Age forms into a vibrant decora-

tive style. Art Deco exemplified

lavish expenditure, crass com-

mercialism, and the quickening

speed of contemporary life

summed up in the Futurist credo

“Speed is beauty.”

At the style’s height, between

1924 through 1934, Art Deco

captured the carefree modernist

spirit of those decades, aided by

the inspired improvisation of

American jazz. Its designs

brought to life 1920s gaiety,

bathtub gin, cocktails, commer-

cial radio, and Prohibition,

along with 1930s intensity. In

the years leading to World War

(Continued on page 6)

A rt Deco period

(1919-1939) was an interna-

tional decorative style, not an

artistic movement; it received

its name only recently, in

1968. The style first devel-

oped in France, and gained

momentum internationally

through a government-

sponsored exposition held in

Paris in 1925 which attracted

over 16 million viewers. The

exciting array of works on

display highlighted a variety of

avant-garde and playful artis-

tic methods. After 1925, de-

signs reflected the rapid artistic

and technological innovations

of the period between the two

world wars, incorporating chic

elegance, varied historical and

national imagery, and Machine

The Art Deco Period Revisited by Richard Majestic

EDGAR M. VILLCHUR, A HI-FI INNOVATOR BY DENNIS HEVESI

T H E O F F I C I A L N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E

N E W M E X I C O R A D I O C O L L E C T O R S C L U B

NEXT MEETING

DECEMBER 15TH

////THEME/////

HOLIDAY PARTY AT

MARK TOPPO’S

VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 12

Inside this issue:

NMRCC Club Meeting minutes March 12,

2

Southwest Senior Expo 50s radios HiFi Music

3

Edgar Villchur HiFi Innovator continued

4

Edgar Villchur and Art Deco continued

5

Art Deco Period revisited continued

6

Art Deco Period revisited continued

7

Art Deco Period revisited continued

8

Edgar M. Villchur, whose in-

vention of a small loudspeaker

that could produce deep, rich

bass tones opened the high-

fidelity music market in the

1950s to millions of everyday

listeners, died on Monday at his

home in Woodstock, N.Y. He

was 94.

His daughter, Miriam Villchur

Berg, confirmed the death.

Audiophiles have hailed Mr.

Villchur as a seminal figure in

the field. In its 50th-anniversary

issue in 2006, Hi-Fi

News ranked him No. 1 among

the “50 Most Important Audio

Pioneers.” John Atkinson, the

editor of Stereophile magazine,

credits him with bringing hi-fi

into the home.

“Villchur’s development of what

he called the acoustic suspension

woofer made it possible for

music lovers to buy loudspeak-

ers that were domestically ac-

ceptable,” Mr. Atkinson said in a

2009 interview. “A guy’s wife

could accept their presence on

the bookshelf in the living

room.”

Before Mr. Villchur’s invention

of the AR-1 loudspeaker in

1954, producing high-fidelity

bass tones required speakers

large enough to generate the

long wavelengths of the deep

(Continued on page 4)

NMRCC Officers for 2019

• John Anthes: President

• David Wilson: Vice Presi-dent

• Richard Majestic: Treasurer

• Chuck Burch-John Han-nahs: Secretary

• Randy Gray: Membership

• Tony Marshal: Director

• Ray Truijillo: Director

• Mark Toppo: Director

• Don Menning: Director

• Richard Majestic: Newslet-ter Editor

F rom the President’s Bench December 2019

PAGE 2

NEW MEXICO RADIO COLLECTORS CLUB

Pacific during WW-II. And after

returning he opened a radio and

TV repair shop in Milwaukee WI

where he heard first-hand the

complaints of owners concerning

time spent (and money charged)

during visits to repair the sets in

their home. Dad decided to in-

vent, patent, and manufacture the

selfservice tube tester. This is

when I grew up cleaning the ma-

chine tools, sweeping floors, and

earning money hauling metal

chips in my coaster wagon across

town to the Louie Lorman scrap

yard in Fort Atkinson, WI.

So, it was a natural extension for

me to join the NMRCC in 1996

here in Albuquerque. Notably, I

have been asked on a couple of

occasions to serve as the Presi-

dent. It has been my pleasure!

The Toppo contact information

is: 2512 Chessman Dr. NE See

you all in December, Rio Ran-

cho, NM 87124 John Anthes

(505) 896-97082019 2019

NMRCC President

December 15th “Holiday Party at

Mark and Lynn’s Home ” is the

monthly gathering for our end-of-

year 2019 celebration. Our meet-

ing will start with a catered holi-

day meal and pot-luck, a visual

reminder of the Toppo’s wonder-

ful radio collection, many engag-

ing discussions, and finishing up

(weather permitting) with an

auction. I have an item or two to

bring that includes a 1935, 11-

tube, RCA c11-1 console donated

by a family in Santa Fe. (Has an

eye-tube, Chuck!)

There is only one topic of busi-

ness to consider, an important

one for sure. The December

meeting is when our club nomi-

nates and votes on the members

who will fill the NMRCC Board

roles for the coming year. Please

consider candidates. For me,

personally, I must release the

position as 2019 President since I

have accepted the role as 2020

returning President of the Coro-

nado Thunderbirds retirees Club.

See: https://

www.coronadothunderbirds.com

/

This is also a time for me to recall

how my interest in Radio collect-

ing began starting with (incurable

Virus passed along) the passion

and deep interest of my dad, Ja-

cob Anthes.

I have a treasured Photo of Dad

with the 10-tube home-brew

radio he built on his bench when

he was 16 years old. As a German

immigrant, he attended a tech-

nical High School before heading

to island- hop through the South

PAGE 3

VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 12

On Friday and Saturday March 23

and 24 2012 NMRCC club mem-

bers Richard Majestic and David

Wilson showed off vintage radios ,

high fidelity equipment and musical

entertainment from the ‘50s. More

than 3,000 people attended the

expo. ‘50s was the Expo’s theme

and the music and media was

shown. Richard and David slipped

in a few ‘30 Art Deco pieces too. ~

The Las Cruces Southwest Senior Expo Our Radio Exhibit

PAGE 4

N E W M E X I C O R A D I O C O L L E C T O R S C L U B

notes. Some speakers were as large

as a refrigerator. In the cabinet,

mounted toward the front, would

be what hi

-fi special-

ists call

the drive

unit: a

cone-

shaped

device

activated

by a mag-

net and a

coil of

wire to

produce

the sound.

In the

early days

of hi-fi,

manufac-

turers

were not

fully

aware of

the rela-

tionship

between

the drive

unit and

the acous-

tic role

played by

the cabi-

net itself,

and they

some-

times left the rear of the cabinet

open.

Mr. Villchur realized that if the

cabinet were completely sealed, the

air trapped inside would act some-

thing like a spring that would con-

trol the cone’s vibrations, greatly

enhancing the drive unit’s low-

frequency performance.

tion of scientific principles that are

used in every loudspeaker now on

the market.”

Edgar Marion Villchur was born in

Manhattan on May 28, 1917, the

only child of Mark and Mariam Vill-

chur, who had immigrated from

Russia. His father was editor of a

Russian-language newspaper, his

mother a biologist.

It was his service in World War II

that sparked Mr. Villchur’s fascina-

tion with sound and electronics. He

had graduated from City College in

1938, then earned a master’s degree

in education there two years later.

But within a year he was drafted

into the Army Air Forces and was

trained as an electronics technician.

For most of the next five years,

while rising to captain, he was re-

sponsible for his squadron’s radio

operations in the Pacific.

After the war Mr. Villchur opened a

radio shop in Greenwich Village,

making repairs and building custom

hi-fi sets. He also taught a course in

sound reproduction at New York

University.

Mr. Villchur married Rosemary

Shafer in 1945. Besides his wife and

daughter, he is survived by a son,

Mark, of Boston.

The Villchurs moved to Woodstock

in 1952. In his basement, Mr. Vill-

chur began testing his notion of a

sealed-cabinet loudspeaker. One day

in spring 1954, speaking to his

acoustics class at N.Y.U, he hinted

at his idea. One student, Henry

Kloss, stayed after class, eager to

learn more. Soon, student and

teacher were in Mr. Villchur’s 1938

(Continued on page 5)

“My measurements showed that my

little prototype had better bass and

less distortion than anything on the

market, yet it was one-quarter the

size,” Mr. Villchur said in an inter-

view with Stereophile in 2005. “I

thought, ‘This has got to be the

future of loudspeakers.’ ”

It was. By 1966, according to Stereo

Review magazine, Mr. Villchur’s

company, Acoustic Research, was

the leader in the nation’s speaker

market, with a share of just over 32

percent. One of Mr. Villchur’s

breakthrough speakers was placed

on permanent exhibit at the Smith-

sonian Institution in 1993.

