Fun&Games_v3

WOODMAN HALL & PHONOGRAPHS

Woodman Hall was considered one of the centers for social life in Orland Park during the 1890s-1930s. The hall was a place where people were able to gather and share their talents. It received its name from the Modern Woodmen of America and was built in the late 1800s on 144th Street, between 1st and 2nd Streets. Dance and plays were popular forms of entertainment in the early 1900s-1920s and many of these functions were held at the Hall. Dancing was a lively activity and according to early recollections, young people would travel upwards of eight miles to attend a dance at Woodman Hall. The Victor Talking Machine Company began in the late 1880s, when Emilie Berliner invented the mass-production flat phonograph record. Thomas Edison invented the cylinder phonograph in 1877, but Berliner’s design allowed for copies of audio recordings to be made due to his record’s flat designs. Displayed here is a phonograph that belonged to the Humphrey family from 1915. This talking machine was introduced in 1911 alongside a wide lineup of newly designed phonographs from the Victor Talking Machine Company. The production of this model ran for over 11 years. The original 1911 machine sold for $25, equivalent to about $825 today. ARTIFACTS IN THIS CABINET (LEFT TO RIGHT): • Program for “Pink Dominoes” – A Play Performed at Woodman Hall, 1920 • Photograph of Woodman Hall, 1908

• Victor Talking Machine Records o “Havanola – Fox Trot,” c. 1917 o “Listen to the Mocking Bird,” c. 1916 • Victor Talking Machine, 1915