This phonograph was featured on this early record jacket. See details of the drawings at the bottom of the page.
This unit sold for $20 in 1916. I purchased it out of an antique store in Las Vegas, Nevada in April of 2000. It was sitting in a back room collecting dust and hidden on the bottom shelf behind some chairs. How did I find it? I guess I smell good antiques! I asked the man sitting in the room how much it was. He didn’t speak English, so I had to ask him again in Spanish. He told me to wait and he’d check. The owner soon came back and told me that it was for a dealer only, as it was a parts machine and that it was broken. I saw the reproducer was missing and two slats were broken out of the grill on the front. I asked how much it was. They only wanted $45 for it, so I took it home with me. Meanwhile my dad was less than enthusiastic about this purchase and doubting my investment. When I got it to the car, I found the reproducer had been sitting inside the unit all along.
Borrowing a screwdriver from the clerk at the ticket counter at the airport, I unscrewed the cast iron bracket from the back. I carried it home underneath the seat in front of me. Imagine the looks I got going through airport security! I had the box in my hands and the rest of it in plastic bags.
I promptly took it over to Gary’s house and 56 hours after purchasing it a few miles off the Vegas Strip, I had it playing. The spring was still good, the reproducer was the only thing that was “broken” It had been missing a 50¢ rubber grommet from the back. The motor got a good cleaning and some new grease, the cabinet was just polished with furniture polish and I had what you see in the photo, except for the broken grill. For that I took the Victrola into school with me and had the woodshop teacher fashion two grill slats out of oak for me after school. Through careful cutting and staining to match the original color, I had the grill rebuilt.
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