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
>
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