The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here's an interesting video made by the BBC in celebration of the centennial of the phonograph in 1977.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvMBU-f ... PYHeritage

There are some errors, but phonograph scholarship was still fairly rudimentary back then. For the most part, it's pretty well presented, with a few interesting machines to be seen. The last 8 or so minutes are devoted to a discussion of the future of recording. For having been presented nearly 50 years ago, the future they envisioned isn't too far off from reality. They just didn't look far enough into that future to imagine our present.

Very Kool! I remember when I thought that a VHS player or a CD was the most advanced thing on Earth. How could it be improved upon?

Thanks for posting I enjoyed that. Glad to see it before it disappears from YouTube. BBC programs always have a habit of disappearing from YouTube. Probably due to copyright. The poster has wisely not put ‘BBC’ in the title so it may last longer than most.

The interesting BBC documentary from 1988 ‘Memories of a Musical Dog’ was removed from YouTube. Very disappointing as it was a more complete history of the talking machine. It did feature just a small amount of Beetles footage which is the death of any posting.

Fortunately I kept a copy on a VHS cassette that I recorded at the time, which just goes to show how useful ‘obsolete’ technology is!

My old friend Albert "Joe" Pengelly (1924-2000) had a personal VHS tape of the programme which he asked me to transfer onto DVD. With his permission I also made a copy for myself which I still have.
His great uncle Ernest opened a "Talking Machine Depot" in Plymouth at the turn of the 20th Century, and held the earliest agency in Plymouth for the Gramophone Company. The programme was set in a re-creation of his shop, and the machines displayed were all from Joe's collection, now dispersed. Record covers and cylinder boxes bearing the Pengelly name still turn up.
Joe's VHS tape also contained a clip of him demonstrating his 1901 Edison Triumph Model A to Tim Wonnacott on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. I later purchased it from Joe, but sold it when an Opera came my way.

Cool video! Thanks for sharing.

Lee wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2024 2:02 pm Very Kool! I remember when I thought that a VHS player or a CD was the most advanced thing on Earth. How could it be improved upon?

I feel like we have taken a step back with streaming music and videos Now you have to "buy" a movie or album on digital copy. Companies are known to change or take away your digital copies too for whatever reason. Good luck trying to censor or take away my 78s