The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Could this machine really produce enough volume to be heard across such a vast playground?

We played the Wedding March by Mendelssohn on a portable Victrola VV-50 at my daughters outdoor wedding. The place was probably about half the size of the playing field on the photo and the volume was sufficient. A Schoolhouse machine with large wooden horn should be loud enough for everyone on the field to hear it nicely. It would probably have been a little faint for the people near the building. I guess it was better than having no music at all, so people would have been OK with it.

Andreas

Nice postcard.
Easy to miss if you were quickly flipping through a pile.

James.

That is cool. I wonder if that machine is in any of our collections?

I’ve got a XXV and it is very loud. I have to use a soft needle and the Exhibition as the No. 2 is just annoyingly loud…
I’ve also got several Victor Educational Department books showing the XXV in use. I’ll post some of those later if there is any interest.

Ok I’ll post them now…

Cute pictures and a nice clean machine!

James.

The exercises on the blackboard in the picture, "Writing to the Music of the Victrola XXV, Malvern, Iowa" are from the Palmer Method of Business Writing, specifically the 1894 textbook. These are meant to be done with pen and ink (a steel dip pen specifically and india-ink, not a fountain pen.) Likely our would-be writers are too young to use a pen without wearing most of the ink home on their school clothes.

The purpose of those exercises was to end up with muscle memory & control to make sure one could write without bearing down on the pen point. Not sure using chalk on a blackboard would have the same effect.

Writing was considered so important and almost an art form..one that is dying in the country.
I have two sons, 16 & 13, they no longer teach penmanship or cursive in school. It’s all printing and done electronically. A card came in the mail for my 16 yr old son, sent by his great grandmother…I had to help him read it.
Unfortunately, it will be lost in the age of computers and digital display.

All is not lost. For Christmas 2021 my eldest granddaughter, then aged 12, asked for (and got) a calligraphy outfit.

That’s wonderful! Now that is a true art in itself!