Greetings, to this interesting community Hive Collectors, an ideal space for all those who, by vocation, accident or circumstances, are collectors. It is a great niche to share and see those collections that we can hardly see elsewhere.
I think one of the most interesting objects that can be collected are vinyl records. I have previously presented part of my personal collection, but today I have brought something really special, something that I inherited from my aunt Chichita: A collection of Vinyl Selections Reader's Digest, and this is one of several that I have. Today I wanted to bring this one, because I consider it to be one of the most beautiful.
I think to help you appreciate this little collection a little more, I'd consider offering you some context: My Tía Chichita was one of the most organized people I've ever met in my life. She was an excellent administrator of resources (money, time, food, etc.), it was her own characteristic, part of her nature, because there are people who are very organized, but I also think she learned it from life, because when she was young, my family, that is, my grandmother, my mother and my uncles and cousins, experienced a difficult economic situation, and my aunt provided part of the support for the home; so she had to make the most of the money.
Later the family income improved, but my aunt continued to be a great administrator, she was even an independent seller of various items, such as Avon cosmetics, detergents, household items to obtain some more support. This allowed her to acquire things that she liked, and something she loved was music. So already in the 1960s, he began to buy vinyl, and part of the record collection that my Tía Chichita had, he acquired them by paying monthly or weekly installments, from the sellers of Reader's Digest Selections, who at that time visited the homes. She was also an avid reader of Reader’s Digest Selections, but that is another collection that I will share later.
Having explained all this, I will now present to you this small collection of vinyl from Reader's Digest Selections, made up of 12 albums, included in a beautiful box, titled “Unforgettable Melodies of Yesterday, Today and Always”. As I already indicated, this collection was marketed by Reader's Digest Selections, although the record company that manufactured them was DYNAGROOVE in conjunction with RCA. The exact year of this collection I couldn't properly visualize, but it is undoubtedly from the early sixties.
The cover of this box has a reproduction of a painting “Water Lilies”, by the French painter Claude Monet, an image that was donated by George Farkas (I assume the owner of this beautiful painting).
When you open the box, the design is super ingenious, as it presents the 12 vinyls, in the same way that the songs on the old jukeboxes (rocolas) were presented, something really beautiful, with different colors.
Of these twelve discs, eleven correspond to the collection, and additionally a surprise prize disc is included. All discs come in their respective paper sleeve, which has the identification of each one.
The music contained in this collection is variable: There is traditional Latin American music, which was heard a lot in the last 20th century. There is also more contemporary music, performed by big band-type orchestras, which was very common in the soundtracks of films of that time. It also includes classical music, performed by symphony orchestras. I can say that I had the opportunity to listen to these records, especially when I was little and came to spend vacations at my aunt's house, because sometimes she would turn off the radio (which she had on all day), and play one of these vinyls and others.
In order not to get lost in this beautiful jungle of music, we can orient ourselves with the jukebox-type table of contents that comes with the box; but at that time, nothing was left to chance, so the collection includes an insert, where each melody is discussed and also each composer, something truly regal and very complete, as you can see in the following images.
Here I end my post today, the first that I publish in this interesting community, where I have presented another part of my vinyl collection, which were manufactured and marketed at the time when the concept of planned obsolescence was something non-existent, where everything that was manufactured shined, and was done with criteria of excellence. A hug to all.
