I have been collecting microphones for over 60 years.
The first one I bought as a prop for a Marshall Civic Theatre production of “Fiorello.” The musical play of the story of Fiorello La Guardia, who was the mayor of New York for 13 years. The show opens with the curtain closed and mayor making a radio address and then the curtain opens with the mayor sitting at the microphone.
I had to have an old looking and working microphone. I found one at the Bargainette. The Bargainette was a “junk” store located in an old bank building on Marshall’s Main Street, Michigan Avenue. The microphone didn’t work. The owners, a married couple, were engineers. The microphone didn’t work but they had the knowledge and equipment to find the broken wire and repair it. The microphone worked and we used it on stage.
The theatre people weren’t surprised it worked. That’s what I did.