Category Archives: Minnesota History

Maurice Goldberg: Minnesota Radio Pioneer

Shown here in 1944 is Maurice G. Goldberg, the owner of Beacon Radio Service Shop, 142 East Fourth St., St. Paul, MN. The shop had been in business for 20 years, and even before the war had concentrated on service. Indeed, the sign outside read, “if we can’t fix it, throw it away.”

Even with wartime parts shortages, the shop was living up to its reputation of being able to fix anything. And since new sets were not available for sale, his decision to concentrate on service proved profitable.

Goldberg had been able to keep many radios operating by interchanging tubes, with often meant having to rewire the set. He was so flooded with business that backlogs ran about three weeks. He did, however, prioritize oldtime customers. His reasoning was that when conditions returned to normal after the war, many customers would return to local dealers. But the long-term customers would appreciate the loyalty shown to them.

Greenberg also taught at the Dunwoody Institute in the Army training program. He did occasionally get students who were available to help out in the shop, but he did the bulk of the work himself, working long hours.

Goldberg was indeed a Minnesota radio pioneer. He’s listed as of 1924 as the licensee of KFOY, with broadcast 250 watts on 1350 kHz (222.1 meters). This frequency was shared with WAMD Minneapolis, licensed to one Stanley E. Hubbard. The stations were bought in 1928 by the National Battery Company, which merged them together under the new call sign KSTP, with Hubbard as general manager. Power increased to 25,000 watts, and Hubbard re-acquired a controlling interest in 1941.

The photo above appeared 75 years ago this month in the December 1944 issue of Radio Retailing.

Two Sad Train Stories: 1869

These sad tales appeared in the Chicago Tribune 150 years ago today, September 20, 1869.

MINNESOTA

A St. Paul correspondent of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican says:

It was only the other day that a chubby-faced Swede made himself ridiculously prominent at the Eastern depot, by telling every man, woman, and child present that his wife and boy were coming on the next train, all the way from Sweden. The poor fellow had been in Minnesota for two years, and by dint of hard work and living on a quarter a day, had scraped together enough to get him a little home, and to enable him to send for his family, and now they were coming on the next train, and the long months of anxious expectancy were almost over. The train dashed into the depot, the emigrants began to file out, and presently appeared a sad, weary-looking woman with something in her arms. The man rushed forward and asked for his boy, and the woman burst into tears. The boy was a corpse in her arms–had sickened on the journey and died on the train, and the poor man’s heart seemed broken. The depot employee made a rude box for the body, and sadly enough they went away.

A somewhat similar but more sad event occurred the other day. Every day for about a week a young care worn woman came to the end of the bridge, half an hour before train time, and waited patiently till the last passenger and the last wagon had come over, when she would turn disappointed away, sometimes with tears that she could not entirely conceal. At last a wagon came across, and in that wagon a trunk, which she no sooner say that she darted forward with a wild cry, looked into the wagon and saw the body of her husband, partially covered with a blanket, and dropped o the ground. Sympathizing strangers crowded round; offers of assistance were freely made, but too late; from that time to this she has been a raving maniac. The explanation of all this is briefly as follows: She and her husband had started for St. Paul, he in advanced consumption, with just enough money to get them there, in the vain hope that he might get some light employment which would enable them to subsist; but he had grown rapidly worse on the journey; finally, he ahd been left a a point some seventy miles below St. Paul, unable to travel further, while the lady, probably forced to realie the fact that money here, or elsewhere, is the one thing needful, had come on in this city and obtained work as a seamstress, and he after a while had attempted to follow, and had died on the train.

Phonographs at the Minnesota State Fair: 1919

This article appeared a hundred years ago this month in the September 1919 issue of Talking Machine World.

TALKING MACHINES AT THE BIG MINNESOTA STATE FAIR

Enormous Crowds Attracted-Exhibits of Edison, Pathé, Starr, Vista Phonographs Attract Much Attention-Exhibitors Well Repaid for Their Investment

Wikipedia image.

MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, September 6. Everybody went to the big Minnesota state fair, August 20 to September 6. It was the biggest fair ever held either in Minnesota or any other state. The attendance on Labor Day was 201,619 and with fine weather predicted the turnstile count for the show should have been in the neighborhood of 600 000.

Music was in the air throughout the eight days of the fair. Four big military bands, the “Million Dollar” Sunset Division band, the 151st Field Artillery band, the Minnesota State band and Thaviu’s concert band, with a score of smaller organizations and a hundred or more talking machines, kept music ringing in the ears of every visitor.

Library of Congress image.

Only a small number of the Twin City dealers deemed it to their advantage to make displays at the show, but those who were there were amply repaid for their efforts. In the first place the attendance was unprecedentedly large and then a change has come over the ruralites, for they are no longer afraid to spend money.

The exhibitors were Laurence H. Lucker and the Minnesota Phonograph Co., G. Sommers & Co., M. L. McGinnis & Co., the Northwestern Music House and the Vista Talking Machine Co. in connection with Hochman Bros., Minneapolis.

Wikipedia image.

A life-sized photograph of The Wizard himself attracted attention to “the phonograph with a soul” shown and demonstrated by Laurence H. Lucker and the Minnesota Phonograph Co. That the people of the Northwest are familiar with the Edison products was amply testified by the throngs about the booth. A very complete line of cabinet machines was on display together with some period cases.

The center of attraction in the Sommers booth was the new Pathé Actuelle. About twenty Pathé machines were on exhibition. Demonstrators expatiated upon the advantages of the Pathé Sapphire ball and the durability of the Pathé records.

Starr phonographs and Gennett records were shown by M. L McGinnis & Co. Mr. McGinnis, who is a veteran piano man, has now become a phonograph enthusiast and almost has been weaned away from his old love. Four fine types of the $300 models of the Starr machines formed the most conspicuous feature of the exhibit.

Linderman and Columbia phonographs, together with Boland band instruments and Mathushek pianos, completely filled the extensive space obtallied by the Northwestern Music Co. President Boland was in charge of the show and was full of enthusiasm for the success of his venture at the fair. His house, while handling a full line of Columbia Grafonolas and records, is pushing the Linderman phonograph, in the manufacture of which the company is interested.

New in the state fair field was the Vista talking machine, made at Port Washington, Wis., and six other places. The concern also makes the Paramount records. Its display at the fair was made in conjunction with Hochman Bros., dealers at 416 East Hennepin avenue, Minneapolis. P. F. Moses, of the Chicago headquarters, is taking the exhibit about the country and is signing Vista contracts with many merchants.

Skid Row Radio: 1960

In the early 1960s, the City of Minneapolis decided to engage in some urban renewal, which consisted of razing most of the Gateway district, also known as Skid Row. The area contained many hotels and boarding houses occupied largely by middle aged and older men who were or had been laborers.

One of the accommodations was the Pioneer Hotel, a “cage hotel,” meaning that the individual rooms were made of plywood, with chicken wire serving as the ceiling. Before the area was torn down, the City of Minneapolis decided to document conditions by taking photographs. In the process, the Pioneer Hotel became one of the most photographed flophouses in History.

The city photos include the one shown above, taken in 1960, from the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. The room was small, but it was this gentleman’s home until the city tore it down. On the dresser is what appears to be the most valuable possession shown in the room, a radio. It’s shown zoomed in at the left. It is a Silvertone model 9280, manufactured for Sears in about 1949 or 1950.

The 5 tube portable (Two 1U4s, a 1R5, and a 3V4, plus selenium rectifier) ran on either AC or batteries. It appears to be plugged in to the single lamp socket near the window, and it’s unlikely that the owner spent much of his money on B batteries.

The ten year old set was probably a pretty good performer, as it contained one RF stage in addition to the normal superhet lineup. You can see the same model radio playing at the following video:

1949 TV Station List

This listing of U.S. television stations appeared in the July 1949 issue of Radio Electronics. It showed all stations on the air as of May 20 of that year. Los Angeles now led the nation with the number of stations on the air with six: KFI-TV, KLAC-TV, KNBH, KTLA, KTSL, and KTTV. New York had five stations on the air. Chicago and Washington DC had four. Baltimore, Detroit, and Philadelphia had three.

