Eighty years ago, sound man P.J. Stonor of Liverpool, England, discovered that a high quality American made audio amplifier was his ticket to meet pretty girls. In the January 1936 issue of Radio News, he reports that his sound company had been in business for only nine months, but had covered over fifty “public-address events, from whist drives to garden fetes.” In this photo, he is shown announcing the British Legion fete, with one of the beauty queens beside him.

Mr. Stonor reports that he is using a Lafayette 15-watt 6-volt portable amplifier which had been in constant use without a bit of trouble, not even requiring a tube replacement. He reports that in gain, quality, and price, it had its British counterparts beat.

The American amplifier used British microphones, speakers, and gramophone pickup. The 6 volt amplifier was selected because so many different kinds of current were in use in England, and running off batteries eliminated any problems.
Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon