[78-L] Already RARE in 1946!!

[Michael Biel]

George Avalkian's memoirs have brought up that many of the early jazz
records from the 20s were so rare by the mid-30s that jazz fans had lost
the knowledge of how jazz sounded when it had started, and this prompted
the reissue programs of organizations like the Hot Record Society,
Comodore, and a couple of others which led to the reissue programs of
the early 40s by Columbia, Victor, Decca, and others.  I have found it
interesting to look at the auction and want lists in Record Changer and
other early publications to see what was already scarce, valuable, and
expensive when the records were less than 10 to 20 years old.


Yesterday at the Mechanical Music show in N.J. I scored a pile of 43
issues of The Record Changer magazine for $40 total.  While checking out
the issue of my birth month, July 1946, I found the May 46 issue much
more interesting, with an ad showing that the Audio-Scriptions archive
of 500,000 historical recordings had survived the war aluminum drives,
an article about jazz records in Japanese prisoner of war camps, a
report on the jazz scene in post-war London (with a request for food
packages), and an article by my friend, the late Walter C. Allen, "How
Rare ARE the Olivers?"


He mentioned that the December 1945 issue had mentioned recent auction
sales of new condition King Oliver Gennetts 5134, 5135, and 5184 for
$135, $160, and $135 respectively (in 1956 dollars, of course!).  He
then printed the Oliver portion of a list of 2000 collector items that
he had been tabulating the number of times they were listed in want
lists and the number of time they were listed in auction/disposal lists
in the Record Changer, other magazines, and some other lists during the
previous seven years.  (He mentions he "did not include Genett 5275 of
which only one copy is known, or 5276 as yet unknown".  Hew only gave
the numbers saying "Delaunay will supply the titles".)  It includes
repeat inclusions in want lists because "a collector who wants a record
ban enough to advertise for it for minths on end will be willing to pay
a good price for it."  He worked out a mathematical formula for
determining the possible value of a record based on the figures for
these three records with their prices realized in comparison with the
scarcity and desirability.  "The Demand/Supply ratio for Ge 5135 is 2
1/3, and for OK 8235 about 50, or over 20 times as much; but is a new
copy of the latter worth $3200?"  His formula factors in condition and a
general price level for records that can change during different eras.  




Value = C x K x W divided by D  where C is a numerical factor of the
condition of the record, K is a monetary constant depending on the
general price level at the particular time, and W and D are from the
Want and Disposals from his Record Changer tables.  The K he set from
the prices realized for the three records averaged at $15.  Eight other
discs he had prices for only had a K averaging $1.87 which set the
prices the three records should have realized at $18.50, $18.30, and
$16.70, and OK 8235 at $132.00 (again in 1945 dollars!).  


I haven't had a chance to check the other issues of Record Changer
(they're still in the car--but someone like Cary with a full set of
issues might be in a better position to answer this) so I don't know if
Walt followed thru and published the whole list or further articles.  I
wonder if Ann (his widow, who continued to attend ARSC for many years)
or his son Dan (likewise) have that list in his files.  It would be a
very valuable resource.


I heard someone mention yesterday that he had heard that Zulu's Ball had
last sold at $50,000.  The 1970s price had been $4295 I believe.  My
thoughts at the time (1980) had been whether putting that amount in a
normal bank account would end up being worth more than the record in
later years.  Anybody with the real story of that record and anybody
with actuarial tables who could give us the current value of that bank
account (not just the inflation value, the value with accrued interest)?


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com