That Utah is a fine example of an early big honkin' electrodynamic speaker and it ought to be restored. I believe the copper oxide rectifiers are pretty reliable. First order of business would be to determine if the field coil and the voice coil are OK and not shorted or open, and that the voice coil is not rubbing on the pole piece. You could send it to Hank Brazeal for a professional reconing:
(205) 403 6243, E-mail
[email protected]
Or you could try to recone it yourself with one from Mat Electronics.
http://matelectronics.com/acatalog/M...ories_208.html
Don't know if the cones they have would have the same depth as the Utah's. Might take some cutting and fitting. What some have done is to use a piece of the new cone to repair the old, or cut the old cone out except for an inch or so around the voice coil and then cut and fit the new cone to glue there.
BTW I don't think the red paint inside the G.E. was original!