PHONO TERIA

03/06/2025

Born at the time of the PHONO TERIA 🔊🌈
her life saved music 🎵🎶

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello's mother, Mary, is a 101-year-old Anti-Censorship Activist who founded the Parents for Rock and Rap to counter Tipper Gore's Pro-Censorship PMRC.

11/27/2024

Damn. DJ'n a century ago looked like this! But did they DJ??? Can you DJ on Victrolas?? The Phonoteria started during a pandemic and an intense educational drive for hygiene. Clear sound goes with clean hands 🤘🏾

11/27/2024

The Phonoteria started not only at the same time as the influenza pandemic and white women's suffrage, but also at the beginning of Prohibition. Victrolas maybe spun off the term 'liquor cabinet' 😉 stay-tuned.

Anyone recognize the Underground Seattle sidewalk?

10/25/2024

Confection-eria, soft drink-eria
histeria -eria
Four Score & Seven

10/08/2024

08/06/2024

PHONO TERIA would like to remind you that the pops when playing vinyl (that give it such sentimental sound quality) are YOUR fingerprints on the records (if they're your old records). Unless you use both hands to load & flip records, your fingerprints attract the dust that is unique to each personal and treasured album. It's like a stealth message (audioly coded) on what you had to eat and drink at the time. Did you wash your hands beforehand? Your favorite song is on the cleaner side where only your thumbprint is versus the side you were supporting with all four fingers when loading the album. Or vice versa. Your collection of music is also a fingerprint of yourself 🌈
🎶

07/31/2024

On this International Friendship Day, we celebrate the friendship between two iconic figures in American folk music: Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie .

Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie's friendship began in the 1940s, a time when the United States was grappling with social and political upheaval. Despite their contrasting backgrounds, they found common ground in their love for music and their commitment to social justice. Lead Belly, an African American blues musician who overcame significant adversity, and Guthrie, a white folk singer who became a voice for the disenfranchised, complemented each other both musically and personally.

Their relationship was built on mutual respect and admiration. Guthrie admired Lead Belly's powerful voice and his mastery of traditional folk and blues, while Lead Belly appreciated Guthrie's songwriting prowess and his dedication to using music as a tool for change. Their performances were more than just musical collaborations; they were expressions of solidarity and a shared vision for a more equitable world.

Their friendship also had a significant impact on the folk music community. It highlighted the importance of cross-cultural collaborations and showed how music could bridge divides and bring people together. Lead Belly and Guthrie's bond remains an inspiring example of how friendship can transcend differences and foster unity.

As we celebrate International Friendship Day, let us remember the legacy of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. Their friendship is a testament to the power of music to connect us and to the enduring value of solidarity in the face of adversity.

07/22/2024

PAY THE BAND!!!
If you wonder where suicidal musicians are from, it's seattle!

In April 1915, Frank Lacy established a new world record for piano playing. He played for 55 hours and 5 minutes without stopping. His career for the next decade was playing accompaniment to moving pictures. Yet from the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MARCH 1897: TIRED OF HIS LIFE- A BOY TRIES TO END HIS LIFE. "Su***de was attempted by young Frank Lacy, son of F.H. Lacy, the shoe dealer of Pike street. The young man chose "rough on rats" as the most desirable means of dying, but was rescued from himself before the poison could take effect." 🐀

Since 1906, theater film was accompanied by a live symphony to add sound effects to the film as viewers watched it. On July 18, 1908, the first moving picture with sound was shown at the Synchrodome Theater in Seattle, 508 Pike St, where the "synchroscope" projected pictures that sing, dance, and talk. It bombed (in today's lingo) -- just imagine the sound effects 'bip-blips' of vintage arcade games! 📣

Real talking pictures did not become real for twenty more years. Yet, in 1909 Bellingham passed an ordinance prohibiting the wearing of "any hat or head covering inside a theater." Scullcaps, lace coverings, and other close-fitting headdresses that did not obstruct the view of people behind the wearer were exempt. Yet, then in 1914, sound effect devices could be bought to play different sound effects during films! (today there's 'airplane mode'--and who didn't have fun in the 90s playing fart noises? 🌬️)

In 1921, Seattle theater owners locked out their workers after the musicians struck in response over a 40% wage cut. With the onset of electronic amplification, records were played as inconsistent audio accompaniments The dispute was not settled until 1935 with the advent of motion pictures with sound -- completely obsoleting theater orchestras.
PAY THE BAND!!! 🎶

The Seattle Star TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1923
RACIST HISTORY: Gorman Brady, Seattle’s unique dog catcher, believes he could play “Pied Piper” and lure the stray dogs to the pound by the use of his saxophone. “It might be called cruelty to animals to play saxophone music to 'em.” Brady says the people of Seattle are accustomed to the colored dog catcher, “It was tradition. And so, when I come to the door, all the women hold up their hands and say, ‘My, are you the dog catcher? — what a nice boy!'"

