Victrola parties sound so quaint, don’t they? But 100 years they were a very big deal. The victrola gave the owner(s) the option of playing music that had been pre-recorded. Heretofore, anyone wanting music at an event needed someone to play on instruments such as a piano or violin.
The Lambda Chi Alpha chapter at Cornell University told of a victrola’s purchase in a 1914 magazine. “We find it a source of much pleasure. Many classic records have been added and the music committee are to be commended for their selections.” The victrola was financed with a 25-cents per member tax, according to October 4, 1914 chapter meeting minutes.
Michigan Daily ads, 1914
In 1917, Beta Theta Pi encouraged its chapters to have a Music Night as part of the chapter’s educational programming. “The victrola may be used for the study of good music, the Victor Company publishes a book on this line.”
In the 1920s, the emergence of radio stations made a combination radio and victrola a welcomed addition to chapter life. Evening radio programming often included musical performances, so a chapter could schedule a dance based on a local station’s schedule.
The report of the Syracuse University Alpha Omicron Pi chapter told of a situation at the institution in the early 1920s:
The dean refuses to give any permission or to register any dances until Chancellor Day decides whether we may have any private dances at all or only all-university dances in the gymnasium. Some of the other fraternities have had dances, and nearly all are giving victrola dances, so we fell the authorities cannot object to these.
The emergence of radio stations in the 1920s made a combination radio and victrola a welcomed addition to chapter life. Evening radio programming often included musical performances, so a chapter could schedule a dance based on these performances.
In 1924, the Zeta Tau Alpha women at the University of Washington had a victrola in the chapter’s music room. They also helped fund raise with a rummage sale which included victrola records the members did not want. The Ohio State Zetas sold candy to raise funds to purchase a chapter victrola.
When the Depression hit the University of Illinois campus, the Phi Kappa Psi chapter had a plan. The April 1934 issue of the chapter newsletter noted that:
a valuable and most useful addition to the chapter furnishings has been the purchase of a new combination of radio and Victrola. The need for this splendid instrument was felt to be more pressing than that of holding the annual spring formal this year, and the purchase was financed by using the money ordinarily spent for the annual spring dance.
In the late 1930s, the Mothers’ Club of the University of Illinois Sigma Nu’s chapter presented the chapter with a radio-victrola. The radio “proved its worth when the chapter used it for our radiodance” after the start of the second semester.
