Credenza of Homicide

[phonomaven]

I'd just read about Cody's Credenza of Sorrow when I came across something even scarier on TV last night: A Credenza of Homicide!

I was surfing channels and came across a show called "Nightmare Next Door" which is something like "Cold Case Files" meets "Desperate Housewives," on DiscoveryHD. Supposedly based on true crimes.

I would not recommend the show at all but this particular episode, called "Deadly Intentions" was about a 20 year-old unsolved mystery where a body was found stuffed inside of a newly placed cabinet behind a house in Buffalo, NY.

Well, yes, you guessed it, the cabinet was a gutted out 4-door Victrola Credenza 8-30X (no crank hole). They show the cabinet over and over again from various angles, including close-ups, so there is no doubt in the world what it is. However, the scenes are re-creations (no Edison jokes please;) so it's impossible to say if the actual cabinet to the real deadly deed was an 8-30X or not.

Still, quite a spooky murder mystery for collectors like us. Have a look on DiscHD for "Deadly Intentions" and see for yourselves if interested.

Just figured this was too bizarre not to pass along.

[marcapra]

I've seen a Victrola Credenza in a 1935 movie before. It was in a music dept. of a department store. I think the title was something like "Sing, Baby, Sing". but I challenge movie viewers if they have ever seen an Edison Diamond Disc machine in any movie other than current documentaries on phonographs. I never have.

[phonogfp]

I challenge movie viewers if they have ever seen an Edison Diamond Disc machine in any movie other than current documentaries on phonographs. I never have.

I think it's The Magnificent Ambersons where there's an A/B-250 in the background of a large room in a mansion (I suppose it could have been an Amberola IA/B). It was shown several times and was unmistakable.

George P.

[Kevan]

In Canada on CBC we have a show called Murdock Mysteries a turn of the century detective show and there is a Diamond disc machine on it often and is played too. In the opening there is a Columbia Q and I have seen a Amberola 30 also playing a BLACK!!!!cylinder. I was horrified. Thank god there was no diamond in the stylus. In fact I don't think there was a stylus in the reproducer.I think it is in it's 5th season. If you can find it and except some slip ups of the historical props it's a fun show. Kevan

[Silvertone]

I bought an Amberola 1A at an auction of a Hollywood prop house, but I have yet to find any movie or TV show that it was in. I did see a Three Stooges film that took place in a pawn shop and there was something that could have been an Edison upright in the background, but I couldn't get a good view of it.

[Dave]

I like old movies..so I'm watching "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"..you know the Tenneseee Williams play staring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman and Burl Ives made in 1958 ....anyway theres a scene towards the end of the film shot in the basement of Big Daddys house and it plainly shows what I think is A Victor or an HMV playing a record.I'm just not sure of the make. But the scene clearly shows a nice mahogany speartip horn attached.

[Cody K]

HEYWAITAMINNIT! If dey was hidin' stiffs innit, that means they musta gutted it, and THAT means the mechanicals MUST be around here somewhere! [rubs hands together] Lemme just see if I can get that guy with the cabinet on the phone!

[Cody K]

October is Credenza Month!

[mattrx]

This being "Credenza Month" (Thanks Cody), I would like to ask a favor. Can one you you Credenza owners post a picture of your machine's motor board area without the turntable installed? I am trying to find out the correct brake to buy for my Credenza I am restoring, and what the exact orientation of the brake should be.

Thanks,

Matt

[phonomaven]

Just from curiosity I googled the victim's name (and town) and sure enough it was a real homicide case from 1994 in Buffalo. None of the news accounts I read had specific info on the type of cabinet involved. It does make sense though as a lot of people just put Credenzas out to curb through the years and there might well have been one available to the killer to make morbid use of.

Turns out, the killer put the case (with body) in his own backyard and "discovered" the crime when he pretended to investigate the next day and a foot pushed out the front door when he and a friend tried to move it. He then called police and acted innocent. Amazing that they didn't catch the guy until 18 years later (dna evidence).

One re-created scene shows him wheeling the Credenza out into the yard at night on a dolly (which was done properly, side-loaded). Eerie.

October is "Credenza Month," yes that seems to fit!

HEYWAITAMINNIT! If dey was hidin' stiffs innit, that means they musta gutted it, and THAT means the mechanicals MUST be around here somewhere! [rubs hands together] Lemme just see if I can get that guy with the cabinet on the phone!

Yes, oddly enough, it turns out that you can! A ten-second search shows that the New York Department of Corrections has a web page where you can look up any inmate in the system: http://www.doccs.ny.gov/inmateinfo.html

Anyway, better a Credenza of Sorrow than a Credenza of Homicide, though in this case they were one and the same.

I should've sat on this spooky topic until Halloween.