Car Record Player!

[696969]

I REALLY NEED ONE OF THESE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0hRzEihsR4

 

[65 Plymouth Satellite 426]

They Are Way Cool! A Blast from The Past!

 

[Ron 73]

Pretty cool! Ill bet that record player is expensive!

 

[Photon440]

I've always heard of them but until now hadn't seen one being demonstrated. Pretty ingenious. And being in a '61 DeSoto is cool too!

 

[tpodwdog]

kool gadget. can ya listen to it while driving?....i would imagine alot of broken needles from hitting potholes...especially if youre in Pittsburgh!

 

[egrand1508]

If you want one, run down to your DeSoto-Plymouth dealer and get one. And, tell 'em Groucho sent ya!

Seriously, these are very rare and hard to find. They usually sell for about $500 in decent shape. There are two versions of in car record players. The first was offered by Chrysler in 1956 and was called Highway Hi-Fi. These were developed and made by CBS-Columbia Records and used special 16 rpm records (later ones also used 45s). Each record had 3-4 songs per side. These units became notorious for being unreliable and skipping records and Chrysler abandoned the idea a couple years later.

Then RCA supposedly came to Chrysler and said we can do better. RCA had invented the 45 rpm record and was CBS' main competitor, so they probably just wanted to show up CBS. They came out with the player that is seen in the video and by all accounts it worked much better and the records were easy to find. RCA also offered an after market version for non-Chrysler cars.

The trouble with these units is they don't have internal amps. The Chrysler ones needed radios with special sockets for the cable from the player to use the radio's volume controls. So, to use one of these in other cars require some work on the radios. RCA and another company called ARC offered after market ones that had an oscillator coil in them so the radio could be tuned to a certain station and pick up the record player. However, most of these coils gave out long ago and they would have to be restored to work again.

Here are a couple more videos. The first is a January 1960 commercial from the Steve Allen Plymouth show showing an RCA player. If you watch the rest of the show you'll get to see some vintage Tony Bennett too. The other is the older Highway Hi-Fi unit

http://youtu.be/U2Dlv-zKsgo?t=1m20s

http://youtu.be/o_Zj4i7YYsM

 

[arsinist01]

My Dad always tells me stories about a buddy of his that had a record player in his car. Of course it wasn't that nice. He somehow cobbled up a household record player and mounted it where the center console would be between the seats. Guess he had springs under it and everything to try and keep it from skipping lol. According to my Dad it didn't work too bad.

Looked for a smiley to accompany this post but couldn't find one that screamed greasemonkey to me lol.

 

[Moparsmitty]

I remember seeing one of these in action when I was a tad bit younger than I am now. The guy that had it said it worked ok if you were on a fairly smooth road or parked(with a willing girl) , but it would wear out the 45s fairly quickly because of the extra spring pressure on the tone arm.

 

[bigredbird]

Weren't 78rpm records first made with the intention of playing them in cars, which is why they were so thick and heavy?

 

[Photon440]

Weren't 78rpm records first made with the intention of playing them in cars, which is why they were so thick and heavy?

When the first 78 rpm records came out in the 1890's, the market for cars was pretty small. I haven't heard of any car record player before the 1956 Chrysler offerings.

 

[super-bee_ski]

My Bud had a 45rpm record player in his brand new 65 GTO 4BBL, 4-speed convertible.
Nice car and "we" could not beleive it came with one.
It was best for "parking"

- - - Updated - - -

He ended up hitting a 100 yr oak tree with the GTO.
2 guys died in that accident.