Sunday, April 21, 2024

More on the Telegraph Ave Location of Art Music

 For Record Store Yesterday I headed up to Telegraph Ave and Amoeba Music. While in the neighborhood I did a little more investigation into the location of Art Music, the record store where Philip K. Dick worked in the late forties and early fifties. The most recent bit of my search began when I found this picture of the corner of Channing and Telegraph in an article about an East Bay Walking tour. 


Kind of amazing how Ferris Fremont's men are occupying the intersection in some fracas likely related to People's Park. Anyhoo, in that shot you can see the sign for the record store. Yesterday I recreated the shot above: 

It's obvious the building on the corner is still there. In the older shot it looks like the record store occupies the second store from from the corner. In 2024 that's the aptly named vintage clothing store "Mars Mercantile."


Here's a shot of the inside:


They were busy selling vintage clothes to college students and hipsters, but I asked an employee what they new about the location. They said that it was their understanding that the current location was subdivided into three separate retail businesses. I mentioned that I was researching science fiction author Philip K Dick and another employee turned and said, "You think he worked here?" 

Looks like I'm going to have to make a pilgrimage to the History Room at the Berkeley Public Library after this semester from hell is over to confirm. 

1 comment:

DickKöpfigSammeln said...

For whatever it is worth:
The Berkeley Gazette is available until June 1946 at Google Newspapers and an article on a burglary at Art Music (29/April/46, page 1) states "2400 Telegraph" as the address, which is consistent with multiple mentions of Art Music at this address from 1940.
Telegraph 2400 is on the other corner of Telegraph and Channing.
So it appears as if Art Music is at 2400 Telegraph in 1946 and at 2392 Telegraph (the other side) in 1969 (if that is actually Art Music and not some other RECORD store). So where was it 1948-1952ish? (I'm afraid the photo is no proof.)
Art Music had another address in the 1930s: 2328 Telegraph (so it did move before).
Fun read: Herb Hollis promises a reward of $25 for "information leading to the arrest ... of the person who stole ... a 1946 Magnavox". (Google files this under 25. April, but it is also in the April 29 edition.)
Fascinating read ... I hope to get to Berkeley in August. If so, I'll do a PKD-walk and include this corner.
Christoph