Your First Phonograph - Share Your Story

[Energ15]

My first machine was the Edison Standard Phonograph model A. I still have it and has proved to be a very, very reliable machine! Because of the early model, it is of course a 2 minute player. Although I have other machines, since the standard was my first, I consider it to be my "prized possession". Although, I didn't get it passed down or anything like that. I bought it from a long-time collector on eBay who was trying to sell some of his beautiful machines. I got it for $425 and it came with five records and a 14" witch hat horn. It has never been repaired. The banner on the front is original and it has the original wood gloss. All the parts are original! And best of all, it has a very strong motor which makes it ideal to make home recordings on. I later bought a large black horn which very much compliments it. I have it displayed in the corner of my living room for any visitors to see.

-EnerG15

[phonogfp]

My story isn't as interesting as most of the others here. I'm the younger of two brothers, and my brother is eight years older than I am. With such an age difference, Steve naturally wasn't anxious to have me spend much time around him. (It wasn't until I was sixteen, hanging around my best friend's house with his eight year-old brother that I realized how annoying I must have been...)

My brother Steve is strongly attracted to old things - - which didn't help to keep me away from his room. It was filled with antique firearms, swords, models of antique cars, and various objects that I couldn't stay away from. He even had a small cannon in there. When I was eight or nine, it was pretty easy to keep me out - - simply lock the door. Eventually I learned to pick the lock. When Steve modified the lock, I learned to use stiff paper to open the bolt. It really must have been charming to live with me. Then when I was about twelve, Steve brought home a Victrola 100 that had been given to him. A bell went off in my little pubescent brain. Now I was driven to wind up that Victrola and hear that corny music. The look of the polished mahogany, green turntable felt, and the shiny black record while the No. 2 sound box gently nodded over its surface was magical. It even smelled cool. I'm sure I became more annoying than ever. To make matters worse, Steve later added a Victrola IX. Plus a deadbolt. I'd lay on the floor in the hallway while Steve taunted me with the music.

Then, one spring day in 1967, I came home from school to find a wonderful, spectacular surprise in my bedroom. Steve had obtained a small oak Aeolian-Vocalion, and gave it to me (probably to keep me out of his hair), along with some records and needles. I don't think I ever lay outside his locked door again - - everything I wanted was now in my own room. Within months, others followed. I traded that Aeolian-Vocalion in the summer of 1973 for an Edison Standard Model C with an ICS repeater. I've never regretted parting with it, but I must admit that should I ever encounter it for sale, I'd be awfully tempted to buy it back!

George P.

[Ampico66]

I sold my first phonograph to a Belgian for $85 in 2004. I just didn't love the little green HMV portable with the destroyed pot metal reproducer. I did take our photo together before I sold it, however.

[Brad]

My first machine was a VV-XVI that I saw at an estate auction just down the street from my house. I commented to my wife how nice it looked but sighed and said "We could never afford it". While waiting for some lanterns to come up, the Victrola came up and the auctioneer kept lowering the price. It got down to $200 and my wife said, go for it. Three hands went up, the auctioneer bounced between the other two until he was at $250. The auctioneer looked at me and said "bid $275?" my wife said yes, I raised my hand and quickly found myself the proud owner. It has been a constant quest to acquire that next machine since then. I still have this machine and listen to it quite often. I have collected all sorts of things since I was a kid, but, acoustic phonographs has certainly been the most fun.

[Kirkwood]

How very remarkable that so many of us started collecting with a lowly Victrola VV 1-1 (a.k.a. Victrolita). My first, too, was the humble 1-1. I was 9 or 10 years old, it was 1965, and I spied it in a barn just a few doors down the street. (This was in small-town rural upstate NY, and many homes adjoined working farmland at the time.) This barn had all sorts of neat stuff in it: old treadle powered woodworking tools, old cast iron kitchen ranges, buggy wheels, an ice box, oak dining room set, etc etc. As a kid, I thought the barn and its contents were "abandoned" but my father quickly educated me that such a property may be "un-occupied" but it wasn't "abandoned". I could look at the Victrola, but had to ask the property owner if I could buy it. The barn leaked terribly, the Victrola was weather-beaten and nearly falling to pieces. I wanted it. Period. The owner eventually came by to clear the property contents and I summoned the courage walk there with my Father to ask about the Victrola. The owner just laughed----"Shoot, you can have that thing!" I was delighted! Like every VV 1-1, it's a miserably underpowered thing, although mine will get through an entire side of a 10 inch disc on one winding. That tension spring used to hold the crank in position (so it doesn't fly backwards and un-wind the motor) proved to be a miserable thing to work on. I was lucky enough to get another VV 1-1 some years later on and between the 2 machines ended up with a complete unit that looks good and sounds---well, *it plays*, lets just put it that way. I still have it, some 45 years later......

