With more than a hundred antique phonographs on display in his basement, and a hundred more in storage and in various antique booths around town, Brian Gorrell's collection is certainly impressive, if not the most extensive in Kentucky. As a band director, musician and retired music educator, his interest in early sound devices is multi-faceted -- not only is he fascinated by the history and the evolution of the technology, but the external brass horns adorned by many of the early-model machines appeal to the French horn player in him.
Gorrell's first purchase of the collection was a Victrola (a specific line produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company, not a generic term for all phonographs). He purchased it 17 years ago, and then three more a few months later; within the first year, Gorrell found himself at an auction, poised to buy one or two more phonographs, after which he swore he would be done.
"A friend said, 'Nah -- you're hooked on this,' and he was right," Gorrell recalls. "It's a disease -- you get into it and you can't stop."
Today, his collection includes nearly 200 cylinder and disc phonographs, as well as some phonograph music boxes, nursery rhyme-playing phonograph dolls (a rather strange invention by Thomas Edison, who also invented the first phonograph in 1877), one of the earliest juke box models, and a number of replicas of Nipper - the small white dog who served as the logo for many audio recording companies.
"As far as people asking what's your favorite player, it's like asking, 'what's your favorite child?'" Gorrell said. "Sometimes this one's my favorite, sometimes I don't like that one very muchÖ"
Gorrell, who also repairs the antique machines, sells some of his finds at the Athens Schoolhouse Antique Market, as well as at the Antique Store of Lexington. He has become well-connected with the International Antique Phonograph Society, and hosts "listening parties" for the local branch, the Kentucky Antique Phonograph Society, each month.
Fellow phonograph enthusiasts can contact Gorrell at b.gorrell@insightbb.com or (859) 619-4837.