The Victor-Victrola Page   

RE-45

RARITY: ¤   VALUE:  ¤¤ 

When radio became the rage in 1924-1925, the Victor Talking Machine Company was caught totally unprepared, and sales of old-style phonographs tanked. So to get back into the consumer market, Victor relied on a licensing agreement with RCA to design and produce radios for their radio/phonograph combination models. This agreement lasted for nearly 5 years. But understandably, Victor did not want to depend on an outside supplier for a critical element of their products, so they designed and manufactured their own "Microsynchronous" radio, which proved to be one of the top-performing sets of 1929.
The RE-45 was a Microsynchronous radio-phonograph combination, and was one of the final products introduced by Victor in the spring of 1929, just prior to the time that the company was purchased by RCA.  It was functionally identical to Victor's more expensive RE-75 model, which was launched just a few months later. With hinged doors on the front to hide the controls and a nicely-figured walnut cabinet, this machine provided remarkably good performance in a relatively compact package. It proved to be an immediate success.
Approximately 108,000 RE-45 phonographs were produced, making it one of Victor's best selling products of that era. Production was discontinued toward the end of the year. The list price was set at $275.00, which equates to about $4,100.00 in today's money. Tubes were not included in this price. Since the impact of The Depression was being strongly felt by the end of 1929, some of these models remained unsold by dealers, who continued to market them into the early 1930's at a significant discount off the list price. Advertised prices in 1931 were as low as $150.00 for used "demonstrator" sets from the showroom floor. The high cost of restoration of these early radios limits the interest of many collectors today, but many  enthusiasts like the audio quality provided by this set, with its characteristic "late 1920's" sound.

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