Thanks for posting this, Joe!
I grew up with--and was fascinated by--our Magnavox console stereo. My sister thinks it was purchased in 1957 or '58 (I came along in '59). The tone arm, record stabilizer, 45-rpm adapter, the white rubber mat, and controls look like the one we had.
However, ours didn't have the gizmo just to the left of the record stabilizer. It looks like something that would tell the tone arm if a 10" or 12" record had just dropped to the turntable. Anyone know if that's its purpose?
Our Magnavox sensed the size of the record this way: The tonearm would come up and touch the edge of the record being held up by the spindle. The arm would retreat, the record would drop, and then the tonearm would return to the lead-in groove to play the record.
Did this one use a different means to detect record sizes? If not, why is the "gizmo" needed?
This was awesome when playing 45's, as sometimes there would be a slight difference in size from record to record. The Maggie was able to compensate for that by the way it sensed the size of the record. It rarely missed the lead-in groove on a 7" single, as some changers used to.
Some of us are old enough to remember when certain brands of cereal would have a cheap single pressed into the back of the box. You'd cut the record out with scissors and play it. I used to purposely cut them to slightly different sizes to see if the Magnavox would sense them correctly, and it always did. Needless to say, those cheap little plastic 'n' cardboard singles didn't last too long, but they were fun. I recall several singles by The Archies and The Banana Splits being made available in cereal-box format.
What a beautiful cabinet this one has; I've never seen one like it before, either.
Allen, the cabinet of your '64 is awesome.
When he educated himself, it was too late. One day I'll get it, but not today.
