Recording device
Does anybody know what kind of recording machine Rex Harrison tried to use in the film? I must get my hands on one, truely the greatest piece of consumer electronics ever!
shareIt's the (ahem) Simplicitas Recording Machine, and Sturges wrote the instructions himself. In other words, it's a complete goof.
shareThat sucks! I was hoping they really existed. I kind of knew that it was too cool to be real. Oh well.
It is real, or at least a recording device similar to it. Not long after the movie was made my older brother bought a recording machine similar to the one used in the movie. There were no tape players around yet. There were wire recorders but those didn't work as well as the later tape recorders. Most music stores even sold blank discs for the machines that made home records. I still have a few that my brother recorded but time has not been kind to them. Today they are almost unplayable.
Kenneth Rorie
Back in the 1950s and I guess maybe 60s they had vending machines in Amusement
parks and Penny Arcades where one could make their own records.
They were the size of 45s but played at I think either 33 or 78 speed.
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A home disc recording machine that recorded on small or large discs was manufactured by the Wilcox Gay Recordio company. They also manufactured discs. They were often small in size (six or seven inch diameter) and recorded at 78 rpm. These were from the 1939s and 1940s. Records were often made by families and sent to men in the service during WWII. The discs could be played back on a standard home record player. This system was rapidly superseded by magnetic tape recording when it became available to consumers in the late 1940s.
shareThe recording device that Rex Harrison is shown fumbling with was, I believe, not a recording device but a Garrard record changer that could flip over the records and play both sides. Only a few were built in the 1940s. The close ups show the unit to have two speeds, 78 and 33 1/3 rpm. A disc recorder would not have had a feature to turn over the records.
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