Chrysler's in-car phonograph
The Columbia phonograph in a 1956 DeSoto
(Credit: UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center)Not much surprises us nowadays on the CNET Car Tech channel. In this age of mobile, voice-activated, wireless, digital, high-definition, mesh-networked, in-car infotainment, we hardly bat an eyelid as torrents of new automotive gadgets comes down the pike.
The forerunner to the auxiliary-input jack
(Credit: UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center)But here's something that made us sit up and take notice: an in-car phonograph. According to an article on the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center Web site, these record players--made by Columbia and offered as options on 1956 Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, and Plymouth models--could handle 45-speed records as well as 7-inch records in the new 16-2/3 format. The players were installed on a slide-out turntable beneath the dash and hidden behind a drop-down door that could be opened at the push of a button. Way before people were banging on about multimedia convergence, drivers could switch between the radio tuner and the phonograph with the flip of a switch and use the same volume and equalizer controls for both sources.
Alas, problems abounded with the system: Records skipped as the car encountered uneven surfaces. And an exclusive content arrangement with Columbia meant that drivers could listen only to artists signed to Columbia Records. According to the UAW Web site, the option initially lasted for only one model year, and despite resurgence a couple of year later, it was finally abandoned.
While we flatter ourselves that we might have been able to anticipate some of these problems (had we been born), we salute the pioneers of Car Tech.
The company Motorola, now primarily makers of cell phones and denouncers of vowels, was originally a company that made car audio systems, and their very first product was, ta da, a record player for your car.
Hence the brand name "Motorola," a blend of "Motor" and "Victrola" (the Kleenex of phonograph brands).
Duh... for a gadget blog you sure don't know your gadget history.
http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=7632-10812
"1930: First Motorola Brand Car Radio
In 1930 Galvin Manufacturing Corporation introduced the Motorola radio, one of the first commercially successful car radios. Company founder Paul V. Galvin created the brand name Motorola for the car radio ? linking "motor" (for motorcar) with "ola" (which implied sound). Thus the Motorola brand meant sound in motion."
There's no mention of an in-car phonograph.
"Galvin Manufacturing Corporation's first product was a 1928 battery eliminator.",
The company name changed after that, and despite what the PR site says, it was based off of the car record player, itself called a "Motorola." It isn't *exactly* a lie to say the name came from the combination of "car" and "radio," (despite the -ola prefix never referring to a radio) because Motorola created radios at about same time, but I'd venture that Motorola's "history of innovation" webpage isn't going to put, up front, that silly bit of company history...
No skiping!
I ripped - er recorded - songs off the radio and made several comp (compiled) 7" reel tapes.
I had a wolverine (brand) 8" high complience speaker with incorporated whizzer cone (for high frequencies) mounted in the rear deck which used the entire (cube shaped) trunk as a speaker box. GREAT SOUND!
I knew exactly what I was doing, because I built the high end speaker wall (for comparing speakers) for the high-fi store I worked for in high school.
Wow - - thank you for letting me share - .
John
http://www.monomachines.com
As you might guess, it ended in tears.
http://marcus132.livejournal.com/57441.html
or Decca?
It was a measurement of the poor state of Canadian roads that romantic events would be building up on the way up from the states until the car hit the Canadian border and Canadian roads where the poor quality of the road state would result in the record skipping and the end of any romantic music.
www.glendalegolfs.com
www.aceemploymentservices.net
One final note: the 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Seville Executive Sedan, a special built model, had a Dictaphone unit (the precursor of the mini-cassette recorder for taking notes that used a belt - worked kinda like an old Edison cylinder recorder) built it.
What's that old phrase: "Everything that is old becomes new again". Now when are we going to bring back tube car radios (that was the days when a vibrator was a radio part and NOT a sex toy :))
My first car was a 1974 Ford Maverick. I had to install an underdash cassette deck I got from a local stereo shop. I remember Pioneer had a recordable cassette deck in the late 70's. It had a mic plug or would record off from your radio. I almost got one, but never got around to it.
As I recall 8-Track Players weren't all that great either. My brother had one in his first car in 1973, and the 8-Tracks would jam constantly.
Dave
- by WilliamMSimpson February 15, 2009 9:20 AM PST
- This vintage in-car phonograph would certainly play vinyl records from other record companies than Columbia Records. The in-car automotive dash phonographs would play any of a number of vinyl records from different record companies
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(19 Comments)www.wpgauto.com
William Simpson prop. and owner of one of these fine units
I should of never of sold that car.