Memories of the Phonograph

Friends of the Phonograph

 

Phonograph Memories and a few stories (1)

 

Barney, F. M. (1912) - Barney's story of Ezra Meeker coming into his store and recording 3 records, Elm Creek, NE

Boilesen, Axel (2000) - The Edison Amberola and The Jolly Coppersmith, Cotesfield, NE

Boilesen, Axel (2009) - Playing an Edison Amberola - "On the Beach Medley" (a 30 second video)

Boilesen, Betty Barr (2000) - Playing School - My first memory of the Phonograph, Elba, NE

Boilesen, Doug ( 2001) - The Our Song Phenomenon - "The Red River Rock"

Boilesen, Doug (2017) - An "Our Song" - "Home on the Range"

Boilesen, Doug (2001) - This is Our Tune...Remember? This is Our Tune...Remember?

Boilesen, Doug (2015) - "To The Friend of the Phonograph" - Side-DB That is All!

Boilesen, Doug (2018) - Axel and Betty's First Radio-Phonograph

Boilesen, Doug and Doug Keister (2012) - How Axel and Doug Boilesen acquired the John Johnson 5"x 7" glass negatives in 1965.

Boilesen, Doug - Dearborn or Bust, 1967

Boilesen, James (2018) - I am a Friend of the Phonograph

Boilesen, Sharon Orlando - And so it is!

Buffett, Peter * (2010) - Excerpt from his book, Life Is What You Make It, music and an early repair made on the family phonograph

Byron, Eric (2019) - "My Fascination with Early Phonographs and Sound Recordings"

Cicotte, Eddie (1915) - A baseball star would enjoyed listening to phonograph records

Copp, Jim * (2018) - A tribute to one of the most creative storytellers on record written by David Owen in The New Yorker, 2018

Deems, Frank M. (1892) - Remembering the first time I met Edison and saw the phonograph in March 1878.

Flammarion, Camille - March 11, 1878 - "A day to be remembered, for its proceedings were absurd."

Friday, Frances Robinson * (1998) - Avalon Town, the chamber pot and the Victrola

Goldberg, Myla * - 2006 - Hanging on the Gramophone (Spin Magazine)

Gordon, Barbara * (1979) - The Menace of Constant Noise (I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can)

A Grandson's Gift "A Spotlight" For His Grandfather's WWII Band - an NPR report by Taylor Haney March 20, 2021

Hathaway, Anne * (2011) - Tribute to Meryl Streep during the 34th Annual Kennedy Centre Honors with gramophone on stage

Hawthorne School (1998) - Second graders learn about the Phonograph, Hawthorne Elementary School, Lincoln, NE

Jenkins, Dan * (2014) - Listening to the Mills Brothers on my mom's RCA Victor phonograph.

Jester, Ron (2025) - "Ron's Wild World"

Keillor, Garrison * (2017) - Memories of bringing my LP to our youth church group so that they could listen to Handel's Messiah

Keister, Douglas (2007) - Field Report on Obsessive Phonograph Collecting Disorder Submitted by Douglas Keister HSD AAC

Keister, Douglas (2020) - "The Machine"

Keister, Kim (2020) - Life, Music, and the Harman-Kardon Incident

Kelly, Linda* (2022) "Voices on Vinyl," The New York Times, November 23, 2022 with its "scratchy resurrections of the past."

Kennedy, Mark * (2021 - Holiday Gift Ideas for the Music Lover 2021 - Mark Kennedy AP Entertainment Writer)

Klein, Ezra and Emily St. John Mandel * - 2022 - Art as Time Batteries, Recorded Sound and R.E.M.

Knightley, Keira and Steve Carell * (2012) - Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Focus Features

Koenigsberg, Allen (2023) - Table of Contents for Articles by Allen Koenigsberg

Koss, John C. * (2022) - Remembering the man who brought high-quality personal stereophonic sound to generations of listeners

Loving an Album to Death Makes a Music Fan for Life - Darrin Wolsko* - All Things Considered 2012

McKee, Pete * (2021) - Thoughts about vinyl, record stores, the life of records, DJs, and music used in his 2021 Thud Crackle Pop Digital Remaster Exhibition.

