[78-L] tolerance

Thu Jul 16 15:05:36 PDT 2009

    I appear to be the unusual one amongst you.  I never owned a 78 (or any 
record) until I was already in the Army and had the money to buy one.  We 
never had a phonograph or any other record player when I was growing up. 
Instead we had a big floor model radio.  After I was drafted, the old radio 
finally gave out and my father bought a radio/record player combination.  So 
the next time I was home on leave I bought a record I wanted to hear and 
played it while I was home on leave.  I never saw it again.
    Thirty years later in the early 1970s I started collecting country music 
and I noticed that much of the stuff I wanted to listen to was only on 78s. 
So I started collecting country 78s.  That is when I ran across Vernon 
Dalhart.  At first he was just another artist to be added to my collection. 
Soon I found myself concentrating on Dalhart.  In 1991, I sold all my other 
78s and most of my LPs and started collecting Dalhart full time.  Eventually 
I had over 2500 different Dalhart records.  Once I became unable to carry my 
milk boxes full of records, I disposed of my entire collection to two other 
collectors.  I still have a few 78s to listen to and I continue to buy 
records on __ay when an interesting one pops up.  I also wrote a book on 
Dalhart as many of you already know.  I consider myself normal.   I spent 20 
years in the US Air Force and another 20 in US Civil Service.  I retired in 
1987.    Jack
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill McClung" <bmcclung at ix.netcom.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] tolerance


