Second-hand Second Hand Rose

[Mike Salovesh]

Scott Swanson wrote:

> Just curious, and completely off-topic, but in pre-transistor days wasn't
> the common household radio at least the size of a toaster? I am also
> curious as to approximately when the radio became inexpensive enough that
> youngsters would have one of their own in their bedroom? My father's
> stories of listening to radio seem to always feature the family sitting
> around a large set in the living room.

I don't know if old radios really are off-topic.  It's at least arguable
that network radio began to blur some regional distinctions in American
English, probably sometime in the 1930s.  New words, phrases, and
pronunciations could diffuse instantly from coast to coast through
simultaneous nationwide broadcast. Musical innovations could, and did,
do the same thing.

In the early years of broadcast radio, lots of radio was received on
simple crystal sets, often home-made.  Commercially-made radios began to
be common in city homes in the latter half of the 1920s.  They were much
rarer in rural areas.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that things we take for granted were
novelties within living memory.  Most of the rural parts of the U.S.
didn't have electricity until two New Deal programs worked on that for
years: the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification
Administration.  (Here in De Kalb, Illinois, I have a constant reminder
of another innovation of the 1900s, that long-ago century.  The first
mile of poured concrete interstate highway, part of what was to become
the Lincoln Highway, US 38, was built just outside De Kalb.  Local
natives won't let you forget it. The main business street of DeKalb is
still called "Lincoln Highway".)

>From the 20s to the end of the 30's, the common "family radio" was
likely to be in the "cathedral model" shape: a rectangular base rising
to a semicircular top, with tryptich-like divisions marked by wooden
strips making pointed arches. There would be a grill cloth behind the
wooden strips, and a circular speaker inside the rectangular area at the
bottom.  Toward the top of the radio there would be a clock-like
circular dial, with an adjustable pointer for tuning.  That kind of
radio typically would be from 18" to 36" tall.

By the end of the 1930s, table model radios in streamline shapes, often
in Bakelite cases, became more and more commmon.  They were indeed just
slightly smaller than a two-slice toaster . . .  and could be pretty
cheap, too.  (Does the brand name "Crosley" ring any bells?)  There also
were some larger, completely rectangular radios in wooden cases with
grill-cloth fronts. (Zenith, anyone?)

I'm pretty sure that the idea of kids taking a radio under the
bedcovers, so their folks wouldn't know they were listening, could not
have been very widespread until 1940, give or take a  year. It was about
that time that inexpensive portable radios became widely available.
Those portables came in wooden boxes, often covered with split leather
or cardboard designed to make them look like baby suitcases. They often
were powered by four D-size batteries; some looked portable, but were
powered through a wall plug. That's the kind of radio kids were most
likely to take into bed with them.

Large living room sets -- say anything over 3.5 feet tall (or, if you
prefer, somewhat taller than the top of an ordinary kitchen table) --
always were a kind of luxury item.  The largest sets, "console radios",
often were as much as six feet tall, built into elaborate furniture
imitating classic furniture styles. Console radios became more popular
when they started to include the electrically powered turntables that
replaced the old handcrank Victrolas. Consoles  were made from the
mid-1920s until the early 1950s.  They pretty much died out with the
advent of live network TV. In some households, consoles were replaced by
the big hi-fi sets of the mid-1950s, but for most people the living room
TV replaced the living room radio.

Now if you'd just drop in to our house, you could see the console model
Philco radio I picked up at a house auction for a dollar a few years
back. It receives AM and shortwave, and dates to the mid-1940s.  Or the
cathedral model speaker that was originally sold to match an RCA
cathedral radio.  Or the original James B Lansing Model One speaker and
enclosure, with hand-wound magnets in its pair of 15" speakers in a
Philippine mahogany case and sound baffle that's five feet long and
three feet high.

I hate to throw out a good piece of equipment that's still working.
(Anybody want an old Kaypro IV CP/M computer?)

-- mike salovesh                    <salovesh at niu.edu>
PEACE !!!

P.S.: Yes, several of you were just as right as my wife.  Fanny Brice
was not on Fibber McGee and Molly OR the Great Gildersleeve.  Right
after I sent my misidentification, my wife shouted "Baby Snooks!"  I was
too ashamed to tell the list how far wrong I had gone.  I knew some of
you old-timers would correct me, anyhow.

My excuse is that much as I liked Fanny Brice, I never could stand Baby
Snooks.