Volume 9 , Issue 29

Luck of the Irish

"Many of you know that I am of Irish descent (along with Scot, English, and a smattering of Dutch), and the "luck of the Irish" has happened again. A couple of days ago I wanted to check out an antique windup Brunswick portable record player (like a Victrola) that was made for guys to take to a picnic, or on a canoe ride down a lazy river with some cute female. Anyway, I went out to the main warehouse and pulled out some records from a box of stuff that I'd bought from my friend, author Glenn Shirley of Stillwater. When Glenn was offering to sell me something, I usually didn't bother to check it all out or even try to get a better price. I trusted him to sell "good stuff" at a reasonable price, knowing that his "stuff" had always checked out to be worth at least as much as he was asking. I have gotten some fantastic stuff from Glenn and even though he's gone now (died a couple of years ago) I still find some extra bargains that he's "slipped" in with the other stuff.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this note I needed a 78 RPM record to check out the portable player so I'd know whether it worked okay and I could put in on my web pages. As I glanced at the records I pulled out of that box, I gasped! One of them was a picture record worth more than the $50 I'd paid for the whole box (of about 40 or 50 disks). You can find that record and the Brunswick player both on my web pages now. Sooner or later someone is going to buy another major profit item so I can start buying things again.

Today I looked through some of those other records and then brought the whole box into the main shop to check them better. Even though I didn't find any more of the Vogue picture records, there were some more really nice surprises including; Ethel Smith playing the Hammond Organ (she and Ken Griffin were the folks who inspired mom to begin taking organ lessons which also led me and my brother Ray to become interested enough to buy one (neither of us has yet gotten a B3 or C3 though... I'm still hoping). I do have two tube-type spinets and a transistorized one though. None of them has a Leslie Speaker. Also in the collection of records is at least one Ella Fitzgerald and a couple other jazz and at least one boogie. I also found a Frank Sinatra recording of two songs from what was then the 'new' stage production "Oklahoma". "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" with the flip side "People Will Say We're In Love". Most of the disks are earlier recordings of folks who later became stars. I haven't found anything in there that's worth less than $4 to the collectors. There are several Spike Jones, some early Bing Crosby, and others. When I find some spare time (what's that?) I'll need to listen to some of them." Roy K.
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