‘Want it mate? Do it for a tenner…’

And so, began my journey into Dansette ownership. That tenner changed hands at The Stables end of Camden Market in the late 1980s, and in truth, I couldn’t resist the look of the machine, which evoked memories of so many family parties in the late 60s and most of the 70s.

I learned in time I now owned (and yes, I’ve still got it) a ‘Dansette Junior Deluxe’ launched in1962 which in 1965  was priced at £12 1s 6d.  Though it still ‘works’ mechanically, a loose wire or something (Technical? Moi?)  now prevents me from hearing the record that is playing, but it is still in good nick, so I’ll sort that one day.

The Dansette story began in 1952, when British company J &A Margolin Ltd, owned by Morris Margolin, introduced a record player in a suitcase, complete with strap and loudspeaker in the lid. The Margolin family came to the UK as Russian Jews,  cabinet makers by trade and they settled in London. Morris also imported stringed musical instruments and accordions to sell alongside his regular stock.

He then developed his first radiogram in the 1930s, which featured a cabinet housing a turntable. In the early 1950s, with the seven-inch single rapidly replacing the old 78s, he teamed up with the Birmingham Sound Reproducers company, who had invented the ‘autochanger’ which enabled several singles to be stacked above the turntable, which would then drop them down one at  time to play, when the previous single had finished. This came to market as the ‘Dansette Senior’ in 1952 and it played all the available formats of the day, 7, 10 and 12 inches, at the correct, required speeds.

The explosion of the post war teenage market meant the Dansette was in high demand from households all over the UK as the 1950s progressed. Portable, it came in a variety of bright colours with a hinged top lid, and its control knobs, speaker and handle, all located on its front. 

Despite the high sales, they were anything but cheap with the first models in the early 50s  retailing at 30 guineas or so (roughly just under a £1,000 in today’s money – Financial Ed.) which priced it out of most pockets, but by 1962, the smaller/junior models were selling for around 12 guineas. Needless to say, there was a thriving HP trade in them come Christmas time.

Trade was good and Margolin floated on the stock exchange, changing their name to Dansette Products Ltd. However, new recording techniques with stereo taking over from mono recordings, coupled with cheaper and more modern Hi Fi, mainly from Japan and other Far East countries, beginning to dominate the market in the mid 60s,  sales of the Dansette dried up and eventually the company went into liquidation at the end of the 60s.

Samuel Margolin – ‘Inevitably the market dried up for (our) record players. Imports from Japan took over the market with cut-throat competition.

The Rank Organisation bought the name and continued to make record players branded “Dansette” into the early 1970s, but in truth their glory days were over, but what good times they provided while they lasted.

The Mumper of SE5

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