Happy Record Store Day!
Saturday was Record Store Day; I was at work all day but Toronto (and many other cities around the globe) were bustling with vinyl enthusiasts visiting their local shops to dig through the crates for special limited editions and maybe take in some live in-store performances. And on their way home they probably looked and felt like this young lady, right down to the record bag:
Sonora Phonograph Company, 1920
To mark the occasion, here are a few vintage photos of record stores from the Toronto Star Photo Archive (located on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library).
Boxing Day shoppers at A & A Records on Yonge St., 1975. In the background you can see an ad for the Ken Tobias album "Every Bit Of Love," which the TPL has on vinyl.
The legendary Yonge St. Sam The Record Man store, 1967
Willie Sportello (left) and Bernie Letofsky in their Yonge St. record store, 1979. You can see Gino Vannelli right beside Television in the racks, as nature intended.
Members of the Russian national hockey team shop for records in a Toronto department store, 1974. What do you think they picked up?
Reggae legend Stranger Cole in his Kensington Market record shop, 1978
A lucky fan gets her t-shirt signed by Derrick Ross of The Spoons at Sam The Record Man, 1984
Donna Speicher of A&A Records, 1985
A crowd behind A&A Records trying to buy tickets for a Duran Duran concert (as one did in 1984)
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