[hillndalefan]

My first old phonograph was a Victrola 215-S, given to me by my parents as a Christmas present in 1961. They had paid $5.00 for it. It's interesting to think that I've now been collecting longer than the age of that machine at the time I received it. My first cylinder machine was an Edison Amberola-30 [with the gold pinstriping and nickel plated reproducer] that I bought in Freeport, Ill. in the summer of 1963 for $35.00. With both machines, I was in heaven and thoroughly hooked. The early discs I had started collecting in 1961 sounded so much better on my Victrola. Bob Ault

[Valecnik]

My first phono was an Edison Diamond disc Hepplewhite in Oak, Fleur de lis grill with original grillcloth mostly entact. I got it at a small antique shop in Ada, Minnesota in about 1980. It did not run. The spring was tightly wound and would not unwind. The finish was very poor. It had no reproducer, no records but I knew what kind of records it took. I think I paid $125 for it. It took me about a year to get in contact with some collectors who pointed me to Musical Americana where I got a nos gun metal reproducer for another $125 or so. Needless to say this would not be a money maker! Within a few months I'd found a collector/dealer in Minneapolis who sold me several dozen diamond disc records. The rest is history...

[beaumonde]

Twelve years ago I was in an antique mall (now gone) on Belmont Ave. on the north side of Chicago, picking up a watch I was having repaired. I noticed a mahogany portable Victrola (VV-50) in the stall near the cashier, and was entranced. I had become interested in vintage phonographs a few years before, read The Talking Machine Compendium (which had just come out) and various other books, but never thought I'd dabble in these myself. But I took the plunge (for what seems in retrospect a pretty reasonable price for an antique mall -- $145 -- and the VV-50 was in pretty nice condition) and brought it home.

I was such a newbie, it's somewhat embarrassing to admit that I first placed the tonearm on the left side of the record instead of the right.... ...and it didn't play very well. I called up the mall, and was put in touch with a local collector, who offered to service the motor (didn't actually need much) and instruct me in its operation. We became quite friendly, though he was a real oddball (and had a severe machine acquisitive disorder; he crammed them into his basement, inter alia, and couldn't even reach the ones he had bought 10 years before).

Anyway, I still have the VV-50. And a few others!

[SignatureSeriesOwner]

On the evening of February 26th, this year, I was browsing through Craigslist. I often do, looking for 1920's-40's radios, but, this time I typed in "Victrola" just to see. A friend of my fathers used to have his grandfathers Victrola (I think an Orthophonic model, hard to remember) sitting in a corner of what was once his daughters playroom back in the 80's. I loved it. Of course, dad wouldn't let me touch it, and, seeing how I was 5-6 then, I could see why. But I fell in love.

Anyway, I typed in Victrola, and clicked the "Search" button. After seeing a few for $500-$2,000, I thought I was totally out of my league. But there was one at the very top, for $225. That, I could afford. It had just been posted that evening, about an hour earlier, so I sent an e-mail. Two days later, I got a phone call. She was going down her list to see who wanted it, and I was first on the list. I was currently on the way to the doctor because my bronchitis wasn't getting any better, so I told her I would be there around 3. I asked her "Where in Norfolk are you located?" as it was posted on the Norfolk craigslist. "Norfolk? Is that where she posted that thing? No, I'm in Camden, NC." Crap. Basically a 2 or hour drive, IIRC. I told her it would be around 5, instead of three, due to the location. Kind of cool though, it was built in Camden, N.J, and resided in Camden, NC. Got there at five, and BOY had that sky gotten DARK. Pulled up a weather app on my phone, and sure enough, snowstorm headed my way. Wouldn't be a problem if it was in Nofolk, but I was in N.C. Uh oh.

We loaded it on, wrapped all the corners, lid, and back in towels, and secured it with bungee cords so it wouldn't move, and I was off. I had to beat that storm. The way the Radar had the edge of the storm near me displayed, if I could just get on the highway towards the state line quick enough, I may be able to outrun it. Ran into a few extremely brief flakes hitting my windshield, thankfully, the "wind tunnel" effect the truck had kept snow from hitting the finish. Got to the toll booth about 5 miles from the state line, and it all came down at once. Pulled over, threw three towels overtop of it, covered it up, and sat there, holding them until the snow stopped. Got back in the truck, and the rest of the trip wasn't very eventful.
And here it is today, looking as close to new as possible, honestly. New Life Furniture Polish works wonders.


Oh yeah, and it turned out to be an VV-XVII, what luck!

[frenchmarky]

I still have my first phonograph, my beloved little Victrola VV-210. I'd heard my first acoustic machine in an antique shop within a few months of buying this machine. I was totally blown away by how these old machines sounded. Couldn't believe some clunky, all-mechanical, wind-up phonograph with a steel needle could sound so loud and clear!!
I've probably had this machine for 15 years. Self-repairs I've done are replacing and finishing the veneer on the lid; disassembly and cleaning/regreasing of the motor springs with hi-tech synthetic grease; soundbox rebuild; general clean/lube/adjust of the motor gears, bearings, and tonearm pivots/bearings; new platter cloth.