1926 MINT DEALER'S STOCK Earl Gresh Gangplank O. "ACE IN THE HOLE" Col 672-D NEW

$

151

COLUMBIA DEALER’S STOCK 1925 – 1926 

THIS WEEK, I’m offering the rarest of Rara Avises: a ninety-five-year-old cache of records that was NEVER SOLD.  These Columbia records all are impossibly in NEW minus condition.  Each one comes in its original stock sleeve, just as it was in the store, untouched since the 1920s.  If you’ve never heard the difference between a record that is respectably “E” and one that is brand-new, you’re in for a treat.  All the claims in those old ads:  “Like life itself!” – “Hearing is Believing!” - “The record with NO SCRATCH!” – actually are true!  Still can’t believe it myself. 

These “New Process” discs were a definite technical advance on everything else put out by the record industry in 1926.  Their smooth, laminated surfaces were a quantum leap quieter than any solid-stock record, making the also-new Western Electric process even more startling and fresh. AND they also lasted longer!  It’s a mystery to me why Victors outsold Columbias by about ten-to-one, when Columbia had such an obviously, vastly superior product.  

So I offer a small sampling, from Columbia’s dance, hillbilly, pop and race catalogue, of these remarkable records, which shouldn’t even EXIST in this far-off futuristic year of 2020. Truly time-travel, a rare portal to the Jazz Age.  

I DON'T KNOW where the "Gangplank" club was or what really went on in there, but I guess it must have been a hilarious place, probably with a titular gangplank that customers had to drop from to enter the place, to enjoy the hot music of EARL GRESH AND HIS GANGPLANK ORCHESTRA.  Here, they do two terrific numbers, one of them rising to the level of Hot Jazz:  "ACE IN THE HOLE" by the famed team of Meyers and Schoebel; and the jolly novelty, "THE PUMP SONG," with the whole orchestra vocalizing lustily. 

This original "Viva-Tonal" Columbia 672-D is in NEW minus condition.  

*****

These records come from my private collection, which I have been accumulating since 1967, and now am downsizing!  My highest priority in these eBay auctions is to give you the best possible idea of a record’s true condition and aesthetic value.  I always post at least four clear images, showing the record fore and aft, a close-up of the label, and the whole disc, warts and all.  If my purple prose won’t cut it, the pictures will!  Shipping is done with expert care. Your record will brave Media Mail in a stout corregated box, between four sheets of cardboard and a couple of “packers.”  I hope you are amused by these descriptions, and by the quality of service being offered.