Your First Phonograph/Stereo

You probably started out with this.......

And moved up to a stock GE kids phonograph of the early '70s (also manufactured for Sears and Concert Hall under their house names...)

.....or if you were really lucky, you got one of these.....

Vanity Fair and Imperial "Party Time" phonographs were really cheap knockoffs. Made of cardboard, low quality parts and a stock design that was easily customizable for whoever wanted to license their images and product name to  it. That's why they were the most popular design of kids phonograph .....

The famous Michael Jackson Vanity Fair phonograph. Still made by VF/Imperial "Party Time" Clean, functioning units however sell for LOTS on eBay.....Way too much in my opinion......

Barbie Phonograph, made by VF/Imperial

Another portable record player w/radio, the Phillips portable. It was also made by Sony. and also sold under the then Phillips owned record label names of Mercury and Fontana. The blue Fontana labeled ones are the rarest.....

The GE Trimline 500: A very popular portable (allegedly), stereo record player of the early-mid '60s. They were popular as teenage hand-me downs from parents in the '70s because they were SUPER rugged and lasted THEM through high school and college. They were also SUPER heavy, but look at it! It was made of 90% pure metal parts! And it was built to LAST. The speakers were fully detachable and housed in steel cabinetry, just like the rest of this thing. And GORGEOUS sounding! With a dependable 40 watt tube amplifier with full bass and treble knobs (yet just a tad brassy, speakers being encased in metal boxes.) The plastic tone arm was a bit on the heavy side, but the automatic mechanisms rarely failed. Repairing one is also pretty easy and pasts are everywhere on eBay.....   

The GE Wildcat was a sleeker, MUCH lighter plastic cased version of the Trimline. While still a durable and dependable record player, the 40 watt tube amplifier of the Trimline had been replaced by a 20 watt transistor amplifier. But the basic mechanisms remained the same.....

The Emerson Swingmate

Fisher-Price's first REAL record player. It was designed as failproof as a kids phonograph could get (and believe me, NOTHING is completely failproof around a smart kid for too long....)

Click here for Part Two