Patch Blog: Local History--"Okies" in San Marino, Part II

(Recap:  Last week, I wrote about riding my bike down Huntington Drive one day in 1936.  There, I met several families who were camped by the side of the road.  They had driven in from Oklahoma and were refugees from the Dust Bowl. After getting to know them a bit, they invited me back the next day.)

When I returned in the morning, an unusual thing happened. These people who were camped out in an orange grove right on Huntington Drive showed me an old Edison cylinder phonograph that they had brought all the way from home.  The man and woman agreed that they were ready to sell it. The woman told me that living on “the prairies of Oklahoma was ever so very quiet and lonely,” and “the sounds from the phonograph was enjoyed ever so much.”

But they could no longer carry the phonograph, she said.  The man asked if I would like to buy it.  I looked it over and saw that it was a great little machine and that it even played!  A real treasure.  I went right home and got some money from my mother (probably $2.) and then lugged that phonograph all the way home. Later, I came upon more cylinders and a horn from my friend’s garage. Even back then, cylinder phonographs had long been obsolete. The new technology, 78 RPM discs, had already been popular for 25 years. The sound on this old cylinder phonograph was distorted and thin, but I loved it!

A unique feature of these early Edison cylinders was that there was an announcement at the start of each piece, such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Edison Record,” etc. As a result, I learned quite bit of history listening to all those old performers on that worn out cylinder phonograph from Oklahoma. I had a generous fill of turn-of-the-century ragtime, opera, comic recitations, concert bands and more. Those people, their story, and the great education they gave me that day has lasted me a lifetime.  I hope they found a place to go here and way to make a new home somehow.

See "Okies" traveling to California here.