[78-L] Manhattan's Colony Music to close after 64 years

[GAVIN WHITELAW]

I went in the last time I was in New York in January. I was looking for a CD of Bernie Cummins. I found that New York (well, Manhattan) was not well served with music stores and I thought that Colony would be the place to go. 


The staff hadn't a clue what I was looking for and insisted on looking through a drawer of spurious CDs of Louis Armstrong, Basie and the like.

So, I am not surprised that a store that has most of its stock ion drawers that you have to get the staff to open and look through and doesn't even know what you are looking for when you explain it really well is closing. They needed to move with the times and I thought it was stuck in the 1970s both in display of stock and attitude and knowledge of the staff.

The Internet means that stores like Colony have to work harder to get and retain custom. They didn't so they are closing. a pity, but that is the way of the world and especially when you are renting in a really expensive location!!

 
Gavin R Whitelaw 

For vintage images from the 20th Century visit my website at
 
www.vintage-images.co.uk
 
Harry Roy, one of the great Dance Band leaders of the 1930s and 40s
 
www.harryroy.co.uk 
 


________________________________
 From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
Cc: WildcatLeah at gmail.com; LBiel <l.biel at verizon.net> 
Sent: Friday, 24 August 2012, 9:31
Subject: Re: [78-L] Manhattan's Colony Music to close after 64 years
 
It is sad to see any store close, but it is amazing that they were able
to last this long.  The prices were outrageous, and the staff seems
devoid of any understanding of display or retail.  They used to have
their LPs on the sales floor but long ago replaced the space with
display cases of overpriced memorabelia fading under the fluorescent
lights.  Leah and I stopped in about six months ago after Cary mentioned
the LPs in the basement. and there was a small browser unit with about
200 abused and tattered LPs with $40+ prices.  No thought to getting
plastic covers for the falling apart LPs even when I suggested it.  


Back when Virgin was still open on Broadway within sight of the Colony,
I was there when Virgin opened the newly delivered cartons of the just
opened smash hit "The Producers" Cds.  Virgin put of a sign $14 and they
FLEW out of there.  I strolled over to the Colony.  They had a little
rack of ten copies with $23 stickers on them.  Yawn.


So, you might ask, why did Colony outlast Virgin.  In two words --
Vulture Capitalists.  Same thing that happened to Tower and Circuit
City.  


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  





  -------- Original Message --------
Subject: [78-L] Manhattan's Colony Music to close after 64 years
From: Cary Ginell <soundthink at live.com>
Date: Thu, August 23, 2012 12:15 pm
To: "78-l at klickitat.78online.com" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>



I first visited Colony Music at Broadway & 49th Street in 1978, at the
height of the disco invasion. While the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" streamed
endlessly over their sidewalk speaker system, I browsed inside for rare
LPs and sheet music. I remember buying "Ranch House Favorites" by Bob
Wills on MGM there - overpriced at $30, but still a treasure. One of the
few instances where a 12-inch LP was rarer than its 10-inch equivalent
(I learned that the tracks were different, even though the artwork was
the same; my 12-inch copy had 1954 performances on it, while the 10-inch
had most earlier stuff from 1947-50). Thirty years later, I got the
thrill of seeing songbooks that I produced gracing their Broadway-facing
front window . Their used LPs had been relegated to the basement and I
never got to go down there to browse because it was always gated off
with no one willing to open up. Colony should have closed long ago
because they couldn't afford to be competitive with the internet, bu
t it's the last vestige of the glory of what Times Square used to
represent.

http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/08/colony-music.html

Cary Ginell 
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