Interesting background, Steve. Thanks for that. I recall reading columns
by R.D. Darrell in either High Fidelity or Hi-Fi Stereo Review when I was
growing up. Those magazines were competitive and actually ran good,
serious record reviews, or at least I thought so then. I think I learned a
lot reading them.

Regards,
John Haley



On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 2:53 PM, Steven Smolian <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I was told by R.D. Darrell that he wrote almost all of every issue under
> various names since Axel Johnson was a wealthy alcoholic and had also been
> hurt in an auto accident.
>
> Darrell gave a presentation at an ARSC conference many years ago. I don't
> know if there is a tape of it.
>
> Darrell was one of the fathers of discography. As an employee of "The
> Gramophone Shop" in New York, he nor only put together the Gramophone Shop
> catalogs of 1930 and 1931 (I think those are the right years) but also the
> 1936 Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia, the work I consider the most
> foundational publication in the history of discography, Delaunay
> notwithstanding.
>
> The" Phonograph Monthly Review" was the first American record review
> magazine. It morphed into "The Music Lover's Guide" and "The American
> Music Lover." In In turn, it became "The American Record Guide" which
> continues to this day. I think I've got this right- access to my fil of
> these is presently blocked. These are primarily classical but selectively
> covered most other musics as well.
>
> Steve Smolian
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Clark Johnsen
> Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 9:53 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Phonograph Monthly Review
>
> An excellent backgrounder on PMR, thank you. I began reading it a decade
> ago at the Boston Public Library, which has an impressive historical
> collection of such magazines (PMR, Etude, Diapason etc.). Besides having
> covered the topics described, the staff also from time to time undertook to
> evaluate reproduction gear. A couple years ago I wrote a column on that
> topic, with an emphasis on how like today's high-end audio writers the PMR
> people sound. In other words, measurements were not performed (were indeed
> well-nigh impossible) so they relied on the ear alone. Here it is:
> http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue78/cj_gramophone.htm As it happens
> the magazine was published in my neighborhood so I included photography of
> the houses.
>
> On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 8:37 AM, Mason Vander Lugt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > The National Recording Preservation Board has posted Phonograph
> > Monthly Review to Archive.org. Phonograph Monthly Review was a
> > magazine about records of classical music, published 1927-1932, and
> > was important in the formation of record collecting culture. I've
> > written a post about the magazine for the ARSC blog, which you can see
> > by clicking the link below, or go directly to the magazines using the
> > link below that. Enjoy!
> >
> > http://arsc-audio.org/blog/2016/10/27/phonograph_monthly_review/
> >
> > https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject3A%
> > 22Phonograph+Monthly+Review%22&sort=date
> >
> > Mason Vander Lugt
> > Recorded Sound Processing Technician
> > National Recording Preservation Board Assistant National AV
> > Conservation Center Library of Congress
> > (202) 707-0358
> >
>