The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

In 1928 and 1929 Victor did a very clever series of ads of which this is one. They were meant to convey the very essence of the Jazz age: clever, witty , sophisticated and breezy. They were all written from the point of view of someone who got the Orthophonic yen and managed to get the Victrola of their dreams.
JRT

Thanks for posting this! I truly enjoyed reading it. It's ironic how the old Victrola is described as "passe'", when, years earlier, Victor was most likely advertising it (during the time "of the first Liberty Loan") as the most high quality best sounding machine you could possibly buy.

Entertaining ad copy.

Sadly, they strapped themselves to a $925 Nine Eighteen payment plan.
They could not have known that after October, this compromise would be, as Billy would say, "a boloney!"

James.

I would imagine at that price, there were not many sold, making them fairly rare today? To put that amount into perspective, I have a Brunswick Balke Collander Radiola/Panatrope from 1929. It sold for $1250 back then. I did a comparison of the dollar, then and now. $1250 back then would be ~ $14,000 in todays dollars based on the calculator I used. I cant imagine there were many people that could afford a luxury item like that during the depression. You could buy a nice car for less!

XCaptBill wrote:I would imagine at that price, there were not many sold, making them fairly rare today? To put that amount into perspective, I have a Brunswick Balke Collander Radiola/Panatrope from 1929. It sold for $1250 back then. I did a comparison of the dollar, then and now. $1250 back then would be ~ $14,000 in todays dollars based on the calculator I used. I cant imagine there were many people that could afford a luxury item like that during the depression. You could buy a nice car for less!

This ad, being from January 1929, was out months before the stock market crashed, an event that very few people thought would happen, and those few not believed by the majority. Anyway, it was still a time of almost mind-blowing prosperity when people believed that poverty was going to be done away with forever.

The $925 price when the ad came out would equal a bit over $12,000 in 2012 dollars and was about equal to 2-months income for an average family of the time. A new entry level Model A Ford could have been had $385. These handsome Victorlas were toys for the rich.

Clay

Roaring20s wrote:Entertaining ad copy.

Sadly, they strapped themselves to a $925 Nine Eighteen payment plan.
They could not have known that after October, this compromise would be, as Billy would say, "a boloney!"

James.

Indeed! Once the Micro-Synchronous set hit the market Billy would be ruing the day he signed that contract. I have some familiarity with twenties radios and loudspeakers and even with its dynamic speaker I can't believe that this set was as " breathtaking in its realism" as a Credenza or a 10-50, which had the longest horn.

Jim

FloridaClay wrote:The $925 price when the ad came out would equal a bit over $12,000 in 2012 dollars and was about equal to 2-months income for an average family of the time. A new entry level Model A Ford could have been had $385. These handsome Victorlas were toys for the rich.

Clay

According to the Commerce Department, the average male, married factory operative made $1,485, down from $1,540 in 1920. Note that the Labor department determined 18 1920 that an income of just over $2000 was the "Minimum quantity budget necessary to maintain a worker's family of five in health and decency". Health and Decency referred to luxuries such as 3000 calories per day for manual laborers, 1800 for schoolchildren, 110square feet of apartment per family member, enough fabric so that the housewife could make one new dress per year for herself and each of her daughters, and one set of under clothing and one suit of clothes per year for males, 20 cents per week for the church collection plate, and sufficient entertainment budget to allow the purchase of one magazine every two months and one visit to the moving picture or Vaudeville house every second month for the family. Note that the labor department minimum budget did not include a talking machine or records.

Lenoirstreetguy wrote:

Roaring20s wrote:Entertaining ad copy.

Sadly, they strapped themselves to a $925 Nine Eighteen payment plan.
They could not have known that after October, this compromise would be, as Billy would say, "a boloney!"

James.

Indeed! Once the Micro-Synchronous set hit the market Billy would be ruing the day he signed that contract. I have some familiarity with twenties radios and loudspeakers and even with its dynamic speaker I can't believe that this set was as " breathtaking in its realism" as a Credenza or a 10-50, which had the longest horn.

Jim

Actually, the AP-777 amplifier and that dynamic speaker could do very well indeed. Note that on the Victor machines this 6" speaker had a turned and varnished wood phasing plug stuck in front of the cone. This plug assembly was not used on either the RCA sets using this speaker ( such as the Radiola 32) or on the Brunswick sets which were so equipped. the wood phasing plug really improves the response of the speaker, extending the range both upward and downward. Of course the $295.00 RE-45 was marginally better, but only marginally.

The electric machines had their place. Both the electric and acoustic machines offered somewhat imperfect reproduction. The imperfections of the two types of machines differed, however.