[78-L] Houston record shops

[neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com]

I remember Kathy's booth at the antique mall thing-y but haven't 
ventured there in quite some time. Where ever there is now. There may 
still be some booths at the weekend Trader's Village on south loop 610. 
Good luck with that.

I gave up on the Hilton record show a long time ago, same for the Austin 
show which is way too far to go for so little hope. At the Hilton show 
once long ago, I found some transcriptions and bought one that was 
exactly on target for what I collect. Wish I had bought all the rest 
now, at $3 apiece. I kick myself from time to time for letting that op 
get away.

Kurt used to have a rack of rejected records that he let us go thru and 
purchase for very reasonable prices, but this may have been something he 
did for the ARSC mtgs. when we used to have an active local chapter and 
met at his house. Can't speak for now.

The orig Cactus Music closed some time ago. I didn't realize that the 
name was st ill in use. May be ex-employees opened another store with 
the name.

> I'll have to drive down Gray close to Montrose one day&  hunt for whatever that
> shop is

It is on the south side of the street, faces north, close to an athletic 
place, I used to go there to recycle old tennis shoes. That's how I 
discovered it. I rarely go to that part of town anymore.

> 15 to 20 years ago there were 3 or 4 record collector shops in the lower
> Westheimer area but sadly they are all long gone now.

I remember some antique-y stores with 78s, one on Westheimer had a large 
stack of one record that had been produced locally. Looked unplayed. 
Must have come from some producer who unloaded their unsold records at 
some point, or died and the family did it for him. Might have been 500 
or 300 block. The lowest of the lower Westheimer.

Kurt's shop was FANTASTIC! I remember on the wall he had an RCA program 
transcription of Rachmaninof playing. I have a copy of that now & I 
wonder how they made the side joins as well as they did in those days.

I didn't know Roy had died. Last time I looked his shop was on 59 at 
about Kirby, maybe west of Shepherd, on the south bound side.

> The Half Price Bookstores at 2537 University Boulevard have a few common 78's

I think this is where I bought the Chevalier 78s I posted about 
previously. My memory begins to be jogged.

I've bought my share on ebay. There are some good dealers who pack well, 
and some real amateurs, as we all know.

joe salerno