On 8/18/2010 3:22 PM, Pete Tinker wrote:
>  Cary,
>
> I think I also remember the shop on Highland.  My memory reports that 
> it had a second floor, with LPs arranged as usual (bins on top of 
> cabinets).  However, *under* the cabinets, behind sliding doors, were 
> 78s!  I picked up several scarce "party" records there that day (1987, 
> I think).
>
> A note on your "lovable old coot" note about Murray:  doesn't Mr. 
> Bussard have a prior claim?

But Joe is not a dealer, he is a collector like us -- and I think we're 
all a bunch of genuine lovable old coots (see my daughter's documentary 
For The Record to check some of us out!!)

>
> On 8/18/2010 11:52 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>> I remember the store on Highland. I think it was called The Record 
>> Collector. It was chiefly classical records, and a good supply of it 
>> at that. Not the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that Murray housed.

So in the past 11 years NEITHER of you have noticed the huge white 
lettering THE RECORD COLLECTOR on Melrose and have been in that place?

>> The Highland shop did have a few 10-inch jazz and folk LPs, which I 
>> scarfed up at a decent price because the snob who ran the place 
>> looked down his nose at them. It was like in the Three Stooges short 
>> where Moe, Larry, and Curly are thumbing through a stack of hundred 
>> dollar bills: $100, 200, 300, 400, 500, oh! here's a five," and they 
>> toss it away.
>>
>> Cary Ginell
>>

Yeah, and go to a Jazz Hound shop and they toss out the classical!!!  
I'll see if I can figure out how to put up the excerpt from that program 
with this guy on line for you to check if it is this guy.  I think Leah 
also recorded the program and she knows how to do it.

Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]
>>> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:22:09 -0500
>>> From: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] music man murray record collection&  Murray 
>>> Gershenz, music collector extraordinaire, is parting with his entire 
>>> music library.
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> I recall the excitement when first moved to LA at the prospect of 
>>> going to
>>> Murray's. Then I went. Dashed hopes. Only to be outdone by the music 
>>> shop
>>> on Highland at Santa Monica, with a shopkeeper even more arrogant than
>>> Murray. I hate to see record (and book) shops close but when their 
>>> "owner"
>>> behaves as these folks have, give me the internet any day.
>>>
>>> Alan Carrie
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Cary Ginell<[log in to unmask]>  
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The point differentiating "stock" from "collection" is well-taken 
>>>> in this
>>>> case. To my knowledge, Murray as never been anything but a 
>>>> shopkeeper. He
>>>> has no private collection to my knowledge and really isn't all that
>>>> concerned with the finer points of discographical research as are 
>>>> serious
>>>> collectors. He never worked hard to make his a better business. He 
>>>> just
>>>> opened his doors and expected to sell his schlock for whatever 
>>>> ridiculous
>>>> prices he posted on them. He has been reviled in L.A. for decades 
>>>> as being a
>>>> grumpy, mean, brusque, and difficult person. The last time I 
>>>> visited his
>>>> shop was maybe 25-30 years ago, when it was on Santa Monica Blvd. near
>>>> Western, a bad part of town even then. What he's got now is most 
>>>> likely the
>>>> same stuff, only rifled through even further. There may be some 
>>>> choice items
>>>> that he set aside (some of which he has displayed during 
>>>> interviews), but I
>>>> can almost guarantee that they are a miniscule percentage of his 
>>>> holdings
>>>> and certainly not representative of all that is there. If his 
>>>> business were
>>>> doing well, he wouldn't need to find a new profession at his 
>>>> advanced age.
>>>> He could have just dumped what was left and gone off to some island in
>>>> blissful retirement. But creating a new image of himself as a 
>>>> "lovable old
>>>> coot" on TV shows is easier for him and probably earns him a much 
>>>> better
>>>> income than selling records. If these records end up in a land fill
>>>> somewhere, they probably won't be missed.
>>>>
>>>> Cary Ginell
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>