I started my obsession sometime in the 1960’s. My dad was an
antique nut and always was searching for some good deal at an auction, estate
sale or antique shop. One weekend there was an auction near our cottage and my
dad and I decided to go. There were a number of people in attendance and I
couldn’t believe the prices that they were paying for some of the items. A
crank wall phone went for $325 at a time when you could buy them all day long
for $25. We had about decided to leave, when they put up an oak floor model
Victrola that seemed to be in excellent condition. My dad was reminiscing about
how his family had one when he was a kid and how he enjoyed listening to it. I
told him to wait and bid on it, even though the auction seemed out of control.
No one else bid on it and we took it home with a pile of records for $12. I
also bought several hundred Diamond Disc records for $10, not realizing that
they wouldn’t play on the Victrola. I still liked them because they were kind
of different being so thick and I liked to think of the history that went along
with them.
I was a teenager and spent a lot of my summers alone at our
lake cottage, while my dad and mom went to work. Now I had something to do when
my parents left and I was bored. I started playing all of the records in the
Victrola and noticed some had VICTOR embossed on the backs and found they were
mostly operatic type records. The ones I really liked seemed to be on strange
labels like Cameo, Brunswick and some
odd brown Vocalion records. The dates all seemed to be in the 1920’s, so I
figured this must be what flapper music sounded like. I found that I really
enjoyed the music of the 1920’s and this has been my favorite genre since that
time.
A long break took place when I got married in 1970 and had
to work for a living. My phonograph days seemed to be on the back burner, as we
had no extra money for unnecessary items. When my dad died in 1990, my mom
asked if I would like to have the Victrola. By this time I had moved from
Michigan to North Carolina, so picking it up wasn’t going to be easy. I said
yes and then made a special trip to get the machine and bring it back home –
2000+
miles round trip. Just seeing it again, started the obsession going again. I
found my “Where’s my sweetie hiding?” record still in the cabinet.
Then I started thinking of all of the horn machines that I
had passed up previously and wanted one in the worst way. I settled for a table
model Victrola VI, just to get a small machine – no outside horn, but the price
was right. I contacted as many antique dealers as possible to find another
machine, but no luck. Finally, someone said they had an outside horn Columbia
with a nickel horn, but thought I probably wouldn’t be interested in it for the
$400 price they were offered by an antique dealer. Wrong… I jumped on it and
brought home my first horn machine.
Why is it that when you finally get what you are looking
for, you think – “If I found that one, there must be another out there?” So, I
was determined to get a Victor machine. I found a collector who had a house and
garage full of them, but he wouldn’t part with any of them… he was a hoarder. I
finally offered to trade him a lever action Winchester rifle for one and he
broke down and said – “You can have that cobbled up one with the straight tube
for an arm…” – one look and I knew he hadn’t done his homework, since that
cobbled up machine was only made for six months in 1902 and had a factory rigid
arm. The only problem was it had a broken horn elbow, but I never said a word
and traded him the gun. Now the obsession was full blown and out of control –
where was I ever going to find an elbow for that Victor Monarch???
Long story short – I spent days, weeks, months and years –
15 to be exact, looking for that elusive elbow. I finally found it for $500 and
completed the machine. Then in another compulsive act, like other OCD collectors
I know, I traded the Rigid Arm Monarch for a nice disc music box and started
the search all over again… for something “new” and unusual. My newest project
is a Fairy Phonograph Lamp – who knows what’s next? Curt
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