Pittsburg man seeks to rescue phonographs, memorabilia

Don’t judge a book by its cover, or a collector by his age.

Dustin Ellis may only be 25 years old, but he has an antique soul. One quick trip through his home or a simple conversation will prove how much this young man wants to save antique phonographs, recordings and memorabilia.

Mr. Ellis serves as curator of The Edison Phonograph Museum, located in Hoover’s Jewelry at 213 N. Madison in Mount Pleasant, which is comprised of private collections from Mr. Ellis, David Hoover of Hoover’s Jewelry and Scott Glover with the Mid America Flight Museum. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday.

Mr. Ellis, who is a police officer in Mount Pleasant, has a private collection of more than 20 antique phonographs at his home in Pittsburg.

A chance meeting between Mr. Hoover and Mr. Ellis more than 15 years ago set Mr. Ellis on this path to collecting phonograph memorabilia that has since turned into an obsession.

“I’ve been collecting since I was 9 and I’m 25 now,” he said. “David Hoover got me interested. I used to go to flea markets at tractor shows with my grandfather and I’d pick up these little cylinder records and I got interested in them.”

Mr. Hoover and Mr. Ellis collected together and traded together for many years before the idea to create a phonograph museum was born.

The museum has now been going strong for two years and Mr. Ellis does presentations to historical societies and other groups interested in learning more about these early machines and recordings.

The museum has had visitors from several states, including California and Oregon, as well as all parts of Texas.

Mr. Ellis is also the co-founder of the Texas Antique Phonograph Society, which is able to advertise information about the club through its partnership with the national Antique Phonograph Society in California. The closest clubs to Texas are California and North Carolina.

“We’re kind of the only ones down here in the South,” Mr. Ellis said. “We want to bring out closet collectors who didn’t know anybody else was doing it.”

So what it is about these antique machines that captured this self-proclaimed history and science nerd’s imagination at such an early age?

“It’s the history – the mechanics. I’ve always been a history and science nerd,” Mr. Ellis said. “I’ve collected guns, coins, baseball cards and this is the funnest collection I’ve ever worked on. You can hear them, you can listen to them and other people can enjoy them as well. If you have a coin collection, they’re neat to look at and the history is neat, but you can put a record on and other people can enjoy it, too.”

Many visitors to the Edison Phonograph Museum are also treated to a tour of Mr. Ellis’ private collection.

“We recently had people who came from Fort Worth who had found us on Tripadvisor.com and we took them to see both collections in Mount Pleasant and Pittsburg,” he said. “What I like about Pittsburg is what it doesn’t have. You can throw dirt on the street and park a few Model Ts and it looks like the 1920s again.”

It’s one thing to have an interest as a collector, but Mr. Ellis wants everyone he meets to develop an interest in phonographs, as well. Music is a part of our collective American history, he said.

“Edisons are the iPods of the early 1900s,” he said. “There were the cylinder records and the others were thicker than regular 78s so you couldn’t play these on anything else but an Edison. Edison’s machines were different. They were better and they were more expensive.”

Most of Mr. Ellis recording collection is jazz and popular music from the 1920s like the fox trot, though he does own several rare recordings, including one made by a Confederate soldier named Polk Miller with his Old South Quartet.

“Actually, the hardest stuff to find is blues and country,” Mr. Ellis said. “Whenever you hear the fox trot, you think Roaring ’20s and speakeasies – real uppity, dancey music.”

Teddy Roosevelt’s three campaign speeches are available for a listen at the museum, as well as some home recordings, which can be anything from a baby crying to a man singing in his parlor.

Mr. Ellis travels across the country to buy, sell and trade antique phonograph equipment and memorabilia. Just this year, he’s been to Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois.

By Tori Lyle, news@campcountynow.com -- To continue reading this article, purchase the print edition of The Pittsburg Gazette or go to our online e-edition at:http://www.etypeservices.com/Pittsburg%20GazetteID315/default.aspx