The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Seriously: what phonograph do you have that is just plain cosmetically challenged, not because of condition necessarily but because it is just an unappealing design?

For me it would have been the 1940s-1950s Silvertone cardboard portable--which I no longer have.

How about this one? It's my Modernola.

Jerry B.

This horn is hard to top in the ugly contest, which is why I like it so much.

Since the OP led off with a machine he no longer has, I will do the same.

My ugliest, most unappealing machine was a Victor VV 2-55 Orthophonic portable. I had that thing for decades, and hated it. I finally got rid of before I moved last year. Runner up was the VV 210 Victrola.

In my case, probably my Orthophonic Credenza--not because the design is unattractive but because it's pretty beat up, with dying finish and bottom trim corners chewed up by the prior owner's dog.

The ugliest machine I have ever owned, which I don't have any more for that reason, is an Edison H-19...

TinfoilPhono wrote:This horn is hard to top in the ugly contest, which is why I like it so much.

Rene,
What is that horn? It looks like it was attached to a shop vac during production and sucked inside out...

Ugly is kind of harsh, but my plainest-ugliest machine would have to be my early Victrola VV-XII. The doors are disproportionately small, the corners are quarter round columns and the machine is generally bland and plain. These are also the features that make it distinctive and drew me to it. Oddly, when you open the lid it becomes an interesting machine and not so unattractive.

Here is my ugliest, though I really like it. It seems to need to stay on the Talk-O-Phone is it on. I bought it at Union a few years ago just as it is.

The horn is called the Resonator and was an aftermarket horn from 1910 or so. In the Accessories & Contraptions book by George Paul and Tim Fabrizio there is a picture of one and an ad for it on page 55. I think an example of Rene's horn is on that same page.

Curt A wrote:Rene,
What is that horn?

That is an Echo-Tone, marketed with little success in 1908. It was advertised in Talking Machine World, but the ads kept getting smaller until they finally disappeared.