[78-L] Ford (remove ^ - back on 78 content)

[Rodger Holtin]

In 1963 my dad ordered a new Ford Country Squire and was kidding with the dealer in Hemlock, NY about it being cheaper if we drove out to the factory to pick it up.  Dad  was just being funny - the dealer being a family friend - and quite unexpectedly said he could arrange exactly that if Dad wanted to do it – so, we did!  I’m guessing that must have been about the end of the road for that kind of stuff, for I’ve never heard of anybody else doing it since that time, but it turned out to be the vehicle for a mighty fine family vacation.  [Pun optional.]  Dad took us to the Greenfield Village museum and spent the day before we drove home.  We took a guided tour and the guide pointed out a large sign with the Ford logo and said that the logo then in use was made from lettering which came from a toy printmaking set owned by Edsel Ford as a small boy.  True or not, that’s what the tour guide said.  I’ve waited 49 years to tell that story,
 and I feel much better now, thank you.
 
To steer this discussion back on track for 78 content, I passed up my once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy a brand new 78 from the Greenfield Village gift shop.  There with the calendars, coffee mugs and trivets was a bin of 10” black vinyl 78s by Henry Ford’s Old Time Dance Orchestra.  The details have faded with my aging youth so I could be wrong about this, but as I recall they were on the “Ford” label (same logo), black label, silver print, with a border similar to “batwing” Victors, but clearly I do recall the unmistakable oval (VE) and the 19XXX numerals in the runout.  A seasoned collector of 78s for all of two years by that point, I was a few weeks short of turning a very mature 13 years old and didn’t think the waltzes and schottisches were up to my standards, so I bought a trivet – which we still use.  I have always wondered about those records, and seeing them show up in the Victor Master Book pretty well answered for me that
 they must have been regular issue Victors early in life and perhaps a contracted pressing job in the vinyl era.  They were in plain brown sleeves, and a few of them looked a bit shopworn by late summer of 1963.  If anybody knows any more about the story behind those records I’d be interested in hearing it, and, to be honest, I think I'm mature enough for the waltzes, polkas and schottisches if there's an mp3 or utube available.

Rodger

For Best Results use Victor Needles.

.

--- On Thu, 2/2/12, DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com> wrote:


From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
Subject: [78-L] Ford^
To: "78-L at 78online.com" <78-L at 78online.com>
Date: Thursday, February 2, 2012, 2:50 PM


I don't think I've ever posted anything here which has less to do with 78s or any other kind of record, (although there was some discussion recently about recordings by Henry Ford).

I know there are a lot of folks on this list who are experts on trivia in fields far removed from 78s.  I spent last weekend in Florida near Walt Disney World and I think it's understood that the "Walt Disney" signs you see everywhere are, in fact, Walt Disney's actual signature.  The car I rented while I was there was a Ford Focus and I'm wondering if the "Ford" symbol on all Ford products is a copy of Henry Ford's signature.  Anybody know?

Thanks!
db
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