throwing it all away

oxnardcoreoxnardcore 141 Posts
edited August 2010 in Strut Central
Didn't see this posted yet, so here you go. What would you do if you wanted/had to give it all up? I doubt that the Smithsonian would be lookin to cop my Akinyele test pressings, but i'd pull some DJ Swamp shit on it rather than just tossing it away.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-music-man-20100816,0,5301372.story
Collector doesn't want these tracks in the trash

Murray Gershenz said he hoped a museum or college would acquire his rare 400,000-album collection. That hasn't worked out, so his next stop could be a dumpster.

By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times

6:25 PM PDT, August 15, 2010

For the record, "Music Man Murray" has tried his best to keep his rare 400,000-album collection intact.

Murray Gershenz has spent 72 years amassing his music trove, after all. He has century-old operatic performances captured on Edison cylinder tubes, 1930s-era Big Band crooners on fragile 78-rpm discs, early rockers on 45s, show tunes on LPs and pop artists on cassette tapes and CDs.

The collection is crammed into homemade shelves in a two-story cinderblock building on Exposition Boulevard, as well as two nearby warehouses.

Last summer Gershenz, 88, announced his intention to close his walk-in and mail-order record business so he could focus on a budding career as a character actor. He said he hoped to find a museum or college willing to acquire his $3-million trove.

That hasn't worked out, he said. So his next stop could be the dumpster.

"Selling individual records isn't paying the rent," Gershenz said. "I've found about five people with an interest in the collection. But they want me to give it to them. I really can't afford to do that. This is my life's work."

Gershenz is a onetime St. Louis Opera singer and synagogue cantor who opened a used-record shop in Hollywood in 1962. As his collection grew, he moved it to the West Adams area in 1986.

A music collector since age 16, Gershenz had hoped that his son Irv Gershenz, 53, would eventually take over the shop. The younger Gershenz, a musician and artist, continues to handle online record and album sales. But he does not have the time to run the business full time, he said.

"I think he's just been hoping and praying. I don't think he knows where to go to find someone to keep the collection intact. He's just not in a position to give it away," the younger Gershenz said of his father.

Music Man Murray has reduced his asking price to $500,000. He wonders if a philanthropist such as David Geffen might acquire the collection for a public music library. Or maybe Dolly Parton, who could house the trove at her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Maybe the Los Angeles' Grammy Museum would be interested, he says.

Other possible sites for public access to his records include music centers in New Orleans or Nashville, perhaps in conjunction with the Grand Ole Opry, he suggests.

"The collection is worth $3 [million] to $4 million, I'd guess. But a half million will allow me to breathe easier," Greshenz said. "I'm not setting a deadline, but my ability to pay the rent will determine it. I can go another couple of months. I don't want this collection to be taken over by trash bins."

Meanwhile, his character-actor work is thriving, Gershenz said. He had a part on Sunday's "Mad Men" TV show and will appear "in a big role" on "House" the second week of September, he said.

But for Music Man Murray, in the end it's the platters that matter.

bob.pool@latimes.com

Copyright ?? 2010, Los Angeles Times

  Comments


  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    Last summer Gershenz, 88, announced his intention to close his walk-in and mail-order record business so he could focus on a budding career as a character actor.

  • dj_cityboydj_cityboy 1,459 Posts
    will they take visa?

    lol

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Nothing in the article explains why this is unique or valuable or any thing more than a pile of junk.

    400,000 pieces ranging from opera cylinders to pop cassettes does not a collection make.

    There has to be some kind of focus.
    400,000 opera recordings dating over 100 years would be a collection.

    Dollywood might want a 400,000 piece c&w collection, but not a bunch of left over cylinders and cassettes.

    400,000 recordings dating over 100 years is a pile of junk.

  • Ahh murray.

    Pulled some of the best things still in my collection from his warehouses back in 1994, including a stack of acetates still yet unidentified but for two, and alternate mix of FOOD psych record and a alternate test pressing of Jessica by Roy Porter.

    Good times. I went in there once a few years ago and his son was a dick so i left, but i always liked murray. He was a nice guy, let me sit in there for a week straight with a portable and listen to everything.

  • Yeah, sounds like if he has 400,000 pieces in a business and can't make rent then it is 400,000 pieces of poppycock. I made my mortgage last month with 25 records on the bay and had some cash left over to fill in some holes in my collection. I could pull together that many albums of Pat Boone and Glen Campbell out here in Lubbock, TX in a weekend of garage sales but it wouldn't make a museum turn its head. Guiness Book of World Records might though.

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    4YearGraduate said:
    Ahh murray.

    Pulled some of the best things still in my collection from his warehouses back in 1994, including a stack of acetates still yet unidentified but for two, and alternate mix of FOOD psych record and a alternate test pressing of Jessica by Roy Porter.

    Good times.

    :face_melt:

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,896 Posts
    LaserWolf said:
    Nothing in the article explains why this is unique or valuable


  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,896 Posts
    What part did he play on mad men?

  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    fucking LA, even octogenerians are trying to break into the biz.

  • djsheepdjsheep 3,620 Posts
    dude is cool


  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    You diss Music Man Murray, you diss yourself.

  • DOR said:
    What part did he play on mad men?

    "Didja get pears....?"

  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,778 Posts
    LaserWolf said:
    4YearGraduate said:
    Ahh murray.

    Pulled some of the best things still in my collection from his warehouses back in 1994, including a stack of acetates still yet unidentified but for two, and alternate mix of FOOD psych record and a alternate test pressing of Jessica by Roy Porter.

    Good times.

    :face_melt:

    Fucking hell dude, if that ever gets the re-ish treatment, please to mention here.
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