[78-L] progeny of 78-era artists

Rodger J. Holtin rjh334578 at gmail.com
Mon Oct 14 07:59:41 PDT 2013


Interesting items so far.  I had intended to ask as well, if anybody had
picked up on any stories that weren't widely known - my whole point in
telling about Grandpa and the Emperor of Japan as an example of such
odd-ball stories.


On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 9:37 PM, Rodger J. Holtin <rjh334578 at gmail.com>wrote:

> My wife is an avid/rabid genealogist, and sometimes our interests line up
> in odd or interesting ways.
>
> My grandfather made high-quality straight razors in the 1910-1940s and
> once in a while the family will hear from people who collect that stuff
> looking for info about him.  This has stopped - for now, anyway, as none of
> the family is anywhere near the old home town, so the searches for us
> probably end there.  I suspect the name will get traced on Facebook as one
> of my cousins sons has granddad's name, so maybe he's getting the inquiries
> now - I should ask.  Anyway, the best story was well-known around town when
> it happened, but we have no paper record or it.  Seems the FBI came calling
> in early December of 1941 because there was an envelope addressed to him
> from the emperor of Japan, an order for more razors.  Seems Grandpa been
> selling special razors to the emperor for years.  He used them once and
> gave them away as souvenirs - a real treat for the local Japanese or
> visiting dignitaries to have a fine razor "made in USA".  So far as we
> know, my brother and I are the only ones who have any of granddad's
> original razors, and we used to get requests to sell them or for pictures
> of them and anything else - pix of the shop, advertising, etc.
>
> Just curious how many have had any contact with the descendants of 78-era
> performers.  I read something on some website about County Joe Washburn and
> there was a post/reply from his grandson.  Ran into another from an unnamed
> poster who said his grandfather had played for Rudy Vallee.
>
> I can imagine a bunch of grandkids of guys who played for Coon-Sanders or
> Arthur Pryor or whoever might be searching for gramp's stuff - if they know
> about it.  Anybody run into any of that?
>
> --
> Rodger
> For Best Results Use Victor Needles
>



-- 
Rodger
For Best Results Use Victor Needles


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