Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
This radio smells. Yes, it literally smells. It smells like the dashboard of a 1956 Chrysler. Or Craftsman tools. I don't suppose you have a '56 Chrysler but if you have any of those tools you might know what I mean. It's the kind of plastic used in the handles. Now if you just have those tools out in the garage you may not notice but if you have them tucked away in a tool box, you'll notice it when you open that toolbox. Like, what happened in here?! I gotta clean that up. But no one lost their lunch in there--it's just the plastic.
This is a crazy design with these concentric rectangles made of the.. suspected plastic. There are badges in the middle of them, and a fancy nameplate made of underpainted plastic over on the right side. On the bottom it says "Transistor 900." Looking over on the back, it says, "Du Mont Transistor 900 Perma-Life Pocket Radio." And on the bottom, Du Mont Television and Radio Corporation, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Now who else was in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA... Emerson. And that's who made this radio for Du Mont. That's why this looks SO much like the Emerson 911 Eldorado. Now, presumably Du Mont knew how to make radios but they let Emerson make this one. Well, the story is that in 1958 DuMont sold its TV manufacturing division to Emerson, according to Wikipedia which talks about televisions but as of this date makes no mention of DuMont radios. We can safely guess that Emerson bought the radio division too and continued using the DuMont name on radios and TVs as long as the DuMont name meant anything to anyone. In the Emerson line, DuMont was positioned as a deluxe brand--more "high end" than the regular Emerson products. And that accounts for the ornate decoration on this and other DuMont radios and TVs. What's going on here is exactly the same as what you see today in a so-called "luxury" hotel, or the homes of the nouveau riche-- gold claptrap all over the place, chandeliers in the bathroom and all that. Even if we don't see the pretentiousness of it at the fancy new hotel, we can see it here clearly enough, as with age the ostentation's tackiness becomes more obvious. And.. funny.
Another of DuMont's tendancies along these lines was its fondness for putting doors on their TVs-- because of course no high-class family would have a blank TV screen visible when it wasn't in use. You closed the doors and hid that screen. Against the decline of civilization you've got to put your foot down somewhere. Or next you'll be leaving your toaster out on the kitchen counter all day.
I came across this 1964 ad and was surprised to learn there were still DuMont television sets being made that late. You can see on the color TV pictured here.. and on the adverisement that surrounds it, they were still working that luxury angle in their marketing, and providing full employment to a wood-working department tasked with reducing the number of straight lines on their TV cabinets... The TV has a sliding door to cover the screen, thank goodness. This ad shows their corporate address now in New York City. Fifth Avenue. Of course.
As I once talked about in a video on Arvin, it's fun to pick up little clues about these radios from small details. Normally whenever we see some words molded into the back of a radio, they do not have a box around them. In that Arvin video we saw the words "Made in U.S.A." on the back, but when the cabinet molds were adapted to produce the radio elsewhere, they had to block out the old information and add the new. They cut "Made in U.S.A." right out of the mold and inserted the words "Hong Kong" in a new section, resulting in the impression of a 'box' around the words. So... why would we see a box around Emerson's name and location on the back of this radio? Was this cabinet used by somebody else first? Did this radio perhaps first appear as the DuMont? Well, the words on the Du Mont's back ALSO have the box around them. So I think we can conclude one of two things, first that there is a mystery radio out there--that is the original and is of unfathomable beauty and rarity--or the much more mundane conclusion is that Emerson designed and produced their Eldorado radio and the Du Mont radio at the same time and so produced the original mold without these words being "built-in" at all, but a blank space left in the mold to be filled in appropriately.
The Du Mont 900. There's a real verve to its ostentation.. that, as a collector, I have to admire. It's an audacious design, wildly pretentious, and it makes me.. laugh. This,... though it too makes me laugh, has a certain sad quality to it. Maybe it's the fussiness of it all. Or maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe I realize that the closest I'm ever going to come to living the lifestyle of the rich and famous is.. owning.. this DuMont radio. And it smells.
This radio smells. Yes, it literally smells. It smells like the dashboard of a 1956 Chrysler. Or Craftsman tools. I don't suppose you have a '56 Chrysler but if you have any of those tools you might know what I mean. It's the kind of plastic used in the handles. Now if you just have those tools out in the garage you may not notice but if you have them tucked away in a tool box, you'll notice it when you open that toolbox. Like, what happened in here?! I gotta clean that up. But no one lost their lunch in there--it's just the plastic.
This is a crazy design with these concentric rectangles made of the.. suspected plastic. There are badges in the middle of them, and a fancy nameplate made of underpainted plastic over on the right side. On the bottom it says "Transistor 900." Looking over on the back, it says, "Du Mont Transistor 900 Perma-Life Pocket Radio." And on the bottom, Du Mont Television and Radio Corporation, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Now who else was in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA... Emerson. And that's who made this radio for Du Mont. That's why this looks SO much like the Emerson 911 Eldorado. Now, presumably Du Mont knew how to make radios but they let Emerson make this one. Well, the story is that in 1958 DuMont sold its TV manufacturing division to Emerson, according to Wikipedia which talks about televisions but as of this date makes no mention of DuMont radios. We can safely guess that Emerson bought the radio division too and continued using the DuMont name on radios and TVs as long as the DuMont name meant anything to anyone. In the Emerson line, DuMont was positioned as a deluxe brand--more "high end" than the regular Emerson products. And that accounts for the ornate decoration on this and other DuMont radios and TVs. What's going on here is exactly the same as what you see today in a so-called "luxury" hotel, or the homes of the nouveau riche-- gold claptrap all over the place, chandeliers in the bathroom and all that. Even if we don't see the pretentiousness of it at the fancy new hotel, we can see it here clearly enough, as with age the ostentation's tackiness becomes more obvious. And.. funny.
Another of DuMont's tendancies along these lines was its fondness for putting doors on their TVs-- because of course no high-class family would have a blank TV screen visible when it wasn't in use. You closed the doors and hid that screen. Against the decline of civilization you've got to put your foot down somewhere. Or next you'll be leaving your toaster out on the kitchen counter all day.
I came across this 1964 ad and was surprised to learn there were still DuMont television sets being made that late. You can see on the color TV pictured here.. and on the adverisement that surrounds it, they were still working that luxury angle in their marketing, and providing full employment to a wood-working department tasked with reducing the number of straight lines on their TV cabinets... The TV has a sliding door to cover the screen, thank goodness. This ad shows their corporate address now in New York City. Fifth Avenue. Of course.
As I once talked about in a video on Arvin, it's fun to pick up little clues about these radios from small details. Normally whenever we see some words molded into the back of a radio, they do not have a box around them. In that Arvin video we saw the words "Made in U.S.A." on the back, but when the cabinet molds were adapted to produce the radio elsewhere, they had to block out the old information and add the new. They cut "Made in U.S.A." right out of the mold and inserted the words "Hong Kong" in a new section, resulting in the impression of a 'box' around the words. So... why would we see a box around Emerson's name and location on the back of this radio? Was this cabinet used by somebody else first? Did this radio perhaps first appear as the DuMont? Well, the words on the Du Mont's back ALSO have the box around them. So I think we can conclude one of two things, first that there is a mystery radio out there--that is the original and is of unfathomable beauty and rarity--or the much more mundane conclusion is that Emerson designed and produced their Eldorado radio and the Du Mont radio at the same time and so produced the original mold without these words being "built-in" at all, but a blank space left in the mold to be filled in appropriately.
The Du Mont 900. There's a real verve to its ostentation.. that, as a collector, I have to admire. It's an audacious design, wildly pretentious, and it makes me.. laugh. This,... though it too makes me laugh, has a certain sad quality to it. Maybe it's the fussiness of it all. Or maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe I realize that the closest I'm ever going to come to living the lifestyle of the rich and famous is.. owning.. this DuMont radio. And it smells.
