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I recently watched a BBC movie called "The Lost Prince".The machine that Prince John had was clearly a Crap-O-Phone!edisonplayer

edisonplayer wrote:I recently watched a BBC movie called "The Lost Prince".The machine that Prince John had was clearly a Crap-O-Phone!edisonplayer

That's why he was lost

Andreas

That was not the only error by the props department in an otherwise excellent film. Queen Mary is shown visiting Prince John in a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce. It should have been a Daimler. No British monarch or their consort used Rolls-Royces as official transport until the accession of the present Queen Elizabeth II.

epigramophone wrote:That was not the only error by the props department in an otherwise excellent film. Queen Mary is shown visiting Prince John in a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce. It should have been a Daimler. No British monarch or their consort used Rolls-Royces as official transport until the accession of the present Queen Elizabeth II.

How could they possibly make such a huge glaring mistake like that!

haha. Thanks for the history lesson

In addition to a legitimate Victor, there was a crap-o-phone shown (and played!) in Downton Abby. I wonder how/why they lost the use of the real thing?

Awhile ago I watched Taxi! (1932) with James Cagney on TCM. Near the beginning of the film, there's a Gabel's Automatic Entertainer playing (which shows how long these machines were in use!). A little later, a portable machine is being played, but I couldn't tell the make.

George P.

The second season of "The Durrells in Corfu" is airing on PBS in the US. There is horn a machine shown in some scenes in the background. They may have played it in season 1.

There is a scene in the new Wonder Woman movie where a few characters are in a bar, and there is some outside-horn machine I can't quite make out. It's set in mid World War 1, so it's not quite that out-of-date.

Nearly every production relies upon prop houses to provide the appropriate items for the props used in the film. About a decade ago, several of the older prop houses around Hollywood went out of business and the assets were auctioned off. I bought several machines at these auctions including a nice Amberola 1A. I haven’t yet been able to find a movie featuring this model, but I’m still looking.

Most of the outside horn machines at these auctions had the motors removed, probably to make them easier to move around. The result of all this was that the older prop houses were no longer in business so the studios went to the newer prop houses who didn’t have the vintage inventory of the old shops. They stocked what was easy to find and cheap. That is why you see so many crap-o-phones on new productions.

I was really dismayed when I recently took the Warner Brothers tour and their prop department had only crap-o-phones. They should have known better but they don’t care. On a side note, I was able to by a nice Capehart 500 that came out of Warner Brothers.

Silvertone wrote: About a decade ago, several of the older prop houses around Hollywood went out of business and the assets were auctioned off. I bought several machines at these auctions including a nice Amberola 1A. I haven’t yet been able to find a movie featuring this model, but I’m still looking.

It's hard to tell an Amberola 1A from a Diamond Disc A/B 250 when it's sitting in the background, but there's a scene where one of these machines it there. I think it's either Suspicion (1941), or Rebecca (1940). (Okay, so I like Joan Fontaine - sue me.) I haven't seen either film for several years, so I can't be sure...

George P.

I just watched "Horror of Dracula" (1958) on DVD. There's a scene with Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) recording and playing back on a cylinder machine. The time period of the action is 1885. I am totally ignorant about cylinder machines, so if anyone here can elaborate on this particular one, here's your chance.