Submarine Channel

The Archive

Several things about the story of travelling salesman-turned-record archivist Paul Mawhinney are remarkable. Firstly, this charismatic Pittsburgh protagonist is in possession of the world’s largest record collection, with over a million albums and over 1.5 million singles. Secondly, 83% of his inventory is unavailable to the public. Thirdly, and heart-breakingly, absolutely nobody seems to care.
Nobody apart from filmmaker Sean Dunne that is, who shot a beautifully-paced short documentary on the eve of the closure of Mawhinney’s Record-Rama store, as an ode both to his life’s work, and to the death of vinyl records.
The collection is valued at $50 million, and offers are accepted on a rolling basis. MP3-listening philistines need not apply.