Seventy years ago, these youngsters were listening to some favorite records, thanks to a new record player that Santa had just delivered. But little do the kids know that Santa had some help–Dad actually built the set, courtesy of plans found in the December 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics.

When not in use, the tone arm is placed on its holder, which actuates a switch mounted inside the cabinet, turning it off automatically. The only control for the kids to mess with was the volume control.

The amplifier used a single 3V4 tube, whose fast warmup meant that the player was ready for action the moment the tone arm was picked up. One interesting feature of the circuit is the source of the 3 volts for the filament. The set has no transformer, but the power supply for the B+ uses a selenium rectifier.  The filament voltage seems to take advantage of the rectifier’s voltage drop, as it seems to be wired across the rectifier (and in series with the phono motor and two resistors).