Well worth collecting!

Yes indeed! So pleased you enjoyed! xx

Always think of you when I upload from the Marathon. I'm sure he'd have loved to sing for you, but sadly he was silent when you visited. Funny, one of my first girlfriends liked my mother better than me & used to skip school to go & see her after we finished the relationship!

Thanks for the info. My reprinted Zonophone catalogue gives X-43189 as 'He Never Even Said Goodbye' as recorded in 1907, but unissued. X-43188 as 'Now I Have To Call Him Father' recorded August 1908 & issued September 1909. The matrix numbers however, don't agree, this recording bearing matrix No. 18288-A whilst my catalogue gives: A-9116, stating that it came from a USA Zonophone. Zonophone was a subsidiary of 'The Gramophone Company, tho' no reference is made on the label. It would appear that the Gramophone Company was happy to make money from popular music, but wanted to distance themselves from it. What a different & class based world! As for the machine, it's a Marathon' designed to play 'Marathon narrow groove' vertical cut discs, which played up to 50% longer than lateral cut ones. Both the machine & such discs are uncommon. The reproducer will however swivel, to play conventional discs. The machine dates to 8th December 1913 & was inherited from neighbours in 1966. Its also a survivor, as they were bombed out of their home 3 times during air raids of WW2.

@@tiga4180 Reprinted from what year? Now I'm curious if UC Santa Barbara has this wrong. Wouldn't be a first. I helped correct a couple of errors with photo proof. That Marathon machine must be pre-1920? Fascinating.

@@AnnieVanAuken Printed in 1999 & sourced from catalogues dated March 1904 to May 1911. Authors Frank Andrews & Ernie Bayley of the City Of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society. Not wanting to dispute your sources, just curious as to the differences. Perhaps different takes. The gramophone contains a quality inspectors label dated 8th December 1913 & initialed 'R S' A friend of mine, Paul Reeve of 'Gramophonic Reevolution' also has a 'Marathon' internal horn model. This has a a label signed off by the same inspector, but at a slightly earlier date. Perhaps they sat together on the same shelf waiting to be sold. Here they are, reunited at my home all those years later: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p6d-gq-hyJrcpIk.htmlsi=I1BuWvNxrRpjujrR

@@tiga4180 Thanks. The DAHR strikes again. I wonder if modern high-end gramophone repros still use mica diaphragms or if it's an artificial substance?

@@AnnieVanAuken Not seen a modern high end repro gramophone, only those quirky badly made ones from India, which some dodgy dealers pass off as the real thing. Mica diaphragms are still available, so guessing a high end repro would use it if it was re creating a model from the mica era. If they were reproducing (for example) a Columbia Viva Tonal, or a Victor/HMV 'Orthophonic' they would, of course use foil, as in the original. If ever you've dismantled a reproducer from either of these models, you'd see how carefully crafted they are. The 'Panatrope' reproducer which appears on EMG's & some later Deccas is also excellent.

When I started in the 1960's, jumble sales & second hand shops. Charity shops are a sporadic source, but mainly I go to specialist fairs like Birmingham International Record Fair. Its held 3 or 4 times a year.

@@tiga4180I am jealous! I am 19 and I started collecting 78s a couple years ago after my local record shop gave me a bunch of music hall 78s for free. I find that they’re so hard to come across nowadays or that they’re just so expensive on Ebay! Wish I could travel back and get them. You have such an impressive collection. Love your content :))