In Car Record Players From the 1950's

" DETROIT – Back in the early 1950s there were many fewer music radio stations, and if you didn’t like those that were within range, your only choice was to shut the radio off and listen to the road, the engine noise and the splat of bugs on the windshield.

Then in 1956, Chrysler Corporation stepped up to offer car buyers a new listening option – an in-car phonograph.

The players, made by Columbia, were mounted on the bottom edge of the dash, directly above the transmission hump, and were wired directly into the car radio. Pressing a button on the front cover of the player opened it, allowing the turntable to be slid outward. Flipping a switch on the left side of the player bypassed the radio tuner, and the radio’s amplifier then could boost the signal from the player while volume, tone and balance could be controlled by the regular radio knobs. "

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