RE-154

RE-154

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When the Great Depression struck in October 1929, sales of phonographs and radios immediately began to collapse. "High-end" models were especially hard-hit, as the buying public could no longer afford such extravagant luxuries. RCA had finalized its purchase of the Victor Talking Machine Company that same month, and immediately found itself holding a great deal of leftover inventory which Victor had previously produced but was unable to sell. Not only did this inventory include complete radio and phonograph sets, but it also consisted of a great many empty cabinets which were not yet assembled into complete instruments. One of the "high-end" models that Victor had launched in late 1928 was the VE 9-54E. While this model was made in relatively small quantities, its extremely high price tag ($1,350.00) and complicated, often-unreliable record changer never did catch-on with buyers, and many were left sitting unsold at dealerships. These machines were eventually sold at significant discounts into the early 1930's. But to make matters worse, over 500 empty 9-54 cabinets were sitting idle in factory storage, and were considered unsalable after the October collapse of the market. Assembling the empty cabinets using left-over 9-54's mechanisms and electronics was not practical, since they were having a tough time moving any 9-54 models that were still sitting in warehouses and on dealer's floors. RCA management decided to "kill two birds with one stone". They assembled the empty VE 9-54E cabinets using remaining overstock of Victor Microsynchronous radios and manual phonograph mechanisms that were used in the basic RE-45 and RE-75 models, and created a new model, the RE-154. It was essentially a basic home entertainment system stuffed into a very large and elegant cabinet. Thus, the RE-154 was a much less complicated instrument than the 9-54, but could be sold for less than half the price. This was a necessary decision given the depressed economy in December 1929, and it "used-up" some of the stagnant inventory sitting in the plant. It also provided the buyer with a better-sounding and more reliable product than the 9-54. The only function that was missing was the automatic record-changing feature. All RE-154's were produced in walnut and shared all external hardware and cabinet details with the 9-54. Assembly of this "hybrid" Electrola was initiated in November 1929 and continued into the early months of 1930. Even though the cabinet, along with the internal electronics and phonograph mechanism were Victor-produced products, the RE-154 should be considered an early RCA machine, since RCA was running the entire operation at the time they were assembled. The list price was $475.00, which equates to about $9,200.00 in today's money. But by the time the RE-154 arrived at dealer showroom, cash-starved buyers had completely disappeared. So like the 9-54, many of these models also remained unsold well into the early 1930's. They were severely discounted in 1931 to less than half of the original list price. A total of 570 RE-154 models were produced. Even though it is a rare model, the high cost of restoration of these early radio/phono sets limits the interest of many collectors today.

No serial number data has yet been logged for the RE-154 in the survival database.

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