Capeharts Anyone? Capehart Model 501H

[rodpickett]

Just some Capehart trivia.

My paternal grandparents were domestic employees of Alvin and Susanna Capehart, parents of Homer Capehart, Capehart Phonograph Corporation.

They met in 1916 while employed on the Capehart Farm, 1916, in Polo Illinois when Homer was a teenager. My grandmother, a talented seamstress, made clothes for the Capehart family and my grandfather was foreman of the farming operations. They were married on the Capehart Farm and I still have the wedding gifts, given to them by the Capehart’s, a biscuit-bowl and a milk-pitcher. My father was born there in 1919 and I also have several photos of my grandfather on the Capehart farm and a quilt my grandmother made during that time.

And yes, I do own a beautiful Capehart Amperion.

[A Ford 1]

Hi All,
I have a friend that has two different examples of the Capehart Model 500 I think they both have the 18 inch speakers. I have asked him and hope he will post photos of them in the near future. One of them is in his basement and he does not seem to think it will make a good back ground but I am sure a sheet back drop might help.
Allen

[ketron281989]

Way way back I had an experience with a Capehart. I got it from a dealer but for the longest time I tried to get it to run again. Several dealers had it for upwards of six months and claimed they couldn't make it work.. When I went to the last repair shop to bring it back home I had a 16 year old school mate who came along to help load it.. On the way home he said why don't you bring it by my house and I will take a look at it. In about 15 minutes he had the turntable functioning just as it should have. The radio and sound system was already working the turntable which was what I was interested in wouldn't. Turned out it had mercury switch that controlled some of the mechanical functions and he freed it up and it worked. That was after months of trying to get professional shops to make it run. Tunny how some people just have a knack for knowing things and others don't.

Sadly I eventually put the turntable out for the junk man when I moved and figured I didn't really need it. For one thing it was prone to breaking some records and I didn't care for that feature of it.

Larry

Larry,

Thank you for sharing your Capehart story. I imagine many non-Capehart employed radio/record player technicians scratched their heads on the Capehart deluxe 16-E/41-E/2 changers after Capehart stopped production of the line circa 1949. They are a complex restoration, even the radio part too!

Jon

[ketron281989]

Just some Capehart trivia.

My paternal grandparents were domestic employees of Alvin and Susanna Capehart, parents of Homer Capehart, Capehart Phonograph Corporation.

They met in 1916 while employed on the Capehart Farm, 1916, in Polo Illinois when Homer was a teenager. My grandmother, a talented seamstress, made clothes for the Capehart family and my grandfather was foreman of the farming operations. They were married on the Capehart Farm and I still have the wedding gifts, given to them by the Capehart’s, a biscuit-bowl and a milk-pitcher. My father was born there in 1919 and I also have several photos of my grandfather on the Capehart farm and a quilt my grandmother made during that time.

And yes, I do own a beautiful Capehart Amperion.

Thank you for sharing your family history associated with the Capehart family. Most interesting! Very nice. I too once owned an Amperion, model H coil-op jukebox version. The Amperion is a very nice mechanism, a simple mechanism compared to the Orchestrope before it!


Jon