Sometimes people just give me stacks of records. Or rather, they have a stack of records and say, “Hey, Gordon, go through these and take what you want and throw the rest away.”

So, this exact thing happened to me the other night. My good buddy Len Neighbors of Athens Exchange left a crate full of stuff outside my apartment door and said “Take what you want.”
So, I start going through it and noticed that every single piece of vinyl in the crate had two things in common:

1)All were a minimum of 50+ years old

AND

2)All were in near-mint condition!

Let’s just say I flipped OUT getting original 10″ records by Yma Sumac, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Marlene Dietrich and Doris Day. Seems the original owner of these was career military and then, all of the sudden, he wasn’t career military anymore and left these, his furniture and other belongings behind in his residence to cover unpaid rent. It should be easy to guess why the 1950’s era US Army kicked him out after looking at those titles. Sad, too.
If he were still alive I’d try to track him down and give these back to him. That he kept them in such immaculate condition is evidence of his love for them.
Dig these pics and congratulate me on a wonderful weekend surprise.
(Xtabay: 1950)

(Legend Of The Sun Virgin:1953)

(original Sons Of The Pioneers. Price when new? 65 cents.)

(Marlene Dietrich 10″, 78 RPM of Falling In Love Again b/w Naughty Lola)

(Ethel Merman 10″ 78 RPM of Calico Sal)

Finally, this notice was stamped on many of these: