Maxonol Gramophone?

by **Joe_DS** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:41 am

Just stumbled across this:

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/m ... one/clip1/

It contains a short (silent) advertising video, probably from around 1925. Anyone ever hear of the Maxonol Gramophone? Was it a local, Australian brand? (Found nothing on google, other than this video clip.)

HMVlover · by **HMVlover** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 5:00 pm

There was a portable on ebay not so long ago.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0101727146

by **Joe_DS** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:19 pm

Thanks for posting that. That portable looks like the one featured, for a few seconds, near the end of the video clip.

I wonder how many other phono-related "cinema commercials" from that era still exist.

Neophone · by **Neophone** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:09 pm

Gents,

I remember seeing that listing on E-Bay. It's quite an interesting design. That clip is fascinating! Maxonol had a somewhat unorthodox design throughout their line. Very noteworthy.

Regards,
J.

by **Joe_DS** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:45 am

Neophone wrote:Gents,
Maxonol had a somewhat unorthodox design throughout their line. Very noteworthy.
Regards,
J.

Some of the cabinets look like sideboards or dressers. The one in the background, as they're walking up the stairs, looks like a kitchen range!

The portable seems a less efficient use of space than the conventional machines on the market at that time. Along with this, the horn seems rather tiny compared to the rest of the cabinet. Still, I wouldn't mind owning one.

I'm wondering if the Maxonol brand survived into the late 1920s. Funny thing is, the one featured in the movie looks more like a late-1920s/early-1930s model, though "plays all makes of records perfectly" indicates that it's a pre-1925 design equipped with a universal tone arm to play Edison, Pathe', and standard discs. {According to what I've read/been told, universal tone arm was universally phased out with the introduction of electrical era gramophones}