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Introduction:
After 10 years hunting this limited edition radio I finally was able to get one myself. Here is what I think it was and what it is today. It has been dubbed the "mystery radio" (ref.1), and indeed remains mysterious up to this day. There will be unproven statements in my report, and my hope is that those of you who know better, will come forward and correct me. A metal plaque on the front says "Radio Vision", the loudspeaker cutout is formed like a shield, the chassis with dial is from the late 1930's and made by Majestic Radio and Television Corporation in Chicago, and on the bottom of the cabinet we find a paper sticker with Model number 414, also by Majestic. Centerpiece is a convection driven motion lamp, animating a picture from transparent plastic, showing a war scene with battleships and war planes set in New York Harbor with the Statue of Liberty and the 1940's Manhattan skyline in the background. A 15W light bulb drives a black patterned cylinder by convection, the light then crosses a stationary shadow plane and is projected onto the front picture, and by this generates animated clouds and waves.
The scene clearly comments on America's entrance into WWII. Please find a more detailed analysis below under WWII buffs. The Majestic chassis has also been used in one (model 921) of the famous novelty "Melody Cruiser" ship radios (ref.10), that were designed and patented in 1941 by Kate Lerman, born Katie Reich, the wife of Benjamin Lerman, the chairman of Mastercrafters. Mastercrafters clocks and radios were widely advertized, but for my Radio Vision radio I did not find a single ad, catalog entry or patent. More about the possible origin and purpose of the radio below under Sherlock Holmes. I conclude that it is a Limited Edition radio, probably never offered for sale, and only a very small number do still exist. This radio clearly makes a statement but still is engulfed in mysteries: what exactly is the statement, who made that statement and on what occasion, who commissioned it and what clientele was it targeted at? Please help clarify. And - remember: December 7, 2016 is the 75th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
The radio is for sale.
Additional information:
ref. 1: http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44398
ref. 2: http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=174958
ref. 3: http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=178719
ref. 4: http://goldenhue.net/Radios/Radio%20Vision%20414/Vision.htm
ref. 5: http://www.navsource.org/
ref. 6: The Big Spud: The U.S.S. Idaho in World War II: A War Diary ... by William Schumann, ISBN-10: 1435754948
ISBN-13: 978-1435754942
ref. 7: Paul Turney article: http://www.antiqueradio.com/Jun09-GFSearchlight.pdf
ref. 8: https://youtu.be/PRD4977Xd2c
ref. 9: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262318865866
ref.10: http://www.radio-antiks.com/IndexRadio-Antiks_MelodyCruiser_921.htm
ref.11: Radios Redux - Listening in Style by Philip Collins, Chronicle Books, 1991. ISBN: 0811800865
ref.12: http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/radiovisio_414.html
About my Motion Lamp Radio:
Searching this radio I found only four incarnations, including mine, not counting multiple references for each of them. My radio appeared first in 2005 (ref.1), but no picture was shown. It reappeared again in 2011 (ref.2), this time with pictures, recapped and in working condition. The forum thread of ref.1 was also resumed in 2011 and a new instance was shown, that is now in the inventory of radiomuseum.org (ref.12). In 2011 I found out (ref.3), that one of the Mastercrafters "Melody Cruiser"s, model 921, has the same chassis as this "Radio Vision" radio and suggested that both have been made by Majestic/Mastercrafters in 1941. This 3rd incarnation is now part of the huge radio collection in ref.4. The 4th appearance is the one shown in Phil Collins book "Radios Redux" (ref.11), attributed to the late Kris Gimmy.
I still don't know what happened to my radio between 2011 and 2016, when I bought it from a different person (ref.9). But I was pleasantly astounded to find behind its replacement speaker cloth, the original cloth in excellent condition. The whole radio is in exceptionally perfect original, cosmetic and working condition. The cabinet finish, knobs, artwork, the spinner parts are, and even the 15W light bulb seems to be original. The radio had been recapped by my predecessor and plays humless, with good sensitivity and selectivity and with clear and loud volume, the motion lamp works as it should, playing cellphones etc. is easiest achieved by using an AM transmitter, as shown in my youtube video (ref.8). Please
e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.
