Sears' Last Cabinet Model Wind-Up Phonograph

[OrthoFan]

I posted this some time ago, but the images were lost in the board's upgrade.

The "New Silvertone" phonograph featured is, based on what I have been able to find, the last cabinet model acoustic phonograph sold by Sears. (It does not appear in the 1938 catalog.)

Apparently, the motors were Brunswick NOS which the supplier who built it for Sears had acquired. The tone chamber is an elongated saxophone type horn. Someone had posted an image of the cabinet on an old thread showing the horn, but it was missing its bell--based on what I found out later. Of the two examples I've seen--in photos--both were equipped with a standard S-shaped tapered tonearm. I don't know if any were shipped with the "balanced tonearm," which seems to have a counter-weight, shown in the illustrations.

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(click to enlarge)

[Benjamin_L]

Thank you for sharing this again. I'm compiling a list of all the Silvertone acoustic models, and while I don't want to go too in depth into the later models, this is still something I want to add.

[Inigo]

Marvelous! Many thanks!

[OrthoFan]

Many thanks, both of you for responding.

Thank you for sharing this again. I'm compiling a list of all the Silvertone acoustic models, and while I don't want to go too in depth into the later models, this is still something I want to add.

You might be interested in this page culled from the 1956 Sears Catalog--the last year an acoustic wind-up Silvertone phonograph was sold.

(click to enlarge)

[VanEpsFan1914]

Anyone noticing the illustrated "balanced tonearm" sure looks like a single-face Brunswick Ultona?

[Benjamin_L]

Anyone noticing the illustrated "balanced tonearm" sure looks like a single-face Brunswick Ultona?

It is. When Warner Bros. acquired Brunswick's phonograph and record division, they discovered that Brunswick still had a large inventory of unused Ultona tonearms.

When Brunswick surpassed Columbia to become the second-largest phonograph manufacturer in the country—due in part to the success of the Ultona—they drastically overproduced it. And I mean way overproduced it.

Warner Bros. eventually sold off the surplus Ultona tonearms to Mersman Brothers, a supplier for Sears. Mersman modified them by cutting off the front of the tonearm and adapting them to use a cheap Ortho-style reproducer.