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----- Original Message ----- From: "D P Ingram" <[log in to unmask]> > On 20 maj 2007, at 05.26, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote: > > That would be MOST definitely appreciated! Aside from anything else, I > > have a large box containing auction lists (which I bought cheaply from > > Bill Frase's list...!). However, most of the "privately-published" > > listings are British (the homeland of [Sir - IMHO] Brian Rust) and > > never > > existed in more than a handful of copies; as well, any OCR attempts > > may > > be foiled by the inherent inaccuracy of mimeography...?! > > I have also written to you now off list, but if any other list > members have some "desires" it would be good to hear about them to > assist in the fine tuning. My project is not just for 78s (even > though I love them a lot!) but obviously should be tuneable dependent > on the media in question. > > I doubt it will ever have every known recording and variant thereof, > but one can dream. As long as I don't have to type in every entry ! > But...therein lies a problem! The number of 78rpm phonodiscs started to multiply significantly after WWII, when a profusion of new mastering studios and record-pressing operations made it possible for almost anyone who wished to "issue a phonograph record" to do so! I'm not absolutely sure of the applicable numbers...but, starting in 1946 (and lasting a couple of years, until they were overhhelmed by the size of the task...) Billboard magazine used to put out a special issue on a yearly basis which listed all the record labels/firms of which they were aware...which usually ran well into the THOUSANDS! In fact, I have run across (and usually NOT purchased) countless examples of "indie-label" 78's from the forties and fifties! I've always said that my RAREST record (in a literal sense of the term) is a c&w record made in (IIRC) East Chicago, Indiana and issued on the Okie label. Probably a hundred or so of these were pressed, and the artist probably sold them at his gigs in the steel-plant area of Gary, et al. My copy MAY be the only surviving one...?! Now, consider that computer/digital technology has made possible for anyone with a reasonable amount of hardware and skill to record their own "magnum opus" and burn copies onto CD-R, which than then be sold as "CD's!" I have NO idea to what extent these are tracked...or, indeed, if they are at all...but I have myself had two such "records" issued...and, as well, have received a fair number for Internet "broadcast" as a blues deejay on a local school's web-based "radio" facility... Steven C. Barr