I was on my way out the door of the auction house when I spotted three lots of sheet music on a table. I always stop for sheet music even if I don’t intend to buy any…
Category: Music
As I sat in the theater, I tried to summon their excitement and anxiety. It wasn’t often that they could sit anywhere they wanted in a Broadway theater, much less watch black performers sing and…
Flash! magazine and the “fair skin jinx”
Posted in Black history, Culture, Music, and Uncategorized
To be honest, you could not tell from the cover photo that it was a magazine aimed at African Americans. The fair-skinned man had all the markings of what I would normally expect to see…
The auction-house website called it a “one-horse open sleigh,” offering a photo of a familiar wintertime vehicle that made a simple song into a national treasure. “Dashing through the snow In a one-horse open sleigh Over…
Guess the current equivalents of these items from the past
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Kitchen, Military, Music, and travel
When I first saw the Western Union telegram, Jerry Butler started singing in my head: “Oh, Western Union man, send a telegram to my baby Send a telegram, send a telegram, whoa Send a telegram…
I couldn’t wait to buy the 45 for Jr. Walker & the All-Stars’ new record. I don’t recall where I had heard it, probably on the radio, but I knew that it was a record…
Several years ago, while browsing in a cramped shop somewhere in Manhattan, I came across several pieces of sheet music featuring African American singers, including one with Ella Fitzgerald on the cover. Among them was a cover…
The gold and platinum records were at the very back of the catalog. Sometimes auction catalogs on the web are so long that I stop before I get to the end. I decided to stick this…
The jazz memories of singer Don Gardner
Posted in Music
I hadn’t much noticed the gray-haired man with the cane until my buddy Rebecca mentioned that he was someone famous. She spoke his name, and I recalled seeing his young face with a wide smile on one…
Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…