The Victor-Victrola Page   

VV 1-1 / Victrolita

RARITY: ¤   VALUE:  ¤ 

The VV 1-1 was the lowest-priced Victor phonograph produced during the mid-1920's. It was launched in April, 1925, just prior to the introduction of the Orthophonic line of machines.  The 1-1 replaced the long-running VV-IV model, which was being discontinued at that time. The 1-1 used the well-proven Exhibition Soundbox, a very simple single-spring 'pancake' motor, and a wooden baffle to direct the sound toward the front opening. It did not offer Orthophonic performance. The dark stained (faux-mahogany) pine wood case initially had an open bottom, and the volume control doors were eliminated, resulting in an economical phonograph without many features. It was a very light-weight machine; the user had to hold the cabinet firmly while winding to keep it in place. 
It remained in the Victor catalog until 1929, although none were likely manufactured after the first half of 1927. Early production models have the identification dataplate attached to the side of the machine; in later production versions, the plate was moved to the top of the cabinet, underneath the turntable. The turntable must be lifted off in order to read the serial number.  
Toward the end of 1925, the 1-1 was given a name change to "Victrolita", although all other features remained the same. Presumably, this change was made to correspond to the introduction of the new Orthophonic Victrolas, many of which used names rather than numeric model designations. 
The original 1925 selling price of the 1-1 was $15.00, which equates to $225.00 in today's money. An estimated total of 86,700 Victrola 1-1's and Victrolitas were produced. For an additional $3.00 above the cost of the VV 1-1, the buyer could purchase the nearly-identical VV 1-2 "childrens" model painted in white enamel, with decals of storybook characters placed around the cabinet. 
Apparently Victor customers preferred paying a little more for the portable (fold-up) phonographs, since this model did not sell in huge volumes given the low price (in comparison, over 330,000 VV-2-55 portables were sold at $35.00 each). However, this little phonograph could provide remakably good reproduction when playing one of the newer electrical recordings.

The current survival database shows the earliest existent Victrolita (1-1) to be s/n 1544 and the latest is s/n 80641

Do you own a Victrola 1-1 / Victrolita? Please take a moment and enter some basic information about your machine into the collector's database by clicking here. No personal information is required.