THIS is what ticks me off about selfish-greedy people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/nyreg ... =all&_r=1&



Odds are this Walker guy wasn't alive when this recording was made. He didn't know it existed until he accidenly found it. He didn't lift a finger to produce it, yet he somehow now has a copyright on someone elses work.

I have very collectible railroad literature and it's worth money if I wanted to sell it.

I plan on donating all of it. I had no part of producing it. I didn't know it existed until I found it in my fathers basement.

The best thing I can do is SHARE IT with other people who weren't as lucky as I.

Why I have doubts about the future of our society. Too selfish - too greedy.

Too few people care about anyone else.

Steve

"Too few people care about anyone else."

Only too true, I'm afraid.

Edward Hungerford was an interesting person, a railroad enthusiast and PR man who was instrumental in a number of railroad exhibitions over the years. I understand he was, for a while, the owner of a V&T 4-4-0 (the Genoa?) for a while in the 1940s, and kept it in an enginehouse on a road in New York (Bath & Hammondsport?). He was also a prolific author, if not always the most accurate historian, and I always thought him enjoyable to read, if a bit archaic in the style of Lucius Beebe. Some of his works included the B&O's two-volume centennial history of 1927, a biography of Daniel Willard ("Daniel Willard Rides the Line"), "Men of Erie," and other works, including a 1940 book called "Locomotives on Parade."

http://books.google.com/books/about/Loc ... 2EAAAAIAAJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hungerford_(author)

http://www.librarything.com/author/hungerfordedward

http://blog.wellsfargo.com/guidedbyhist ... enger.html

There are some wonderful exceptions.

A very generous man gave me a Baldwin magazine from 1949 that included a very rare article on Whitcomb locomotives which I am researching.

I thanked him and suggested that he donate it to our local museum. He just gave it to me and told me I could donate it if I want.

That is exactly what I'm going to do. I still have to scan the whole magazine.

Steve

"There are some wonderful exceptions.'

And for those, we must be forever thankful!!

I'm with you 100% !!!

They try to make up for the others.

Steve

Steve, I'd be interested to know how do you plan to share your RR literature? There are lots of places you could donate it, many of which will squirrel it away and it will never be seen. And why haven't you yet made it available? There are fewer and fewer of us old guys who would appreciate it the most.

Good question. Do you have any suggestions?

Why haven't I made it yet available? Because I had not thought about it until I joined this forum.

I've been scanning the Railroad fair literature and putting it into my facebook. From there I link it to this site.

99.99% of the people I know on Facebook couldn't care less about a Railroad fair from 1948.

Once I discovered this site and people who actually appreciate this history did I find the motivation to scan this literature and share it.

I only have one child who is severely autistic and has no understanding of the value of this history so I have no person to leave this stuff to when I die. I will eventually donate it to a museum, perhaps the Illinois Railway Museum if they want it.

Steve

Steve, I suggest donating the literature to an Archive that is open to the public. That way they remain protected, but able to be viewed by the public upon request.

While researching at the Henry Ford Museum archives, I noticed that most of the railroad books were stamped with a person's name. A search query under the Collection of Richard F. McGraw reveals that Richard McGraw donated a substantial literary collection to the archives.

That is exactly the kind of place I would like to see the material go to. Not some museum that is going to charge $30/ half hour research fee. I've run into that figure at a small museum near here. I told them I couldn't afford that. They should just take their research library and put "For Rich Researchers Only" over the front door.

I've put in at least 50 hours in our local library alone researching Whitcomb. (50 hours)($60/hr)= $3,000

That would be like hiring a lawyer.

Steve

I am not greedy. Stanford gave me some money for finding the discs and getting the discs to them and I took every last dime plus my own money to get the music released so people could hear it. Not only that, I reproduced the pageant program in a perfect facsimile as well as an affordable copy to accompany the music CD that was produced from 5 years of hard work and aggravation. Stanford wasn't going to release the music, The Kurt Weill Foundation wasn't going to release the music, Decca, DG or Polygram ignored it, so with my money and time I put the music out, paid the licensing fees out of the generosity of my own heart and the return to me has, indeed, been pennies. The only reason I put the discs up on eBay at that inflated value was to attract attention, as not a soul was responding to my requests for help. Ever hear of a publicity stunt? Most people greeted the release of the music as a blessing, but here I was more than disappointed in the reception the music received. Please visit us on Facebook @ Kurt Weill's Lost Recording and join the enthusiastic people who have greeted this with not a sneer, but a purchase of the music celebrated in the press and arts organizations.

Guy,

Thank you for joining our message board and providing insight into the process of getting these historic recordings preserved and available to the public. The very first book about trains I've owned is a copy of the book "Railroads on Parade" I picked up used over 30 years ago. It stoked the fire in my teenaged heart with the romance of railroads. I'm sure many of us would hang on your every word if you have more to share. I'll be ordering the CD.

In my collection, I have 2 program books and 2 monthly playbills:
Railroads on Parade 1939
Railroads on Parade 1940
Bill of the Play 8/39
Bill of the Play 9/40

Are they something to scan, or has that already been done?

I have reprinted the 1940 edition as an exact digital replica and the '39 I decided to use as a bit smaller and offset bargain copy both available with the CD of Kurt Weill's Lost Recording anyone can now buy on Amazon. By the way, for all you railroad enthusiasts, I happen to be Benjamin Arrowsmith Hagaman's great-grandson, and as further coincidence, I happen to live 4 doors down from where he was born @ 262 W. 24th St. in New York City.

One of the un-foreseen benefits to releasing and publicizing the release of The Lost Recording from Railroads On Parade was my introduction to Esther "Faity" Leeming Tuttle who was in the 1939 production of the pageant and who allowed me to interview her about Edward Hungerford and her entire remeberences including an account of piloting the land speed record holding Streamliner ou at the World's Fairgrounds. The half hour interview can be seen on Facebook page Kurt Weill's Lost Recording in three parts. I met one hundred and one years old Faity through William Herz, 97, who was in the Murcury Broadcast Company of Orson Wells and was, yes, in the famous broadcast of The War Of The Worlds as well as Ceasar productions.
Bringing to life this music for Faity to hear again was the single most important result of the find for me. She wrote a book of her experiences in Railroads On Parade as well as on the stage in New York titled No Rocking Chair For Me that includes reproductions of snapshots taken of her and others on the Railroads On Parade stage.

Hello Guy,

Thanks again for sharing. I must admit I don't know Benjamin Arrowsmith Hagaman nor his significance to railroading. Perhaps you can help us out. I have liked the facebook page and listened to some of the podcasts you have linked there. I'll get around to them all at some point. What you have done is an important part of preservation that is often overlooked by people who are always focused on the steel, wood, and bricks. The interviews are great stuff.