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JohnM wrote:As a side-note, there were fibre needles produced with round shanks on them to fit the earlier round needle chucks. I would suspect that this is the original form of the fibre needle, and they became completely triangular after the deal with Victor. The triangular needles would have fit only Victors until the rest of the industry changed the shape of their needle chucks. I wonder if Victor attempted to patent the triangular chuck?

I recall there was some form of adaptor to take the triangular fibre needles into a round chuck (I think I have one in a HMV box of fibre needles). I have a box of B&H needles, and they were triangular from tip to end. I also have a few with the round shanks, but they came from Japan (although I vaguely do recall seeing round shank ones made by HMV that came in a paper match book style of packaging).

De Soto Frank wrote:For what it's worth, my L-door XVI, s/n 19362 C(stamped over top "B") has a round-hole Exhibition.

The original sales receipt is from John Wanamaker, February 1911.

actually, I was asking in part to figure out which to use on my 1909 VTLA...so it is worth quite a bit.

Here's a quick snap of my sales receipt and of the reproducer.

Will try to get some better pics of the repro , especially the needle chuck, etc.

If I'm really feeling ambitious, I'll try to have a look at the label on the cabinet.

Regards,

Frank

(PS: pretty sure my machine is labelled "VV-XVI", as opposed to VTLA. )

I have to say, I envy that little piece of paper. I like the idea of having as much paper related to the machine as possible...just makes things a little more "complete."

Well, the paper "provenance", complete set of original record folder-boxes AND records, as well as the over-all condition of the machine made me decide to grab it...

It wasn't cheap at the time ( I believe I paid around $750 for it), probably eight years ago.

Getting all the "patent-label" records with it (still haven't gone through them all), was like opening a time-capsule from 1910-11...

Nice Victrola. The invoice suggests that Mr. Jones purchased the machine on February 19, 1910, and completed payment on February 22, 1911. But how does a $200 Victrola plus records and interest equal $204.40? Perhaps an earlier Victor was traded in? Interesting.

If you live near Philadelphia, you should track down the address to see if the original house is still standing.

George P.

Ah, the miracle of googlemap! Look it up. The house is a typical Philadelphia 2-story row house; 2108 South Mole St. is near Passyunk and Snyder. Anybody in south Philly could get you there. The original (actually the second) Wanamaker's building, rebadged Macy's IIRC, is still very much standing tall on the southeast side of City Hall (Penn) Square, corner of Market.

P.S. Looking again at the googlemap photos: geez, they must have filmed the original Rocky movie on S. Mole St. Use the panorama arrows to see the entire scene!

phonogfp wrote:Nice Victrola. The invoice suggests that Mr. Jones purchased the machine on February 19, 1910, and completed payment on February 22, 1911. But how does a $200 Victrola plus records and interest equal $204.40? Perhaps an earlier Victor was traded in? Interesting.

If you live near Philadelphia, you should track down the address to see if the original house is still standing.

George P.

George,

I've wondered about the dates on the invoice since getting this machine (we found each other in Scranton, PA).

I am wondering if Mr. Jones purchased the machine on Feb 19 , 1911, and paid it off a few days later, on Feb 22, 1911, and perhaps the clerk made a mistake entering "1910" instead of 1911 ?

A whole year seems to be a long time to have put a new Victrola on lay-away ?

Next time I get down to Philly, I intend to look up that address, just to see what's there...

Henry wrote:Ah, the miracle of googlemap! Look it up. The house is a typical Philadelphia 2-story row house; 2108 South Mole St. is near Passyunk and Snyder. Anybody in south Philly could get you there. The original (actually the second) Wanamaker's building, rebadged Macy's IIRC, is still very much standing tall on the southeast side of City Hall (Penn) Square, corner of Market.

P.S. Looking again at the googlemap photos: geez, they must have filmed the original Rocky movie on S. Mole St. Use the panorama arrows to see the entire scene!

Thanks for the link Henry.... a little further research revealed that the entire block was rebuilt with row-homes in 1920...

http://www.trulia.com/homes/Pennsylvani ... a-PA-19145

Wonder what the neighborhood was like before it was "re-developed", just after WW-I... ?

DS Frank

Thanks, Frank. I'm mildly surprised that 2108 is from 1920, but so be it.

Still good enough for Rocky!