Legacy Recordings

End of day one. I would certainly call this a success. We started off
the day meeting with Dave and Brad, our camera crew, and Bruce, Bob, and
Frank out de facto hosts, for breakfast. Already the adventure started.

The Day’s Inn experience is fantastic. Not quite the storm of hysteria
that Bruce described to us last week, but I attribute that in equal
parts to the show’s somewhat decreased vitality (so say many attendees)
and Bruce’s expected embeleshment. It started out slow, but very shortly
hotel rooms opened and cars began to pull up. As soon as a new car
entered the lot, the most aggressive of the crowd swarmed - digging
through boxes waiting to be unloaded.

Inside, doors were propped open and collectors moved from box to box and
room to room. Some vendors had 3 or 4 boxes, but others hardly left room
for us to stand. Thousands of 45s - garage, surf, rockabilly, northern
soul, male vocal groups, female vocal groups, instrumental, and several
other genres.

Actually, considering the enormous number of titles, the variety of
genres was surprisingly narrow. From room to room, the categories were
similar. I wonder what drove this community’s taste in music?  Do other
groups form around records of showtunes or jazz?

We captured some really great footage of collectors digging and
bantering, and even better interviews. Some people couldn’t have been
more cooperative, others were visably - and audibly, actually -
disturbed by our presence. We tried to make ourselves scarse when
appropriate.

It was truly fascinating speaking with those who would share with us.
Where they came from, what they collect, what they sell, what they love.
We asked about their most expensive aquisition and their most luctrative
sale - not a surprise that generally the former was surpassed by the
latter.

In the afternoon, we took a trip deep into Amish company to the Record
Connection - a fantastic shop in Ephrata, PA. Their card touts “100,000
record albums, 45s & 78s,” and owner Andy promised he had a similar
number in storage. How a shop like this survives in an area like that is
truly a mystery to me, but it is so good to see. We got another great
couple of interviews - possibly one of the best of the week - and did
some shopping.

Back again to Allentown brought us dinner and some more record browsing
at the Day’s Inn. A bit more schmoozing and back to Ho Jo’s for some
much needed sleep.

Tomorrow promises to be some more of the same. The goal for us is to
continue the interviews and regroup for Saturday.