If you were a Cleveland record collector in 1939, you might well have put Moore's Magazine & Music Shoppe on your itinerary. For one thing, it had an inventory of relatively cheap used records - and this was one of them, two worthy items from Kay Kyser's band, which came in the record sleeve above touting all the many features of Mr. Moore's emporium.
Step Up and Shake My Hand (vocal by Harry Babbitt) and Tears from My Inkwell (with Ginny Simms) were not among Kyser's many hits, so that's probably why this record was available inexpensively. The sleeve says Moore's received a fresh stock of records twice a week, likely from a distributor or juke box outfit offloading old stock.
That would be enough to keep me coming back, and indeed Moore's sounds like my kind of place in many ways - besides used records, it had magazines, newspapers, and books, and it was open until midnight. You also could rent a camera, order scratch pads, buy a greeting card, and get a Lock-a-Phone to make people pay to use your telephone.
If you had been the one to purchase this Kay Kyser disk back in 1939, you would be in possession of two enjoyable if unexceptional tunes, with arrangements would have seemed dated even 70 years ago. Both songs are well played, nonetheless, and Ginny Simms does wonders for Tears from My Inkwell. Listen via the link below.
LINK
5 comments:
You keep taking me back to my past...
Well, I don't quite go back to 1939 (I would had I been born 16 days earlier) but when I was a youngster I used to visit the local record stores regularly, just to look around and grab the record catalogs which were handed out each month and which I would take home and study assiduously until I'd be able to quote catalog numbers by heart. Little did I know then that it gave me good grounding as I would become part of the local record retailing scene myself later in life...
Again, thanks for the memory!
Looks like Moore's was very close to the big Lakeview Cemetery I visited the last couple of times I was in Cleveland. I can't imagine it's still there, though. Sounds like my kind of place, too.
@ mel,
I am envious that you found a way to monetize hanging around record stores!
@ ernie,
Yes, that cemetery is only a few miles from the site of Moore's emporium, which no longer exists.
@ Buster - I had no idea you were a fellow Clevelander! Do you still reside here or have you migrated to a warmer climate like both my parents?
@ Mindy,
Nope, still here in Cleveland, although it's about this time of year that I wish I were in a warmer climate. And I had no idea you were from this part of the world!
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