The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just read about this at Rene Rondeau's site:
http://www.edisontinfoil.com/biophone.htm

What an interesting device! I never knew it appeared in My Fair Lady (although I've never seen it outside of the odd 5 seconds of it when I'm flipping channels, and besides, I don't really scan movies intently for phonographs ). Someone should go though those old prop dept.'s or inquire about it sometime (anyone here have access to that sort of stuff? )... I do remember this one movie about a professor who tried to take a trashy British woman and turn her into a charming, polite girl that had lots of phonographs and gramophones used for elocution and dancing lessons. Can't recall the title, though

Any chance of a video demo, Rene (if you're on this board)?

When I taught at USC Cinema & TV school in the early 1980's, I had occasion to visit a number of prop houses -- but certainly not ALL of them -- and while I saw a number of desirable phonographs in them, I never saw Rene's Biophone (although I do remember when Pat acquired it).

The film you are describing IS My Fair Lady!

Blimpy wrote: I do remember this one movie about a professor who tried to take a trashy British woman and turn her into a charming, polite girl that had lots of phonographs and gramophones used for elocution and dancing lessons. Can't recall the title, though /quote]

JohnM wrote: The film you are describing IS My Fair Lady!

Lol! Not to worry -- the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain!

I've been intending to make a Youtube video of that machine for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. I'll try to get off my butt and do it. It will require my doing quite a bit of maintenance as it has been sitting on a shelf for quite a while. It's a very finicky machine. It has to be very clean and very well-lubricated to work, and even at that it's hardly stellar. It's not surprising it was such a flop, it's not an easy rig to adjust. I laugh when I read the original ad that says it's a simple matter to swap back and forth from cylinders to discs. Hah! It takes forever to get it set up just right to power a disc all the way through. It's damn-near impossible, in fact! But the reproducer sounds remarkably good.