New Guy Looking For Electrola Identification

[vince in IL]

Okay, so I have this liking for old stuff, and for nice woodwork too. This leads to my schlepping various bits of furniture and other odds and ends home from trash piles, antique and resale shops, etc. Friends will snicker that I also live in an example of old woodwork that needs attention, too.

This seems like an interesting place to find useful information about old music machines.

I'll freely admit that I'm unlikely to get all enthusiastic about the sound of 78 RPM records and external horns as I'm a bit hard of hearing due to nerve damage.

But that didn't stop me from eyeballing an old Electrola that appeared in a Chicago-area Goodwill store last week. The cabinet was pretty complete and looked okay, but it was missing everything inside but the turntable and motor. Dusty, dirty, bird crap on some parts. No sign of a serial tag or paper anywhere. The price was also more than I wanted to spend.

So I waited a whole week, and this morning it was still there, price reduced, and I had a discount coupon. I was already feeling guilty for leaving it there a whole week to get bumped into, messed with, etc. So tonight it's cleaned up a bit and sleeping in a Victorian house, looking at other old wooden furnishings.

I would like to think it might be possible to gather the necessary information about what it should have in the cabinet and other bits and return it to it's original use rather than just make it a cool CD storage cabinet. Looking at pictures on ebay and other websites has given me some ideas.

I've attached some blurry cellphone pictures, and I'm wondering if some kind soul might be willing to give me their two cents on what else should be under the turntable; right now it's totally empty in there. Comments on what model it might have been are also welcome.

Hey, at least it's not getting busted up for firewood!

Thanks much,

vince

[Uncle Vanya]

You have there indeed an odd bird!

When the Victor company first offered talking machines with electric reproduction they purchased the electronic parts from the Radio Corporation of America. The Radio Corporation was at that time a patent pooling and marketing arrangement, with no production facilities of its own, most products being made to its order by General Electric or Westinghouse. The management at RCA were interested in purchasing Victor Talking Machine so that thye could obtain its large manufacturing and distribution facilities.

In 1928, Seligman, Speyer & Co., the banking house which then owned Victor, was negotiation the sale of the Victor assets to the Radio Corporation. The management realized that they had a weak negotiating position as long as they relied upon their potential buyer for the mechanisms for their most modern and most profitable products, so the Victor engineering staff was instructed to develop a radio-phonograph combination which would us only the patents available to it through its general RCA license.

The result of this development work was the Victor RE-45 radio-phonograph combination, a one of the better selling sets of the 1929 season. You have what appears to be a very scarce variant of this set, possibly a pre-production version. The production RE-45 used a plainer cabinet, and a newly designed tone arm and reproducer. Your machine uses the tone arm and pickup typical of the 1928 season machines. Your machine appears to need some cabinet parts, but I think that these could be obtained from a common RE-45. The RE45 was a rather easily found machine until a couple of years ago, when there was a considerable fad in the Far East for the amplifiers ripped from these machines. Still, it would be well worth your while to bide your time until you could find an imperfect RE-45 for parts, as the machine that you now own is something of a rarity, though it may not be terribly valuable, since late electric phonographs are not yet avidly collected.

Another poster here, Skihawx, would doubtless know a great deal more about your machine, as he is pretty much THE expert in all of these late Victor products.

If you do not care to undertake the quite time consuming restoration of this set, I'm sure that you will find one member or another who would be willing to offer a reasonable price, or perhaps a working machine in trade.

I find it interesting that the remnants of the inner panel of this set differs from the ordinary RE-45, having trim elements which were used on a 1927 vintage acoustic Victrola, the VV-4-40.

[vince in IL]

Uncle Vanya, thank you for the great history lesson and ID info. I spent quite a bit of time searching, trying to figure out what it was. I kinda got the feeling it was more rare or unusual that valuable,and you confirmed it. Thank you for also pointing out the unusual differences from the RE45s, it would have had me wondering because every RE45 I've seen is pretty much the same. I've attached pictures of the Electrola logo under the lid, the inside of the cabinet, which shows no evidence of any decals or tag, the unusual upper section of the inner panel, and the table with the turntable removed for cleaning.

Hopefully Skihawx will see the discussion and chime in with his info, others are welcome as well.

I do want to do like you suggest, clean it up, repair the damaged areas, wait for an opportunity to buy the RE45 components it needs to make it complete and functional, and appreciate it for oddball seems to be.

I enjoy looking through the posts here, and am glad I've found another interesting place to visit online.

Thank you!

vince