Mendenhall, John * - Memories of Nipper and Character Trademarks

McCartney, Paul * (2020) - Celebrating his Friends of the Phonograph 78 RPM Birthday and "Spinning at 78"

Middleton, Howard Taylor (1907) - The Talking Machine Club

Millar, Jay (2023) - Elvis and our console stereo

Moseley, Dana* 1985 - Grandma Ivy's Victrola and fondness for Caruso

Moss, Mr. R. Llewellyn (1911) - Remembering the first time he heard an Edison Phonograph, January 1878

Marty, Margaret * (2019) - A Valentine for "Victrola" - On "keepsakes" and a found Valentines Day card from Dad to Mom, Courtesy of The Pine City Pioneer

Murphy, Colleen * (2016) - "My first turntable was a life-changer" (from her BBC Sounds Turntable Tales - Berliner to Gramophone)

Orlando, Andy (2009) - Our phonograph in Dos Palos, California, and other memories

Orlando, Bruce (2025) - The record I heard and immediately knew: "This is My Kind of Music."

Orlando, Judy (2018) - Memories of growing up, family, music and the phonograph

Parks, Van Dyke * (2020) - Memories of my parents Magnavox and records

Patchett, Ann * (2011) - Dreaming Of 'California' From Far Away - Interviewed by Melissa Block as part of NPR Music's 2011 Winter Series. (Click the 4-minute Listen) (8)

Rivett, Tom * (2013) - A boy's voice from 1954 lost and found, Lincoln, NE by Cindy Lange-Kubick, The Lincoln Journal-Star

Rogers, Will * (1923) - Timely Topics

Satan Comes to Crawley Bottom - As told to Douglas Keister - 2020

Shaw, Wendy (2021) - Shocking memories of the phonograph

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton in Antarctica 1907-09 - Shackleton's 1907-09 expedition in his own recorded words

Sharp, Maia * (2009) - "Kodachrome" - Interviewed by Melissa Block as part of NPR Music's 2009 Summer Series. (Click the 3-minute Listen) (9)

Steffes, Judy * (2015) - Memories of growing up in West Bend, WI, with the family phonograph in the dining room

Stone, Gary (2021) - "My grandparents radio store inspired my appreciation for phonographs and radios."

Strock, Clancy * (2004) - My Grandfather Strock's Victrola, and more...Reminisce Magazine

Terkel, Studs * (2005) - "Caruso"

Thurber, James * (1933) -  My mother's greatest dread was the Victrola

Von Kampen, Andrea * (2021) -  The purchase of Von Kampen's vinyl album by Prince Charles at Hafod Hardware, Rhayader, Wales

Wang, Oliver * (2015) - Baby's First Record (and Record Player) - Cuepoint

Wilson, William* (2023) - Wilson's Edison Concert Phonograph c.1903 at a raffle - Kansas Historical Society

Wittmann Company (1902) - One of the Edison Jobbers Suspended by Edison

Young, Loretta* (1936) - Her favorite records were Stephen Foster's melodies.

You Tell on Yourself By the Friends You Keep and the Records You Play - 2012 Author Unknown

 

In Memory of Friends of Nipper

Nipper - 1895 - A Unique Star in Phonographia

Carie - 2009

Sasha - 2019

Nikki - 2022

Dogs and the Phonograph

 

 

In Memory of Friends of the Phonograph

Betty Ann Barr Boilesen - 2000

Bob Gross - 2003

William C. Ptacek* by Rene Rondeau - 2004 (Honorary FOTP member See Endnote 1 )

Lawrence Brown - 2006

Axel Christian Boilesen - 2013

Andy Orlando - 2018

Judy Orlando - 2021

Greg Henry - 2024

Allen Koenigsberg - 2025

 

 

FOTP Celebrations and Related Material (2)

 

