[78-L] How well did they do it.

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
> Bill's question is an interesting one.  I grew up with various kinds of
> music around the house (I am 56) and was entranced by rock when I was very
> small (like age 4-5).   My dad played in dance bands around town and loved
> Goodman and Basie,  as well as some of the newer big bands like
> Sauter-Finnegan and the Elgarts.  He started buying a lot of LPs when the
> family got our big blonde hi-fi in late '56 so then came Broadway show
> albums,  Charlie Parker on Verve, Joe Bushkin piano solo albums on 
> Capitol,
> bits of classical stuff.  When he bought an actual stereo in 1960 then 
> came
> all those tricky stereo albums on Command but which showed off a lot of
> great NY studio musicians.  When I inherited my parents' box of 78s at age
> 10 I discovered and rediscovered good stuff by Boyd Raeburn,  Shaw,
> Goodman,  and (from my mothers' stuff) Jan Garber,  Four Chicks and Chuck
> (on Cosmo),   Lombardo,  etc.
>
> Seeing an opera live for the first time at age eight got me cranked up on
> that as well.  Ditto going to the symphony as a kid...I liked it all!
>
> After that,  I started picking up anything and everything that looked
> interesting on 78...and which cost ten cents or less.  That was everything
> from JW Meyers on Zonophone to the McGuire Sisters on Coral.
>
> And I tried to listen to all of it to see what I could "get" out of 
> it...and
> that's what I try to do now.  Over the last year I've bought 78s from as
> early as 1904 to as late as the early 50s.  I go heaviest for dance bands
> and some jazz,  but I enjoy finding the good stuff wherever my ears take 
> me.
> No borders,  no boundaries....I just want to listen,  and I think I've 
> still
> got lots to learn.  I've really lost most of my taste for rock but even
> there,  I can still get excited with the right band and when I'm in the
> right mood.
>
Well, at the age of three or so I was playing my dad's 78's (a couple 
hundred.
which I inherited in 1973)...my favourites were the Boswell Sisters and the
Mills Brothers' "Good-Bye Blues" along with "Three Little Fishies"...!

I listened to rock'n'roll hits on the radio...and bought 45's four or five 
for
a buck, which had been taken off jukeboxes!

In 1959, I discovered blues music...Jimmy Reed used to show up on "The
Top Twenty" program on WPEO (Peoria) which was the teen-agers' favourite
station at the time...shortly after that, I discovered WLAC (Nashville) 
which
played blues all evening (Black gospel on Sundays!)! I regret never having
ordered any of the blues records sold over the station, though!

Got heavily into "psychedelia" during the late sixties...I was in Germany 
with
the USAF at the time. Also, in early '67 I discovered the BX sold Marine
Band harps for $2.50...so I bought a couple and figured out how to play
the durn things!

In 1973, I inherited my dad's 78's...and then started looking for more
78's in thrift shops and the like. in 1977, I discovered mail "auction
lists"...and rapidly enlarged my 78 archive! I had picked up several
hundred when a chapI was working for (repairing old tube radios!)
bought a couple thousand at an auction...he asked me to look through
them for stuff he could sell more easily (like "Uncle Josh") and told
me I could keep any that I wanted! Found BOTH of the "Lang-
Venuti All-Star Orchestra" Melotones...which I kept,of course!

After moving to Toronto, I started buying from auction lists...mainly
Bill Frase and Peter Leavitt (I think both are no longer with us?!)
and bought MANY 78's from "Don's Discs"...a storefront operation
run by Don Keele (who still sells 78's!).

These days, I get VERY large bunches of 78's for VERY cheap...
like 1500 for $50! My goal is to acquire as many (non-classical)
78's as I possibly can...and then use my archive to correct and
complete the "Abrams Files!"

...stevenc