Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
A while back, I did a video about finding THIS radio at a flea market, along with some other vintage radio goodies. Well, there's a lot more to this radio's very interesting story.
We see this identical radio in two very different configurations. I found the tube radio version of it, called the Modernair. But I already had in my collection the crystal radio version of this radio..called the Revell Radaradio. This book about Toy Crystal Radios shows the Radaradio and mentions the Modernair in the text. There were several crystal radios made in the mid-20th century that looked like tiny table radios. They were a natural for mail-order sales and most were sold that way rather than in stores. Many found their way to their eventual owners as premiums or as prizes--more on that later. Here's how the crystal Radaradio was sold in the back of a 1947 comic book. "The Most Amazing Invention of the Age!" Yes, they sold crystal radios--the oldest and most primitive of all radio receivers--as if they were the latest, newest invention. "Revell's Sensational New 1947 Model, Portable RADARadio. No electricity, no batteries, no tubes, Yours for only $7.98 complete with earphone and headpiece. Costs Nothing To Operate, Nothing to Adjust! Nothing to wear out!" And "included at no extra cost" two lengths of wire, also known as a "Complete Aerial and Ground Kit." "The magic of radio in the palm of your hand" ((read all the text and the features list))
"Send no money. You risk nothing!" and it goes on to say how to order it and has some little cartoon drawings restating the sales pitch. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sold. I'll take one!
Or maybe one of these... Yes, offered from the same "American Merchandising Company" of Montgomery Alabama is the new "1948 model...Never Before At Such an Amazing Low Price! Portable Modernair Radio." And this one is "Not a Toy But a Real Battery Operated Radio, For Only $6.95.... with Powerful Vacuum Tube Reception." Yes, you can have "the magic of radio in the palm of your hand!... Use it Anywhere...In bed... in kitchen...On trips...At work...Outings... Included at no extra cost, 22-1/2 volt 'B' battery and 1-1/2 volt 'A' battery." There is room for two of those 'A' batteries on the back of this thing but you're just going to get one.
And here's the Modernair one-tube radio the previous year, 1947, being offered in Billboard Magazine for $6.95 from the D. A. Pachter Company of Chicago. They're pitching it as a "premium" or "prize" item. They explain: "Premium users, Boardmen, Concessionaires and Midway Workers, happy days are here again! Sales action is what you want--and this Mighty Midget Modernair Radio will get it for you. Everybody who sees it wants it." (This is true).
But what do we make of this? quote "Will put life in your dead spots." Oh my. "Boardmen will welcome this great Modernair Radio. It will bring your deadest, slowest spots to profitable life." Now just what IS a boardman, you may wonder. I did. Someone who managed a boardwalk? How many of those are there? Not that many, I don't guess. Turns out, THIS is a boardman. A guy who walks around city streets wearing what's called a sandwich board over their shoulders with a message on it, front and back, usually advertising. Now, I knew about these guys from old movies and maybe seeing one or two myself during youthful visits to the big city. But I thought they just carried the signs, like a walking billboard. I didn't think they sold any actual product. This ad seems to imply that the boardman would carry a few of these radios around with them and sell you one if you inquired.
So, in addition to ads in comic books, you might acquire a radio like this from a boardman, or as a prize at a midway somewhere, perhaps at a carnival or fair. But, not likely you'd find this radio in a store. Nor, probably would you find a $3 typewriter in a store. But there's one right here in this comic book ad from 1948. And below it we see our friends at American Merchandising Company are offering the Modernair again, at the $6.95 price, batteries included. It's kind of funny that the crystal radio version, the Revell Radaradio, without either batteries or tube, was a dollar more at $7.98. But then it was "The Most Amazing Invention of the Age!"
The earphone supplied with the Modernair says on it "Receiver, type R-14, made by Kellogg S&S Co. for Signal Corps., U.S. Army." So, you know what that means. ...Army surplus. Kellogg, was one of the major makers of telephones in those days. The 'Kellogg S&S' stands for "Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company." They were based in Chicago. It wasn't common, but neither was it terribly unusual for army surplus items to find their way into commercial products in those days.
We looked inside the Modernair in that other video and marveled at the unique tuning mechanism. So if you like to explore the insides of things, you ought to give that video a look.
