What do you do with 25 boxes of shellac 78 records and a Victrola crank-powered turntable? I’ve been discovering my way through it, one disc at a time. As I catalog the collection on 45worlds.com, I share snippets of video, complete with custom bumpers and song and artist titles.
I share them with the 78-lovers’ communities online, and I try to add little pieces of music history as I go. It’s a little passion project that helps soften the hard edges in a place like Twitter, to build connections with other fans, and to reconnect with an analog reality.
I was all about the images (still am!)… until someone gifted me a Victrola and a shellac 78 collection. There must be over 1000 discs, here, and I don’t recognize most of them. So let’s see what we’ve got, shall we? pic.twitter.com/VRWkprz7aH
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) March 27, 2018
And these are the needles, which need to be replaced every song or three on the crank machine. The electric turntable 78 needle has a longer lasting sapphire tip. pic.twitter.com/VaG3OoX1cv
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) March 27, 2018
You may see this #Debussy track come back occasionally. It’s my calm. My touchstone. My #beautybreak. #78rpm pic.twitter.com/meHW7mvJbw
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) March 28, 2018
Marlene Dietrich, “Boys in the Backroom”, recorded 1939, released by Decca on the 78 Souvenir Album in 1940.
(Reverse side is”Falling in Love Again,” but we’re too sassy for that, today..) #78rpm pic.twitter.com/l1gMpbrat4— Exist in Images (@existinimages) April 8, 2018
Spike Jones & his City Slickers’ biggest hit: a comedic take on “Cocktails for Two.” It reached #4 on the charts. Carl Grayson provided vocals, recorded in 1944. #78rpm pic.twitter.com/aFw3ID3jDu
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) April 12, 2018
Here’s Helen Kane– the inspiration for Betty Boop! #78rpm pic.twitter.com/Zfa8XgthcA
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) March 27, 2018
King of the”wah-wah” trumpet sound, Clyde McCoy recorded this Decca version of his signature song “Sugar Blues” in 1935. pic.twitter.com/mrdjg000qJ
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) March 29, 2018
I think another tune is in order before I sign off tonight: The Broadway Bell-hops with a 1926 recording of “I Never Knew What the Moonlight Could Do,” vox by Irving Kaufman. ‘Night, folks! pic.twitter.com/3XexEdRR1n
— Exist in Images (@existinimages) April 5, 2018