The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

For Paal and others . . . the Shell-O-Phone!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaoSuwG9_l4[/youtube]

The recording is black bat-wing Victor 17942-A: 'Are You From Dixie ('Cause I'm From Dixie Too)' by Billy Murray & Irving Kaufman.

Enjoy!

John M

John,

Thank you for posting a video of it!
Like many of the other off-brand machines, it is very interesting. Plus it looks good, and it sounds surprisingly good for a small shell to work as a horn.

Paal.

With a decent tone arm and reproducer I think this would sound great. Any possibility of refitting a higher quality one without damaging the mounting board?

I would really like to fit a Victor or Brunny arm on it and try that. I meant to hunt a good arm for it at Union, but forgot to measure the axis-to-spindle distance before I left so I could find one, Duh! I'm certain I could mount a bracket to the Shell-O-Phone without damaging it or drilling new holes in the cabinet.
You're right -- it would sound awesome with a good arm and reproducer.

John M

the tone arm looks as if it would allow the reproducer to be positioned to play vertical records.

Yes, it is a combination arm, but pot metal. A chunk broke out of it that the detent locks into so it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
John M

John,

Thanks for putting up the Youtube video. I wish we had one of these for our beach house on the Outer Banks of NC. It is an interesting machine and I'm sure not many of them can be found for collector's anymore. It's great you can preserve it for the future collectors who enjoy the sand in their feet and old tunes running through their heads. Nice job.

ColoradoPhonograf

A stunning machine! Imaging the feeling when you come up with an idea like that.
Thanks a lot for posting.

Thanks for the compliments you all. From what I have been able to determine these are extremely scarce macines. The only two I've been able to confirm are this example and Bob Johnson's. I've anecdotally heard of another, but that one isn't verified yet -- the owner told me that he "thinks (he) has one", so what does one do with that sort of information! LOL!
At any rate, two known.

It would be cool to have in a beach house! I found it a few years ago on Houston Craigslist and had Craters & Freighters ship it to my (then) home in the mountains of Virginia -- actually, to the truck terminal in Kingsport, Tennessee where I picked it up as the ½-mile gravel road back to my house wasn't very truck-friendly!

John M