The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently pulled a VV-IX and matching Pooley Record Cabinet out of an estate sale because I couldn't pass it up.

Slipped between the records in the cabinet I found an inventory of the original owner's (known only as B.C.S.) records (which, judging by the list, were still in the cabinet too) as well as the owner's calculation of expenses for the collection and an annotated local music club letter dated 1916.

Additionally, there are letters by the second(?) owner, a Mrs Virginia N. Potts, who writes RCA and a local serviceman in 1965 after a 'meddling teenager' damaged the reproducer. An equally interesting and amusing exchange to read.

For the expense calculation:
$118.65 is the sum of the records
$75.00 Victrola VV-IX
$7.50 Presumably the Pooley Cabinet
$1.00 An additional record?

I got a kick out of these documents so I thought I'd share. While not an opera fan myself, I thought others might take interest in an original owners inventory and club correspondence.

Scanned documents are attached below.

Very nice to keep all this correspondence!
Now if you want to repair something, or substitute new parts, you should keep a printout copy of your emails for continuing the machine life story alive and well recorded.

Wow, that's a wonderful collection of history!

Cheers,
Fran

Interesting collection of vocal and operatic selections, with some by well-known but not exactly top singers. Some of the usual non-operatic fare in the collection as well. People did keep track of prices. I remember my grandparents commenting that the record of the Lucia Sextet they had (and that I now have) cost $6 when new ($1 for each singer), although more recently I have seen that the list price of the record was actually $7 (which probably meant that you would be very careful to keep it safe).