[Dixielandjazz] Are 78's Back?

[Robert Ringwald]

Whistlin' Willie's 78s in Pittsburgh

Whistlin' Willie's 78 RPM Record Store Opens in Squirrel Hill
by Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 31, 2010

One bright spot in the rather devastated record industry the past few years has been
the surprising resurgence of vinyl.
Only in Pittsburgh would we now have a comeback of shellac.
On Friday, Willie Weber will open Whistlin' Willie's 78s -- a new, separate wing
of the famed Jerry's Records in Squirrel Hill devoted to 78 rpm records, which, if
you're keeping track, would be at least five technologies back from the modern-day
MP3.
Willie is not Jerry's father. Rather, he's his 31-year-old son, who has been working
for his vinyl-loving dad since he was 13. Being the old-soul type, Willie had no
interest in filling the second-floor room next to Jerry's, recently vacated by 720
Records, with a used CD shop. No, he loves the thick, crackly feel and antique sound
of grandpa's records.
"I was getting them all the time in record deals," Willie Weber says, "and I just
fell in love with them. I got interested in them and started collecting them."
Now he has between 20,000 and 30,000 78 rpm records in genres ranging from classical
to big band to country to rock 'n' roll. The format dates back to the 1890s and stayed
in production until about 1960, when finally it was made obsolete by the slicker
and slower-playing 45, which had first come along in 1948.
What you won't find in the milk crates at Whistlin' Willie's are flashy album covers.
The 78s largely were sold in brown-paper wrappers and consisted of one or two three-minute
sides of music. Walking over to the classical section, Mr. Weber, in black T-shirt,
jeans and fedora, pulls out a bound case of Handel's "Messiah" that consists of 19
discs and sells for $25. It would take a lot of turntable stacking to get through
that, but he doesn't recommend it -- "when they drop, they crack pretty easily."
Whistlin' Willie's is not a store stocked with pricey collectors' items. Like his
father, the owner follows the philosophy that music is meant to be listened to and
enjoyed, not archived or put behind glass. The most expensive piece in the store
is Bessie Smith's first record, the 1923 "Down Hearted Blues/Gulf Coast Blues," which
is priced at $50.
Flip through the stacks and you'll find Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"
for $6, Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" for $5, Percy Mayfield's "Hopeless" for $5 and
Pat Boone's "Tutti Frutti" for $2. On the pricier side, at $10, are singles by Elvis
Presley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and other early rock 'n' rollers.
"I can't keep this stuff in stock," he says. "When I get them in, they sell right
way. The old 45 guys, they have the records on 45, but they want them on 78, too."
The hardest stuff to find, he says, is rock 'n' roll, vintage blues and jazz. People
cleaning out their attic and coming in trying to sell him boxes filled with popular
artists from the '40s might only get five bucks for the whole case. "Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin, Peggy Lee.... Even though they're great, I just have multiple copies."
At the front counter, there are a variety of record players (some for sale), ranging
from an old Edison console from the late 1800s to a windup Victrola to a modern turntable
hooked up to a CD burner, so he can make copies of rare records before he sells them.
Drawn by the title "That Awful Day Will Surely Come," I ask him to play a song by
Gertrude Ward and the Daughters. It turns out to be an eerie gospel tune that bleeds
through the pops and hiss.
"After a while you don't even hear it," Mr. Weber says of the crackles. "It's part
of the sound. Even on CDs now, you have artists sometimes putting the crackling on."
If the pop and hiss resides in the middle of the track, what you get on either side
of it with old vinyl and shellac are dynamic highs and lows not heard on your MP3
download.
For the connoisseur of vintage music, one of the fascinating things about the shop
is discovering artists whose work has never even been committed to LP or CD. As an
example, he points to a record by Joe Howard.
"I've found artists that I couldn't find anything about in all the books we have
here, and on the Internet."
Mike Plaskett, who hosts "Rhythm Sweet and Hot" on WDUQ (90.5 FM), has been a longtime
78 collector and customer of the Webers'. He regularly cruises used record and thrift
stores looking for music he can't find on LP or CD.
"I'm looking for the ones that have slipped through the cracks and have not been
reissued," he says. "Those things will turn up at Jerry's and will rarely be found
at the secondhand stores, because grandma has cleaned out her closet and grandpa
has cleaned out his garage. They're either in the hands of serious collectors, moving
through the auctions or in places like Willie's store."
The 'DUQ deejay shops for rare 78s, transfers them into his computer, cleans up the
scratches and burns them onto a CD to play on his radio show. His best example of
an artist who requires this special treatment is Guy Lombardo.
"Guy Lombardo was absolutely huge through the '30s, but very few Guy Lombardo records
were reissued -- just the dozen biggest hits. He recorded the cream of the American
songbook, but no one's put them out. And yet, I get a great reaction when I play
them on the show."
Among the rarest gems in Whistlin' Willie's are the quarter-inch Edison records,
of which he has about 100. He pulls out a copy of "Sidewalk Blues" by the Golden
Gate Orchestra ($10) and manually spins the turntable on the Edison console. He still
marvels at the way he acquired it.
He got a call from an elderly woman in Claysville who said she had some old records
to sell. The Webers have gotten used to calls from people who don't even know the
difference between 78s and 45s. "She had plastic bags on her feet, she was so poor,"
Willie says. "She had a bunch of 78s, stuff I'd never seen before." She took him
out to the barn, and he was shocked to find the Edison phonograph. When she saw his
reaction, she told him, "I wish I had known. I had four more I burned for firewood."
He gave her $500 for everything, including the metal pieces of the Edisons that didn't
burn, and he estimates that the Edison is worth at least that.
It's one of the few things in the store that's not for sale. Generally, he isn't
concerned about his own collection.
"I'm so young I can probably sell everything because I'll eventually end up getting
it back -- probably from the same people!" he says, laughing.
Most of the trade for 78s takes place these days on the Internet. Jerry Weber, who
knows the record business, feels confident that Whistlin' Willie's will be the only
store dedicated to them on the East Coast. He never made much room for them in his
own shop, even as they were piling up in his warehouse.
Like his son, though, he loves the magic of the shellac.
"In some cases, you're listening to a 90-year-old record that someone played on a
windup record player -- and it still plays! It's like touching history."
__________
Whistlin' Willie's 78s is at 2136 Murray Ave., second floor. Hours are 10 a.m.-6
p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 412-478-4023.


--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
rsr at ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551

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