In the Upper Midwest, WTMJ-TV was on the air in Milwaukee, and KSTP-TV was on the air in St. Paul.

WDGY Minneapolis, 1944

This ad for WDGY radio appeared 75 years ago today, in the July 10, 1944, issue of Broadcasting. The ad maps the station’s impressive coverage area, and notes that letters were recently received from over 96,000 letters from listeners. The letters all included a boxtop for Waldorf Crackers, and were part of a promotion for an afternoon program.

The station is currently KTLK, with a similar pattern with its nine-tower array beaming north at night. The WDGY call letters are in use by an oldies station serving the Twin Cities market from its Hudson, WI, city of license.

Phonographic Spam Sales, 1939

Eighty years ago this month, the May 1939 issue of Radio Retailing carried this feature explaining how salesmen from Austin, Minnesota, based Hormel Foods did their jobs. To tell the story of “a new canned meat,” the salesmen brought along on their calls to grocers a portable phonograph and played a record of the canned meat’s story. They “stood speechless while the record did the selling, softened up the prospect with suitable musical interludes.”

This salesman was employing an Emerson radio-phono.

While the meat is not identified in the caption, it is plainly visible in the photo, which reveals that the phonographic sales pitch was for Spam, the venerable luncheon meat which had been introduced by the company in 1937.

Rolite Trailers, 1969

This ad for Rolite trailers appeared fifty years ago this month in the April 1969 issue of Popular Mechanics. The Rolite was a solid-walled trailer that folded down. A 12-volt electric motor raised the roof and front and rear walls. The side walls were then raised manually, after which the roof was jogged down a couple of inches to lock everything in place.

Rolite was originally manufactured in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, in the mid-1960’s. By the time this ad appeared, they had become part of Larson Industries, 5000 Normandale Rd., Minneapolis. More information on the Rolite can be found at this Facebook group.

The ad was part of a 30-page supplement on camping, which also included the ads shown here:

The first is for a 5 horsepower motorbike kit (with optional ski), with a name familiar to regular readers, namely Heathkit! You can read more about the GT-18 at this link.

The second ad is for a class of product that has largely ceased to exist, namely, inexpensive, lightweight, no-frills tent trailers. They still exist, but most are marketed as motorcycle tent trailers. However, there’s no reason why one can’t be pulled behind a car. While I don’t think they are available in the U.S. any more, shown below is the 1980’s era Danish made Combi-Camp trailer we owned for a few years. Its empty weight was only a couple hundred pounds and could easily be towed by any car. Most importantly, it allowed you to camp but sleep off the ground, which is a huge luxury, but provided even by the simple trailer shown above.

For more information about the Appleby trailer shown in the ad, see this link or this Facebook page.

Lew Brock, WCCO 1943

This ad for WCCO Minneapolis appeared in Broadcasting magazine 75 years ago today, August 30, 1943. It reminded advertisers that the station’s 6-7 AM program, time on which could be booked at the early morning rate, was hosted by Lew Brock, who had a loyal following with the station’s loyal listeners.

According to the ad, former vaudeville star Brock emceed the “Sunrisers” program, which included an orchestra and other musical regulars.

1948 TV Census

Here’s a snapshot of the state of television 70 years ago this month, Agusut 1948, from that month’s edition of Televiser magazine. New York was still the nation’s hotspot when it came to the new medium, with just over half of the nation’s sets in the New York metropolitan area.

Minneapolis-St. Paul now boasted 5600 sets, 3900 in private homes, with the remaining 1700 in public places.

According to the magazine, over 64,000 sets were rolling off the assembly lines each month. By comparing with the previous year’s numbers, it was clear that TV was growing fast. In September 1947, the same survey had shown just over 93,000 sets, with well over half in the New York area. Minneapolis and Milwaukee hadn’t appeared in the 1947 survey, but were now growing TV markets.

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