The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

How sad that picture is. I wonder if it may show the debris from a fire or flood in a store or warehouse.

Clay

This photo can be found on page 198 of Antique Phonograph Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gimmicks. At the bottom left corner, you can see the man (who is dropping an upright cabinet upside down) has a leg on each side of a stairway leading to a basement. Two men are below him, handing up the damaged merchandise. (To my eye, these look like Columbia Grafonolas.) The presence of hoses, and the wet, hosed-off condition of the bricked alley, along with the tables to the left holding salvaged mechanical bits of the machines, leads me to believe that this image captured the cleanup following a flood. (The photo is easier to see in the book.) My esteemed colleague wrote the caption for this, and we disagreed at the time about the circumstances, but that's my take, and I'd date this around 1920.

George P.

Here's a slightly better scan of the photo: Thanks to George Paul for permission to post!

Bob

This photo always reminds me of August 2, 1986. The town where we lived at the time experienced a flood, and we had 5 feet of water in our basement. My collection was upstairs - thank goodness - but there were 21 phonographs in the basement in various states of repair. The flood occurred on August 1, and the next day, our driveway looked much like this photo. What a nightmare...

George P.

Looks like flood victims to me... I see a LOT of bubbled veneer...

Sad scene indeed.

1923VictorFan wrote:They made nice boxes and were of course excellent as firewood.

Speaking of firewood, old radios have no love also, especially at a recent radio show held in the east.

George I think you're right about the 1920 date, judging from the clothes.
This pic reminds me of the department store story ( which I believe was Wannamakers) that I've told before. A friend of mine had a buddy who's Grandfather worked for the store in the early 'teens. It was decided to discontinue handling open horn machines, so after a final " all open horned machines must go!" sale, they stripped the mechanisms and tossed the cabinets and horns down the freight elevator shaft to be burnt in the boiler room. I suspect that story is far from unique.

Jim

Looking at the picture of all the phonos being junked reminds me that more that things change, the more they remain the same.....

There's an auction that I go to once a months, and the entire property is outlined in TV's that didn't sell. One in particular, is a 1955-1957 Westinghouse model, that I would have GLADLY bought for $2, but, it's been there for longer than I've been going. Shame.