78 RPM Record Collectors Dedicated
to the Restoration & Research of
Popular Music (1900-1950)

This is the open page of Toast of New York, also known as ToNY. We are a world wide group of serious collectors and preservers of popular music from the 1900-1950 period. Our members are mostly 78 RPM record collectors. We specialize in making digital transfers of these records in order to preserve the music more safely and securely than the original, somewhat fragile, media provides. We also perform computer aided digital processing on some of it, in order to reduce noise and increase listening enjoyment.

We collect and restore as many artists complete as we are able and the members share the CDs produced among themselves. Nothing is ever sold. If you are a 78 RPM record collector, you may want to learn how to become a member. If you are anyone who enjoys the music of the 1900-1950 period, you will probably enjoy visiting the open part of our website. The open part will provide you with details about the ToNY organization. Most of the web site is accessible only to members.

What about all the great dance band, personality, comedy, jazz and blues records that have never been reissued, either on LP record or Compact Disc?
 
Such as the other record shown to the right:
"Sally Lou" by The Hollywood Dance Orchestra, shown here on Perfect 14300

Many of the bands and performers being preserved have never been reissued by the companies who did the recording. The only way you can hear most of this wonderful music is in a 78 RPM collector's listening room...if you are lucky enough to know such a collector. Or if you are a ToNY member, you can share digital restorations of this music with other ToNY members. ToNY is about preserving this music then sharing it and making the music of the past available once again as the center attraction in a few of the collector's dens or fancy parlors, if they are lucky enough to own one. Through sharing among friends, it is possible to preserve and to hear many of these sounds that might otherwise be lost forever. Thanks to present day technology, we can actually hear these sounds better than they were ever heard in their day, except for those who were able to hear them in live performances.

The music ToNY members collect and preserve remembers the day when the big upright Victorla was what the ladies and gentlemen danced to in the fancy parlors of our land. It was a time when the Victor Talking Machine Company icon that everyone recognized was in all the music stores. Soon the phonograph was replaced by radio and this majestic Atwater Kent was one of the superior specimens. Yes, technology was changing and the music changed too. Ragtime became jazz, hot dance became swing, the blues started to boogie, and the high pitched male tenors became baritone crooners. Nowadays, with our advanced digital technology, the ToNY members are capturing these sounds and memories of the past before time destroys the fragile cylinders and discs on which this music was originally recorded.