Comments on: Chrysler's in-car phonograph

A dewy-eyed look at early advances in car tech and a variation on the first DRM.

[The Noble Robot]

Have you ever heard of Motorola??

This isn't news.

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.

[harrymac99]

I beg to differ

Funny - that's not what Motorola's own history says:

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.

[kevinmassy]

Motorola's first product was a battery eliminator

which it introduced in 1928. According to its Web site, the company did adopted the name Motorola based on its car radio , the name being a link between motor (for motorcar) and "ola", which implied sound.

[The Noble Robot]

Almost true...

Good job looking up Motorola's PR history webpage, available online at www.motorola.com.

"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...

[Visualdude]

The prototype is much older

I remember seeing a Laurel and Hardy movie in which they had a victrola mounted under the hood (or it might have been on the outside. Anyway this gag scene is that you think their listeding to a radio when they stop so Laurel can get out and service the victrola. I guess they were pioneers of more than just perspective cinematography.

[CasualVisitor]

I had a Tape Recorder in my car - in those days

I had an old VM (Voice of Music brand) reel to reel 120V tape recorder positioned on the hump of my 1954 Ford, powered by an inverter.

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 - .

[delaisaac]

Awesome Install

It reminds me of my dad's custom (blow torch) installation of his 8 track into the 69 chevy. Needless to say, he was not wearing a white glove when putting in a tape.


John
http://www.monomachines.com

[marcus132]

When comedy doesn't work

I actually tried to put a record player in my '99 Volkswagen GTI.

As you might guess, it ended in tears.

http://marcus132.livejournal.com/57441.html

[derekbill]

Columbia only?

How, pray tell, did they keep you from playing something from, say, RCA Victor
or Decca?

[glendalewinnipeg]

Car Phonographs

Interestingly enough a high flying friend of mine Simpson often speaks of these car phonographs which in the evolution of auto sound systems came long before 8 Tracks.
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

[aceempl]

Howard Hughes Jetset Employers of their Times

This fellow Simpson seems like quite a guy.
www.aceemploymentservices.net

[photobug56]

car phonograph

My father had a 45 rpm portable car phonograph decades ago. When he stopped using it in the late 60's or so (it wasn't the most practical thing to have in a car) I put together a 12vdc power supply, hooked it up to a WWII era amp of my father's, and we then were able to listen to records in our room down in the basement. We did that until he bought an old Seeburg 100 record jukebox...

[mustangj36]

LP players could be bought from

J.C.Whitney back in the '60's. I knew a guy who had one. You fed records into it much like car cd players today. The skipping problem never was solved. The big, soft sprung cars of the era helped, but it didn't take much to make the needle jump.

[Paul Hillebrand]

Our was different than you describe

My dad had a 1960 DeSoto (big fins and push button transmission)that had a record player. I don't recall of problems with being Columbia records only or the skipping. Records were loaded upside down and the needle arm came from under the stack (needle pointing up). When we sold the car we wanted to install it in his new 1967 Dodge but since that had a transistor radio the were incombatable since they shared the amp and controls.

[maxdoggie]

1957 Chrysler Imperial Convertible

I have a 57 Chrysler Imperial with a factory installed "Highway Hi-Fi" so they apparently were used beyond the 1956 years. I do have the original records, also, and yes--it DID skip when you drive!

[whbowen]

Ahhh those where the days

I guess most of you weren't around when those in-car record players where new, but I was. I remember my uncle's '57 Chrysler had one and also the '60 Imperial that replaced the '57 had one too. With the stylus pressure needed to keep the thing from skipping record life was the pits! AND, if you hit anything bigger than a pebble it skipped anyway. When Philips introduced the cassette in 1963 everyone was soooo happy. BTW, Chrysler also had a really nice Philips-built external cassette player/recorder in some of their early 70s cars: my dad's '71 Plymouth Fury had one. Nice thing about that unit was you could record from the radio OR from a plug-in microphone.

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 :))

[DavesWorld]

That's A New One

You learn something new every day. Being born in 1956 I don't remember this. Seems to me it would have been tested and shown not to work before going to the expense of actually installing the thing.

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

[WilliamMSimpson]

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
www.wpgauto.com
William Simpson prop. and owner of one of these fine units
I should of never of sold that car.