ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—Long before anybody wanted the latest iPhone for Christmas, the Victrola phonograph was a hot ticket during the holiday season of 1919. You could pick one up at the Franklin Music Parlors, 46 East Palisade Ave. in Englewood. The shop, which first opened in 1912, was located right next to the Englewood Theater in a building that’s still standing today (in the photo above, which shows the theater, the music shop is the building to the right).
Franklin Music Parlors published the advertisement at right throughout the month of December 1919. It shows Santa Claus holding a Victrola.
The Victrola was a brand of phonograph (record player) produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company, which was located right here in New Jersey, with headquarters in Camden. The wind-up “talking machines” played 78 RPM shellac records.
Victrolas could be quite expensive. The advertisement mentions that models go up to $312.50 in price. That’s equivalent to over $4,200 in today’s money.
The Franklin Music Parlors got its start on Engle Street in Englewood back in 1912, opened by one Mr. Robert M. Andrews. He named the shop “Franklin” because it was across the street from the Franklin School, a public elementary and high school that once stood at the present location of the Englewood Library. The shop’s name was completed with the word “parlor,” which was a common term for a store specializing in Victrolas.
Within a few years of opening, Andrews had moved his enterprise from Engle Street to East Palisade Avenue, the address shown in the 1919 ad.
In 1925, now under the ownership of Howard Vieth, the business would move again, this time to a three-story, 16,000-square-foot space on Dean Street. In addition to Victrolas and pianos, it added furniture, rugs, and bedding to its selection. After that, the name of the business was changed to Franklin Furniture Company. It continued to operate under that name for decades before closing in the 1970s.
