table had to be monitored, for as the gear work spring wound down, the turntable slowed, usually before the end of the record. Remember, all of this was done without any electricity. The Victrola is an acoustic phonograph. Some of our records were very old, dating before 1920. They were recorded only on one side. He had an entire collection of Enrico Caruso op-
eratic records. It was from 19 these records wand others like them that I learned to appreciate the opera and beautiful music. I still love those arias of Caruso and, of course, Mario Lanza. Grand Pop Achille’s’ Victrola was a beautiful piece of furniture and he took care of it accordingly with daily polishing and TLC. It (Cont. Page 31) (Cont. From page 19) T HE S O U T H PHIL A D EL PHI A P UB L I C R E CO R D
spring was cranked till the spring was “tight enough” and the start/stop lever was released. The gears went into action, spinning the turntable. The needle riding in the record groove vibrated, causing the sound-reproducing horn built into the cabinet to emanate a beautiful sound, although somewhat hollow and scratchy. The speed of the turn-
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O! HERE WE go again. I was wondering whatever happened to Grand Pop Achille’s Victor Victrola record player. What brought this memory on? On a recent airplane trip, a young girl, about 5 years old, was sitting in the next row watching a DVD movie on a portable DVD player. I wondered what Grand Pop Achille would have thought about these DVD players. To him, going to the moon by rocket couldn’t be done – it was impossible. He absolutely insisted the moon landings were faked. These motion picture DVDs and players would probably be too unbelievable to him. Grand Pop Achille was, however, somewhat the curious one, though, for he bought the first TV in our neighborhood. It was a 10inch black-and-white TV in a beautiful wooden cabinet with folding doors. His favorite TV shows were wrestling – which he considered
powered by a spring-driven gear system that had to be wound by a crank. The ideal speed of the turntable was not exactly 78 RPM but somewhere between 60 and 90 RPM, depending on how tight the spring was wound. It played only one record at a time and each one was changed manually. The record to be played was carefully removed from the lower cabinet base of the Victrola where they all were stored. It was then removed from its cardboard dust jacket, being careful not to drop it – heaven forbid. The record was made of a synthetic resin material that was fragile. If the record ever fell to the bare wood floor it would break – the ultimate sin. The record, having survived its removal from the jacket, was then gently placed on the turntable. The long, silver playing arm was fitted with a new needle. The needle was then gently lowered into the record groove. The gear work
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absolutely genuine – and Westerns – especially those with Roy Rogers and his sidekick George “Gabby” Hayes. He loved the antics of “the old man.” We could not convince him that a six-shooter could not fire 15 or 16 bullets, or how a shot with a pistol from a galloping horse was always accurate only when fired by the good guy. If it was too outrageous to be believed, he believed it; but a man going the moon – no way. Go figure. Prior to the arrival of the television, we had a huge cabinet radio for our entertainment. It was AM only, and what great entertainment it provided – but that is another story. He also had next to “his” chair a Victrola. It was about four feet tall, housed in a hand-rubbed mahogany cabinet. It had a big turntable covered in plush green velvet which was so smooth to the touch. It was only one speed and played only 78-RPM records. It was