Seventy-five years ago, these youngsters, shown on the cover of the January 1947 issue of Radio News, had been especially good, since Santa had brought them, among other gifts, this Motorola Playmate Junior portable radio (Model 51M1U).
The four-tube (1R5, 1U4, 1U5, 3S4) portable covered the broadcast band, and ran off batteries or AC. On AC, the set used a selenium rectifier.
Actress Jeanne Crain had apparently also been a good girl, since she is also shown with the same model in the ad below, which noted that the set was the company’s most compact portable and had excellent signal pickup and shock-resistant tubes. It also notes that the antenna is conveniently built in to the cover. Since the ad mentions the film “Take Care of My Little Girl,” it must have been from about 1951, meaning that the set remained in production for quite some time.
