The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

From the opening of Jackie Gleason's film: Papa's Delicate Condition.

I was flipping through the channels the other night and came across a movie on Showtime called "The Boy," about an American woman who takes a job as a nanny in an English village, and when she arrives she learns that the boy she is to care for is actually a life-sized doll. I haven't watched much of it, however, I what got my attention was that they had an Edison diamond disc machine playing in the movie--and it was playing a regular 78! LOL! That surprised me. First time I had seen a diamond disc machine in a recent movie--it said it came out in 2016.

Mike Sorter
Riverside, CA

I was watching Netflix, Marvel's the Defenders, Season 1, The beginning of Episode 6, and it starts with Sigourney Weaver's character listening to an over-restored Victor MS.
She takes a pause at approximately second 58 because the needle starts to skip on the record.

Could it be because the reproducer was set down on the wrong side of the record???, Yikes!

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Kevan

Zwebie wrote:I was watching Netflix, Marvel's the Defenders, Season 1, The beginning of Episode 6, and it starts with Sigourney Weaver's character listening to an over-restored Victor MS.
She takes a pause at approximately second 58 because the needle starts to skip on the record.

Could it be because the reproducer was set down on the wrong side of the record???, Yikes!

All I see is a black screen with a sub title on it. It is a jpg. Should it be showing something?

All I see is a black screen with a sub title on it. It is a jpg. Should it be showing something?

I copied the picture, but when I saved it, it turned black. Probably something to prevent piracy.

Here is a picture off my computer monitor:

Zwebie wrote:I was watching Netflix, Marvel's the Defenders, Season 1, The beginning of Episode 6, and it starts with Sigourney Weaver's character listening to an over-restored Victor MS.
She takes a pause at approximately second 58 because the needle starts to skip on the record.

Could it be because the reproducer was set down on the wrong side of the record???, Yikes!

Hmmm...apparently, the film industry has forgotten how to play records! In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, there's a scene (set in 1943) in which everybody goes outside in the rain to play "Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run" on a perfectly authentic looking open horn machine--but the reproducer is set down on the wrong side of the record there, too! Right era for the record, wrong for the machine, wrong for how it works. But maybe the playing wrong side goof can be explained because Miss Peregrine is about to reverse time?

Well, bloopers or not, I enjoyed seeing the old machine in action. The movie is available on HBO on demand at the moment, for those who would like to check it out for themselves. If I might add, I really liked it, although I gather critical and audience reception was, to put it mildly, mixed when the thing came out. But then, I have a history of liking movies that are a bit off kilter.

drh wrote:
Hmmm...apparently, the film industry has forgotten how to play records!

I've noticed this quite a bit with the BBC programs imported to Public TV. As one example, I spotted this in the opening of the Miss Fisher episode, "Death & Hysteria" --
I could understand this if no conventional record players had been produced for decades, and no one alive today had seen one in action, but with the popularity of "vinyl" among the Millennials and the abundance of newly produced record players--and the fact that there are a gazillion videos and images of vintage gramophones on the internet--I chock it up to blatant stupidity on the part of the producers, directors, actors, etc.

OrthoFan

Of course, in "It's a Wonderful Life," Donna Reed's character, Mary Hatch, excitedly winds up and starts to play a Victrola when she learns George Bailey is coming to call. (Not sure which Victrola it is; might well be a VV-XVI.) Mary smashes the 78 when a frustrated and angry George leaves minutes later. (Of course, he famously returns moments later to retrieve his hat. And the rest, as they say, is cinematic history.)

OrthoFan wrote:

drh wrote:
Hmmm...apparently, the film industry has forgotten how to play records!

I've noticed this quite a bit with the BBC programs imported to Public TV. As one example, I spotted this in the opening of the Miss Fisher episode, "Death & Hysteria" --


OrthoFan

In Miss Fisher it's hit or miss. In some episodes they play beautiful authentic gramophones correctly, in others episodes they put the reproducer on the wrong side and also use really bad crapophones. Downton Abbey was similar in that perspective. Why? I'm not sure, since at least some people on the set know how to play records correctly. There also seems to be considerable effort to be authentic, so these gaffes are beyond my understanding.

Andreas