The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The Edison Blue Amberols were used for the 'sound track' of the enormous scale model of the Panama Canal. Visitors got a guided 'aerial' tour from the comfort of their seats. Allen Koenigsberg wrote a great article about that in a 1970s issue of Antique Phonograph Monthly. I need to go dig that up and take another look.

There's a new book on the fair that just came out: "San Francisco's Jewel City" by Laura Ackley. The most comprehensive book to date, lots of fun.

As a sneak preview, the March issue of The Antique Phonograph will have an article by Robert Baumbach about phonographs at the Fair, with some great illustrations as well.

Bob wrote an article in the June 2004 issue of The Sound Box, as the magazine used to be titled, about the Victor pavillion built for the Fair, which is now in San Rafael, CA, a few miles from me. We were fortunate to be able to tour it during restoration.

The Panama Canal display: that does ring a bell now that you say it! Wouldn't you love to hear one of the cylinders? Many thanks for the reference to the new study of the Pan-American Expositon. I looked up and I have in fact just this minute ordered the Ackley book. You are a fund of wisdom! I have always been interested in that fair, for whatever occult reason . It always represents for me a kind of ceremonial farewell to the Edwardian Era/Belle Epoque/" Good Years" : by the time that Fair ended we were firmly entrenched in the modern era...for good or ill.

Jim

I saw Laura Ackley on PBS this last week. It was an hour long show where she talked about the 1915 PPIE and the official PPIE website is below:

http://www.ppie100.org/history/


Here are some others for 1915 PPIE browsing as well:

http://spoonplanet.com/panpac.html

http://1915ppie.com/site/tower-of-jewels.html

http://www.sanfranciscomemories.com/ppie/

http://1915ppie.com/

http://www.ppie1915.org/

http://www.sfimages.com/history/PPIE.html


Enjoy!

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

Check out this ebay link to the pics of the Sonora Radio Phonograph booth...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Large-1915 ... 5d5465e075





Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

NEFaurora wrote:Check out this ebay link to the pics of the Sonora Radio Phonograph booth...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Large-1915 ... 5d5465e075





Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

The seller is probably misinformed: note the prominently displayed radios: they are from about a decade later than the PPIE.

Bill

"The seller is probably misinformed: note the prominently displayed radios: they are from about a decade later than the PPIE."

Thanks Bill!

I thought that the timeframe was a little off from the phonos.. seeing as how radio really didn't take hold until 1922 really.

That makes sense Bill. Thanks for point that out. I thought that it looked a little weird....but then I said to myself, Well, It's a World's fair Exposition, so maybe they had the cutting edge of 1915 on display...!

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer