Reel to reel

Reel to reel tape recorders first appeared in the 1930s and later became popular in domestic use until the smaller compact cassette gradually replaced them from the 1960s. They remained in professional use until digital recording techniques took over in the 1980s/90s. That said, they still see use today; apparently many artists record to digital and then re-record to tape for a fuller, more natural sound.

My father bought a Bush recorder back in the 1960s, I remember going up to London with him for a (presumably successful) demonstration, bringing it back in the car. It was big and quite heavy, more so when also carrying the associated box of tapes. Although it was a feature in our house, we recorded off the TV and radio (with all the attendant background noise for added atmosphere!) and, on one occasion around 1968, gathered some old workers in our front room from the local sand quarry railways, to talk about their life. What ever happened to that recording, I wonder? I can only recall one pre-recorded tape, for the musical Carousel, which my mother bought

Here is an advert for the German-made Grundig, from Lilliput magazine, December 1955. Despite it's size, it is described as "......the instrument you can take to a party that everybody asks you to play". The price tag was hefty too, at 70 guineas less microphone, more expensive that the 14in television promoted by Eamonn Andrews in the same issue

Cough?

Several celebrities endorsed Mac antiseptic throat sweets in the 1950s, including singer Alma Cogan and comic actor Norman Wisdom. Here are two from Picture Post, featuring another comic actor, Terry Thomas and radio ventriloquist (probably not the hardest job in show business), Peter Brough.

Eamonn Andrews and GEC

The Irish-born TV and radio broadcaster Eamonn Andrews was the face of GEC television sets during the 1950s, his adverts popping up in various magazines during this period. Here are a quartet of scans from the pages of Picture Post, Lilliput and Everybody's Weekly.All feature the 14in size model, the price increasing by 5gn (£5.5s) during the period. The first one looks particularly creepy.....................

Sophia Loren

An eye-catching photograph from the pages of Lilliput magazine, December 1955.

Nottingham Trade Exhibition 1949

I recently acquired a little 96 page guide to the City of Nottingham Trade Exhibition, which took place at Broad Marsh, between 27 June and 2 July 1949. Here is the cover, appropriately featuring Robin Hood, followed by a selection of period adverts.

The latest in bath chairs

Two adverts for state-of-the-art invalid carriages, these from The Illustrated London News,1 July 1911.

Stanley smokes Craven 'A'

It seems almost inconceivable today that a professional footballer should endorse cigarettes, but it was not uncommon back in the 1950s and earlier; here is "football genius" Stanley Matthews, who played for Stoke City, Blackpool and England, putting his name behind Craven 'A' in Picturegoer magazine, 15 November 1952. A vegetarian and teetotaller, Matthews did live to be 85, so perhaps smoking Craven 'A' really was OK...............