I love collecting. My current interests are:
What was life like before eBay?
Collecting Cigarette Lighters
Although I have never smoked, in the past few years, I have become fascinated with the art and mechanical functioning of cigarette lighters and other smoking memorabilia from the 1930's and 1940's.
I currently have about 200 lighters and hope to find a few dozen more to complete my collection. I've been thinking it would nice to learn how to appear to be smoking (without actually inhaling any smoke) so that I could use some of my lighters and cigarette cases. This is one of my future goals.
Collecting Pre-1950 Vintage Televisions
Although commercial television broadcasts began around 1947, Portland did not receive television broadcasts until 1953. By then, most televisions sets looked pretty much the same—dark, boxy, with a 17" somewhat rectangular screen. However, between 1946 and 1950, television makers seemed to be trying to figure out what shape and size a television should be, and the picture tubes were usually small (7" or 10") and often circular. These sets were very distinctive.
Not surprisingly, pre-1950 television sets are hard to find. In 1947, there were only 44,000 television sets in the U.S. (compared to 40 million radios). By 1950, the number of television sets in the U.S. grew to 8 million.
Click here to view my small, but proud and growing collection of vintage TVs.
I also have a small grouping of vintage TV antennas and the original servicing manuals for most of my TV sets.
My Want List of Vintage TVs
I would like to acquire the following TVs:
-
1947 Transvision 10" tabletop
- 1948 Telekit 7" tabletop
- 1947 Emerson 545 10" tabletop
Collecting Old 78 Records
For several years, I have enjoyed collecting old 78s. My particular interest is in personalities from the 1920's and 1930's. I became interested in old records after buying a Brunswick upright Victrola, followed by an Victor "type III" horn phonograph. Now, I only play the records on a restored 1940 General Electric console radio/phonograph. It causes less wear on the records and it maintains the "boomy" sound of the late 1930's.
My collection includes all (or virtually all) 78s recorded by the following personalities:
- Fred Astaire (and Adele Astaire)
- Maurice Chevalier
- Marlene Dietrich
- Alice Faye
- Al Jolson (actually, I only have some of his records)
- Gertrude Lawrence
- Ethel Merman
- Dick Powell (I'm missing a few of his Vocallion's)
- Kate Smith
- Sophie Tucker (I'm missing several of her early O-Keh's)
- Rudy Vallee (I'm missing a few of his Columbia Blue Wax)
- Ethel Waters (I'm missing several of her early Black Swans)
My Want List of 78s
The records at the top of my "want" list are:
- Alice Faye: promotional records, including "Here's the Key to My Heart"
- Marlene Dietrich: Brunswick 7723
- Rudy Vallee: Columbia 2700, 2764
- Ethel Waters: Columbia 14132, several Black Swan records