A while back, I did a video about finding THIS radio at a flea market, along with some other vintage radio goodies. Well, there's a lot more to this radio's very interesting story.
We see this identical radio in two very different configurations. I found the tube radio version of it, called the Modernair. But I already had in my collection the crystal radio version of this radio..called the Revell Radaradio. This book about Toy Crystal Radios shows the Radaradio and mentions the Modernair in the text. There were several crystal radios made in the mid-20th century that looked like tiny table radios. They were a natural for mail-order sales and most were sold that way rather than in stores. Many found their way to their eventual owners as premiums or as prizes--more on that later. Here's how the crystal Radaradio was sold in the back of a 1947 comic book. "The Most Amazing Invention of the Age!" Yes, they sold crystal radios--the oldest and most primitive of all radio receivers--as if they were the latest, newest invention. "Revell's Sensational New 1947 Model, Portable RADARadio. No electricity, no batteries, no tubes, Yours for only $7.98 complete with earphone and headpiece. Costs Nothing To Operate, Nothing to Adjust! Nothing to wear out!" And "included at no extra cost" two lengths of wire, also known as a "Complete Aerial and Ground Kit." "The magic of radio in the palm of your hand" ((read all the text and the features list))
"Send no money. You risk nothing!" and it goes on to say how to order it and has some little cartoon drawings restating the sales pitch. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sold. I'll take one!
Or maybe one of these... Yes, offered from the same "American Merchandising Company" of Montgomery Alabama is the new "1948 model...Never Before At Such an Amazing Low Price! Portable Modernair Radio." And this one is "Not a Toy But a Real Battery Operated Radio, For Only $6.95.... with Powerful Vacuum Tube Reception." Yes, you can have "the magic of radio in the palm of your hand!... Use it Anywhere...In bed... in kitchen...On trips...At work...Outings... Included at no extra cost, 22-1/2 volt 'B' battery and 1-1/2 volt 'A' battery." There is room for two of those 'A' batteries on the back of this thing but you're just going to get one.
And here's the Modernair one-tube radio the previous year, 1947, being offered in Billboard Magazine for $6.95 from the D. A. Pachter Company of Chicago. They're pitching it as a "premium" or "prize" item. They explain: "Premium users, Boardmen, Concessionaires and Midway Workers, happy days are here again! Sales action is what you want--and this Mighty Midget Modernair Radio will get it for you. Everybody who sees it wants it." (This is true).
But what do we make of this? quote "Will put life in your dead spots." Oh my. "Boardmen will welcome this great Modernair Radio. It will bring your deadest, slowest spots to profitable life." Now just what IS a boardman, you may wonder. I did. Someone who managed a boardwalk? How many of those are there? Not that many, I don't guess. Turns out, THIS is a boardman. A guy who walks around city streets wearing what's called a sandwich board over their shoulders with a message on it, front and back, usually advertising. Now, I knew about these guys from old movies and maybe seeing one or two myself during youthful visits to the big city. But I thought they just carried the signs, like a walking billboard. I didn't think they sold any actual product. This ad seems to imply that the boardman would carry a few of these radios around with them and sell you one if you inquired.
So, in addition to ads in comic books, you might acquire a radio like this from a boardman, or as a prize at a midway somewhere, perhaps at a carnival or fair. But, not likely you'd find this radio in a store. Nor, probably would you find a $3 typewriter in a store. But there's one right here in this comic book ad from 1948. And below it we see our friends at American Merchandising Company are offering the Modernair again, at the $6.95 price, batteries included. It's kind of funny that the crystal radio version, the Revell Radaradio, without either batteries or tube, was a dollar more at $7.98. But then it was "The Most Amazing Invention of the Age!"
The earphone supplied with the Modernair says on it "Receiver, type R-14, made by Kellogg S&S Co. for Signal Corps., U.S. Army." So, you know what that means. ...Army surplus. Kellogg, was one of the major makers of telephones in those days. The 'Kellogg S&S' stands for "Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company." They were based in Chicago. It wasn't common, but neither was it terribly unusual for army surplus items to find their way into commercial products in those days.
We looked inside the Modernair in that other video and marveled at the unique tuning mechanism. So if you like to explore the insides of things, you ought to give that video a look.
