The Walkie RecordAll, by Miles Reproducer Co.

[opg]

My grandfather game me two of these:

The Walkie-Recordall

Advertisements for another phonograph-type recorder, the Walkie-Recordall, are known from 1953-54, but the machine was probably available before and after that.. It was marketed by the Miles Reproducer Corp., which was at one time a fairly prominent firm in the audio-visual field. This oddly named device recorded sound in a groove on a wide plastic belt called a "Sonoband." These bands held several hours of audio and sold for just 25 cents. The recorders in 1954 came in two basic models, the CC "Conference Recorder," at $450, was a four-pound portable that operated on batteries. A variation was the model CCB, which was the same type of machine housed in a briefcase and marketed as a device for making secret recordings. It retailed for $465.75. The CC-type machines recorded for up to 90 minutes on each side of the Sonoband. The CC4 was used for making long-duration recordings of up to eight hours (four hours per side).
(from www.recording-history.org )

Walkie RecordAll (open and closed case)
A sonoband slips on to the spools and a needle etches the recordings on the band. The compact, portable device was activated by turning the black button on the top.

Sonobands
A sonoband is a flexible plastic band and permanent medium. Each band is made of a flexible, durable, Mylar-like material 2 inches wide, with a diameter of 5-1/2 inches. (from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/fm-mr050305.php)

My grandfather was a court stenographer in Pennsylvania in the 1960s, and he was asked to purchase two Walkie RecordAlls (manufactured by the Miles Reproducer Co., purchased in Manhattan) to record conversations during court sessions behind closed doors. He bought the "model CCB, which was the same type of machine housed in a briefcase and marketed as a device for making secret recordings [which] retailed for $465.75" (www.recording-history.org).

I'd love to find blank Sonobands, as my grandfather was unable to show me how they worked (and they still do) because all of the Sonobands he used were property of the court. The store he purchased them from in Manhattan, Kulik's, is long gone, as well as the Miles Reproducer Company.

Also, being that they retailed for $465.75 back in that time, it would be great to see how much they are worth - but I guess that's an Antiques Roadshow kind of thing.

I guess this is more of a tribute page, so I'll take some pictures of the recorders tonight and add them to this thread.

Who knows, maybe someone here has used one, or more importantly, knows how to obtain or MAKE blank Sonobands, a "Mylar-like material 2 inches wide, with a diameter of 5-1/2 inches."

Thanks!

[opg]

Here's a nice picture:

I finished a tribute/info page on my grandfather's Walkie RecordAll, model CCB.

Enjoy!

http://www.oneplayergame.com/walkierecordall.html


By the way, here's some more info: The Sonoband wraps around two spools (the large grey one on the left, and a thinner one on the right), and uses a needle to create the grooves in the band. It looks kind of like a seismograph or lie detector machine

[seraph]

[opg]

No problem. Don't expect any e-mail replies from the webmaster, as I have been waiting for some Sonoband info for at least a year. Unfortunately, they are one of two or three sites I have found that go into some detail about the Walkie RecordAll.

On the plus side, the other link is a recent article about digitizing Sonoband recordings for the Field Museum in Chicago. There are a bunch of online news sites that have the same article, so maybe this will create some buzz....and hum....and tape saturation....

[elektro80]

[opg]

We have an antique gear section? Hmm....

I have an industrial plastics catalog at home. Like you said, if I could get more detail on the material, I could order rolls and see what fabrication processes are available.

Other than that, I have found VERY little info on the web about the Walkie RecordAlls. Either they are museum sites with very little detail or a random eBay item/closet-cleaning reference- "I found this whatchamajiggy and does anyone know what it is?"

Crap! I haven't checked eBay for Sonobands! Idiot! There was a recorder on there a while back.....but maybe.....

[elektro80]

[seraph]

[opg]

[opg]

And so the legend of the Walkie Recordall continues:

I have received several e-mails from other Walkie Recordall users since I put up a few webpages about the recorder on my site. There was a man from Arizona who had two boxes of unused Sonobands! AND HE MAILED ME ONE!

Thank you, kind sir, thank you.

I'll put up more posts, pictures, and sound samples in the coming weeks. Hopefully, I can take better pictures this time...

[richt]

I'm so glad to hear your grandfather's Walkie Recordall is still working. My grandfather is the guy who made them.

My uncle, who worked for his father for many years, was trying to set up a museum of them, and he had many spare parts. I need to check my mother's garage to see if she still has any of them in there, as I heard a rumor to that effect.

