I share a couple of old early radios. They are called the cathedral style of table top radio, which became popular in the 1930s.
I haven't had much success looking for web sites that show clearly any more information, and honestly I don't care that much about them, beyond curiosity.
The memories of old radio shows are of more interest to me...before TV, families would listen together to broadcasts. I wasn't around for Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats. But I began listening to music early on, and dancing around the living room. Later I enjoyed shows with characters I grew to love, the Lone Ranger, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and on and on.
There was a Texaco hour I think on Sunday afternoons, and I remember going for drives with my family and listening to it in the car on the radio. When it was opera singing, I kind of lost interest...after all they were not singing in English even!
I guess this was how my continued interest in radio broadcast music began, and today I am an ardent fan of NPR.
Did you have some radio experiences that you remember?
Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week, which shows a sporting event...on a big field, without electrical amplification so a huge megaphone is being used...I wonder if there were no electric amps yet being used?
Today's Quote:
It is
when you are willing to listen to yourself and be fearless that figuring out
your next step becomes easy.
Although the English Radio shows of the time were obviously different,I'm sure they too formed a soundtrack to our lives back then.
ReplyDeleteWhich is the nice thing about radio.It gives space (if we want ) for other things.It doesnt exclude everything else the way television does.
What a marvelous thing to collect!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that style of radio had a name. The early radio preachers probably sold a lot of them. Somewhere in Asheville there is a museum of radios run by some collector.
ReplyDeleteIn 1963 when I was in 4th grade my Dad was posted to Germany where we lived for nearly 3 years. We didn't have a television but instead listened to Armed Forces Radio. It was the only English language radio station with a strong signal. In addition to contemporary pop music it regularly played 1930s-40s reruns of radio drama/comedies that my parents had listened to when they were growing up. Radio programs like The Shadow, Burns & Allen, Lone Ranger, etc. I now recognize how important that break from TV addiction was for my own discovery of storytelling and music. Radio remains my favorite media.
Oh my goodness! The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Hop-a-long Cassidy, Burns & Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Drag Net, The Inner Sanctum (and that creaking door), and FOOTBALL!(American version). Saturday afternoons meant sitting around the radio (ours was rectangular)with my parents listening to the Cal (U.C. Berkeley) football games instead of going outside to play house or dolls or 'getting married' or whatever with my girlfriends. They never could understand my avid interest in the game, but I loved listening to those games. My heroes were the quarterbacks who could throw great passes, and the running backs who could escape the clutches of the defense and chew up the yards! (I started listening to the games when I was around 10.) And than along came TV where we could watch the games - first in B&W, and later in 'living color'. Moments in my past I recall with great fondness. And I still watch any number of football games on TV in season! I love the game.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to learn of the Cathedral style. I am more familiar with the box radios from the 1950s and 1960s. As a teenager I loved to listen to the radio at night when far-away Top 40 stations came in more clearly. From upstate New York I could hear KDKA in Pittsburg, WBZ in Boston, CKLW in Windsor/Detroit, and several New York City stations. A great way to keep up with the latest tunes and teen culture (predating today's Facebook and Twitter). Thanks for this memory-provoking post!
ReplyDeleteI had not heard the name Cathedral applied to a radio, but it fits. They do look like stained glass windows. I don't recall listening to radio shows, but as a teen I had a clock radio that I left on all night long. On Christmas Eve I always woke up to hear Lorne Green reading "The Gift of the Magi." Something about his voice, I guess.
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