Birthday Calendar: Legacy Friends of the Phonograph

December 6th Edison Phonograph Birthday Parties - Photo Album

Friends of Nipper

Friends of the Phonograph Go GREEN

FOTP Happy Birthday Song - a.k.a. Your Birth Anniversary Song

In Memory of Friends of the Phonograph

Quotations about Memories - "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead"

Red Letter Days

RPM Birthdays & Unbirthdays

 

FOTP Lists, Top Fives and Other Favorites

FOTP Favorite Album Covers

FOTP Favorite LP Albums

FOTP Favorite Movies (1)

PhonoCalendar - Lists of "On This Days"

 

 

Other Phonograph Related Stories, Scenes and Blogs

A Grandson's Gift "A Spotlight" For His Grandfather's WWII Band - an NPR report by Taylor Haney March 20, 2021 about a trumpet player in WWII whose recordings were discovered by his grandson who then had them digitized and made into an album. "I put the music on and it was like my own private concert with my grandpa," he said. "It was like he'd never left. I was back in 1946 and getting to hear my ... grandpa and his young lungs playing the trumpet."

 

Loving an Album to Death Makes a Music Fan for Life - Darrin Wolsko* - All Things Considered 2012

Mom and Dad's Record Collection - Stories Our Parents Taught Us - All Things Considered 2012

"A Record Find - How The Phantom of the Opera led me to a long-lost musical treasure in Paris" By Michael Walsh Smithsonian magazine, February 2008

In 1907, recordings were interred in metal urns at the Palais Garnier, to be reopened in 100 years (Courtesy Opera National de Paris)

 

"Santa Claus Speaks" by Karen Fishman and Bryan Cornell 2015 - Library of Congress "Now See Hear! The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center Blog - "Santa Claus Tells About his Toy Shop by Gilbert Girard, 1916 (Victor Record 35679) and "Santa Claus Gives Away his Toys" by Gilbert Girard, 1916 (Victor Record 35679)

 

 

Phonographs on Display - Museums, Exhibits and On-Line Collections

PhonoAvenue - Phonograph Museums Around the World

Phonograph On-Line Collections

PhonoExhibits - Temporary Phonograph Exhibits

Phono-Sightings - Phonographs as part of other museum displays

Quotations about Memories

Every man's memory is his private literature. - Aldous Huxley

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. - Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

The past is never dead, it is not even past. - William Faulkner

When an old person dies, a library burns. African proverb revived by Malian writer Amadou Amadou Hampat' Ba

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. -- From the television show The Wonder Years

We do not remember days; we remember moments. - Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again - Ancient Egyptian Belief

Within our hearts, the ones we love are never really gone - In spirit and in memory, their legacy lives on. - Hallmark

All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in rain. - The Blade Runner

...She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love and she be fair! - John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

"You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead" - Lennon/McCartney, Two of Us, 1969

A story is what holds us together, and what is left when we leave - Marshall Dodge, The New Yorker, Oct 22, 1979 (5)

"The backward look transforms its object...History cannot be touched without changing it." Siegfried Giedion

"I like the old days, but not all the days, only the good old days" - Departure, The Long Winters

It was no thought or word that called culture into being, but a tool or a weapon. After the stone axe we needed song and story to remember innocence, to record effect - and so to describe the limits, to say what can be done without damage. Wendell Berry, 1974

And suddenly the memory returns...ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection. Marcel Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu (2)

The stereo takes back our breath, All sound is light. Abide with Me, Jake Adam York

A memory is only a Prince Charming who stays just long enough to awaken the Sleeping Beauties of our wordless stories. Michael De Certeau (3)

How the past is documented shapes how we remember it. Lonnie G. Bunch III, 2019

"The construction and demolition of monuments are history, but monuments themselves are not history. They are useful windows on history. They disclose stories we would now like to disavow, but if we look carefully, we can also find what the monuments were intended to hide. In the name of remembering, we don't want to forget." Richard White 2020 (4)

"Memories bring diamonds and rust." Joan Baez, Diamonds and Rust

"We're just here to be memories for our kids." - Cooper to his daughter Murph, Interstellar 2014

""The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again."" - Eckhart Tolle