Category Archives: Phonograph History

1944 Teen Girls: Homework With the Radio Full Blast

1944TeenSeventy years ago, Life Magazine, December 11, 1944, featured the life of teen-age girls, and noted that all six million of them “live in a world all their own–a lovely, gay, enthusiastic, funny and blissful society almost untouched by the war.” Music stores bulged with girls listening to the singers and bandleaders they have made famous, and “half a dozen radio programs are aimed at homes where a daughter will cut off her father’s news to follow the fictional adventures of a contemporary.”

1944FullBlastShown here and above is Miss Pat Woodruff, a high school student from Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. She’s wearing her “after-school costume of blue jeans and a checked shirt,” undoubtedly getting ready to tune in one of those programs on the console radio in the parlor. She quickly gets to work tackling her homework, but with the radio playing full blast.

1944PhonographWhen the girls featured in the story were not listening to the radio or talking endlessly on the telephone, the phonograph occupied them. Here, a group of girls spends 2-1/2 hours listening to two dozen records at a record store, buying only one or two. Here, a group is completely engrossed listening to Dick Haymes‘ Together.

Dates were usually double, the article noted. Teen-age girls were primarily interested in themselves, with high-school boys running a poor second. Servicemen stationed near town rated last. An old high-school boy home on leave in uniform, however, was in a class by himself and rated tops.

Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon



Victrolas for Christmas, 1914

1914OmahaPhonographs

In 1914, Santa Claus probably delivered quite a few new phonographs to American parlors. He had quite a selection available, as shown in the December 6, 1914, advertisement in the Omaha Daily Bee.

Prices ranged from $18.75 to $207.50, with all of them available on credit. The less expensive models could be brought home for $5 down, including a set of records.


Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon



A Toy TV for Half the Price of a Real One

PhonoViewer

Fifty years ago this month, the November, 1964, issue of Radio-Electronics magazine
announced the debut of a “new educational toy in the spirit of TV,” the General Electric Show ‘n Tell Phono Viewer. It consisted of a phonograph, capable of playing all speeds of records (16, 33, 45, and 78). It also conntained of a slide viewer which displayed special film strips that were available synchronized with the accompanying record. The slides advanced mechanically, timed by the rotation of the turntable. According to the article, a 3-year-old child would be able to load both the record and slide. (This was back in the day when parents weren’t overly paranoid when it came to entrusting 120 volt devices to their three year olds.)

The original selling price was $29.95. I vaguely recall seeing these, but they didn’t offer much fascination. This is probably because real TV’s started at $59.95. No matter the retailer, the least expensive television was invariably $59.95. This amount was never attainable, but it always seemed to be within reach. If I had ever come into possession of $29.95, I doubt if I would have considered squandering it on a toy TV, no matter how ingenious, knowing that I was halfway to being able to purchase a real one.

The device can be seen in action at this YouTube video.


The Irresisto 1914 Phonograph

Irresisto

The Irresisto is apparently a brand name that never quite caught on. I couldn’t find any reference to it, other than old advertisements such as this one from a hundred years ago today, November 3, 1914, in the Tacoma Times.

According to the ad, these were equal in every way to $200 phonographs, but could be had for $5 down, and easy payments until the marvelously low price of $82.25 was paid. It came with a large number of needles, an oil can, 16 of the latest dance records, and eight additional records.

Read More at Amazon


Edison Day: October 21, 1914

A hundred years ago today, October 21, 1914, by Act of Congress, it was Edison Day in America, marking the 35th Anniversary of the perfection of the incandescent light bulb.  Street cars paused in his honor, light bulbs were lit during the day, and many “Edison concerts” of music being played on phonographs took place.

WireHouse

It was also a time for some commercial promotion.  Even though electric lighting had been almost completely adopted by 1914, especially in cities, it was not yet universal.  The utility shown here encourages readers to wire their houses before Edison Day.  And many retailers of phonographs encouraged readers to buy a phonograph in honor of the day.

I graduated from Minneapolis Edison High School, which opened in 1922, a full nine years before Edison’s death.  In fact, the school’s early yearbooks contain a dedication signed by Edison himself.  It always struck me as odd that a living person was so glorified during his lifetime.  And the modern-day cynic will undoubtedly point to Edison’s faults.

But the fact that the country was no completely electrified only 35 years after Edison’s invention of the light bulb is remarkable.  The world of 1914 was very different from the world of 1879.  The world of 1914 is recognizable.  The world of 1879 was a very different place.



The 1914 Victrola

VictrolaAd

A hundred years ago, owning a phonograph was a reasonably priced proposition. This ad, from the September 10, 1914 edition of the New York World, advertises that you can purchase a $15 Victrola, along with $9 worth of records, for only a dollar down and 50 cents per week.

Today, you can listen to most of those records online, since the Library of Congress National Jukebox has them available for download or online listening. The audio quality today, as it was a century ago, is surprisingly good, and much better than most people expect.