Three Radios and a Rock-ola

I saw this radio at the Third Sunday Market in Bloomington IL a while back.  Other than the name Philco I didn't know anything else about this radio.  Fortunately if you want to find out about Philco radios there is an excellent site, Philco Radio .  There I was able to find that this radio is a Philco Lowboy 65.  It was introduced in the fall of 1929.  The model was very popular and is said to be easy to find today.  How this radio went from likely spending years with a central place in some families home to sitting in an open field at a flea market is a story I would love to hear.  I imagine this radio once carried the news of the early days of the Great Depression to the election of FDR. It may even have lasted through WWII and up to when it was replaced by a TV. 

The Westinghouse Model WR29 above was sitting in the same open area as the Philco Low Boy.  First made in 1934, the Westinghouse Model WR29 probably heard news of John Dillinger's bank robbing career and death. I wonder how this radio has managed to survive for 80 years?

The Philco Model 41-280X was introduced in 1941.  The original selling price was $69.95 which would be equal to $1076 today.  So for most people this was a major purchase.  And since this was one of the most popular radios of it's time it was a price that a lot of people were willing to pay.  The Model 41-280X is  more sophisticated than the two radios presented earlier.  In addition to the AM band the Model 41-280X has shortwave bands and police and aircraft bands.  There are also 8 preset push buttons like those that many of us can remember being on car radios.  Almost undoubtedly this is a radio that saw anxious faces listening for news of WWII.  And probably of the three it is the one most likely to have hung around long enough to be replaced by a TV.

The Rock-Ola Model 1458 was made in 1958.  By that time the three radios above had probably either been retired or moved to a less important place in the house. Unlike the older console radios for a price a jukebox the Rock-Ola let you pick the songs you wanted to hear. And the music that they played was often a kind that those from the days of the console radio found disturbing.  I was just a little kid when rock music was just catching on, however I can vividly remember the divide between those who thought it was music and those who thought it was noise.  And because of that divide the Rock-Ola Model 1458 was probably in the middle of more controversy than any of the three radios that I have talked about. 

Garage Sales July 2013

 The woman above was out by the street promoting her garage sale.  First time I can remember seeing anything like that as part of a garage sale. 

So far it has been a fairly lackluster garage sale season for me.  I have not seen many cameras of any kind. Not even the cheap plastic give-away cameras that were once a frequent sight. 

Hopefully, things will pick up once August comes around.  The main town around here is a University town and things tend to be slow in June and July. So right now I am taking a few pictures at the sales, but not finding much of interest to buy.

I did find this radio at a sale, however I haven't found much info on it.  It was made by Marvel, a Japanese company not connected to the the maker of comic books.  It was probably made in the 1960's. This type of radio was popular when I was a kid in the 1960's. Stick one in your pocket and use an earphone, and you might get away with listening to the radio in class. It does still work on a 9 volt battery.  I would guess it is not valued at much more than the couple of dollars that I paid for it. Some of these small transistor radios are in fairly high demand especially when they have a pleasing appearance and are in good shape. Not many small items evoke the spirit of an era more effectively.