I love this 1950/60s clock radio so much because it looks exactly like can openers of that same vintage did. I kept it in my kitchen for years, and with as much cooking as I did often held a tuna fish can up to it looking for what I hit to make it open. I always pressed this red button expecting some magic magnetized arm to pop out.
All it did was pump out that wonderfully static AM radio sound that I’ll never get sick of.
Even with all the audio equipment I own I’m still attached to the sound of hits spitting out of an AM radio.
When you flip the can opener clock radio around it’s a clock.
I can’t believe that the numbers on it are so conservative looking and not of a more Atomic design. I like my clocks more modern and distinctive looking.
The vinyl that wraps around the radio looks like textured peacock feathers. This was a very popular trend in vinyl and leather the 1960s.
I’ve been collecting transistor radios for decades. The Zenith pedistal can opener clock radio will always be one of my favorites.
GioLovesYou
I like it! It does seem odd that they went with Roman Numerals for the clock, maybe they were trying to make it a tad more upscale?
Allee
That’s probably what they were going for but I wish they had taken it in the opposite direction.
I saw your profile photo on Facebook. Are those bobble heads? Can’t tell if they are or if that image is Photoshoped. Excellent one way or the other. They/it belong/s in the real deal Allee Willis Museum Of Kitsch at AWMOK.com. Direct link to upload is https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/how-to-submit/.
Deli
LOVE this post Allee! I have SO many memories of AM radios — of the radios themselves growing up in my uncle’s record/stereo/electronics store in the 1960’s and early 70’s, of my trusty transistor on the towel right next to my head at the beach (those divinely over-caffeinated DJ’s with their unmistakable DJ voices!), having the radio on while playing games and making all sorts of crafts alone or with friends, taping favorite songs on the radio with my Panasonic portable cassette player (?!), calling the local radio station to try and win prizes or request songs, and the thrill of laying in bed as a kid and suddenly pulling in an AM station from a far away state on a clear late summer night! I’m also “still attached to the hits spitting out of an AM radio”!!! A primal joy…
Allee
Deli- You don’t still have any of those transistor radios, do you? Would love to see them at AWMOk.com.
Deli
Oh Allee… I WISH I still had them!!! I used to have lots of cool transistor and portable radios – as well as record players that were about the size of transistors (some that were also radios – from the 50’s? 60’s?) where a little record spindle would be in one corner, and the arm would lift up from along one side – I’ve never seen these since – maybe you have some? They were gorgeous – made out of hard plastic in fabulous bakelite-y reds, blues, deep rich ochre, etc etc. My uncle used to give me all the “mongrels” as he called them – and those were the ones I loved!!! When my mom moved in the early 80’s, I later discovered that she gave them all away (?!!! or maybe even threw them away?!! Oy.) and also ‘accidentally’ threw away an old Vaudeville trunk of stuff that belonged to my great uncle who was known as The Multiple Mental Marvel (double Oy) AND… she gave a friend who helped her pack a box of about 30 pairs of the most divinely kitschy salt and pepper shakers (that my Grandmother once sold on the boardwalk in Coney Island in the 30’s or 40’s) in every shape and form imaginable; animals, people, furniture, toilets, etc etc. I used to happily, but very carefully play with these when I was a kid, and put them all back in their own individual wooden boxes afterward. And so, I am beyond grateful and thrilled to collect vicariously through your amazing AWMOK and blog offerings that pop into my inbox!!!!!!