The technology was to record on a clear plastic loop I was told was the same as movie film, with a stylus putting a groove in a spiral on the inside of the loop to record. The key difference to standard magnetic tape recorders was that these would never be erased.

Ironically, the downfall for the business was when Nixon made it harder to spy on people, as the machine was often used for that. I often wondered what we would have learned if Nixon had been using the Walkie Recordall and Rosemary Woods would not have been able to erase those 18 minutes of the Watergate tapes.

There were two features I remember my grandfather showing me back in the 60's: voice activation (so you could hide the recorder in a file cabinet, and it would wait until someone came into the room and started talking) and some type of noise cancellation feature where my brother rang a bell as he stood next to me, and I talked into the microphone, and when we played it back you could hear me talking by couldn't hear the bell. My grandfather, who held many patents, said he didn't want to patent these features because when the patent was published his competitors would find out how they worked, so he kept it to himself. Which didn't do him any good when he couldn't remember things anymore...

By the way, he spelled his name Jacob Miles Kuhlik, with an 'h'.

[DMorton]

Hi Richt,

Could I get in touch with you by phone some time? I hoping you can help me with a project on the history of the Walkie Recordall.

I am the person who runs www.recording-history.org , the site that has been quoted here. I am working on a special article on the Walkie Recordall and the Miles Reproducer Co., and like everybody else I'm finding that information is hard to find.

By the way, I apologize to the fellow on this list who has tried to contact me about this. I have been neglecting the site for over a year, but the email link on my site now works. Most of the time. Not that I would have been much help anyway-I really don't have any more information that what is up there.

I recently bought one of these along with about a half a box of recorded sonobands. I am going to try to get the machine working and put some of the recordings up on my site along with some pictures of the inner workings. My machine seems to be a "late model," with papers from 1964, and transistorized electronics rather than vacuum tubes.

Dave Morton

[Edit by Blue Hell, made the link working]

[opg]

[gjlentz]

I have a cousin who found a Walkie-Recordall in his basement the other day. He wants me to auction it on ebay for $1,123.00. (I have no idea how he came up with that figure; but he is a little eccentric).
I took a look at this device and it's fascinating. His version is the briefcase model (black). The original batteries are still in it and amazingly enough there is very little corrosion. There is still a sonoband in it, a separate box of approximately 10 sonobands, an AC adaptor, microphone and instructions for both the walkie-recordall and the adaptor. It looks to me that this recordall will still work if the batteries could be replace, but neither my cousin nor I want to mess with it.
I've never seen anything like this and being from '53-'54, I was surprised that such a device even existed. To some degree it seems to have been a bit ahead of its time.
At any rate, does anyone know if there is any value to these? They seem pretty rare.
Thanks.

[DMorton]

So far I have been unable to get in touch with "Richt," the person who posted here saying he is related to the founder of Miles Reproducer. I emailed the owners of this site about the possibility of them getting in touch with him for me, but I did not get a response.

I did have a nice talk with somebody who worked at the company in the late 1940s. Even if I can't get any more info, I will go ahead and write up what I have as an article for my sound recording history website, www.recording-history.org. I'll post a notice here when that's done.

In response to the recent post about the Walkie Recordall - they're not that rare. They show up on Ebay with some regularity. The things were produced for many years, and a lot of them seem to have survived. I don't know what the value is. Putting your recorder up for sale on Ebay and letting the market determine the value is absolutely the way to find out, but I can tell you that they can be had for $150 or less. I'd be willing to bet that an $1123 minimum price will draw no bids.

Dave Morton

[gjlentz]

Thanks for posting that. I had no idea what the value (if any) might be, but that is a big help to find that they do appear on ebay once in a while and can be had for $150 or less. (Still not bad, IMO). When I searched ebay yesterday I couldn't find any. Every time someone in the family thinks they've found the golden idol, they want me to sell it for them and make them rich! Hasn't panned out so far.
Thanks for the reply.

[opg]

Well, my grandfather remembers paying $600 for one back in the early 60s. One would have to assume that because of the original price and how rare the recorder is, it has to be worth that $600 at least. Although, it is a very specific recorder that will only really attract a few hardcore collectors. That could be good or bad. Who knows.

[pugy]

Hello everyone,

In case anyone's interested, I have a unit tht I'd like to sell. It has no Sonoband, but has some kind of odd "remote" type box (with a switched pot on it) with a multipin connector.

It's working as far as I know (can't test it without the Sonoband) and looks to be in very good shape.

Best reasonable offer?? email me at y(dot)stuff(at)mac(dot)com

tks,

pugy

[richt]