September 24, 1959, Appleton Post-Crescent
Long before the Sony Walkman and the digitized world of CDs and beyond, came this little "portable" gem. Now, of course, if was portable only in the sense that it used batteries and was small enough to carry along from place to place. No, you couldn't expect to safely operate it while in motion, for example. Not cheap by any measure either. Using that inflation calculator I spoke of yesterday gives the price as $1637 in 2016 dollars. But still...
Re the "portable" tape recorder, I recall an episode of Alfred Hitchcock's show in the late 1950s where the plot concerned a young couple being severely victimized by law enforcement and a judge in a speed trap small southern town. After paying a large fine they are permitted to leave the town. The gotcha moment in the episode is the last scene when the women opens her purse and there is a cigarette pack sized miniature tape recorder still running. The viewer's reaction had to be an astonished OMG!
ReplyDeleteJim Krahenbuhl