>I am a 78rpmcoholic.  Yet I'm not strange.   I have an enthusiasm that
> sometimes borders on an obsession but it does not consume or dominate my
> life.  This is not denial talkling.  I have many people in my life making
> sure I don't fall through the labels and disappear.  And because of this
> balance these same people are interested in my 78s and have been known to
> spend an evening here and there with me as we see what we can hear.
>
> I'm looking forward to the time when I can retire from full time work and
> spend more of my time on my collection.  Until then I am happy to go where
> my enthusiam takes me and if I have those several thousand 78s I haven't
> played or even cataloged yet calling to me from my music room then I'll
> just have to get to them when I can.
>
> I hope to never become my father who was consumed by Civil War history and
> as he grew older talked more and more of little else.  He was a southerner
> who thought the North was right so he may have had other issues than just
> the need to explain to me the blow-by-blow and shot-by-shot events that
> turned the tide at the Battle Of for the seventeenth time.  Maybe I will
> but I hope I won't.
>
> I'm happy to have Steven B. collect them all.  I'm happy to have Royal P.
> notice the hiss in a transfer.  I'm happy to have Mr. Biel shout at the
> educational establishment.  I'm happy and a little jealous to have someone
> else find the good stuff at their local Goodwill store.   I don't know how
> many members of 78-L there are but I'm happy there are that many who are
> out there in the world preserving and enjoying our musical heritages and
> sharing their thoughts and allowing me glimpses into their lives as they 
> do
> it.  I don't read every post or follow every thread.  My knowledge of and
> interest in Portugese 78s before 1920 is fairly limited.  So is your
> knowledge of or interest in Texas label 78s.  But I do try to log on every
> day.  I feel I'm part of a very tolerant and, for the most part, patient
> community.
>
> If you really want to spend some time in the middle of a group of 
> eccentics
> then have a cup of coffee in a booth at the 24-hour gas station/Wendy's in
> Van Horn, Texas some 3 am and just look and listen.
>
> I am a 78rpmcoholic and I'm proud of it.  I'm in very good company.
>
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Date: 7/16/2009 1:55:13 AM
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] tolerance
>>
>> From: buster <busterdog at mac.com>
>> > You can't be serious. But you probably are, since you are\
>> > so immersed in it yourself, as is your poor child.
>> > Her trailer, specifically the montage of individuals, is
>> > the best evidence against your "not examples of misfits" remark.
>>
>>
>> I don't think you have any real knowledge of the people we have profiled
>> in the documentary.  Here in reverse alphabetical order is the list --
>>
>> Seth B. Winner  -- one of the top five world-class transfer engineers
>> and an important technical staff member at the Rodgers and Hammerstein
>> Archive of Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library at Lincoln
>> Center
>>
>> Fred Williams -- a retired stock broker from one of the largest
>> international firms, and one of the most important experts of the
>> history of American military bands, author of many band discographies
>> and producer of many LP and CD reissues of historic military band
>> recordings including a best selling box set containing one example of
>> every Sousa composition that was recorded by Sousa's band.
>>
>> Ray Wile --  retired Queens College librarian, author of several
>> important Edison discographies, and dozens of articles and presentations
>> that have detailed and uncovered the most important information about
>> the first 25 years of the phonograph industry
>>
>> Terry Solomonson -- broadcast technician, and owner of one of the
>> largest private collections of original broadcast discs and the author
>> of a dozen detailed broadcast logs of important radio series
>>
>> Joe Salerno -- expert in piano recordings and recording transfer
>> engineer, producer and provider of recordings for reissues.
>>
>> Dennis Rooney -- noted classical broadcaster, lecturer, writer, and
>> producer for RCA and many other classical record labels.
>>
>> Steve Ramm -- certified public accountant by profession, collector of
>> ephemera of the record industry, and writer of a monthly column of media
>> reviews
>>
>> Graham Newton --  former disc mastering engineer at Canadian RCA, now
>> owner of a remastering firm, and noted expert in music and sound library
>> companies.
>>
>> Kurt Nauck -- originally an antique dealer, now runs one of the most
>> important record auction companies
>>
>> R. Peter Munves -- noted classical record producer and marketing
>> director of Masterworks at Columbia Records and then RCA and many other
>> labels.  Creator of many unique concepts in marketing classical records
>> -- the industry hasn't been the same since he retired.
>>
>> Peter Muldavin -- researcher and author of The Complete Guide to Vintage
>> Children's Records
>>
>> Rich Markow -- international conference director at a major medical
>> facility, and a collector of personality recordings who has provided
>> masters for many reissues
>>
>> David Lennick -- notable former CBC broadcast personality and producer
>> of hundreds of reissue CDs at many labels worldwide
>>
>> Tim Brooks -- former director of audience research at NBC-TV and retired
>> vice-president of Lifetime TV, National Book Award winning co-author of
>> ten best selling editions of "The Complete Directory To Prime Time
>> Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present", and "Lost Sounds", Grammy
>> Award winning co-producer of "Lost Sounds" CD set, noted expert in sound
>> recording copyright, chair ARSC Copyright Committee, longtime author of
>> Bibliography of Discographies column and book, former president and
>> incoming 2nd vice-president/program chair of ARSC.
>>
>> Bill Bragg -- longtime Dallas broadcaster and engineer, production
>> director of E.D.S, former owner of National Broadcasting Museum, owner
>> of YesterdayUSA Network, and the voice of Big Tex at the Texas State
>> Fair.
>>
>> Michael Biel -- retired professor of electronic media, former president
>> and two time 2nd-vice-president/conference program chair of ARSC, author
>> of numerous conference presentations at ARSC, Broadcast Educ Assoc,
>> Friends of Old Time Radio, Popular Culture Assoc, International Assoc of
>> Sound Archives, etc., author of Ph.D. dissertation "The Making and Use
>> of Recordings In Broadcasting Before 1936".
>>
>> Steven C. Barr -- author of "The (Almost) Complete Guide To Dating 78
>> RPM Records"
>>
>> > Isn't it better to wear the badge proudly than to live in denial?
>> > No one's denying the scholarship or the seriousness of this little
>> > collecting world, but to consider it anything even close to
>> > mainstream or normal is laughable...or fatally sad.
>>
>> While you might have your issues with Steve Barr whose problems lie in
>> several medical conditions, most of the people in this list have worked
>> for (and even were executives of) some of the largest firms in the
>> country,  many not connected with their collecting, but some have been
>> able to integrate their collecting into their professional life.  Many
>> are noted authors and some have produced, engineered, or contributed to
>> award winning LPs and CDs.  This is not a list of small-timers.  They
>> have a life, and some have national and even international reputations
>> in and out of the field of recordings.
>>
>> > Everyone finds their niche eventually, and here we are.
>>
>> And for most of this list, their record collection is only a small part
>> of their niche.
>>
>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 15, 2009, at 8:15 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:
>>
>> > buster wrote:
>> >>> This group, by definition, is composed of a higher than average
>> >>> number
>> >>> of "eccentrics." That's what we record collectors are, to
>> >>> ourselves at
>> >>> least, as has recently been discussed. Outsiders are less kind,
>> >>> often
>> >>> (seen "Ghost World" or "American Splendor"? 78 collectors are
>> >>> pitiable freaks and outcasts). We have bombastic pontificators,
>> >>> tightwads, endless repeaters, egotists, antisocial hermits, whiners,
>> >>> and who knows what else. I mean, fergawdsakes, if you need any
>> >>> evidence just look at Leah's trailer, or go to an ARSC event.
>> >
>> > Not quite. If you pay attention to what Leah's whole documentary is
>> > about, it was the rebuttal to "Ghost World" and other such films,
>> > especially "Vinyl". The collectors selected are among those we knew
>> > who
>> > had made positive contributions to the scholarship and appreciation of
>> > the recording industry and the content of recordings. And the same is
>> > true of ARSC, which actually is a serious group of professional
>> > archivists and advanced collectors, researchers, and enthusiasts -- 
>> > and
>> > those who aspire towards those goals. Sure we are a friendly lot and
>> > filled with diverse personalities -- some of them extreme -- but we
>> > are
>> > not examples of misfits. The documentary does touch on the compulsion
>> > to collect, and as Graham Newton says with a laugh in the documentary
>> > "We're all crazy. We're nuts!" and as one of the posted clips show
>> > there were some extremes in The Syndicate, but on the whole it shows
>> > collectors with a life.
>> >
>> > Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
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