Rare 1958 shirt-pocket-size radio Philco 'Veep' transistor, vest pocket size

While cute little Japanese pocket transistor radios were flooding America in 1958, only three US radio makers did anything about it.

In a video about the first RCA shirt-pocket transistor radio, we discovered a huge gap of FIVE YEARS between the first transistor radio considered to be pocket size and the next American-made shirt pocket radios which appeared in late 1959. During this five year stretch, Japanese makers, led by Sony, were unloading crate after crate of transistor radios from ships docked in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Especially the little pocket-size models Americans wanted.

And where were the American makers? What were US companies doing to stem that tide? Not much, it seems. Except making up excuses. We've been treated for YEARS to the yarn that, quote "cheaply made Japanese transistor radios drove the American makers from the market." Unquote. But...you can't be driven from a market you never showed up to. Oh, American corporations are great at excuses. Why they can't meet pollution standards. Why they can't survive without government subsidies. Why their CEOs need incomes 400 times greater than their average employee.

So what were the American makers doing about the onslaught of Japanese pocket radios? Making larger radios, as we learned in that RCA video and as this Philco ad attests. But in the way of shirt pocket radios, not much. But...not nothing. Emerson deserves a lot of credit for entering the fray in 1958 with their four-transistor 999 Champion model. There's a video about that radio on this channel.

There were two other American-made radios that made half-hearted attempts to enter the shirt-pocket market in 1958. I say half-hearted because these were radios without speakers. This earphone-only Regency shirt-pocket appeared in '58, with just two transistors. It was arguably a toy--without even a volume control--just an on/off switch. And the other 1958 entrant into the shirt-pocket market is the radio we are looking at today, the Vest Pocket Transistor Radio by Philco. Also known as the T-3 model, and as the "Veep." This radio is a three-transistor. The Veep has a unique tuning set-up, using two dials--one to get you near the station, and the other is used for fine tuning. The radio station frequency numbers are seen through a square opening in the top of the radio.

It's a gold foil flip-top box--the sort of box that has a "hinge," and I don't know what else you'd call it, of paper. Naturally, this is going to separate and that's what's happened here so I'm holding it together.

How to Operate Your New Philco Transistorized Cordless Radio. This is a curious use of the word "cordless" here. Normally the word is used to indicate that a thing is battery operated and there is no power cord. But cordless in the true sense, this radio isn't. You're going to be using the earphone, with a cord, or you're not going to be hearing any St. Louis Cardinals on this thing. It's also curious that the word "cordless" appears on the instructions, but not on the box where it might do more good as a selling feature, implying, disingenuously, that this radio had a speaker. My guess is that cooler heads at Philco took it OFF the box for this reason.

The instructions talk about operating the radio, installing batteries, and cleaning the cabinet. Mercury batteries are called for, the type P-630. And then there's the warranty, printed across two pages, and some instructions on how to obtain service, should your "Veep" stop working.

Getting inside of it, it's the front that comes off of this radio rather than the back. And a paper label appears inside that front. I don't want to be all critical of this board layout because, well, what do I know? But it seems to me there's a lot of room wasted elsewhere while there's just a slim slot at the bottom in which to cram the batteries. Better, I should think, to be more efficient with the other parts and allow for the use of some normal size batteries that would be easier to find, cheaper, and maybe not Mercury.

But hats off to Philco. They tried. Most of the other American radio makers spent 1958 thinking up the excuses they were going to need to explain how they let Japan take over the consumer electronics business in the United States. But Philco was in there trying. They were, after all, the company that gave us the remarkable Philco Predicta TV... and the Safari TV.

Eventually,...in 1960, TWO YEARS after the appearance of Sony's pioneering TR-610, other American makers finally got into the shirt-pocket radio business. But their chance to dominate the market had long since passed. And by the mid '60s both American and Japanese makers faced a new threat,... from Hong Kong.

The Philco T-3 Veep Vest Pocket Transistor Radio. I've never owned a vest that had a pocket anywhere near large enough to hold this radio. But, like I said, what do I know?

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