Seventy-five years ago today, the April 7, 1941, issue of Life Magazine carried this ad for the model L-500, as a second set for the study or den, with which you could enjoy your own program, while the family enjoys theirs on the big set in the living room.

The set was a basic “All American Five,” with a tube lineup of 12SA7, 12B7, 12SQ7, 50L6GT, and 35Z5GT tubes.  This set was ready to tune the entire broadcast band, with coverage up to 1700 kHz.  With the recent NARBA reallocations, the band now extended up to 1600.  The speaker was four inches, and the plastic cabinet was award winning, having “won the top award for styling in the nationwide Modern Plastics contest.”

A nicely preserved specimen of this set can be found at the Radio Attic Archives, courtesy of the California Historical Radio Society,

Also shown in the ad is the Model J-602, a restored example of which can be seen in this video:

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