Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

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Dischoard
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Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by Dischoard »

I've searched the forum to see if this has been discussed. I had no luck.

Unless I'm mistaken, that looks to be a VV-XVI in It's A Wonderful Life with just a couple of discrepancies;

A shot of the front of the cabinet and inside the lid, there's even the key in the front
wonderful1.jpeg

Another shot of the front with the layout of the motorboard. Except here the tonearm is silver BUT this is
the colorized version so that was most likely somebody who were going on the most common machines, the VV-XI et al.
wonderful2.jpeg
You can see the carving on the upper legs here, looks very much like my XVI. That reproducer though, anybody know
the origins of that?
wonderful3.jpeg
And of course I'd love to find that version of the song but I don't think it exists, I think it was recorded for the movie but
alas, they certainly didn't do film credits like they do now. I'll have to speak to Dimitri Tiomkin!

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AZ*
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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by AZ* »

It was previously mentioned in the "Wind-up Phonographs in Movies" thread several years ago. See member New Yorker's post here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23156&p=190173

There is a forum member who uses the Mary smashing record scene as his avatar.

I NEVER watch colorized versions of films, or listen to fake stereo. :lol:
Best regards ... AZ*

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by Inigo »

I've seen that soundbox somewhere... The holes in the front cover are characteristic of xxxx... :roll:
I believe the record she plays, which is the leit motiv song in many scenes of the film, indeed never existed out of the film. I think it was discussed some times at 78-L. When I started collecting 78s it was one in my list of Holy Grial records to get, only to discover years later that it didn't exist commercially. Same as Dooley Wilson's version of As Time Goes By... :D
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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by GregVTLA »

I always thought this was an L-door XVI

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by Dischoard »

AZ* wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:36 am
I NEVER watch colorized versions of films, or listen to fake stereo. :lol:
Probably for the best, I guess you don't have to get it right when colorizing, just make it look nice.

And this record https://www.discogs.com/Procol-Harum-Pr ... se/1094230 is the reason
that "Electronically Re-Processed" should have died with this album.

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by JerryVan »

The reproducer is from a Brunswick Panatrope portable.

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by Dischoard »

JerryVan wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:46 pm The reproducer is from a Brunswick Panatrope portable.
Interesting, is it a good fit? Seems something like that would need some sort of retro-fit.

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by EarlH »

GregVTLA wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 8:59 am I always thought this was an L-door XVI
It is a later L-door machine.

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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by Inigo »

And that reccrod label? Seems one of those records made in a recording machine (recordio or something) as it seems to have those three holes in a triangle.
The attachment wonderful1 (2).jpeg is no longer available
Later, when Mary takes the record and breaks it against the machine corner, the label seems different:
The attachment Picture-20.png is no longer available
BTW, there seems to be a photo of the machine during a rest at filming work, Frank Capra leaning on it...
wonderful1 (2).jpeg
wonderful1 (2).jpeg (39.79 KiB) Viewed 641 times
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Re: Victor Victrola XVI in It's A Wonderful Life?

Post by gunnarthefeisty »

Inigo wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 5:47 am And that reccrod label? Seems one of those records made in a recording machine (recordio or something) as it seems to have those three holes in a triangle.
wonderful1 (2).jpeg
Later, when Mary takes the record and breaks it against the machine corner, the label seems different:
Picture-20.png
BTW, there seems to be a photo of the machine during a rest at filming work, Frank Capra leaning on it...
MV5BZjU2NTkyNGMtYTA3Mi00OGY1LWI5NDYtZDQxYjg2NTZmYWFmXkEyXkFq.jpg
that second picture looks awfully familiar...

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