[78-L] Youth collectors

[DAVID BURNHAM]

What an interesting discussion!

At 67, I'm sure I'm not the oldest person on this list, but the vast majority of the 78s I'm interested in are from before I was born.  I have had many young people visiting us who are fascinated by my Credenza and want to hear it.  Before I play it for them, I emphasize that this was the last word in audio technology in 1925.  I play for them the 1919 recording of Stokowski performing the Prelude to Act I of Carmen on my Brunswick table model from 1920.  I let them get used to the sound and appreciate that this record/gramophone combination was not a novelty at that time;  that people were amazed that they could have the sounds of the Philadelphia Orchestra in their homes and would gather around in awe; that the only home musical experience before this technology was the family pianist or a music box.  When I have that sound and perspective in their minds, I play for them the 1927 recording of Stokowski playing the same Prelude on my Credenza. 
 Of course the contrast is impressive and I often have to continue to play records on the Credenza.  They are particularly impressed with the fact that there is nothing between the pick-up and their ears except air - no wires, no tubes, etc.  When I play them a Caruso record on the Brunswick and explain that there is nothing between Caruso's lips and their ears except two styli and two thin diagphrams and air, this is also a revelation to them.

Now, of course, all of these young people don't run out and become record collectors but they are certainly interested in the field and when you take into account the billions of young people on the planet, I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that there will still be collectors appearing as time goes on.

When my daughter, (now in her mid twenties), was in grade 8, the teacher asked the class if anyone knew what an LP was.  She was the only one who raised her hand and then told the teacher that she, in fact, knew what a 78 was.  Well the teacher didn't know what a 78 was and she had to explain it to him and the class.  Another teacher who runs a restaurant in the summer in Parry Sound, ON, told me that his kids were asking him about these old records that rotate really fast, I explained them to him and gave him a couple to show the class.  He had never seen them before.

So everybody on the list is right - the young people of today don't know what a 78 is and they are also very interested when they hear one.

End of argument!, (Yeah right!)