Texas A&M
Battalion
April 8, 1982/Page 1B
Record collectors tour U.S.
Couple keeps rare discs
United Press International
DALLAS — Wendy and Jim
Berlowitz will go to most any
lengths — and whatever trans
portation can be thumbed up
from the edge of a highway — to
get to a rare recording.
The self-termed “vinyl junk
ies” have devoted five years to
criss-crossing the country, min
ing thrift stores, flea markets
and record conventions for the
black gold that accounts for a
motherlode of musical treasures
they value at $50,000.
“This is where we keep the
treasure,” the 35-year-old Ber
lowitz said, placing a key into the
lock of a rented storage room at
a Dallas warehouse. “You’re one
of the few people we’ve ever let
see where we actually keep our
records.”
Mixed with the musty smell
of suitcases and cardboard
boxes lining the walls is a virtual
who-was-who revue of early Fif
ties and Sixties recording artists
— posing, picking and grinning
from near mint-condition re
cord covers.
The collection spans a vein
running through rhythm-and-
blues to country, rockabilly, Top
40 and a few broadway show
numbers.
“That’s one of the things most
people don’t understand,” said
Mrs. Berlowitz, a former En
glish instructor at the University
Mixed with the musty
smell of suitcases and
cardboard boxes lining
the walls is a virtual
who-was-who revue of
early Fifties and Sixties
recording artists — pos
ing, picking and grin
ning from near mint-
condition record covers.
of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
She flips through a stack of re
cords that included Marilyn
Monroe’s mid-Fifties movie
recording version of “The River
of No Return.”
“We like all kinds of music
and we only collect the songs we
like. Most collectors specialize in
a single field — like old
rhythum-and-blues is popular
in the Northeast or rockabilly in
the Southwest—and they have a
difficult time understanding
two people who are serious ab
out collecting a variety of re
cords.”
The couple has no car be
cause Berlowitz, a former high
school teacher, “got tired of
spending money on gas and re
pairs, and we always seem to get
a ride to where we’re going.”
They spent last weekend
hitchhiking through Texas and
Colorado, wheeling, dealing
and successfully bidding on rare
recordings by Elvis Presley and
Buddy Holly.
“We will never, never ever sell
these records no matter what,”
said Berlowitz lifting the record
ings from his backpack. “These
we keep. We don’t even play
them. We might scratch them.”
They paid $500 and $150 in
record trades for “Buddy Holly
Country Wise,” a limited edition
album released in Holland six
years after the Lubbock, Texas,
singer died in a 1959 airplane
crash.
Mrs. Berlowitz, 33, said the
record was the only 10-inch ver
sion known to exist and was one
of the rarest Holly recordings in
the world.
Last Friday, at a used record
store auction, they acquired a 45
RPM Presley record that was
issued only to radio stations in
1957 — by outlasting bidders
from Arizona and Florida and
paying $930.
“There’s a high value on the
covers,” her husband said. “The
paper is the first thing to go.
People throw them (covers)
away, they get torn up, they’re
lost. Sometimes they can be
worth more than the record.”
Berlowitz, a former high
school teacher, said the couple
began their collection five years
ago when they discovered they
could earn income by obtaining
old records from vending com
panies and radio stations, ac
quiring them at a discount or no
charge and reselling them.
They say they travel daily and
friends handle the couple’s mail
while income gathered from
trading and sales generate
enough cash to pay for motel
and restaurant costs of about
$1,000 a month.
m
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rite-in votes re-elect mayor
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■POTH — ,Al Kollodziej has
been trying to find out who
OTganized the write-in campaign
to return him for an unwanted
|3th year as mayor, but the only
response he has gotten is
. ' '
ii B Kollodziej, 44, was re-elected
p , by write-in vote last weekend
^th more than a two-to-one
margin over two announced
candidates even though he had
refused to enter this year’s race
because he thought the town
needed a change in leadership.
The mayor, a native of the
small Wilson County town lo
cated about 30 miles southeast
of San Antonio, said Tuesday he
did not even hear about the
write-in campaign until two days
before the election.
“I haven’t found out yet who
organized it (the write-in
effort),” Kollodziej said. “Every
body I ask just grins. Nobody
will admit it.”
Kollodziej, a Pearl beer distri
butor, garnered 193 votes
against retiree Walter Voges’ 85
votes and fertilizer dealer Paul
Lee Casares’ 83.
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