Putting It on the Record

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Forget podcasting! Witness home audio recording technology circa 1946 in all its glory! I give you the Packard Bell PhonOcord 1052! Record live sound or from the radio (or both!) and right onto 78 LPs! It also has a public address mode, which I think may have been used for square dances (at least by my grandparents).

I drove up to my aunt’s last week to retrieve the mysterious machine my grandpa used to record that file I shared here last month. It turns out that there are oodles of little records made from everything from cardboard to shellac to metal, which Grandpa not only used to document family events (such as my mom’s first day of school) but also holidays at the neighbors’ and other community parties.

Once we got it opened and plugged in, I immediately turned on the radio and dialed in a station, half expecting to hear Nat King Cole crooning I Love You for Sentimental Reasons or maybe Harry Truman delivering a speech. Instead, through the AM crackling and whistling, we got some Internet pundit blathering on about Web 2.0. It would be inaccurate to say this experience was disappointing since we were both astonished the thing even worked, but I guess I was subconsciously hoping the magic box might unlock a time portal or some other life-altering vortex (should I be embarrassed that I’ve probably seen The Purple Rose of Cairo 20 times?).

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We weren’t so lucky with the phonograph. It will spin records, but there is a problem getting the sound from the needle to the speaker. I’m not sure if it will still cut records either, but I’m hoping to get it all fixed up so I can capture some sound of my own. Among Grandpa’s recordings were a ton of blanks, and my wee little brain has been working overtime evaluating all the completely unuseful things I could make with the PhonOCord. Capturing sound with my minidisc and iPod is so boring! In the meantime, Mattmarg is going to help me digitize the rest of the recordings using his turntable and an iMic.

Also, I’m wondering if anyone out there can tell me more about home audio recording in the 1940s and ‘50s. I’ve only met one other person whose family had something like our PhonOcord. I did a little research online and there is surprisingly very little about these machines, although it does appear several companies marketed them as home entertainment. Based on Google results for a site called Shellac.org (which is maddeningly down at the moment), it even looks like Packard Bell offered a script subscription service for people to record their own little radio dramas.

Posted by Kristin on 09/16/06 at 09:09 AM
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