The Victor-Victrola Page   

VV 2-65

RARITY: ¤¤   VALUE:  ¤ 

The VV 2-65 was not a Victor Talking Machine product, as it was introduced in 1931, a few years after RCA had purchased Victor and taken control of the company. However, many of the design concepts for this suitcase-style portable phonograph had been initiated by Victor, and it is considered to be an incremental  advancement of Victor's immensely popluar VV 2-55 phonograph. Like the 2-55, it came with a single spring motor and gold hardware, as well as an Orthophonic soundbox and a 'shaped' horn chamber inside the cabinet.  Sound then radiated from the rear opening behind the turntable and was reflected off the lid toward the listener. Therefore, the lid had to be open in order to play records. A slot was provided in the lid to store a few records. Given the low price tag for this machine (during the extrememly challenging times during The Depression) many buyers used these models as their primary home phonograph, rather than shelling out hundreds of dollars on an expensive floor model Electrola. However, due to the ballooning unemployment levels at that time, sales were down about 95% from the peak period of phonograph sales in 1928-1929.
The 2-65 was still considered to be a moderate success, expecially given the magnitude of the economic downturn at that time. Approximately 23,000 were produced into the mid-1930's. Variations on this design were used on many portable phonographs, even into the early 1950's.
The original 1931 selling price of the 2-65 was $35.00, which equates to about $600.00 in today's money.

The current survival database shows the earliest existent VV 2-65  to be S/N 852 and the latest to be S/N 22520

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Approximate chronology of Victrola "Suitcase" portable models