Music as a Master

In the early 1960s, my dad purchased one of his most prized possessions, a Curtis/Mathis Stereo Entertainment Center, complete with a large, 21 inch color television, a multifunctional turntable (for 12 inch, long-playing vinyl records as well as the smaller “78s” that were the favorite of the young rock and roll set) and the most hi-tech, up-to-date, stereo “mutiplex” AM/FM radio receiver that money could buy. It was in a long walnut case with sliding covers on top, concealing all the controls and a cane and fabric speaker cover on each side of the TV screen. It was probably more than seven feet across. There were walnut sliding doors that could be pulled out to conceal the “huge” TV screen but they were seldom used. If anyone was at home, someone was watching the TV. My dad would explain to the neighbors who came to gawk at his electronic monolith, that Curtis/Mathis only made the very best of consumer electronic equipment, using only the highest quality electronic and furniture building components.

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After installing and fine tuning his new entertainment complex, my dad had neighbors coming over at all hours of the day and night to check out this new “rig.” You would have thought that Pop was getting a commission for all of the demonstrations and regaling he had provided to friends and families from all over Almaden, even into Willow Glen, San Jose, and, of course, into Los Gatos. Indeed, Pop got so excited while the final sale was being made, the salesman threw in two dozen or so of the new “stereo records” that actually provided two separate channels of music in the one groove of the record. You had to have special records, special needles and special amplifiers to make it work. Of course, Curtis Mathis provided all of this stuff. 

It was real hard to get these stereo vinyl records at first, record stores weren’t sure they were really going to sell these new fangled “stereo” records, thus they didn’t stock too many of these special and expensive records. So the salesman gave my dad a whole batch of my old man’s favorites; the big bands of the 1930s and 40s. He threw in a few Classical records and some Broadway Musicals to round out the collection.

My favorites were the . . . 

(to read the conclusion, click here)