Mr. Villchur also made two other

advances that greatly improved high

-fidelity performance.

He developed one of the first dome

tweeters, a drive unit that produces

high frequencies. Before the tweet-

er, high frequencies were emitted

by the woofer, but with very poor

sound quality. Instead of the cone,

Mr. Villchur (and other innovators

working independently of one an-

other) devised small dome-shaped

diaphragms that proved optimal for

producing high frequencies.

In the early days of the turntable,

one of its biggest problems was an

effect called rumble: vibrations

from the motor and the turntable

that were picked up by the needle.

Mr. Villchur’s solution was to sepa-

rate the motor from the turntable

and connect the two with a rubber

belt, significantly reducing the vi-

brations.

Even though digital sound has large-

ly replaced vinyl and turntables, Mr.

Atkinson said, “Edgar Villchur’s

inventions have led to the applica-

EDGAR M. VILLCHUR, A HI-FI INNOVATOR BY DENNIS HEVESI

Mr. Villchur’s invention of the Acous-

tic Research AR-1 loudspeaker in

1954, produced high-fidelity bass

tones only large speakers could gen-

erate, but in a small bookshelf size

package. The AR-1 driver is 12”.

Sitting on top of the AR-1 is the 1954

Janszen electrostatic mid-high fre-

quency speaker. It was designed in

conjunction with the AR-1 and the AR

-1 crossover to provide a wide fre-

quency range high fidelity speaker

PAGE 5

VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 12

Buick, headed to Woodstock. In

Mr. Villchur’s basement workshop,

they listened to the copious low-

frequency tones on an LP recorded

by the renowned organist E. Power

Biggs.

Mr. Kloss had a loft in Cambridge,

Mass., where he was already build-

ing mail-order cabinets for Baruch-

Lang speakers. It became the first

headquarters for Acoustic Research.

Mr. Kloss, who died in 2002, is

credited with designing the produc-

tion process for the AR-1 speaker

and its successors, the AR-2 and the

AR-3, which combined Mr. Vill-

chur’s woofer and tweeter models.

Among Mr. Villchur’s duties was

promoting the products. In the

early 1960s he sponsored “live ver-

sus recorded” concerts around the

country, including one in a recital

room at Carnegie Hall and another

at Grand Central Terminal. At the

concerts, a string quartet would

play a piece of music, then mime it

as parts of a recording by the same

quartet played through a pair of AR

-3 speakers. The listeners were

rarely able to detect the switch-

overs.

Mr. Villchur was president of

Acoustic Research until 1967. After

being bought by a series of manu-

facturers, the company went out of

business in 2004. Its brand name

was bought by the Audiovox Cor-

poration.

Soon after leaving Acoustic Re-

search, Mr. Villchur started the

Foundation for Hearing Aid Re-

search in Woodstock, where he

developed a prototype of the multi-

channel compression hearing aid

that has become an industry stand-

11.63" tall.

Majestic Model 59 'Studio' Art

Deco Tombstone Radio (1934)

The Majestic model 59 "Studio" is

raw "Art Deco" a compact and

highly collectible depression era

tombstone radio. With its finely

polished aluminum grille bars, twin

escutcheons, contrasting two-tone

veneers and machine-like knobs (as

shown not original ) it truly has a

majestic appearance that screams

"art deco" whichever way you look

at it! It covers two bands, standard

broadcast (535-1550kc) and

shortwave (1480-4440kc), selected

using a switch on the chassis at the

EDGAR M. VILLCHUR

rear. Precision

tuning is

achieved

through the use

of a 5.5:1 plan-

etary drive on

the tuning con-

denser.

The estimated

manufacture of

the Studio

Model 59 sold

only 400 radi-

os. ~

The Art Deco Period Revisited by Richard Majestic

PAGE 6

NEW MEXICO RADIO COLLECTORS CLUB

II, the style’s lightheartedness began

to look markedly out of place. Alt-

hough Art Deco eventually waned,

its legacy can be seen in the recon-

ciliation of art and the machine.

