Shown here 70 years ago on the cover of Radio News, July 1952, is a way for the sound man to make some extra income, namely, the rental of small public address systems. According to the accompanying article, there was a time when the carnival barker depended on being leather-lunged, relying on the volume of his voice. But with a small PA system, voice volume was no longer important, and any desired crowd could be covered with little effort, even with high noise levels.

The article pointed out that “personnel using equipment of this type are non-technical, and consequently the equipment must be simple to operate and have a minimum of controls.” And the gear must be capable of rough handling, simple, and light weight.

The model shown here was model E-10 from the Newcomb Audio Products Company, and both the microphone and a phono input were included. A carrying case with self-contained speaker was available. The microphone shown here, a chest type, was the American Microphone Company model D4G.