Antique and Vintage Art Deco Style Radios

The radio was not born during the Art Deco era, but that’s definitely when it came of age. During that period, two important events happened. The first was the advent of regular radio programming on new radio networks across the United States, beginning in 1920 at WWJ in Detroit, whose first broadcast consisted of the songs “Roses of Picardy” and “Annie Laurie” played on an Edison phonograph, followed by “Taps.” Then, in 1925, the term Art Deco was coined, taken from the name of an influential design exhibition in Paris. A machine-age aesthetic, Art Deco was all about geometry and repeated motifs, which suited the exteriors of radios being manufactured by Emerson, Philco, Zenith, Fada, and General Electric during the 1930s. To be sure, there were plenty of radios manufactured in the 1920s, but most were either functional in design—boxes decorated with knobs—or throwbacks to Victorian furniture—cabinets with elaborate scrollwork on spindly, lathe-turned legs. Among the exception were the Operadio of 1922, which featured a radiating sunrise grill over its built-in speaker, while the grill covering the speaker that hung below the Crosley 31-S from 1929 radiated lightning bolts. The 1930s, though, was the decade of the Art Deco radio, when sales between 1930 and 1941 hit an estimated 71 million units. Millions of these radios were made out of new or recently introduced molded resins like Bakelite, Plaskon, Catalin, and Beetle. These resins were dyed and colored, sometimes produced swirls or marbled patterns. The small Kadette, made by the International Radio Corporation of Ann Arbor, Michigan, resembled a portable heater, which it sort of was because the six tubes inside the device got plenty hot. Fada and Silvertone radios were a bit more streamlined, using a multi-colored airplane dial in the case of the Fada to give the radio a visual focal point, and solid-colored dials in the case of the Silvertone to give those radios their two-toned appearance. Some manufacturers relied on co-branding to sell their radios. For example, in 1938, Emerson came out with several versions of radios featuring Disney’s "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in relief on their exteriors. That same year, the Stewart Warner corporation of Canada released a cute little “Dionne Quints” version of its R-435 radio featuring a decal of the famous Canadian sisters on the top of its Bakelite housing. Other vintage plastic radios of the Art Deco era were so into the machine-age spirit that they looked like actual machines. The Silvertone 6110 from 1938 featured a sleek cylinder partially nestled in rectangular grid, resembling nothing so much as a science-fiction version of a portable vacuum cleaner, or perhaps a dirigible settled into its dock. As for the black-and-ivory Philco Transitone, it resembled a building where energy is produced rather than an appliance that consumes it. Hybrid radios were also invited to the Art Deco party. In 1939, RCA made a radio to celebrate the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, while in 1940, the company made a similar radio to mark the New York World’s Fair—the molded-plastic fronts of these two radios were similar to the ones used by Emerson for its Snow White radios, while the rest of their cases were made of wood. Other wooden radios featured rounded edges, the result of new technologies being developed to mold and bend plywood. These techniques were often used on cathedral and tombstone radios, although the large geometric grills on large console radios were important aspects of their design. One of the challenges of collecting vintage Art Deco radios is finding one you can afford in good condition—to serious collectors of Art Deco radios, aesthetics and condition are everything. Resin can fade or discolor over time, so truly beautiful, original plastic Art Deco radios are quite rare. Similarly, the surfaces of wooden radios that have not been properly oiled and cared for can become so dry and brittle that they splinter and crack. And then there are the tubes, which often need to be replaced, sometimes costing the collector more than the radio itself.