Phonoland

I have an RCA Victor model 3-hes-5 built in Feb. of '54. The issue I'm having seems to be a somewhat common one where the final record on the changer does not play. More specifically, the problem is as follows: two or more records play just fine. The tone arm resets. The final record drops, and then the table stops spinning with the tone arm remaining in the rest position. If I hold the holder up, preventing it from engaging the lever and pulley underneath, the record player keeps playing. I stayed up til 4 playing with it to no avail. As far as I can tell the lever and pulley do not seem to be engaging anything over by the tone arm. I would surely appreciate any light on the issue.

It's obvious you don't have the skills to do the needed repairs/restorations to solve this issue.
Staying up till 4am is not a good thing.
My advice is to let a good local service technician well-versed in RCA Victor changers and amps do the work.

I've done many for customers, and trust me, it's not for the novice to putz with them.

I figured it out. There was a tiny spring out of place over by the tone arm that was preventing the lever connected to the holder arm's pulley system to rise to its necessary height. Thanks.