The record changer (Feb-Dec 1948)

Warn i married (Continued from Page 22) "Steel !" "Sapphire !" "One-play needles !" "Ten-playl" And on and on until I creep away to a boiler factory for peace and quiet. There are many "experts" in the game. Everybody who has a record thinks he is an expert and will tell you why he knows more than you do in just so many words. I feel for my poor mailman. He carries to our door tons of letters from all over the world. There is a collector with a U. S. Supreme Court address who had been trading with Joe for some time. Joe had a record this fellow wanted, and seized with the unholy fear that an air mail letter wouldn't arrive in time to say so, he sent an urgent telegram pleading with Joe to keep it. The telegram was delivered via the telephone. "Don't do anything about that Bunk until you hear from me,' 'it begged. "Most urgent. Letter follows with all details." The poor girl who read the message to me must have thought it was some kind of code to a secret war agent. She carefully read the words and offered to spell each and every one of them in case I didn't get it all. I told her I got the message, but to make doubly sure she sent me a couple of duplicates in the mail. To get back to the care of records. Joe does everything possible to keep his collection in fine shape. He wipes the discs, cleans them, won't use a needle more than once, won't play the records too often, and so on. Meanwhile, our two little girls play their children's records with old needles, play them ; over and over, never change the needle, never dust or clean the surfaces, and their records never wear out while Joe's are sometimes only good for a dozen or so plays. Don't ask me why. In the process of collecting, Joe has picked up some very valuable records. Most collectors have a few rare items, and they are treasured. In fact, they are so treasured that they're never played. Sometimes I get to peek at the label of one, but not too often. I suppose he thinks my burning glance might warp them. ^ When the record companies in their generosity re-issue some of these priceless gems, then at last the collectors get to hear them. 1 It's wonderful ! I He has some records that he can't play ] because they are cut laterally. An ordinary machine won't play them. Does that stop him 5 from buying or trading for them? Oh, no! ^ If it's a band or a piece he wants, he gets it . anyway, stashes it away in an album where it will stay for the next fifty years or so. But y at least, when anyone asks him he can say, , "Sure, I've got that one." ! He collects Tiger Rags and has over two , hundred different ones. Of these he plays i two or three over and over. The rest stay in their niche and rest, or whatever it is unused I records do. I took a vivid interest in Bing Crosby recordings early in the game. At the present time I have picked up most of the orig-nal labels, but some of them were very difficult to obtain. Crosby records are not considered strictly "jazz" although there are some early ones with Bix Biederbecke or other artists that make them cherished by the true addict. . However, there was one collector we visited who didn't like vocals and didn't mind saying so. "I wouldn't have one in the house," he screamed, and tore up and down his living room, convinced that I was some sort of monster for having brought up the subject. A little later, while looking through his records, I came upon an ancient item that had Crosby on the vocal. "How did that get in there?" he demanded suspiciously, as though I had planted it. "Take it away. Give me fifty cents and it's yours!" I had been offered that recording for fifteen dollars and had declined the offer. I parted with fifty cents and took home my treasure. Some of the Crosby collectors are more avid than the jazz hounds. I suppose I have become a member of their ranks. I have mv collection and it's almost complete. I don't get to play it very often, though. I have to sneak downstairs to the den when loe isn't around and put one on the turntable very quietly. If he does hear me he comes pranc ing in. He'll say, "That's a good Crosby. Take it off a minute, will you ? I want you to hear this clarinet I just got from Sweden." And that's the way it goes. Hobbies are wonderful for people, the experts say. But they don't tell you what hobbies do to people's wives. Magazines Wanted JAZZ RECORD (Hodes) Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 14 JAZZ (Bob Threle) Vol. 1, Nos. 5 and 6 CLEF Vol. 1, No. 3, May 1946 RECORD CHANGER 1943, Sept. RECORD CATALOGS English Columbia, Decca, and HMV, RegelZonophone, Parlophone, French-Swing. JOHN B. SMITH 124 DEFEW AVE. BUFFALO 14, N. Y, JULY, 1948 27