Translated to America, Art Deco’s

geometric forms and streamlined

shapes, and rich sculptural relief

details contributed to architectural

feats like the Chrysler

Building, Radio City

Music Hall, and Rock-

efeller Center. Art

Deco design reminds

us of two remarkable

decades when moder-

nity itself was a new

and exciting concept.

From: Art Deco Exhi-

bition at The New

York Public Library

Art Deco Design:

Rhythm and Verve on

view from September

12, 2008 to January

11, 2009

During the Great De-

pression, industrial

design proved itself by

a demonstration that

in a shrinking market

the product ‘designed’

by an industrial designer would win

out over an otherwise similar and

equal product. Over this time,

modernism's motivating spirit was

transformed from reactionary to

visionary, because design and indus-

try became united as designers

brought marketing skills to their

profession. American art deco de-

signs featured sweeping, parallel

lines and rounded corners which

was ideal for machine production,

thus Art Deco became the first high

fashion adapted for the assembly

line.

into any popular shape. Most im-

portantly, it reduced production

costs and required little or no hand

finishing. The latest styles became

affordable. On these radios, decora-

tions of lightning bolts, comets, and

arrows were used to suggest dyna-

mism, science, and movement.

Squares and other geometric shapes

of deco style derived

from cubism and other

high art styles, and all

became popular.

Plastic benefitted

industry, facilitating

the smooth, stream-

lined look, and gained

mass appeal. Consum-

ers liked the smooth,

easily cleaned surface

that it produced, as

well as the artistic

molded shapes.

Van Doren, original-

ly an engineer, wrote

about the new profes-

sion and defined the

designer’s role as :

‘to...enhance the

product’s desirability

in the eyes of the pur-

chaser through in-

creased convenience, better adapta-

bility of form to function; through a

shrewd knowledge of consumer

psychology and through the aesthet-

ic appeal of form, colour and tex-

ture.’

The new professional designers

emerging: Norman Bel Geddes,

Walter Dorwin Teague and Ray-

mond Loewy among others, came

to industrial design from careers in

advertising and display arts.

From: ART DECO, SCANDINA-

(Continued on page 7)

Harold Van Doren created one of

the first plastic radios in 1930.

Shaped like a stepped skyscraper,

with the parallel lines of late art

deco style, this radio came out just

as broadcasting was taking off, at

the time of popular music, especial-

ly jazz - noisy, syncopated and up-

beat.

Zigzag constructions with consecu-

tively receding levels were inspired

by pyramids and the new look of the

city, where zigzag designs were

commonly used in skyscrapers for

aesthetics, but mainly to conform to

the new building code that decreed

skyscrapers must reduce their

ground area as they grew, to allow

at least some sunshine in between

buildings.

Although used in the 20s, plastic

came into its own during the de-

pression years, being easily molded

The Art Deco Period Revisited by Richard Majestic

A Century of Progress 1933

Art Nuevo was at its height the Machine Age had moved

into design, the US economy was somewhat recovered.

The new line was inspired by the modernistic architec-

ture of the Chicago "Century of Progress" exposition,

and based upon design patent #90,680 for one of the

sets, the Model 411. Much of the styling was probably

the work of Chicago designers/engravers Rosenow &

Co. This same company would reportedly later go on to

style Zenith's small, white-dial, chrome-front models,

introduced in mid-1934. Certainly the similarity in styl-

ing between some of the Zenith and Majestic models

(e.g. Majestic 161 and Zenith 829) is striking.

By and large, the new line, comprising mainly smaller,

less profitable sets, represented a radical departure

from the company's earlier offerings. The models were

extensively advertised, and the attractive, stylish de-

PAGE 7

VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 12

VIANS & STREAMLINING IN

THE USA. Organic form, space

ships, cars & the rise

of youth culture

This beautiful Philco

66B, Deco styled

grille, first intro-

duced in January

1934. 15,000 units

were produced-

including production

of Model 60MB and Model 66B

tombstones-which are similar.

Original selling price: $37.50.

Atwater Kent model 185 Tomb-

stone (1934)

This Atwater Kent is a perfect ex-

ample of mid thirties

Art Deco styling

with its skyscraper

style design.

