Giving the Gift of Music 100 Years Ago in Amesbury

Fred W. Peabody’s Victrola advertisement in the December 10, 1923, issue of Amesbury Daily News. Click to enlarge. (Source: Newspaper archives of Amesbury Public Library.)

In today’s world of Spotify, iHeartRadio, and other online music streaming services, some might wish for simpler days only a few years ago when one could wrap a CD or vinyl record to place under the Christmas tree. Those days extended as far back as 100 years ago, when advertisements in the Amesbury Daily News invited holiday shoppers to drop into the Fred W. Peabody shop on Main Street to pick out the latest 78 RPM dance record. Before buying, you could listen to the record to make sure it would please the recipient. (Fred W. Peabody was in the building now home to Ben’s Uniforms.)

You could also get “your Christmas Victrola” at the Peabody shop. (A Victrola is a record player or “talking machine.”) A 1923 holiday season advertisement shows six different Victrolas available, including both table-top and console models. These were powered by a spring that you wound up with a hand-crank on the side of the cabinet. No electric power was needed for listening or dancing.

The same ad offered several of the latest fox-trot dance records, including “Somebody Else Took You Out of My Arms” and “Shake Your Feet.” (If you watch Dancing With the Stars, you’ve heard of dancing the fox trot.) Listen to one of these 100-year-old recordings by clicking on its label below. The sound quality may be poor by today’s standards, but 100 years ago it was amazing technology – and the only way to listen unless you could afford your own orchestra!

“Somebody Else Took You Out of My Arms” 78 RPM record label. Click to listen. (Label and recording from Archive.org.)

“Shake Your Feet” 78 RPM record label. Click to listen. (Label and recording from Archive.org.)