[78-L] Youth collectors

Royal Pemberton ampex354 at gmail.com
Mon May 3 08:13:44 PDT 2010


I've had people tell me you can't make a recording onto a piece of wire.
They're utterly dumbstruck when I bring out my dad's Webster-Chicago model
80 and they get to see and hear it operate....

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 3:15 PM, DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com> wrote:

> 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!)
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