Hear it Anywhere!

Anywhere, anytime and as often as you want!

By Doug Boilesen 2018

To hear recorded sound anywhere, anytime and as often as you wanted one was enjoying the essence of the wonder of the phonograph and its revolution of recorded sound. Ephemeral sound had been captured and its phonograph advertisements presented seemingly limitless boundaries for where it could be heard. Later ads would also expand its scope by promoting its recorded voices as immortal.

The earliest models Columbia and Edison home phonographs were designed with lids and cases like earlier sewing machines and the similiarity between the sewing machine and the phonograph was often noted in early descriptions of the Phonograph. See Phonographia's Phonographs and Sewing Machines for more about that connection.

 

1895 Columbia Graphophone Model N

 

Edison Home Phonograph Model A Circa 1901 (Courtesy of TechnoGallerie)

 

Hear it Anywhere!

The following ads are focused on the promotion of the phonograph's portability and its "anywhere" functionality.

Locations advertised as potential listening spots for consumer phonographs included the home, on the porch, in the garden; on the farm, at the summer home; in the country, in the hills, in the mountains, by the sea; on vacation, by the campfire, by the lake, by the fishing stream; on a boat, canoe, houseboat, or yacht. Countless locations seemed to match the phonograph's innumerable repertoires.

After the introduction of the Victrola and the phonograph industry's other furniture models, the table top and portable phonographs would continue to be seen in advertisements showing the the 'anywhere' possibiities.

"At home or in our summer retreat" Summer Time is Victor Time, The Talking Machine World, July 1910

 

The Phonograph as an Adjunct to Railroad Travel

It is said that one of the western railroad lines, running from Chicago to the coast, has added a Phonographic equipment to its library and observation coach. Records of the best orchestral and operatic music now regale the passengers who care to listen, and while speeding across the prairie at a mile-a-minute clip, one can hear the greatest operatic stars in the world singing their favorite numbers. Two performances are to be given daily, at stated hours, the matinees consisting of lighter music, the evening program of operatic selections. Travel in these days of enterprise is becoming a delight instead of a nightmare. - The New Phonogram, February 1910

 

Take a Victrola with you... 1913