1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline 
The Ridiculous "Radio Hat" - & The Obvious Reasons It Never Caught On
In a day when you can carry your entire music collection in your pocket, it's hard to imagine a time when portability wasn't possible. Not that someone inevitably didn't try. Welcome to 1949 and the attempt to market The Radio Hat, a device that allowed you to listen to the then-dominant medium wherever you went.
Except it looked like something out of Flash Gordon, sported vacuum tubes and weird antennae and likely weighed more than anyone would be comfortable with. You have to wonder how much you'd be stared at if you were caught wearing anything like this thing back then. Or even today.
There are a ton of photos of this thing at the link below, including a shot breaking down how it worked, but this site is also worth exploring for the other pics it offers. It's called Rare Historical Photos.com and the stuff on display is quite remarkable, including one page devoted to long unseen vintage Beatles photos.
A great time-waster when you're not tuning your Radio Hat.
The story of the Radio Hat, 1949
- Radiowiz
- Member
Offline
Re: The Ridiculous "Radio Hat" - & The Obvious Reasons It Never Caught On
They weren't just trying to put a radio in a hat.
They were also trying to make it fashionable!!
From the article: "The hat was available in eight colors: Lipstick Red, Tangerine, Flamingo, Canary Yellow, Chartreuse, Blush Pink, Rose Pink and Tan."
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: The Ridiculous "Radio Hat" - & The Obvious Reasons It Never Caught On
Here's a colour pic of the hat from Wikipedia. I'm guessing this one is Lipstick Red. How stylish!
- •
Thread Starter- g121
- Member
Offline
Re: The Ridiculous "Radio Hat" - & The Obvious Reasons It Never Caught On
pfft .. Gazoo had one of those helmets in Flintstone times! : )) .. 
- The Weed
- Member
Offline
Re: The Ridiculous "Radio Hat" - & The Obvious Reasons It Never Caught On
Gives new meaning to the term, "radio head".