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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Record Players For Cars Seemed Like A Good Idea In 1956

The history of consumer goods is littered with brilliant ideas that weren’t quite ready for public consumption yet. In the ’50s, if you wanted to listen to some music in your vehicle, your choices were listening to the radio or forcing your family members to sing. Until the invention of the Highway Hi-Fi in-car record player changed all that. Or could have, if it had caught on with the public.

You know, records: those large, flat vinyl discs susceptible to scratches and prone to skipping that people used for playing music for much of the 20th century. In a world without consumer magnetic tape players, how else were you going to transport music into vehicles? Multiple companies thought that turntables for the car were fantastic and commercially viable ideas. They were not. Consumer Reports unearthed this bit of semi-forgotten tune-blasting history from the late ’50s and early ’60s.

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7 comments:

Ben in Salisbury said...

I talked at length to a man at a record show who worked for GM. Apparently the idea was to have something to play music for family outings and events, picnics and cookouts. The car was suppose to be parked and then become an entertainment area. Love the article and would love to see one in person
Thanks for the smile

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine has a early 60's pickup with a record player.It plays 45's and was factory installed when the truck was built.

Anonymous said...

George Chevalier probably has one someplace.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of how dependable people said they were,the needles were not dependable, as the link suggested.When a car or truck hit a pothole or a stretch of rough road they would skip.Other than that they worked perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to mudflaps on cars

Anonymous said...

Remember replacement car seatcovers?

Anonymous said...

Remember ejector seats?