The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hallil hallo.
Recently during a boozy evening at the local Stammtisch in the nearby pub the discussion turned to the topic of gramophones during which I had to confess that... Yes! I am an addict!
The discussion went on for a while before the topic turned to the mainstay discussions at a Stammtisch... Politics. Believe me when I say that we solved the Middle east conflict, ended the Ukrainian war and balanced the Federal German budget.
I tell you, politicians are overpaid, the government should be a Stammtisch.
Anyway, the topic of gramophones, it got me thinking.
So I did a few calls and we are planning a 78 evening in the neighboring pub, where I bring two gramophones a big baggy of needles and some 30 or 50 records, all from the forties, fifties and sixties, mainly German Schlager and other songs guaranteed to bring a nostalgic tear to the eyes of many Germans. The grand plan, apart from playing vintage DJ, is to tell a bit about the machines, some background on the songs and singers and have people bring their own 78´s. my oldest record is from 1923 so I think I´ll call it.. maybe: "101 years" as we plan to do this around March next year.
Which brings me back to the title of this thread:
I would also like to have some weird and funny tales to tell about gramophones and the music of the time. Like, in England there is an exclamation when some bugger next door is too loud... "PUT A SOCK IN IT!" most of the time with an expletive connected to fornication between the "A" and "SOCK" Since having gramophones where I regulate the loudness with a sock that shout suddenly makes sense.

SO what you got? I would love to hear your gramophone related bonmots.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

epigramophone wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 6:29 am A picture is worth a thousand words.

Now I have a poster for the evening.

Slammer,
Excellent idea! For years I have taken a wind-up phonograph to my wife's quilting group outdoor show. There are always many people who stop to listen to the old music and discuss the wind-up phonograph technology. Many have great stories of the old phonographs their grandparents had.
I bet you will not have to pay for a single drink at the pub!

Just for reference:

Now that's a fun idea. You will weed out the non music lovers in a hurry!

Ah, Stammtisch is a word I haven't heard in a while. My daughter, when living in Germany would do this with her schoolmates.

James.

A while ago, I would take one of my portable gramophones, my RCA Victor one with substantial capacity for record storage, to social occasions. Most people found the experience of listening to a few records absolutely delightful. Some people, those who did ballroom dancing and knew how to foxtrot, would dance. Some people, those who want to talk through everything, movies, TV, music, etc, would ask me to turn the volume down. Even with soft tone needles, the machine was too loud for them to talk over comfortably.

I explained about the idiom, put a sock in it, and about how loud the gramophones with large reproducers and large external horns were. One of these people went to the kitchen and got a tea towel and asked me to stuff it in the horn. Disappointingly for them, the muting effect was not as drastic as might have been expected.

One of these people sent me this image recently. I asked where they got it from. They couldn't remember.

This image was drawn by the political cartoonist Bert Thomas (1883-1966) for the British Ministry of Information during WW2.
It would have been distributed as a poster for display in public areas, to warn against loose talk in wartime.

Well, for old sayings, there's always 'stuck in the groove' to describe someones' routine, humdrum life, or 'like a broken record' when describing someone going on and on about the same thing ad infinitum.....not sure about 'winding someone up'....... but it seems a plausible gramophone related saying.