1941 Emerson Portable by TwoPynts
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Description
Here we have one of the very first "boom-boxes." This antique Emerson portable radio was the first radio my associate ever owned. As a boy, it excited his imagination and led to his entering the field of engineering and becoming one of it's luminaries. It may be the reason he lovingly restores them today. You can even see a few of his boyhood stickers still affixed to its case. A few of you have asked if the radios I'm showcasing in this gallery are mine. No, they are his. I posted a collage of a fraction of his collection in the Photography Forum yesterday. You can view it by clicking HERE. ----- * Emerson Portable Tube Radio * - Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp., NY - Model: FU424 - Chassis: Leather/wood case, red or blue - Year: 1941 - Wave bands: AM Short & Long Wave (40-1630 range) - Shape: Portable - Valves / Tubes: 6 Superheterodyne - Power Type & Voltage: AC/DC-set, 105-125 Volts, 20 to 60 Cycles, 20 watts - Original leatherette case, handle replaced. Everything else is OEM, except the stickers. :') There was a wide variety of music on radio in 1941 -- if you liked country (often called "Hillbilly" music back then), Gene Autry had his own show, the Melody Ranch, and of course, the Grand Ole Opry was still a huge favourite every Saturday night. It was still a year when the great band-leaders dominated the charts, and big bands played the music people loved. If you turned on your radio in early 1941, for example, you would have heard hits from Artie Shaw ("Frenesi"), Jimmy Dorsey ("I Hear a Rhapsody"), Benny Goodman ("There'll Be Some Changes Made"), and Gene Krupa ("It All Comes Back to Me Now"). Of course, there was always a Glenn Miller record on the charts, such as "Song of the Volga Boatmen" or "Chattanooga Choo Choo"; and you probably listened faithfully to his radio show on the CBS network. In 1941, you could buy a new car for $850, a loaf of bread was 8 cents, while a gallon of milk cost 54 cents. You could buy a gallon of gas for 12 cents, but some states had already begun imposing curfews on the hours gas stations could be open. Virtually all of the newspaper and magazine advertisements by year's end were inserting reminders to help the war effort into their ad copy. "Berlin Diary" by William L. Shirer became a best-selling book, and kids adored "My Friend Flicka" by Mary O'Hara. A couple of experimental TV stations were on the air, but not many people could afford the equipment necessary to watch, and programming was very limited. FM radio was available in many cities, playing either classical music or simulcasting the programs of the AM station which owned it. As the United States moved towards war, the music industry began putting out more and more patriotic songs, while plays with patriotic themes became more common (Lillian Hellman's war drama "Watch on the Rhine" was quite successful). Events that would change the lives of millions of Americans were about to occur, and many of those changes started in 1941... Thanks for your gilded comments on my last upload, The Golden Age Of Radio
----- Olympus C8080WZ & PhotoshopCS. (543)
Comments (24)
Chaos911
what a F A N T A S T I C shot and work!!!! super cooooool!!! :)
jcv2
Oh wow, a golden oldie! Impressive to read its specs, 20-60 Hz! :) Where do we find an apparatus doing that nowadays? No FM, no stereo, that is a pity, but it's great to see this radio that might still work pretty well!
killerpumpkins
I can feel the bass!!! Nice photo. KP
soulofharmony
beautiful lighting and superb capture.. dont make masterpieces like these anymore.. plastic just doest cut the class..... brillaint kort :)
CDBrugg
so not only did they have better music, they also had more attractive radios to listen with...
ModestyB
Emerson lake & palmer....LOL!!!! getting these wicked assosiations :) Had a really old "Hagstr" bassAmplifire...with tubes LC66...if I recall right :) well someone stole that one after a gig :( a pitty cause it provided a "fat & warm" sound with a little funky touch........P&K
Valentin
This is brilliant... a wonderful mix of nostalgie and technology!
sharky_
I can imagine its all hard wired and no real circuitry boards. Excellent .. Aloha
kimariehere
oh i really enjoyed seeing this and the stickers... i bet that was once his prize back before television that was his link to the outside world!! fantastic shot love this series!!..
Digimon
A wonderful relic from a time of innocence! Just before we were drawn into WW2. As a kid, he obviously had his eye's to the skies! Buck Rodgers and all that, at least that's the story the stickers tell! What a cool object!
Valerie-Ducom
wouahhh.. very good, the first portable Radio, a very good collection my friend ;) good evening ;) kiss
nathalie06
Very original this one !!!! and a great idea to have made a radio portable. Better than an I Pod... lol ! superb shot and serie !!!! V
rayburg
What are the dimensions of that radio..It doesn't look too big...Radio back in those days was more than a music box...There were soap operas, mystery hours etc..
Punaguy
The predecessor to the massive boom boxes of today! And unlike most of the junk they put out today this one still works...great shot of this radio! Aloha!
jocko500
love those old radios
TheWarlock
Hola hola, something about keeping an subject crisp which i love. at the same time i love a blur effect too.. great work...
hotracer2
Sop COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL:):)..V
cbender
OMG - what the hell's that... ?!? an "outer space radio" ?!? but cool looking thingy...!
Margana
My dad was an importer from Japan...so I had the first 'transistor radio' on the block!I sooo wish I still had it.It looked like a mini version of this...the dials were almost the same...LOL!I love this series Kortalouche!Then again,all your series are wonderful.MAS4eva indeed.-M :^)
Cosme..D..Churruca
Genial memorabilia... excellent photography and super interesting info. Very well done !
parb1194
A wonderful old radio to bring back old memories.
tmathise
Ahhh, talk about hi-fi ...NOT! Sure glad the audio quality of those days is a distant memory, but I do miss some of those fantastic package designs they used to create in those days. Talk about style! Great photo Kort, thanks for the nostalgic memories. Have a great Sunday!
cynlee
saturn!! playing our tune! ;]
odie
Oh cool. Love the handle (and the stickers!) :0)