisle 14B." !! Poor kids these days, don't know what good music is, either!

Bill, I SOOO envy you that Big Band era collection! Honestly, I can "smell" those records, just sitting here thinking about those days!
Wow! (That's the up-dated term for "groovy" & "Cherry", you know!)

Sorry... but just a little...

Bill, do you remember a song by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric), called "Are You Ready"? I've looked all over for it... for many years, & it seems to have vanished! (It probably went to that "Zone"... the warehouse somewhere in Yakima, along with the mates to several million sox, all of which were part of a PAIR when they went into the dryer!)

I've asked DJ's of "60's/70's Hits" stations, & while they DO remember it, they can't seem to locate it either! (I don't remember where it got to on the charts, but it was big right around 1969.)

was that "are you ready? yes I'm ready. To fall in Love...with you.."

Bev, I don't think so, but I can't say that I even remember the words now, cuz I get it mixed up with the other song by the same title, which came out several years later. All I can remember is that at the very beginning, a guy hollers "ARE... YOU... READY?
(I think!) I do know that there were no girl singers with PG&E, though.

If I heard it again, I know that I WOULD remember all the words, immediately! I'm a lyrics freak, & know the worlds to all the songs of that era (& most of the 40's). ...well, the songs that I KNOW, anyway! I mean I CAN'T know ALL the songs of that era, cuz there are probably a million that came out that weren't "rock & Roll songs", & THOSE are the one's I'm talking about!!!)

I'll quit before I confuse myself ... again!

hmmm... that's not the one I was thinking of because it had a girl singer.

Now maybe we can get back to the REAL topic here: 78 RPM Records!

...because Papito PM'd me with a link to ARE YOU READY? - by Pacific Gas & Electric . It'd be nice if they offered a sound clip of it on that site, but the words are all there! Thanks bunches, Papito!