Long Beach Rare Record Dealer Passes

Influential used record dealer Stephen Alan Mintz passed away on Sept. 16 at age 73. His shop, Bagatelle at 260 Atlantic Avenue was a favored hangout for record collectors and music fans from various countries as well as Long Beach and area locals.

Mintz arrived in Long Beach from Sacramento in 1977, opening Bagatelle with his mother on Fourth Street near Locust Avenue. Several years later, Mintz decided to specialize in records, noting that stocking such items did not involve any heavy lifting that furniture and other collectibles might require. He 86’d the non-vinyl inventory, but kept the Bagatelle name.

At the time, there were a handful of used record shops in Long Beach. “I opened the store in 1977. Before me was Ray Gaucher (Tape & Record Room), there was Larry’s Patio Records. Bob Setlik opened a store on Fourth Street” near Temple Avenue, which closed quickly after a burglary that depleted his stock.

Bagatelle was forced to move when his historic Fourth Street district was leveled in the early 1980s for the ill-fated downtown mall project that destroyed much of the character of the downtown area north of Third Street, to a dramatically narrower space for an expanded variety of 45s and LPs, Jowl-to-hip-stacked with records. For some, moving about required a sideways dance in the aisle to get from LPs to 45s. At the end of the room, Mintz stood at the back wall supervising the action, ribbing and opining with customers or just watching the action.

Asked about collecting trends in 2016, Mintz shared that “the whole thing is simple, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Jan & Dean, which were big then, now you can’t give them away. Black progressive jazz of the 50s, punk, rap sell well. I use a 35-year-slide rule. From 2016, 35 years forward are the records collectors and fans want, Elvis’s catalog? No. Nowadays, it’s the usual suspects, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Beatles, that’s what they’re asking for.”

Mintz’s friend, Long Beach rhythm and blues and comedy collector Jim Philbrook began a new publication, Record Convention News in 2001. Had Philbrook any ongoing resources, the publication would have been a success, but Jim was unemployed, having been abandoned from his harbor job, so he recruited Mintz as an early advertiser.

Mintz looked at his full-page ad as a way of getting his store publicized in competing stores that also carried the publication. However, Philbrook needed money to continue the publication, so he approached Mintz to “invest” in the paper by loaning him several hundred dollars. Mintz did so with the knowledge he’d never get repaid or get partial ownership of the paper. Philbrook died in 2007.

The paper continued with a new name, Record Collector News, which is handed out at subscribing record shops and the O.C. Record Convention held monthly at the Retail Clerk’s Hall in Stanton near Knott’s Berry Farm, where Mintz maintained several sale tables in the recent few decades.

Mintz covered his record show tables with blankets until the show opened, though he could have made sales to early birds who paid a premium price for admission. By the time Mintz chose to reveal the records, often priced at $3 or two for $5, an eager crowd of buyers had gathered. As he did at the shop, Mintz was more than ready to engage with buyers, sharing ribs and phantom jabs, making the search for the perfect record enjoyable.

In 2016, Mintz spoke of better-selling records. “Classic rock, progressive jazz of the 50s, most of the stores are specialized, one way or another. 45s, LPs are 90 percent. Baby boomers are buying CDs. Those eleven years old and younger are not buying CDs, downloading instead, while millennials are buying records. Five to ten percent to millennials are only buying LPs, ten percent want 45s, soul, rare groove soul. Whole new force of buyers, anywhere from late teens to mid 40s, they’ve been told records sound better. It’s a fad right now.”

On Facebook, famed rare record dealer John Tefteller of Grants Pass, Oregon, said “Mr. Steve Mintz, known to record collectors worldwide for his shop, Bagatelle Records in Long Beach, California, was someone I have known since the 1970s. He was one of the real good guys of record collecting and an L.A. area legend. Sadly, he is no longer with us now. I will always remember his hearty laugh and great sense of humor. He called me ‘kid’ because I was younger than he was.”

Tapio Väisänen of Finland wrote on Facebook. “Sad news. I visited Bagatelle first time in 2001 and brought nice stack of 45s back to Finland. I remember that the 45s were very fairly priced. I still know those 45s in my boxes when I see prices written with white crayon in dead wax.”

Long Beach ex-pat Pete Marchica wrote from Spain: “Steve was a cool dude. I would wait patiently for him to finish whatever task he was currently involved in, to ask him a question about a record/artist (I’d heard the stories at first of him being a bit ornery, and didn’t wanna upset the apple cart). He always addressed me by saying ‘hello young man’ or ‘how can I help you, young man’ and he knew a ton about jazz. I remember going there to pick up whatever cool jazz record he’d recommend. He was a wealth of great musical knowledge. Rest in peace, dude. You were cool.”

West Hollywood collector Dick Blackburn, who co-wrote and co-produced the cult classic “Eating Raoul” recalled, “myself and two other collectors found out that he’d gotten in a few boxes of 45s and were outside his store right before he opened. He told us there was nothing in the three long 45 boxes over a hundred dollars. We each chose a box and I pulled out a very rare and valuable vocal group 45. He looked it up in the price guide and shook his head. ‘Well I said nothing was above a hundred dollars so this one is a hundred dollars.’ How fair and honest was that?”

Services will be held at Green Hills Memorial Park, 27501 S. Western Avenue, Rancho Palos Verdes on Oct. 6 at 2 p.m.