OK but I still have one of these GE table models with two arms...and a radio.Radio works,but the turntable doesn't.I also have the only copy I have ever seen of the 1948 Philco dealer demonstration set.This is a 78 type album with five records,I think.One side each from the first few Columbia Masterworks Lps,and a little talk from the president of Columbia Records,to show how little space the amount of music on a 78 side takes up on an Lp.
Roger
--- On Wed, 12/2/09, Michael Biel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Michael Biel <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] GE radio/phonograph/home recorder - early '30s
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 1:47 AM
No, it was Philco that did that, and it was in 1948. The 78 arm was usable for the changer mechanism, but the LP arm was single-play only. Rather a stupid idea, but they were in a hurry to get them out! Philco had single-arm 2 speed changers by the end of 1948, just in time to have to re-design them into 3-speed changers. I have all the catalog sheets and repair manuals for this whole series, and have a couple of unmounted examples.
> I also agree (as an "ex-radio collector"...LONG story!) that
> 1931would be an EXTREMELY early date for a "radio-phonograph!"
>
No, they were quite common by 1931. Spaces for radios were included in some phonographs as early as 1924, and there were factory installed models by 1926. There even were Orthophonic Radio-Phonos.
> The console models are anywhere from c.1934 to WWII...the smaller table
> models (now being reproduced...well more or less?!) are late-thirties to late
> forties...!
>
> Steven C. Barr
>
These dates are all screwy. As I said, console radio-phonos date back into the 20s, and table models came in the early 30s. Disc recording machines start in the early 30s, both for bare aluminum with a feed screw and the RCA pre-groove discs in 1931.
Oh, that reminds me. To answer an earlier question, RCA was still producing the pregrooved blanks throughout the 30s at least into 1942. The label logo changed in 1939 to eliminate the name Victor and the HMV drawing in a circle, leaving only the RCA meatball. The printing plates for the labels were destroyed on August 7, 1944
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
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