For the WWII buffs only:
Trying to analyze the picture's war scene we note, that of the eighteen battleships of the Navy in 1941:
(2) Wyoming Class: BB-32 Wyoming, BB-33 Arkansas
(2) New York Class: BB-34 New York, BB-35 Texas
(2) Nevada Class: BB-36 Nevada, BB-37 Oklahoma
(2) Pennsylvania Class: BB-38 Pennsylvania, BB-39 Arizona
(3) New Mexico Class: BB-40 New Mexico, BB-41 Mississippi, BB-42 Idaho
(2) Tennessee Class: BB-43 Tennessee, BB-44 California
(3) Colorado Class: BB-45 Colorado, BB-46 Maryland, BB-48 West Virginia
(2) North Carolina Class: BB-55 North Carolina, BB-56 Washington
eight were damaged on Dec.7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row (Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia), another five ships of the Wyoming-, New York-, and Colorado Classes had only twin guns (not triple guns like our two ships) and the two new 1941 North Carolina Class ships had very different silhouettes. We are left with the three New Mexico Class ships. The Idaho ("Big Spud") and Mississippi ("Missy") were together in Hvalfjörður, Iceland on December 7, 1941, and both ordered back two days later. The New Mexico ("Queen") itself was in the Atlantic too but less likely than the Mississippi to be pictured in this convoy. Otherwise the 3 New Mexico class ships look very similar.
The planes look like the Navy's main dive bombers Douglas SBD Dauntless. William Schumann had mustered onboard Idaho on Dec. 6, 1941 and stayed to August 1945. He writes in his diary "The Big Spud" (ref.6) the ship had 3 float planes Vought OS2U Kingfisher, that could also operate on fixed, wheeled, taildragger landing gear: "The Kingfisher is equipped with a conversion kit, where we remove the main and wing pontons and attach wheels". Artistic freedom may have deprived the planes of their landing gear, but mainly the large number of 8 planes favours the first identification. The formation, in which the planes fly, although less famous than the "V" Victory formation, is called the "Finger-Four" formation. Please note that some buildings in Manhattan can be identified, like the Empire State building, or the Trump building at 40 Wall Street, that the Donald says he bought for 1M$ in 1995. The painting may reflect the state of affairs a few days after December 9, 1941, when the two ships were already ordered back from Iceland, but when it was not yet clear where exactly they would be deployed. Schumanns diary on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1941, starts as follows: "Reveille sounded early this morning and at 0650 hours we head out of the harbor, on our way to the States (I think). It hasn't been announced officially, yet all the 'scuttlebutt' says that that is where we are going". On Friday, Dec. 12 he writes: "This evening I try to find a battle lamp so I can do some sketching. It is dfifficult to find a spot to carry on with my hobby, especially with the blackout enforced below decks after dusk". Could Bill Schumann himself have sketched the scene we here discuss? Unlikely, from one simple reason: the object looking like a clock is in fact a "range clock" (or "concentration dial") with distance information in yards that should go from 0 to 10, not 12! A range clock is a device to tell the other ships in the formation, whose view of the target may be obscured by fog, gun or funnel smoke at what range that ship is firing. Schumann hardly would have made this mistake.
For Sherlock Holmes only:
For sure the radio is a Chicago thing, even more enigmatic than another Chicago mystery radio, the "Searchlight" radio by G&F (Granger and Feitler) Sales Co., Chicago, described expertly by Paul Turney (ref.7), that at least has patent back-up and an identified manufacturer. Paul writes: "Chicago was one of the era’s key centers for radio manufacture, with some estimates placing as many as a third of all U.S. sets manufactured there. Not only was it home to a number of the industry giants, such as Zenith, but also to a plethora of smaller independents, many of whom rose and fell in short order and about whom little is known today. Chicago was in fact very much the equivalent of the modern day Silicon Valley." Not only Mastercrafters and Majestic/Grigsby-Grunow, but also General Telev. & Radio, Stewart-Warner, Pacific Radio, Climax Radio & Telev., Imperial Radio, Sonora Radio & Telev., as well as designers/engravers Rosenow & Co., motion lamp manufacturers Scene-In-Action, Rev-O-Lite and Econolite, and wholesellers N. Shure Co. and Bennet Bros., all were in Chicago. It seems that suing each other had been practiced more by the big companies, whereas the independents profited from peaceful collaborations and cooperations. The famous "Charlie McCarthy" radio, also made by Majestic was not only available from wholesellers, department stores and mail orders, but was - like the G&F Searchlight - a prize in punchboard and pushcard advertizing. Incidentally Majestic/Mastercrafters' first Melody Cruiser model 1S49 does not as wrongly perpetuated use the same chassis as Charlie McCarthy but only the same dial. It is not difficult to imagine, that the radio on hand may have been a collaborative effort by several of the aforementioned companies.
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