[78-L] Philco door slot player (was: The 1941 RCA player: it plays both sides)

[Michael Biel]

Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. wrote:
> I had a player that had a slot in the front, with a door which operated 
> a mechanism that, when closed, pulled the record in, then released it 
> onto a platter. The center pin then rose upward and the platter turned. 
> At the same time, the tone arm swung out and came down on the record. 
> Ingenious, but rather impractical. It was single play.
>
>   

This was a Philco 46-1201, and also was my first record player.  After I 
got my 3-speed Webster Chicago Fonograf,  my parents gave the Philco to 
my Uncle and I never got it back.  I now have two of them over on the 
other side of the living room waiting to be restored.  Actually it 
doesn't "pull the record in" like some CD players do.  You have to slide 
the record in till it hits the two stops inside in the back.  If it is a 
12-inch record it will spread the stops and allow the record to go in 
that extra inch.  Then you close the door, the spindle comes up, and the 
arm swings over. 

The major problem with this player is that so many kiddie records were 
smaller than ten inches.  Even when I was about three or four years old 
I figured how to go into the open back and center the record on the 
turntable spindle. 

There is a picture of one near the bottom of this page  
http://www.moah.org/exhibits/archives/radio/guideexhibits.html

Another picture halfway down this  
http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1948.htm
This 1948 update cost $69.95

But for the next ten days you can relive your childhood for only 60 
bucks (plus 27 bucks shipping)
http://cgi.ebay.com/1946-PHILCO-TUBE-RADIO-Model-46-1201_W0QQitemZ230311018452QQcmdZViewItem

You can learn how to repair it for five bucks -- the manual, not the 
repair itself
http://www.antiquemallbooks.com/cgi-bin/cdbooks/AC31332pm.html
I already have this.

Someone refinished one so that it looks quite different from what it 
originally did, and then lied about how old it was. (They said this 1946 
model was pre-1930.
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5399208




Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com