Eighty years ago this month, the December 1940 issue of Boys’ Life shows this enthusiastic group of Atlantic City Scouts preparing to get their ham licenses. Fifty Scouts were taking the eight month class, and were hoping to be able to render important communications assistance in the event of disaster. The council’s camp already had its own station.
During World War II, one recurring theme in radio and handyman magazines was bringing the radio from the car inside the house. There were two practical reasons for doing this: First, no new radios were being manufactured, so if you needed another one in the house, you had to use some ingenuity. Second, the radio wasn’t doing much good in the car, anyway, due to gas and rubber rationing.
The January 1945 issue of Popular Science contains some pointers for doing the job. The radio probably used 6 volts for the tube filaments, and a higher voltage for the B+. The high voltage came from a vibrator power supply. The mechanical vibrator changed the car’s 6 volts from DC to AC, which was fed into a transformer to increase the voltage. The radio had a rectifier tube to change it back to the DC required by the circuit. To do the conversion, you needed a transformer that changed the 120 volt household current into 6 volts, with another winding of about 120 volts. This replaced the radio’s vibrator and transformer, and the set’s existing rectifier was used. The wiring for two common circuits is shown below.
For an antenna, the article pointed out that about 20 inches of wire would do a good job, since this is about the length of antenna the set was designed for.
Shown here, on the cover of the January 5, 1940, issue of Radio Guide, is actress Nan Grey, who was then appearing as the leading lady of NBC’s “Those We Love.”
Grey was born in Houston, Texas, in 1918. At sixteen, she went to Hollywood with her mother on vacation, and was persuaded to take a screen test. Her film credits prior to her radio career included starring opposite John Wayne in the 1936 film Sea Spoliers, which you can view below. She was one of the stars of the 1940 film “The Invisible Man Returns.” In that role, she appeared with Vincent Price. However, Price actually appeared for only a minute or so in the film, and spent most of the time as a disembodied voice.
Those We Love ran on NBC until 1945. In the 1960s, she invented a cosmetic mirror for nearsighted women. Princess Grace of Monaco was said to be one of its users. Grey died in 1993 on her 75th birthday.
We recently had the opportunity to visit the Freddy Fender Museum in San Benito, Texas. We are shown above in front of Freddy’s motorcycle and one of the suits in which he performed. The museum is part of the Museums of San Benito, along with the San Benito History Museum and the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
We were shown around by a friendly volunteer, and the visit was well worth the small detour we took to get there. Unfortunately, the exact future of the museum is in question, and it might not be there when you read this. On the very day we visited in December 2019, some of the Freddy Fender exhibits were being removed. The museum will be moving to a new location, but the exact new location is not known at this time. Some of the exhibits were apparently on their way back to Freddy’s widow in Corpus Christi. The volunteer seemed optimistic, however, that the museum would continue in either San Benito or Corpus Christi. But the exact future location has not been determined. Before making a special trip, I would contact the museum to check on the status. The museum is currently open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Fortunately, some of the exhibits remained, and are shown here. Notably, Freddy’s two gold records are still on display, for Before the Next Teardrop Falls, and Wasted Days and Wasted Nights:
Of particular interest to our readers is this chair, marked “Zenith Arm Chair Radio,” in which Freddy Fender probably sat. I’ve heard of Zenith chairside radios, but this is the first I ever heard of an actual Zenith chair. The tag on the exhibit indicated that the chair was from “the 1970s”. Perhaps it was in use then, but my guess would be closer to the 1930s or 1940s. The tag indicated that the chair was last used at the Rio Grande Music Company recording studio, 1165 Sam Houston, San Benito, TX.
The museum also contained another room displaying some of the equipment from the studio, shown below:
The “Rek-Kut” record cutting machine is shown below. You can click on the images for a larger version:
There were also two Ampex recorders, one identified as a Model 354:
As mentioned above, there were two other museums in the same building, and this radio was part of the display in the general history museum:
I couldn’t make out any brand name, but it appears to be from the late 1930s or 1940s, and covers the broadcast band and 5.8-15 MHz shortwave.
Finally, this shell casing was in the museum. It was from a captured German gun from World War 1, and was engraved with the names of the American soldiers against whom it was directed. The engraved text was very hard to read, and I unfortunately didn’t have time to try to transcribe much of it. It would be a great service if some reader in the area could take the time to transcribe the text and post it online somewhere. I’m sure that the relatives of the soldiers listed would be very appreciative.
This young woman is getting ready to tune in a favorite program, thanks to the radio designed to look like a book, described in the January 1940 issue of Popular Science. The design was intended to “appeal to all builders who prefer housing their receivers in some unusual type of cabinet.” It was perfect for the library table, where it would make an attractive decoration while pulling in the local stations.
The cabinet was constructed with the covers of a scrapbook purchased for less than a dollar. The jigsawed decoration on the cover was retained, and sides were build from matching wood. The circuit itself was a two-tube regenerative receiver. It ran directly off line current, with the filaments voltage provided by a “curtain burner” cord.
For those seeking a compact but more conventional design, the same issue of the magazine
showed the design at right. It was a three-tube regenerative set featuring a small two inch speaker. Like the book radio, it covered the broadcast band. It was also an AC-DC set, with the filaments in series powered by the ubiquitous curtain burner.
