Ok, here goes.

I have in my living an old RCA gramophone. I have it there for decor and as a conversation piece.  My brother gave it to me about 15 years, and to my knowledge, the thing did not work, and my brother tells me he never got it to work.  Years ago, for purposes of show, I put a 78 of Goodnight Irene sang by Frank Sinatra on the turntable.

Here's the scary part.

I was watching the news and, boom, the gramophone started to spin and Frank Sinatra started to sing. It scared the crap out of me. What the heck set it off?  The entire event lasted about 30 seconds, then it stopped. I tried to get it to play again, but no dice.  I couldn't get it to budge.

My brother believes that the mechanism had been stuck for years and today it decided to let go and sing a little.  Maybe so.

Is that weird or what?

That sounds hair raising for sure!

When I wonder about the the cause.... Rather than a stuck mechanism, might it be an electronic issue.... Imagining that if it were a stuck mechanism, and the drive motor was electronically live, wouldn't something fry, trying to use energy, but unable due to the mechanism being stuck??? So maybe the motor for whatever reason got some power through it, and ran it for a little bit, and then some electrical connection or part failed again, stopping it??? If so, perhaps in good hands it might not be too hard to fix?