Music lovers would walk into Val’s halla Records and say, “I heard this song I love, and it goes like this” — and start humming.
Owner Val Camilletti could usually figure out the artist, the label and the pressing — sometimes, instantly.
She died in hospice care early Tuesday at the British Home in Brookfield, about two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Joanne Busiel, her friend since they attended Chicago’s Austin High School. Ms. Camilletti, who lived in Cicero, was 78.
For 46 years, Val’s halla Records — overflowing with thousands of CDs, LPs, cassette tapes, eight-tracks, 78s and 45s, from Abba to ZZ Top – has been an audiophile’s portal to another world.
Her devoted customers, who preferred “Auntie Val” to Amazon, sometimes included three and four generations of families.
If Ms. Camilletti didn’t have it, she’d try and find it for you — even if it was rare or obscure. She bought and sold vinyl and offered hard-to-find turntable needles.
She held release parties for artists. Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan dropped in. So did singer John Prine, B-52s frontman Fred Schneider and actor John Mahoney, who lived near the Oak Park store, she told Mary Lucia, a host at Minnesota Public Radio.
With her commanding alto, crisp enunciation, no-nonsense attitude and outsize nimbus of frizzy gray hair, she could have intimidated people.
But browsers were always welcome. So were teens, especially those who felt they couldn’t talk to their parents about their music, from funk to punk; from rock to rap to reggaeton.
Ms. Camilletti employed generations of kids who worked their first jobs at Val’s halla. They became a family. “She had a small army of employees” who stayed friends with their former boss and each other, said Shayne Blakeley, manager of Val’s halla. Many trooped in each year from around the country to visit and volunteer at the store’s annual anniversary sale.
She presided over her land of enchantment with a dog or two for petting nearby. She named the store Val’s halla, a pun on the warrior heaven in Norse mythology. For many years, the shop was the daytime lounge of Halla, her white German shepherd, as well as other pets with Nordic names: Loki, a yellow Lab mix, and Woden the cat.
She grew up on the West Side, the daughter of Italian immigrants Norma Mary and Quinto Camilletti. Val spoke Italian before English, she said in an interview with ChicagoGayHistory.Org.
Two of the first records she ever bought were the score for “Oklahoma!” and “Belafonte at Carnegie Hall,” she said in the interview with Lucia.
Three days after graduating Austin High School, she went to work for Continental Bank, she told ChicagoGayHistory.org.
It was a jolt after being raised an adored only child whose parents believed she could do anything.
By 1962, she left the bank and went to work at the Chicago offices of Capitol Records, where she said she was thrilled to be around people who occasionally used profanity and lived outside the mainstream. She met a deejay friend who took her on her first visit to a men’s gay bar, the Orange Cockatoo, she told ChicagoGayHistory.org.
In 1968, she started managing a chain of stores, NMC Discount Records, from 723 1/2 South Blvd. in Oak Park. Four years later, she took over the flagship shop and founded Val’s halla. Ms. Camilletti operated for about 36 years at the original location, until the building was sold. Thanks to fundraising help from loyal customers, she raised thousands of dollars and relocated the store to 239 Harrison St. about 12 years ago.
Money remains tight and the future of the store is unknown, said Busiel, who was designated with power of attorney for Ms. Camilletti.
She is survived by her cat, Soot, in addition to her many friends, who are talking about organizing a celebration of her life. Many are expected to come out to the store’s 46th anniversary sale this weekend, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, featuring live music and good vibes.