Category Archives: Phonograph History

1939 Typing Class

1939JanRadioRetailingAs shown here in the January 1939 issue of Radio Retailing, it looks like a few boys 85 years ago got the memo that the place to meet girls (and learn a useful skill) was to take typing class.

And this school was doing it right. Above the blackboard, you can see a loudspeaker, which is playing an amplified recording. The magazine notes that this delivers a rhythm, which is desirable for the student typists to develop a uniform touch.



1949 RCA Victor FM

1944Jan17LifeSeventy-five years ago today, the January 17, 1949, issue of Life magazine showed these two FM offerings from RCA Victor.

The nine-tube model 8V90 stood only 33-1/4″ high and 31=1/4″ wide, but included standard broadcast and FM with “RCA Victor’s own simpler, more sensitive Frequency Modulation circuits.” The fine record changer featured a sapphire pickup with no needles to change. The 18th Century-style cabinet also featured a record storage compartment.

For those looking for an FM table radio, the seven-tube model 8X71 was beautifully styled in rich maroon or antique ivory-finish plastic.



1923 Street Grinder Upgrades to Phonograph

Screenshot 2023-12-30 3.18.09 PMJust about any profession can benefit from adopting the latest in technology, as illustrated by this self-explanatory picture in the December 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics.

According to the magazine, this gentleman’s profession, somewhere in Europe, was a mendicant.  That’s a word you don’t hear very often today, but it sounds a lot better than “beggar.”  He had previously operated as an organ grinder (the article didn’t say whether or not he had a monkey), but constantly having to turn the crank proved too hard.  Also, the hand organ was very heavy.  Therefore, he invested in the phonograph shown here, which required cranking only occasionally after a few songs.  Armed with a satchel full of records, he could share his entertainment and eek out a living much more easily.



Mimi Benzell’s Hi Fi, 1953

1953DecRadioNewsSeventy years ago, it was a Hi Fi Christmas for soprano Mimi Benzell and her husband Walter Gould. They are shown here with what Santa delivered, namely, a Graarard turntable, a Pilot tuner, a Bogen amplifier, a University speaker enclosure, and a Wilcox Gay tape recorder.

They are probably shown at their home, which, according to Wikipedia, was at 45 Cardinal Road, Manhasset, New York. The picture appeared on the cover of the December 1953 issue of Radio News.



Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com!

We present a hundred year old silent film, the 1923 version of A Christmas Carol starring Russell Thorndike as Scrooge. It’s a short feature, so the story is quite condensed into less than a half hour. This rendition is accompanied by recordings from that era. Thorndike is best known as an author, and you can find his author page at Amazon.



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California Ramblers, 1923

Screenshot 2023-11-28 11.34.58 AMA hundred years ago tonight on the radio, you could listen to the California Ramblers performing over WEAF, New York.  But it wasn’t just any broadcast, as seen from the clipping above, from the January 1923 issue of Talking Machine World.  Due to the radio. Columbia records noted that the lid of many a long forgotten phonograph had been frozen.  They fought back with radio, and purchased time on WEAF every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:15.  Each broadcast featured a Columbia recording artist, and was broadcast right from the recording studio.  If people liked what they heard, they could buy a record, enabling them to listen to it whenever they liked.

According to Columbia, listeners around the country had tuned in.  The group is shown here, in 1931, in the June 1931 issue of What’s On The Air.  You can hear them in their 1925 recording of “Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue”, below.

Screenshot 2023-11-28 11.54.48 AM



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Movies on your Phonograph: 1923

1923NovSciInvThis illustration from the November 1923 issue of Science and Invention fits squarely into the category of very interesting things that never caught on for want of a practical application.

It is a system for showing motion pictures from your phonograph. The phonograph is busy spinning at 78 RPM, and this system allows you to use that phenomenon to project movies. The frames of your movie are printed on the edge of a paper disk which is placed on the platter, just like a phonograph record. Two bright lights shine on the image, and the opaque image is projected through a prism onto the screen.

A single disk will give you a movie of about 1/78 of a minute long. To provide for longer movies, the disk bends up automatically as it passes under the prism, which allows the layer below to be shown.

The magazine refers to it only as the “Jenkins movie machine.” That is probably a reference to Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934), a pioneer of early cinema. He went on to television, as the principal of W3XK, the first television station in the United States, which began broadcasts to the general public in 1928.



Expedient Phono Cartridge: 1943

1943NovRadioCraftEighty years ago, wartime parts shortages meant you couldn’t just walk into the store and buy parts for your radio or phonograph. Occasionally, substitutions were necessary, and they sometimes required a bit of ingenuity to make them work.

Such was the case for one John J. Leap of New York City, who sent this idea in to the publishers of Radio Craft, where it was published in the November 1943 issue. The pickup on his phonograph had gone bad, and the replacement was unobtainium. Therefore, he made his own, using a headphone and the reproducer from an old mechanical phonograph.

The stylus was soldered to the diaphragm of the headphone, which was used in the place of the original mica piece in the reproducer. The combined unit was then mounted to the original tone arm.

The editors of the magazine decided to duplicate the idea, and they found it to give good results both in quality and volume.



Coke Ad: 1953

1953SepBLSeventy years ago, America’s youth knew how to make a party click, thanks to the spin of a record, the cut of a caper, and, of course, a bottle of Coke.

This ad appeared in the September 1953 issue of Boys’ Life.



1953 Audio Amp/Phonograph/Radio

1953JulPMSeventy years ago, this young man is enlivening the family picnic by trying his voice on the mike of this project from the July 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics. The project is billed as a “just for fun” audio amplifier, but it’s actually quite a bit more. In addition to the two-tube battery operated audio amplifier, the project contains provisions for a crystal microphone and phonograph input from a spring-wound record player. It’s not an early prototype karaoke machine, because you can use only one at a time. But the magazine notes that it’s a lot of fun in a group for everyone to try their voice on the mike. It notes that almost everyone talks too fast, some get mike fright, and others use an unnaturally high pitch. It noted that placing the mike was an art, and the set provides a good opportunity to learn a lot about PA systems.

And in addition, the circuit included a built-in germanium diode crystal set which would pull in clear signals from local stations.

1953JulPM2