Odeon portable info needed???

[dennislpr]

Hello everyone, I just got this machine and I would like to know a little bit more about it.

[Phono48]

I'm not sure what information you need, but this one of mine is almost identical, apart from the position of the arm. This one, as you can see, is a Parlophone. You seem to be missing the record album, which sits on the two brackets in the lid, the top of the needle bowl, and the wooden bracket under the motorboard that keeps the winding handle in the correct position. It's held by two long bolts that should be where the two vacant holes are in front of the turntable. The two sockets in the bottom of the lid are there to connect an electrical pick-up to, in place of the soundbox. The leads from the pick-up go into the sockets, and the leads going out to a radio or amplifier plug in the back. I had many problems with the winding handle on mine, as the mechanism to make it retract was missing. After many attempts to make something that would work, I gave up, but luckily managed to get another "parts only" machine from eBay, only to discover that the mechanism was just a simple bit of bent steel bar. You have a beautiful machine, though, and well worth getting the missing parts for.

Barry

[estott]

I also have a very similar machine badged as a Parlophone. Both Odeon and Parlophone were owned by the same company so this is no surprise.

[dennislpr]

Thanks for the info, any idea what year it was made?

[SteveM]

This one's a little different, but owner claims it's from 1933. So jewel-like and finely made, it seems. I love the rounded corners, little slot for used needles, and the 8(?)-inch platter!

So "Odeon" was not the manufacturer of these or Parlophones? Who manufactured them then? Just curious. I want one!

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huGmdgEJl64[/youtubehd]

[Phono48]

Yes, all three of these machines were made by Odeon/Parlophone. The two were different branches of the same Company. Why the two nearly identical machines have different trademarks I don't know, but maybe the same situation existed as HMV/Columbia had in Gt. Britain. The HMV 97 portable and the Columbia 204, for example, were identical machines, both made by EMI industries. But HMV products could only be sold through carefully appointed dealers, whereas Columbias could be bought from wholesalers by any dealer. In this way, EMI could retain the exclusiveness of the HMV trademark, yet still reap enormous profits from the sales of the identical machines, albeit with a different trademark.

Barry