On a very cool (darn near cold) Saturday morning in April we met at a Sesame Donuts in the Raleigh Hills area, sharply at 10:00 AM we pulled out for the long and tiring drive (about 1/2 mile) to Al Menashe's home to view his collection of antique Music Boxes, Juke Boxes, Radios and 1 very early TV set. There were 21 members present plus Jim Sweet's neighbor, joining us a little later was Curtis Firstman, for a total of 23. Al joined us for lunch making a total of 24 there.
Al has been been building his collection since he was three years old. Almost all of his collection is from the Pacific Northwest. One item he mentioned came from Southern California. Between Player Pianos, Radios, Music Boxes, Juke Boxes, and Record Players there are easily over 100 items in the collection. He says that all of them work, that was attested to by the fact that every one he turned on to demonstrate worked fine. Some of the oldest Record Players predated flat records and used recorded vinyl drums. He demonstrated his "Chicago Band Box" and told us it is the only one in Oregon. To which Jerry Sharp said "I have one of those" which really surprised Al. When asked if it worked Jerry replied that he didn't know, he hadn't ever plugged it in to test it. One piece came from Alpenrose Dairy. Club member Howard Carlson worked there for a long time, I'm sure he would like to have it now but getting it to Minnesota would be a challenge.
In the photos below you will see two or three walls covered with records that have images printed on them. None of us around them at that time had ever seen those before. We've all seen photos of old musical equipment with large "megaphone" (or horn) type speakers. Well, imagine a couple of entire rooms so full of those you could hardly move around. The horn on one of them apparently was molded glass.
Al does the mechanical repairs himself but calls in help for the electronics. One unique item is 1 of 400 remaining of about 4,000 that were built. Service on that requires a technician to make a house call all the way from Ohio! If there was space for a collection piece, there was a piece to fill it. Tables, counters, stands, and shelves were everywhere, and they were all full.
After viewing every thing there (we think) we drove to the Bethany area just north of Beaverton and had lunch at Golden Valley Brewery. The 24 of us perfectly fit at four tables of six each. I don't think anyone went away hungry. Sorry, two of us with cameras forgot to get any pics there.
Thanks to John Calkin for setting this up for us.
Photos courtesy Jim Sweet and John Sailors
Al has been been building his collection since he was three years old. Almost all of his collection is from the Pacific Northwest. One item he mentioned came from Southern California. Between Player Pianos, Radios, Music Boxes, Juke Boxes, and Record Players there are easily over 100 items in the collection. He says that all of them work, that was attested to by the fact that every one he turned on to demonstrate worked fine. Some of the oldest Record Players predated flat records and used recorded vinyl drums. He demonstrated his "Chicago Band Box" and told us it is the only one in Oregon. To which Jerry Sharp said "I have one of those" which really surprised Al. When asked if it worked Jerry replied that he didn't know, he hadn't ever plugged it in to test it. One piece came from Alpenrose Dairy. Club member Howard Carlson worked there for a long time, I'm sure he would like to have it now but getting it to Minnesota would be a challenge.
In the photos below you will see two or three walls covered with records that have images printed on them. None of us around them at that time had ever seen those before. We've all seen photos of old musical equipment with large "megaphone" (or horn) type speakers. Well, imagine a couple of entire rooms so full of those you could hardly move around. The horn on one of them apparently was molded glass.
Al does the mechanical repairs himself but calls in help for the electronics. One unique item is 1 of 400 remaining of about 4,000 that were built. Service on that requires a technician to make a house call all the way from Ohio! If there was space for a collection piece, there was a piece to fill it. Tables, counters, stands, and shelves were everywhere, and they were all full.
After viewing every thing there (we think) we drove to the Bethany area just north of Beaverton and had lunch at Golden Valley Brewery. The 24 of us perfectly fit at four tables of six each. I don't think anyone went away hungry. Sorry, two of us with cameras forgot to get any pics there.
Thanks to John Calkin for setting this up for us.
Photos courtesy Jim Sweet and John Sailors
