Many decades ago, any kid reading a comic book would get to a page where there was a bunch of cool stuff for sale: like whoopee cushions, x-ray specs, joy buzzers, sea monkeys, and more nifty stuff.

One thing in particular was the gadget where you could record your own voice on a real record! I never knew a kid that actually got one, but I recall an episode of “The Honeymooners” where Ralph got one to make a record for his wife Alice after they got into an argument.

It's just a guess, but I'll take a shot and say that record very well could've been made by a machine from the Wilcox-Gay Corporation from Charlotte, Michigan.

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Wilcox started out on W. Lawrence Avenue in Charlotte back in 1910 making amateur radio components and kits. According to tapeop.com, by 1926 they had expanded to consumer radios. In 1931 it became the Wilcox-Gay Corporation, moved into Charlotte's former Bennett furniture factory, and started churning out tape decks, reel-to-reel recorders, record players and more.

In 1939, they came up with a 'record-your-own' device called the Recordio and aimed its advertising at middle-class families. Ads popped up in magazines like Life, Look, and Ebony.....and the Recordios took off and sold well.

With these machines you could make your own 78 RPM records – even musicians like Johnny Cash and Les Paul used these recorders.

Thousands of these were sold over the next few decades until the 1960s. In 1961 the name was changed to Wilcox-Gay-Majestic Electronics, moved to Chicago, and two years later they went bankrupt, shutting down permanently.

Charlotte's Recording Business

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