Yes, it’s Saturday 10/18, and that means NO KINGS day, with people marching by the millions to celebrate democracy over autocracy and to rebel pointedly against Our Overlord Grabpussy and his army of thugs and grifters. Meanwhile, I celebrate a much more modest and personal occasion, from 10/16:
🎈 🎂  🎈 Larry Schourup’s 78th birthday. LS and I have been loving friends since 1970; see a longer exposition of our relationships in my 3/16/24 posting “The three Larrys”. And we both have early-fall birthdays, me on 9/6, him on 10/16. For me this year, see my 9/6/25 posting “Sloths, penguins, and Buddhist joy”, the Buddhist joy (zuiki in Japanese, sounds like Zwicky) being a sweet 85th birthday gift from LS.
I got Buddhist joy (Larry grew up in SoCal, now lives in Japan). Larry got phonograph records (I grew up in Pa. Dutch country, now live in NorCal). It’s a complicated relationship.
Our e-mail exchange on his birthday:
— AZ > LS: I remember 78s. My family had quite a few — memorably, a cast album of South Pacific and a Lionel Barrymore performance of “A Christmas Carol”. Now the fantasy would be that as time goes on, you are succeeded by trendy 45s and eventually by excellent and durable 33s.
— LS >AZ: Yes, 78, so just old enough to have owned a few 78s of my own. My first record, at age 3 or 4, was Bing Crosby’s “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” It terrified me, but I loved it.
My own rpms are down nearer 45 these days, but I’m glad to be still spinning.
(On the song, see my 11/17/18 posting “Teddy Bears’ Picnic Day”; you can listen to the 1950 Bing Crosby recording for children on YouTube here)
In the spring of 1970, when we connected, LS was 22 and I was 29, a significant difference (though we had a lot to teach each other); now, we’re the same age.
October 19, 2025 at 1:58 pm |
We had some 78s within my memory. In particular I remember that we had a recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring that required six discs.
October 19, 2025 at 2:01 pm |
Ah yes, the many many discs issue. Requiring lots of storage space.
October 19, 2025 at 2:16 pm |
We had a number of things on 78s — Broadway shows, opera (and G&S) excerpts, various symphonies and of course the Nutcracker Suite. But one of my fondest memories is of the excerpts from Carmen on five or six disks, with a beautiful head shot of Risë Stevens on the album cover. She is the only reason I keep watching Going My Way when it comes on.
Also, of course, I believe these albums of disks (like photo albums and scrap albums) are the reason that a single 33 record is called an album, which I thought was pretty silly when I first noticed that happening.
October 20, 2025 at 5:54 am |
Now I think of it, I can’t recall actually listening to that Stravinsky set; but one set that did get a lot of plays was the two-disc (4-side) William Tell overture. We also had various things aimed at kids such as myself.
October 19, 2025 at 4:51 pm |
Yeah, my family in the 50s had some 78s. Multi-side recordings came in folders with bound sleeves for the 10-inch discs, similar to the photo albums of the day – so later on it made obvious sense when people spoke of record albums.
One such set I recall was on four sides, holding Paul Robeson’s performance of “Ballad for Americans”. When I listen to it now on some streaming service, probably YouTube, I can hear the moments when the storyline takes a turn and there is a pause, and I think I can identify those with the spots where you had to flip or switch discs in that album of 78s.
October 19, 2025 at 4:56 pm |
And we may also have had that album of selections from Carmen that J B Levin mentions, with Risë Stevens in the title role. If it wasn’t a set of 78s for us then it was one of the first 33-1/3 LPS we got.