Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

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VanEpsFan1914
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by VanEpsFan1914 »

Harold Lloyd hones his shaving razor on the platter of an off-brand upright in Captain Kidd's Kids. At least if I remember right. And in Girl Shy there is a VV-50 Victrola on the table in The Flapper's room playing (presumably) a jazz record as he tries cave man tactics.

I think Lloyd is the funniest man to ever go before the cameras.

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AZ*
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by AZ* »

A Credenza is shown (but not played) in one scene from 1933 crime movie, "Blondie Johnson" starring Joan Blondell.
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Retrograde
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by Retrograde »

Rex Harrison... "Looks beautiful, but I can't get a damn bit of sound out of it!"
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AmberolaAndy
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by AmberolaAndy »

From the 1953 film “Those Redheads From Seattle.” Movie is set in 1898 but the Edison Home shown is probably about 5 years newer than that, and the horn about 10 years.
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recordmaker
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by recordmaker »

Krakatoa east of Java (1969)
The ship captain is seen assembling this familiar machine in 1883 on board ship. The anachronism does not appear later in the film.
The fact that Krakatoa is West of Java seems to have been missed by the fact checkers however and remains in the film title.
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by AmberolaAndy »

In the trailer for the 1955 film Pete Kelly’s Blues, Jack Webb shows an outside horn machine (appears to be a Columbia?) and refers to it as a “1927 Hifi”. More like a 1907 hifi. You’d think they knew better since the movie took place only 28 years earlier.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RSQtLnlxASU

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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by mhamilton »

In Sabrina (1954) there's scene with Bogart on the rowboat with Audrey Hepburn and they're playing a portable phono from Bogart's college days.

There's an old made for TV movie, Nightmare on the 13th Floor, in which an Edison cylinder machine is featured as part of the plot. Sadly the music is not from the cylinder machine but is a studio recording. It's actually a decent TV movie with a good cast--James Brolin, John Carlen, Louise Fletcher, Michele Greene.

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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by Inigo »

Strangers On A Train, Hitchcock, 1951, features a typical music store, where actress Ruth Roman is a clerk. In this scene you can see the shelves with 78s and album sets, and they enter in a music booth to talk about the divorce. A Webcor-like record player can be seen on the table.
https://youtu.be/flGzyqXUj68
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Henry
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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by Henry »

That'a not Ruth Roman in those pictures, it's actress Kasey Rogers, a/k/a Laura Elliott, as the record store clerk. See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044079/?r ... lmg_act_78, and specifically photos no. 1, and 27-30 (record store scene). I don't know who that is in your fourth photo, but it's neither Rogers nor Roman! Rogers's character, Miriam, is the wife of Farley Granger's character Guy, and she's one of the intended murder victims. Her superficial resemblance to Patricia Hitchcock's character is a significant plot element later in the movie.

Aside from phonographs, a main interest for me in the film is the train. Lots of nice action shots on what is today Amtrak's Northeast Corridor mainline, with the Pennsylvania Railroad's legendary GG-1 electric at the head end of the train. Nobody who ever saw the fabled G-motors in action will ever forget them! Plus, there are some tantalizingly brief shots taken in the late, lamented Pennsylvania Station in New York City.
Last edited by Henry on Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Wind-up Phonographs in Movies

Post by Inigo »

Thanks for the remarks and corrections. I don't know this actress well, and the cast photos @ imdb sometimes don't help, for the featured artists' photos are more modern than in the film.
The other girl seen in photos no. 5, also in 2 (faraway at the left) and 4 (nearer) is the second clerk behind the counter, I think she's uncredited at imdb. Cannot find her... added the photo because she's inventorying the records, and what I was interested in was the shelves and album sets behind.

I love to see old record stores in photos and films.

One I remember especially is Penny Serenade where Irene Dunne spends a lot of film shots with records and the victrola (the leit motiv used as thread to chain her memories and develop the plot). Also the long scene at the music store where she's a clerk. It's incredible how Cary Grant is supposed to take with him a huge lot of shellac records from the store when they leave, carrying them by the streets as if they weighed 15 pounds only!
Later, on scenes at their home, when married, a low console humpback Victrola is shown several times, and Irene plays records on it while cleaning the house.
Edit --- I've found in imdb two adverts for the film including images of record and victrola:
MV5BNzU0ZjUzYmQtZGQ5OS00MTdiLThkMmUtNzgwZjExODRlNGZjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDMxNjY1NTU@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,352,1000_AL_.jpg
Last edited by Inigo on Fri Sep 06, 2019 6:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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