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Old 2nd Mar 2013, 9:00 pm   #102
1dereht
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Fairfax County, Virginia, USA
Posts: 12
Default Re: Garrard record player deck identification.

Not being a frequent visitor to this forum, I just noticed this brilliant reference thread for Garrard. I thought I might add some information I recently discovered while going through several boxes of Avery Fisher's personal papers prior to their donation to the Julliard School at Lincoln Center in NY City.

For those in the UK who may be unfamiliar with the name Avery Fisher, he was the founder, president, and sole owner of Fisher Radio Corporation from 1945 to 1969. He sold his company in 1969 for many millions of dollars and subsequently embarked on a number of philanthropic endeavors related to music - most notably the 10 million dollar refurbishment of the Philharmonic Hall in NYC. It was subsequently renamed in his honor, becoming today's Avery Fisher Hall.

Prior to his founding of Fisher Radio in 1945, he had another, less well known company called Philharmonic Radio which he founded and ran from 1937 until 1945. This tiny company was notable for being among the earliest in this country to specialize exclusively in high fidelity radio-gramophones.

One consistent feature of Avery Fisher's products, both at Philharmonic and at Fisher, was his use of Garrard record changers. Beginning with the earliest Philharmonic Radio-Gramophones in '37, your choices were either a "Type A" R.C.1A or a "Type B" R.C.4.

R.C.1A "Type A"

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R.C.4 "Type B"

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Sales literature from later in the 1930s added Garrard's manual phonographs:

A.C.8, A.C.6, A.C. 4 and U.5

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Then, sometime around 1940, Philharmonic updated their offerings with the newer "Type A" R.C.50 and "Type B" R.C.10.

R.C.50 "Type A"

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R.C.10 "Type B"

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Among the items I found in Mr. Fisher's papers was the Philharmonic Radio Company's sales ledger covering 1940 through 1943. It lists every sale they made, giving every conceivable detail of each radio-gramophone. Most often the "Phono" column lists "A", "B" or "M" - at least through Nov. 1940. However, there are sporadic listings of specific models such as a few RC-30's which started appearing in Sept. 1940. The RC-50 first appeared in Dec. 1940.

After Nov. 1940 the A's and B's quickly taper off, replaced by F's and occasional C's - no doubt due to the war. In mid-1941 the F's become FR's, still with occasional C's. A consumer publication from this period mentions Philharmonic using Webster changers - probably their Model 40. Perhaps the F and/or FR refer to that model. Quite often there are notes in the ledger indicating the later replacement of the F's and FR's with Garrards - usually the RC-30. To me, that seems to indicate the Garrards were preferred when they were available.

Last edited by 1dereht; 2nd Mar 2013 at 9:05 pm.
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