2012 Victor Talking Machine Roadshow

[Ampico66]

Hello from St. Louis, Missouri!

I've been taking my Victor III phonograph out to various events around the city. In addition to a couple of standing monthly engagements at local cafes, I've taken it to antique car shows, city parks, and I also participated in a local event at the Missouri History Museum.

The general public has been very amused by the phonograph. I like getting exposure for the hobby and teaching people a little about the history and mechanics of the original talking machines. I have met new friends and ultimately I would like to help get more people interested in the hobby. The records and machines are still being discarded and fewer and fewer people seem to have an interest in them.

Has anyone else had an opportunity to take their machines out in the world and show them off?

Damon

[Lucius1958]

I was asked to do a little exhibition once, to preface a silent film shown to a group of antique auto enthusiasts. I brought my Home and my BI (if I recall correctly), and as many auto-themed recordings as I could find in my collection. It was very well received....

[m0xiemama]

I have all floor models so far so not taking them around for me but we do keep my Granada on my porch so we can play music while out there. It is loud so the neighborhood gets to listen....like it or not.

[epigramophone]

I have given a number of presentations to local groups, mostly in village halls, but probably the most rewarding was one which I gave in a care home for the elderly.

Care homes organise various entertainments and activities for their residents, and our kind of music can be a valuable aid to reminiscence, even for those with a degree of memory loss.

Some of my presentations have been rewarding in other ways, although I never accept any payment. The more people are aware of my collecting interests, the more items I am offered.

[EFearing]

I taught elementary school for many years and would haul table tops and floor models to school and do a unit on early inventions and innovations. The kids were always facinated with the antiquated technology as were the other teachers. We would set the machines up in the library and let other classrooms come through. It was my students job to demonstrate and tell something about each machine and the technical advancements that have ocoured in the last hundred years. Imagine connecting history to the present. This was always a highlight of the students, and my year.

[52089]

In my high school German class, we were required to 2 short oral presentations each year (in German of course) on any subject of our own choice. Once I brought in my Edison Home cylinder player and demonstrated it. Of course I played a cylinder in German, the bird catcher's song from Mozart's Magic Flute.

In college, my music professor had an after party for one of his concerts and I provided the background music on my VV-IX.

And as I recently mentioned, I held a mini-concert at my local post office on my Amberola 30 to "prove" that Blue Amberols were actually sound recordings and could ship Media Mail.

[CarGuyZM10]

I had a history of american popular music class in college, and I had to give an oral presentation. Well, I made mine on early recording technology, and used my Victor VV-VIIIa to demonstrate acoustic playback.

Then I had to put together artifacts with a theme for a teaching class I had. Well, I chose Thomas Edison. My favorite two items I used were a note from the teacher saying how bad of a student he was, a morse code message, and of course, my Edison Standard, with my iPod piped into the tube of the morning glory horn to playback a recording I made about Thomas Edison, from the point of view of the phonograph. Then, after about two plays through, I put the tube back on the reproducer, and played cylinders for the class. They all got a hoot when I decided it was too loud (distracting the other presentations), so I ripped my shoe off and threw my sock in the horn!