The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

When I first started my collection I brought and worked on several RCAs portables...Some have the Victrola and RCA in a decal and some do not. How do you find the information on the approximate manufacturing dates and models. One is an electric model... None of them have a serial number that I have seen or know where it is. Is there a web site ??? Is there a book..?? Great keepers of the knowledge please shine some light on me.. Does anyone need pictures?? Thanks Tom B

One of the early issues of The Antique Phonograph had an article illustrating the various models of RCA portables.

tomb wrote: Does anyone need pictures??

I would love to see pictures! Portables are my favorite! I might be able to give a date on some of them.

I will post in a couple of days. They are stored so it will take a little time. Tom B

How do I find the article in the phonograph society. I tried and could not find it. Is there a way to get into back ones for information??? Tom B

The speed pointer has the model number on my VV 2-65

Keep an eye out for the RCA Victor John Vassos Special phonograph. Nice chrome futuristic look. It had a spring powered motor and a battery powered electric amplifier. These were selling in the thousands a few years ago. One sold on e-bay last month for $510.00, but according to the listing needed alot of work. I wonder if it is very difficult to get parts for these?

Here are the pics of the RCAs and a few other ones I have Three are RCA/ Victrola, one is a RCA , one Brunswick, a crescendo and a Decca,

They all seem to be 1930's through 1940's. Not sure about the Crescendo one, I believe it is English and it exhibits characteristics of late 1920's to early 1930's.

All except the English one have parts that were made by Birch (and their family of companies?). This was a time when acoustic phonographs were falling out of style, and big companies began outsourcing all of their acoustic machines. They are more or less all the same phonograph, and the big companies just slapped their name on them, and sold them as their low end portables.

What interests me is the Brunswick one. I have seen plenty of the RCA outsourced Birch portables, but I've only seen a few outsourced Brunswick ones, and only seen a couple outsourced Columbia ones.

I believe the RCA ones with the angled cranks pre-date the ones that have the crank just coming out of the side or the front.

The RCA/Victor ones all look later than my VV-2-65, so I would guess they are mid to late 30s at the earliest.