On page-7-5 are

some examples from

my Majestic radio

collection, they typi-

fy the pinnacle of the Art-Deco era

1930 to 1934, I make the case that

radio technology and decorative

design took leaps forward during

this period, as radio manufacturers

attempt to sell product as sales

sagged during the

economic depres-

sion the country was

suffering. During

this period Grigsby-

Grunow Majestic

and Philco dominat-

ed the market in

sales but in July

1934 G-G Majestic

was forced into

bankruptcy and

went out of business. During the

bankruptcy asset sale its large Chi-

cago manufacturing plant was sold

to Zenith and its small one to Ed-

ward Rogers from Canada, who

formed Majestic Radio

and Television Corp.

Starting in 1935 other

chrome grill art-deco

radios began to appear

from Majestic, Zenith

and others.

Ultra rare Gothic Ma-

jestic model 307 with

Stained glass inserts (1932)

Introduced in late 1932, this 11

tube superhetrodyne was totally

unique to anything that was on the

market, inside and out. From its

gothic pipe-organ front panel design

to the 2 illuminating

stained glass inserts,

it is and was, unlike

any other floor mod-

el radio. On the

electronic side, it

offered automatic

volume and tone

control as well as "Synchro-Silent

Tuning" that virtually eliminated

static between stations. When radi-

os equipped with automatic volume

control first appeared, they avoided

the "blasting" of stronger station

signals but static was

a problem, "Synchro

-Silent Tuning" all

but eliminated the

static. Another new

feature of the Majes-

tic 307 console was

the use of "Visual-

Lite Tuning" that

helped tune in sta-

tions visually by

having the dial light

get stronger or dimmer as station

signals were received. This set was

also the first circuit to use resistance

-coupled, push-pull amplification.

The Art Deco Period Revisited by Richard Majestic

While still in the midst of the de-

pression, this set retailed for $89.50

Majestic Model 411-A

Art Deco Radio (1933)

The Majestic Six, Art

Deco, Model 411-A is a

miniature chrome grill

art-deco radio, with a

beautiful mahogany

wood cabinet with two

vertical strips of inlaid

wood. The art deco

grill, with its unique

design, is polished alu-

minum. The two

knobs are wood and are

in excellent condition,

as is the original grill

cloth. the 411-A is a true All Amer-

ican Five design running off the

power line, no power

transformer, the sixth

tube was really a ballast

resistor that dropped 46

Volts in the filament

string. The dimensions

are, 10.5" wide by

5.75" deep by 7.13"

tall.

Majestic Model 49-B

Art Deco Tombstone

Radio (1933)

The Majestic model 49-

B (440 chassis) is a good

example of the art-deco

period for small table radios. It

stands only 11 5/8 inches tall and

contains 4 tubes, but it is a super-

heterodyne, because its part reflex,

the IF amplifier and first audio share

the same pentode, a 6F7. Com-

pletely original, including the finish

as shown. The dimensions

are, 8.38" wide by 6.5" deep by

(Continued on page 5)

The New Mexico Radio Collectors Club is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 in order to enhance the enjoyment of collecting and preservation of radios for all its members.

NMRCC meets the second Sunday of the month at Kaseman Hospital, on Constitution just west of Wyoming at 1:30 pm. Visitors Always Welcomed.

NMRCC NEWSLETTER

THIS PUBLICATION IS THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW MEXICO RADIO COLLECTORS CLUB. INPUT FROM ALL MEMBERS

ARE SOLICITED AND WELCOME ON 20TH OF THE PRECEDING MONTH. RICHARD MAJESTIC PRO-TEMP NEWSLETTER EDITOR,

SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS IN WORD FORMAT, PICTURES IN *.JPG FORMAT TO: RMAJESTIC@MSN.COM

ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2012

N E W M E X I C O R A D I O

C O L L E C T O R S C L U B

New Mexico Radio Collectors Club Richard Majestic (Membership inquiries)

5460 Superstition Drive Las Cruces NM 88011

E-Mail: ronmonty@comcast.net Phone: 505 281-5067

E-Mail: rmajestic@msn.com Phone: 575 521-0018

FOR INFORMATION CHECK THE INTERNET

http://www.newmexicoradiocollectorsclub.com/

USPS Stamp

The Art Deco Period Revisited—Radios