A recent haul - 78rpm goodness
I have a love and fascination with old, antique, vintage wind up phonographs. The ones that are very commonly associated with Nipper the dog ("His Master's Voice"). I collect the phonographs. And I collect the 78 rpm records to go along with them.
The collection of both has grown in size. There are still a few phonographs I would love to add to the collection from a purely aesthetic vantage, but they're big, bulky, and a little beyond what I'm willing to spend anymore. Records, however, are much easier to come by, and can often be found in bulk.
Take this find, for instance. This is box 1 of four.
78 rpm records were manufactured up until the 1950s and 60s when they were eventually replaced by 33 1/3 rpm albums. Technological improvements and all. 78rpm records could only hold up to 4.5 minutes of music per side, so keeping a lot of music required keeping a great deal of records. Like the amount in each of these boxes!
A lot of really, really good music was originally recorded on these old records: Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, Count Bassie, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and the list goes on. And on. And on. I'd venture to say that the vast majority of the Christmas standards we listen to today were from this period. This was also the heyday of the traditional "Big Band" era. Great music.
The history of 78rpm records can really be divided into three eras: pre 1926, when recording was all done acoustically (without any electric amplification), 1926-1935, which was the advent of electric recording, and then 1936 and on, when production techniques improved enough that the material for the records began to move from a hard, brittle shellac toward a more versatile vinyl.
This haul of boxes contains records from all those eras. And I do play them! I very much enjoy listening to them. I host a livestream of pre-1925 songs for Three Tune Tuesday every Tuesday. Come have a listen!
Tuesday, 12:00pm (noon) EST, https://blindskeleton.one/radio
I record that livestream and upload it as a podcast. After I complete some prior commitments I am also going to begin hosting a Wednesday evening live stream of Big Band and Swing music. That will likely start in late February.
I've posted a link to my google sheet with all my records in it if you'd like to browse! Let me know if there are any requests for TTT or Big Bands, and I'll queue them up!
Victor's Records: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hrWvVSiuOZC-OGrCxuEQLu4Yb3N-rRCBLNvOaHjaFFA/edit?usp=sharing
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(c) Victor Wiebe
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Sometimes photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd.
General all around problem-solver and creative type.
Blind Skeleton
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Big Bands, now that maybe a topic for a ttt post.
I forgot the short length of recording that was on the 78s!
I honestly go back and forth about doing more "modern" 78s for TTT. I like the 1923 and prior because they are all public domain, and I still love them. But Big Bands are just awesome. Definitely some food for thought.
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That IS a lot of records indeed!
Isn't Goole Sheets acting up already with such a number of entries? {WINK, LOL}
Sound like a super nice and not-so-common hobby, to go after all these first-generation 'vinyl'.
You mentioned they are pretty easy to get to. Are you buying them through the internet? Or also at physical locations, like fairs or through something like craigslist?
I never looked at this in my home country, so have no clue if such types of records are easy to come by in my country, but I would've thought it isn't that easy. Not sure why I think that. Perhaps I think that most elderly peeps weren't able to get their kids to hold their record collection. Recently I hear more often kids saying no to all sorts of cool stuff their parents want to give their children as part of the inheritance.
Anyways, cool hobby you have {SMILEY}
LOL. yes, at some point in time Google Sheets is going to simply print out "Umm... no." instead of a list of records.
I should say that I have found them easy to get. A lot of the thrift stores in the area will have some, and I'll occasionally run across a post somewhere with someone cleaning out their garage/parents house/etc and have a box or two, or three. I've also had a great deal of luck with auction houses (not eBay). There are a lot of physical brick and mortar auction houses beginning to host online auctions, and I have found Too Many records that way.
Thank you for the kind words! I do often share some of these records in live streams if you're ever interested in listening in.
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Wow, I bet there are a lot of gems in there :-)
Figure you'll post about them then, can't wait what you'll find.
If you got something German in there and need any help with research/translation, gimme a ping and I'll gladly help you.
!Luv
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Awesome, thank you! I definitely have some, and can probably find them rather easily (absolutely all of my records are sorted and catalogued by label and year). I'll let you know!