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RIP Val Camilletti, Chicago record store owner

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Oh no!

I loved visiting Val, petting little Halla, and coming away with some incredibly nice condition -- and many very rare -- LPs. I even bought a painting for Val that she added to her "Elvis Shrine" room.

A record collector's paradise indeed it was. Over a 30-year span I probably grabbed more than 1,000 LPs (10" and 33" variety), including a helluva lotta White Label Promo discs, @ Val's shop.

Somwtime in the mid 1980s, Val started turning me on to tix for many, many shows sponsored by Jam Productions and local radio station WXRT via her pals @ XRT, especially Terri Hemmert. While the vast majority of these were presented @ the Cabaret Metro, there were also XRT-sponsored shows @ The Riviera Theatre, The Auditorium, The Vic, The Uptown, Schubas, and of course The Green Mill and The Park West.

Whatta gal, that Val.
 
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If I were in The States I would love to attend any sort of public memorial/celebration -- and I'm certain there will be such -- of Val's life and contributions to Oak Park and the Chicago community in general.
 
Val owned the deepest and broadest collection of Beatles memorabilia, from 45s through 10" and 12" LPs, R2R, 8-tracks, to propomotinal materials, concert posters, etc. of anyone in the Beatles Collecting field that I'd ever met, and of those there have been A LOT. She was pretty deeply into Elvis memorabilia as well. A fair amount of Stones, Sinatra, and Billie Holliday material, too, but not (nearly) @ the magnitude of her Beatles or Elvis collections.
 
And she was the first person I knew to obtain (an advanced) copy of the Nirvana magnum opus Nevermind (1991), a promotional copy LP which I eventually bought from her @ some point in the winter of 1991.
 
What a loss. Val was such a great business person, community supporter and person it is hard to comprehend in this day and age. It was my pleasure to have known her for all the years I got to enjoy her shop, her knowledge and her friendship. She was a one of a kind spirit and will be missed by all who knew her. My younger son was about 10 years old when I took him to meet Val and do some LP shopping.
Two hours later we walked out with him proudly carrying his new Back In Black album. As we left she told him to come see her again. We were there almost weekly and when he got his drivers license he was there more often than that. The "Hippy Nation" has lost a prize and our local music community has lost a GEM. Good bye Val, we love you.
 
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bandg69 said:
What a loss. Val was such a great business person, community supporter and person it is hard to comprehend in this day and age. It was my pleasure to have known her for all the years I got to enjoy her shop, her knowledge and her friendship. She was a one of a kind spirit and will be missed by all who knew her. My younger son was about 10 years old when I took him to meet Val and do some LP shopping.
Two hours later we walked out with him proudly carrying his new Back In Black album. As we left she told him to come see her again. We were there almost weekly and when he got his drivers license he was there more often than that. The "Hippy Nation" has lost a prize and our local music community has lost a GEM. Good bye Val, we love you.
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Well put, sir. I forgot about taking my sons and various and sundry friends, not necessarily "record collecting" types, to meet Val for the first time over the years, just so that they could meet her and see how a cool record store was run. Thanks for stirring some nice memories.
 
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