Classic Hifi Care

I rented A Place in the Sun (1951) tonight. The poor girlfriend had a 1930s radio in her apartment. When she turned it on, the speaker grille lighted up. ?????????? I guess they wanted a clear visual "on" signal. The rich girlfriend had a ca. 1950 Zenith table radio, one with the round dial and external pointer, in her bedroom. I'm looking at a cousin of it across the room from me right now. The wealthy family had a big console TV in their living room area, at a time when TVs were not universal in American homes. It was a rectangular screen model.

Chris Campbell

I do a similar behavior in spotting what hi-fi's or consoles
are used in movies.
In the old 50's/60's TV shows, I "can't believe" how the
console hi-fi's/stereos are frequently covered on top with
geegaws of all kinds.
They obviously were rarely played by
Jim Anderson's family, ha ha !

I've always wanted to identify a 1930s movie I saw on TV as a kid. It was a gangster film. One of the rich hoodlums is in his home or office with a visitor, who walks over to a large console radio, one of those '30s highboy or lowboy models with legs, a big one. The gangster commented boastfully, "Twelve-tube superheterodyne." So it's probably early '30s when superhets were taking over from TRF models. Having a superhet was like having a V-8 in your Chevy instead of a 6 in the '50s and '60s.

Chris Campbell

See them all the time in laurel and Hardy films , but they are hard to determine what the brand(s) are, and occasionally on the three stooges ...usually Zeniths and philcos...

They soitenly bashed up some Zenith radios in the Three Stooges shorts. I think curly wound up with most of them on his head. Hog Wild is another Radio Related riot, by Laurel And Hardy,

I liked that one, and when they did the scenes on the roof it was mostly empty lots , now that same neighborhood is unrecognizable