Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago
When I think of the 1950s and the dawn of the transistor era, I think of pocket-size radios-- cute plastic, little radios, in vibrant colors and fun designs. THIS radio is nothing like that.
Some collectors of transistor radios specialize in those pocket size models. Some collect the coat pocket size models. And some, the larger models with handles, called portables. Whatever the size, most prefer the plastic models, where the '50s styling could be played out in all its glory, with arrows, and chevrons, and stars, and wings, and luscious plastic underpainting.
But our Olympic here is a pitiful radio that has none of that. Maybe I feel sorry for it, but somehow I have really taken a liking to this thing. It's not plastic, not small, not technologically advanced or historically significant. The only thing I can think of that might account for my fondness for it, is my contrary nature. If you're a collector, I'm sure you understand.
Olympic! Offering you TV, Hi-Fi, Tape Recorders, Imported Hi-Fi, Radios, and Phonos. This radio, Olympic model 859, says on the back "Genuine Imported Leather" and it comes with a leather strap too. The radio is considered to be an American-made radio, even though it doesn't say where it was made. According to The Tariff Act of 1930, quote “every article of foreign origin ((or its container)) imported into the U.S. shall be marked with its country of origin.” So with no marking, we assume.. American. But to look at the chassis, well it MIGHT be US-made, but you could easily make a case for it being made in Japan. In support of that is the fact that the radio has Hitachi transistors in it. There's an open metal tuning capacitor and quite a sizable speaker. Both of those things suggest American, but some of the earlier Japanese radios were made that way too. The radio is powered by four penlite batteries. On the label inside it says "Olympic Radio & Television."
Olympic! This is the New York-based Olympic Radio & Television, Inc. "Look for the Golden Torch.. Your Assurance of Quality." 22 years in business--on a brochure from around 1958--puts their founding at around 1936. By the late 1950s, Olympic was making.. console hi-fi sets, televisions, radios, and even air conditioners.
In 1956, Olympic had rushed to market their first transistor radio, which was one of their tube radio models, that they adapted for use with transistors and literally plugged those transistors into the chassis' tube sockets. There's a video on this channel all about this goofy Olympic model 447.
Olympic's particular niche in the consumer electronics business was as the "world's leader in combinations".. by which they meant television sets combined with radios and phonographs. The idea was you could get all three for just the price of a TV. And that was the pitch in ads like "3-way Fun All in One".. When am I going to get the chance to dance with a girl in a dress like that?... And "All 3 for the price of TV alone" from the world's leader in combinations. "Buy TV, Get All 3." "Hi-Fi TV with 3-D,.. Hi-Fi AM/FM radio, .. and Hi-Fi Stereo Phono." " Choose from fine furniture woods in Modern, Traditional, Provincial, or Chinese, .. from $299.95."
And here is their transistor radio lineup for 1959, including a model very much like the 859 model we are looking at today. This one is the 766 model in a very similar leather cabinet. From the model number I'd guess it to be an earlier radio, like last year's model. I wonder if its chassis is the same as the 859 or is, as I might expect, more American. Well, it seems I have one of those 766 models and here it is. Another radio with just about nothing going for it. My collection is full of radios nobody else would want. And again, I like it. Inside, it's definitely a different chassis, an earlier American-made chassis and with what looks to me to be all American-made parts. The transistors are by R.C.A. and they're not soldered to the board but are instead plugged into sockets as we saw on some of the earliest transistor radios.
So the 776, with plug-in transistors was still a current model in the 1959 catalog. My guess is the 859 replaced it that year. Now, have a look at this 771 model. It looks familiar too. Haven't we seen that somewhere? Oh yes, as a Holiday, in another video on this channel. So, in 1959 Olympic's transistor radio lineup ran the gamut from all-American radios, to American radios incorporating foreign-made parts, to entirely Japanese-built radios imported and rebranded as Olympics. So this is when it started to happen, folks. Neoliberal economics, off-shoring, and the hollowing out of America's industrial base. You're looking at it.
As in most other leather radios from this era, they used the leather's flexibility as a hinge, an unreinforced hinge for opening the back. That hinge is, of course, by now what we used to call a goner and so the radio's back is detached at the top.