07/14/2024

OLYMPIA Pop-Culture HOLLYWOOD Legend

Believe it or not the original infamous bandit HOLLYWOOD robbed his last bank 100 years ago! Including one in Olympia where infamous bank robber 'HOLLYWOOD' lived in a treehouse 30 years ago 💰

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UNCOVER BANDIT IN PRISONER
Auto Thief Discovered to Be Treasury Holdup
LOST LOOT GAMBLING
Willingness to Serve Time Arouses Suspicion

Albert Hollywood, now serving four to 15 years at Walla Walia for the theft of an automobile at Bellingham, has been identified as the lone bandit when, on October 1922, on one of the busy streets of Vancouver, slugged a messenger for the city treasury and robbed him of a satchel containing $42,000, Sheriff Matt Starwich said Thursday.

After the robbery, Hollywood left Vancouver in a speed boat, operated by a rum runner, and after a desperate battle with rough waters in the strait, landed in Seattle, where, the sheriff was told, he lost his entire loot in gambling games.

Hollywood is also alleged to have participated in the robbery of the Denver mint in 1922, when $200,000 was taken. He is also wanted for a $27,000 post office robbery at Olympia, a $25,000 bank robbers at Yacolt and a $20,000 payroll robbery at Springfield, Mo.

The Vancouver robbery WAS planned by advance men and Hollywood sent to Seattle from Chicago to execute it. He arrived at Vancouver on the day of the robbery, drove a taxi to a busy downtown corner and waited until the messenger arrived. He slugged the man, took the satchel, got into the taxi and drove to Point Gray, where a Seattle runner named T. J. Kelley, was waiting. The taxi driver O was given $1,000 and Kelley was paid $5,000, according to Starwich's Information.

After arriving at Seattle and dividing his loot with accomplices, Hollywood plunged on various gambling games and lost it all, as well as a $300 diamond ring.

Later he went to Bellingham, it where he stole an automobile, was arrested, and entered a plea of guilty.

His readiness to take punishment aroused the curiosity of officials who began investigating his alleged record.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Scurlock

03/15/2024

Phonograph Stereogram
Phonoteria magic-eye

03/05/2024

A couple failed creative tradenames at the time of the Phonoteria: Superba & Proteina — Put an 'a' at the end of it! Today's is .com

02/24/2024

This looks interesting.

https://tacomahistory.ludus.com/200450197

02/17/2024

Don't you love the historical impact of the Phonoteria?

don't you just love the antique gas-lit street lanterns??? ???

02/01/2024

Tatman!

One of the first music stores: Tacoma's 6th Ave 1926. Mrs. Tatman, suffragette, was a public health nurse during the influenza pandemic and dedicated her life to the care of the childhood epidemic of polio. Mr. Tatman died soon after his depression-era term as the legislative senator, 27th district. On his death certificate, he insisted to record his occupation as Music Store rather than politician.

! 🌈🤘

01/10/2024

Hear ye, here ye! Happy 1924 📀
Phonoteria is clearing out wax cylinder recordings making way for the 78 records in their move to Tacoma 100 years ago.

Experts estimate that some 400,000 sound recordings published before 1923 will enter the public domain and they will become free for all to download, remix, or use in a soundtrack.

US copyright law treats musical compositions and sound recordings differently. A composition consists of the lyrics and music that you might see on a piece of sheet music. A sound recording is the embodiment of a particular performance of that composition, fixed on media.

While US copyright law has covered compositions since 1831, it did not add the sound recording right until 1972. The new right only covered recordings made from that date onward. The 2018 "Music Modernization Act" brought all of those pre-1972 recordings under federal law and set a timeline for older recordings to gradually enter the public domain.

01/09/2024

Been having fun making these queertars and sold one to a music teacher! They're basically the PHONO TERIA logo! How do you play these anyways? 🌈 Plus light switch covers in comments💡

01/05/2024

And then The Man passed laws against it including no loud car stereos and distracted driving while ignoring climate damage, leaded gasoline and seat belt/airbag regulations, etc

DID YOU KNOW THAT? Muhammad Ali had a record player that played 45 rpm records built into his automobile. In the 60s, Norelco "Auto Mignon" only held one 45 rpm record at a time, for 4½ minutes of play, potentially distracting the driver with the need for multiple record changes.
Consumer Reports claims the Norelco players were able to keep the needle on the record while driving and that the needle performance was "unaffected by rough roads, car sway, and sharp braking." However, "a steady stylus had its price, wearing down the records from the high pressure required to keep it in place. And the RCA unit's turntable ran fast, speeding up records," according to CR. In addition, there was nowhere to put the vinyl since the Norelco didn't store any records, as the RCA model did.
Car record players soon made way for the eight-track tape deck. In September 1965, the Ford Motor Company introduced factory-installed and dealer-installed eight-track tape players as an option on three of its 1966 models (the sporty Mustang, luxurious Thunderbird, and high-end Lincoln), and RCA Victor introduced 175 Stereo-8 Cartridges from its RCA Victor and RCA Camden labels of recording artists catalogs.