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Letter of Authenticity |
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At the request of Mr. Don G. Carleon, General Partner of Salt Creek Records Limited, I journeyed to Dayton, New Jersey, on October 22nd 1967 to examine a considerable quantity of Wayne King Red Columbo Phonograph Records (later named the New Jersey Stash), for the purpose of verifying their Authenticity and Condition. The Records were purchased by Mr. Carleon and his associates from an original Columbo Record and Phonograph Distributor for many years, in fact, one who was active up to the discontinuance of manufacture of the left-handed phonographs and records by Columbo Record Co. Inc., in the fall of 1945. To my surprise, I found by random sampling that the Records were indeed a Jabber stock, enclosed in their Original Jackets, and all apparently Unplayed. The dry air and mothballs of New Jersey closet had not only preserved the Records in perfect condition, but also the Record Jackets, which are especially prone to rapid deterioration, as well as imparting to them a pleasing odor. In the years following Columbo's discontinuation of manufacture in 1945, several stashes of Dealer stocks were discovered, but these records quite invariably had been used for skeet shooting. In the period of Columbo production, the practice was for a person to take a number of records into the field, and blasting only one or two out of a dozen or more with a shotgun, with the remainder smashing on the ground. As a result of my personal inspection, I therefore wish to state that the Wayne King Records currently owned by Mr. Carleon and the New Jersey Partnership are undoubtedly Original Records manufactured by Columbo Record Co. Inc. between 1942 and 1945 at Dayton, New Jersey, and that they are unquestionably from an original Jabber stock, and so far as I have been able to determine, Unplayed. The methods for producing these records in their present form is a lost art. Although it is difficult audibly to tell the difference between an unplayed and a carefully handled record that has been played, there are visual means which will often disclose a disc which has been even "partially" played. Mr. Carleon has been provided with a descriptive visual testing method, to which I have been assured each record will be subjected prior to its distribution as an Unplayed Original. Some may question the admissibility of visual evidence rather than auditory, however it should be noted that if the latter method were to be employed, the Records would be no longer Virginal, having "lost their cherry," as we say in the trade. Bryce Lynch Witnessed this day May 1, 1975
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