When I think of the 1950s and the dawn of the transistor era, I think of pocket-size radios-- cute plastic, little radios, in vibrant colors and fun designs. THIS radio is nothing like that.
Some collectors of transistor radios specialize in those pocket size models. Some collect the coat pocket size models. And some, the larger models with handles, called portables. Whatever the size, most prefer the plastic models, where the '50s styling could be played out in all its glory, with arrows, and chevrons, and stars, and wings, and luscious plastic underpainting.
But our Olympic here is a pitiful radio that has none of that. Maybe I feel sorry for it, but somehow I have really taken a liking to this thing. It's not plastic, not small, not technologically advanced or historically significant. The only thing I can think of that might account for my fondness for it, is my contrary nature. If you're a collector, I'm sure you understand.
Olympic! Offering you TV, Hi-Fi, Tape Recorders, Imported Hi-Fi, Radios, and Phonos. This radio, Olympic model 859, says on the back "Genuine Imported Leather" and it comes with a leather strap too. The radio is considered to be an American-made radio, even though it doesn't say where it was made. According to The Tariff Act of 1930, quote “every article of foreign origin ((or its container)) imported into the U.S. shall be marked with its country of origin.” So with no marking, we assume.. American. But to look at the chassis, well it MIGHT be US-made, but you could easily make a case for it being made in Japan. In support of that is the fact that the radio has Hitachi transistors in it. There's an open metal tuning capacitor and quite a sizable speaker. Both of those things suggest American, but some of the earlier Japanese radios were made that way too. The radio is powered by four penlite batteries. On the label inside it says "Olympic Radio & Television."
Olympic! This is the New York-based Olympic Radio & Television, Inc. "Look for the Golden Torch.. Your Assurance of Quality." 22 years in business--on a brochure from around 1958--puts their founding at around 1936. By the late 1950s, Olympic was making.. console hi-fi sets, televisions, radios, and even air conditioners.
In 1956, Olympic had rushed to market their first transistor radio, which was one of their tube radio models, that they adapted for use with transistors and literally plugged those transistors into the chassis' tube sockets. There's a video on this channel all about this goofy Olympic model 447.
Olympic's particular niche in the consumer electronics business was as the "world's leader in combinations".. by which they meant television sets combined with radios and phonographs. The idea was you could get all three for just the price of a TV. And that was the pitch in ads like "3-way Fun All in One".. When am I going to get the chance to dance with a girl in a dress like that?... And "All 3 for the price of TV alone" from the world's leader in combinations. "Buy TV, Get All 3." "Hi-Fi TV with 3-D,.. Hi-Fi AM/FM radio, .. and Hi-Fi Stereo Phono." " Choose from fine furniture woods in Modern, Traditional, Provincial, or Chinese, .. from $299.95."
And here is their transistor radio lineup for 1959, including a model very much like the 859 model we are looking at today. This one is the 766 model in a very similar leather cabinet. From the model number I'd guess it to be an earlier radio, like last year's model. I wonder if its chassis is the same as the 859 or is, as I might expect, more American. Well, it seems I have one of those 766 models and here it is. Another radio with just about nothing going for it. My collection is full of radios nobody else would want. And again, I like it. Inside, it's definitely a different chassis, an earlier American-made chassis and with what looks to me to be all American-made parts. The transistors are by R.C.A. and they're not soldered to the board but are instead plugged into sockets as we saw on some of the earliest transistor radios.
So the 776, with plug-in transistors was still a current model in the 1959 catalog. My guess is the 859 replaced it that year. Now, have a look at this 771 model. It looks familiar too. Haven't we seen that somewhere? Oh yes, as a Holiday, in another video on this channel. So, in 1959 Olympic's transistor radio lineup ran the gamut from all-American radios, to American radios incorporating foreign-made parts, to entirely Japanese-built radios imported and rebranded as Olympics. So this is when it started to happen, folks. Neoliberal economics, off-shoring, and the hollowing out of America's industrial base. You're looking at it.
As in most other leather radios from this era, they used the leather's flexibility as a hinge, an unreinforced hinge for opening the back. That hinge is, of course, by now what we used to call a goner and so the radio's back is detached at the top.
