Book Review - By Bill Harris

October 3, 1997
By Harold N. Cones, Ph.D and John H. Bryant, FAIA.
with Martin Blankinship and William Wade
ISBN: 0-7643-0367-8 - 11" by 8-1/2" soft cover format.
Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen Pa 19310.
On a kitchen table in a house on Carmen Avenue, Chicago Radio Laboratory (CRL) had its humble beginnings to later become the Zenith Radio Corporation, and one of the giants of the radio industry. In their earlier book, The Zenith TransOceanic - The Royalty of Radios, authors Harold Cones and John Bryant gave us insight into Zenith from the standpoint of the birth and development of the TransOceanic sets. In this latest book, Zenith Radio, The Early Years, they give what may well prove to be the definitive answer on the history of CRL and Zenith from the beginning up to 1935.

Exhaustive research though Zenith archives, and a fortunate find in an old Zenith television assembly plant of personal files of Commander Eugene McDonald, the driving force behind Zenith, enable the authors to bring us information on the Zenith Radio Corporation that might have possibly been lost forever. Some of the information and photographs have never been published until now. The writing style, as in their first book, is an easy and enjoyable read.

Like the first book, this one is soft-cover, and except for the database section, is printed on heavy coated stock. In a note from author Bryant, according to the publisher, the paper in the database section is the same weight and quality as the coated stock but the uncoated paper reduces glare on the tables and makes it easier to add notes on these pages. I find that this doesn't detract from the book at all.

The book is divided into three main sections with an appendices and endnotes. The Table Of Contents is as follows: 

Section I: History of Zenith Radio
    Chapter 1: The Foundation Years
    Chapter 2: Order Out of Chaos
    Chapter 3: Creating A Market
    Chapter 4: Zenith and Early Broadcasting
    Chapter 5: Adventure, McDonald and Zenith Radio
    Chapter 6: Surviving The Depression
    Author's Afterword

Section II: Color Portraits of Zenith and Chicago Radio Laboratory Radios

Section III: Illustrated Catalog and Database of CRL and Zenith Products
    Illustrated Catalog - Chicago Radio Laboratory
    Illustrated Catalog - Zenith Radio Corporation
    Database of Chicago Radio Laboratory Products: 1919-1924
    Database of Zenith Radio Corporation Products: 1922-1925
    Model Index and Rarity/Value Guide - Zenith Radio Corporation
    Notes on Zenith Radio Corporation

Appendices
    I: National Figures on Radio Sets Sold
    II: Sales of Zenith Radio Sets
    III: A Technological History of Zenith Products

Endnotes

Section I

Chapters 1-4 of this section cover the very beginnings of CRL when Ralph. H. G. Mathews and Karl Hassel, two Navy buddies, began building receivers on the kitchen table of the Mathews home on Carmen Avenue in Chicago. The story continues on to the subsequent move to a garage near the Edgewater Beach Hotel, the association with the QRS Music Company, and the eventual move to a 3,000-square foot rented factory at 6433 Ravenswood. The growth of CRL into the Zenith Radio Corporation, the role Zenith played in helping to define the growing broadcast industry, the formation of Zenith owned radio station WJAZ, all under the leadership of Commander Eugene F. McDonald, is covered in great detail.

Chapter 5 is an intimate look at the adventurous Commander and his many travels along with his association with the famed explorer Donald B. MacMillan. This is probably one of the most detailed insights into this almost "mystical" leader of the Zenith Corporation.

Chapter 6 deals with surviving the depression years. Many radio manufactures folded quickly after the stock market crash on October 24, 1929. On October 23, 1929, Zenith turned out 2300 radio sets, with wholesalers begging for more. After the crash, orders practically stopped and production was down to 300 sets a day. Because Zenith stock was in raw materials and built sets according to orders received, they had no large inventory of sets on hand. By having the raw materials instead of a large inventory of already manufactured expensive sets, Zenith could easily and quickly switch to producing lower cost radios, which was a factor in their ability to survive when so many other manufacturers were going under.

The section is loaded with photographs, some never before published, along with numerous old-time ads for Zenith products.

Section II

Section II contains portraits of Zenith and CRL radio sets. There are 31 pages of excellent color photos, from the early CRL sets to the highly prized 1935 Stratosphere Model 1000-Z. The photos are of sets from various private collections. I complement the authors, who did the photography, on providing this visual record of Zenith radios, some of which are the only known existing models. These photos may well provide the only opportunity for many readers to see what some of these beautiful sets look like.

Section III

The CRL and Zenith Illustrated Catalogs are a very good piece of work by the authors. According to author Bryant, over half of the images of the sets have not been published since their introduction in the 20's and 30's.

The tables in the database section are a wealth of information. There are separate tables for CRL and Zenith products. The CRL tables list model year, name, type, description, price, and comments. The Zenith tables list model year, model, name, style, chassis, circuit type, no. tubes, power required, band coverage, price, and comments.

In a conversation I had with Bryant, I learned that a lot of careful research went into the database concerning the retail model year, and even though he suspects there may be some controversy in this area, he stands by it one hundred percent.

The Index and Rarity/Value guide is sorted by model number giving the model year, a rarity scale, and value range. It is noted in the text that the value range is "a statistical grouping of different models of similar value where the average 1997 price for a particular model would fall, if the radio in question were in Very Good to Excellent condition, with the original finish, only requiring cleaning and minor touch up, with a complete chassis and no parts missing."

This entire section will serve as an invaluable reference to the Zenith collector, and once again, the authors are to be commended for bringing together this useful information.

Appendices and Endnotes

There are two charts in the Appendices, one gives the dollar value vs. number of sets sold, the other, profits vs. total dollars, for the years 1921-35. Another page gives a brief technological history of Zenith products in chronological order.

There are over 16 pages of endnotes which should satisfy just about anyone's curiosity as to the source of information.

Final Comments

As in their earlier book on the Zenith TransOceanic sets, John Bryant and Harold Cones have done a superb job with this current work on the Zenith Radio Corporation. The book is 222 pages of information, pictures, and charts, and I am sure that once you pick it up, you will find as I did, it is hard to put down.

The book however, is not without a few drawbacks and errors, and as a reviewer I would be remiss in not listing them. The following were pointed out to me in an e-mail from John Bryant and can be contributed to mistakes mostly made by the publisher and printer.

The authors plan to provide an errata sheet of the errors with those books that are ordered directly from them.

The research that went into the making of this book had to have been an arduous undertaking and I am not convinced my attempt at this review does it proper justice. I am sure there are those who will no doubt find certain parts of the book to take issue with, however, bear in mind, the picture of the past often has missing pieces or sometimes it is hard to tell just how all the pieces should fit. Unless one has first hand knowledge of the past by having been there, or has access to those who have, you have to rely on what you discover by your own research or the research of others. You take what information is available and draw your conclusions, which may or may not be completely accurate. Slowly, pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place and hopefully when finished, you either have a complete picture or one with enough pieces to at least be able to stand back and say "that must be pretty close to how it was". This book places a lot of the pieces together into what has to be the best picture to date of the history of CRL and Zenith. Today, when corporations seem to have very little interest in their past history, our hats are off to Bryant and Cones for their diligent search for the pieces to a very interesting picture of the past. For the collector of old radios, or anyone with an interest in the history of radio, this book is a must have as an addition to the library.

© 1997 by Bill Harris


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