[78-L] Collecting vs. 'Investing'

[Stewart, Joseph R]

Great topic. Like many of you, my interest in 78s dates back to grade
school--my parents, especially my dad, enjoyed occasional trips to the
local flea markets, and occasionally picked up discs that interested
them. I was already familiar with the 78-rpm speed, since most of my
favorite childhood records were "Little Golden" discs.  Guess I've
always been somewhat of a history buff, and those ten-inch slabs of
black shellac really fascinated me--not so much the music (all those
red-label Columbias of Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-a My House," Tony
Bennett's "Rags to Riches," Jerry Vale's "You Don't Know Me"), but as
technological artifacts of a bygone time.  "Wow--these are so OLD! I'm
amazed they still play!!"

Later, as a sophomore in high school, several of my friends were getting
heavily into classical music, and one of them (Steven Tharp, now an
opera and concert tenor) began tutoring me in the mysteries of opera. To
learn more about music and recordings I started purchasing--and later
subscribed to--"High Fidelity" and "Stereo Review."  It was the April
1973 "High Fidelity" that got me hooked on the idea of collecting
operatic 78s: some of you might remember the feature article by George
Blacker and (I think) Robert Angus about "how to play old records on new
equipment."  The cover had a dazzling color-photo collage of record
labels, including a red HMV of one of Chaliapin's live Covent Garden
"Boris Godunov" recordings. There was a whole page of label photos
explaining the history and significance of G&T, Opera Disc, Fonotipia,
Edison Diamond Discs, etc., The article itself dealt with styli, playing
speeds, playing vertical-cut discs with a stereo cartridge.  Several
years later I managed to find and purchase a 1970-vintage Lenco L-75
variable speed 'table, and I was on my way.

Over the years I've been seduced somewhat by the desire to collect a few
examples of specific (European) labels like Fonotipia, G&T, Parlophon,
etc. (harkening back to the pictured labels in the "High Fidelity"
article) But in recent years I've started collecting on a much more
music-oriented basis.  Using the three volumes of "Opera on Record," the
Michael Scott books that accompanied the first two (LP) volumes of "The
Record of Singing," J.B.Steane's "Grand Tradition", and other sources,
I've compiled a massive "want-list" of specific recorded performances by
operatic and classical vocalists.  And I'm not picky about format: if
it's one of those Golden-Age artists whose original discs are sky-high
in price, I just go for CD or LP reissues instead (with all four LP
volumes of "Record of Singing" as a basis for the collection), or
downloads from Internet Archive and other online sources!  But I still
love collecting the original shellac discs as well--when my relatively
low-ball auction bids are successful....

I do have a few rarities that I've managed to pick up over the years
(Nauck's auction leftovers, for example), but I'm certainly not
collecting for any future "promise" of monetary gain. I'm collecting for
the music and the artists.

Anyway, that's my story, and I have no choice but to stick to it!

Randy Stewart
Arts Producer
KSMU Radio
Missouri State University
Springfield MO