Does anyone know about Case, or have any Case radios?

I see a Case 710 table radio in the gallery here and on Radio Attic.

I just bought a Case 1015R. It has been refinished, but I'll do it again, with better grain filing, and toned lacquer, not paint. It plays well, and has 10 tubes and push-pull 6F6 output tubes.

Beautiful set! Case is one of those orphan brand comapanies that always intrigued me. They made beautiful sets, but they are scarce and don't often turn up. Steins puts a high value on them. Yours books for $750. They made radios from the mid '20's through the mid 30's it seems. Yours seems to be from the last line of sets in '36. They where known as the Indiana Mfg. & Electric company located at 570 Case Avenue, Marion, Indiana.
BTW that is one impressive console! Looks like someone put a lot of effort restoring the cabinet. Too bad it was done less than professionally. It photographs well though! I'd be tempted to leave it as-is. Enjoy it!

Marion Indiana has some interesting radio history. I believe Case was connected with U. S. Radio & Television also in Marion, but I understood their factory was taken over by General Household Utilities AKA Grunow.

-Steve

I have the 710 tombstone great dial love your console great find.

My information (Radio Mfrs of the 1920s, vol. 1, under Apex) is that Case and Apex merged in 1928 as U.S. Radio & Television, which in turn merged with General Household Utilities (Grunow refrigerators) in 1933. Grunow filed for bankruptcy in November 1935 and was reorganized in 1936, discontinued radio production in October 1937, and sold the Marion plant to Farnsworth in March 1939.
Just where Case fits into this in the 1930s I don't know. He was not an officer or board member after the Grunow merger. Here's in interesting tidbit from the 1937 Poor's Manual of Industrials, suggesting that Case had acquired one of his former plants (there were two) and was making radios under his own name, but the company was privately owned:The 1938 entry seems to explain what happened to Case:

Seems to me there was a Case that went through the auction at the MARC Extravaganza last week. They do turn up regularly here in the midwest. Very nice, colorful dial, and well built.

I discovered that there is a Riders schematic for it, Volume 7, Case Pages 13, 14, 15, and 16. http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/624/M0002624.htm

It shows Chassis 110, with a 6G5 eye tube clearly drawn-in after the schematic was originally drawn. The eye tube model is 1101, and an example is shown on http://www.RadioMuseum.org

It is interesting that the 1101 shown on Radio Museum has cabinet and chassis tags indicating that Silver Marshall made the radio. It is the same chassis as in my radio (minus that added little coil outside one coil can and electrolytic can on top of the chassis).

I live about 30 mi south of Marion IN , knew about GM Fisher Body having plants there , Have never heard of a Case Radio , Love that big dial face Good Luck

Daniel, I see from the above business information book entries that the Case factory had a capacity of 300,000 radios per year, so it must have been a substantial structure. I wonder if it is still present?

I found a recent Ebay auction of a case 700 tombstone radio which contains the following:

"As I understand it, Case Electronics purchased what would become known as the Farnsworth Building in Marion sometime around 1928; I don't know if that was the beginning of manufacturing, or if it merely moved there from another location. In 1929, Case merged with another company to become U.S. Radio and Television Corporation. In 1932 U.S. Radio acquired another corporation, Grunow Radio. The final acquisition for the next ten years was by Farnsworth Television and Radio; the corporation purchased both the Marion plant and the Capehart factory of Fort Wayne. (I believe the company continued to use a variety of brand names, including Case, during this period.) The Farnsworth ownership was short lived, changing hands to RCA in 1948. (Thanks to the Wiki Marion web site for the information contained in this brief history.)"

I also searched and found that Thompson SA closed a factory in Marion in 2004, causing an economic slump in the area. It seems that it is the old Case factory: http://wikimapia.org/11166233/Thompson- ... ronics-RCA

I remember that RCA took a large bus load of factory authorized service dealers to one of their facilities in Marion, this was back in the mid 1970's. I wonder if that could have been the same building/complex? It seemed to me the building we were in didn't look old enough to have been built that long ago though, unless it had been facelifted.

Several years ago (late 80's/early 90's) on the way home from an IHRS radio meet a friend and I stopped in Marion to see what was left of the radio factories. It seemed strange that no one we talked with had any recollection of U.S. Radio or the associated factories. I had to call a collecting buddy from a pay phone and have him look up the address from old magazines and literature that he had. It looked like there were some buildings left and, as Dennis mentioned, the RCA name was one of the main building that we could find.

I always wanted to go back with some old pictures so I would have a better idea of where the buildings were actually located and what was left, but that just never happened.

Yes,

Very good example of the #710 tabletop, the seller wanted $400 for it on Friday, no sale. Got put in the Estes auction on Saturday tipped the $300 mark IIRC. I think the last three on "the bay" went for $3-$400 inc. s&h.

Nice Find Stephen,

I don't believe I've ever seen the Console Version before. WOW Hopefully Micheal Feldt (Indianaradios) will chime in & give his "Valued Info" on the Case Co. & some of their sets. He's one of our Top ARFers here on Case & should be able to fill in all the holes & spaces with the questions one might ask.

And... sofaslug thinks "CA is a radio desert." Just go over to Stephen's house, Bob.

Maaaaannn, Another console I got to put on the "bucket list"
Lloyd
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“Early bird might catch the worm” but, the SECOND mouse gets the cheese!!

There is a historical society in Marion, and it would be interesting to speak with them. They only have phone numbers, no E-mail addresses, on the web site I found.

I think the one in Mr. Stein's Pre-War Consoles book under Model 1015 is actually a Model 1101, which is the same chassis with an eye tube (an example is on http://www.Radio Museum.org ).

As for California being a radio desert, I don't understand the basis for that claim. Barry Dagestino says he has about 3,000, the late Jerry Cantou stated he had 4,500, and there are many SCARs members with far more than I have. I've bought very few from outside southern California.

This particular Case radio came from a 70-year old man who stated it had been his parent's radio, and he had listened to it as a child living in Chicago. He happens to now live half a mile straight line distance from me, and sold it because he is moving.

Another Case radio just came up on Ebay - from Indiana too!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Rare-1928 ... 1e706df420

deleted...

I was going to say it's located in Indiana, but you beat me to it!

They think it's from the year 1928, lol.

On the label of that Ebay radio, there's a model number of 1015 (with another number covered up in black ink, it seems), but there is yet another number there, too...1017. Interesting.

They must have had a bunch of labels left over from another radio model, or something.

The label on the cabinet of mine also has that black bar before the 1015. Mr. Stein's book shows the cabinet pictured in the E-Bay auction as a model 1017, but incorrectly think it has 17 tubes. Apparently, all of the 10xx models had the same chassis, and the 1101 chassis is the same with an eye tube added.

I still do not get the connection with Silver Marshall, as indicated on the chassis and cabinet labels on the Model 1101 on Radio Museum.

Here's something interesting, FSM. Click on this link:

viewtopic.php?t=118539

Within all the postings on there, you'll see this post:

"By the mid-1930s both Hallicrafters and Silver had broken away from Howard and had their own buildings. Neither is still standing: 2900 S. Michigan Ave. is a parking lot, while the old Echophone plant at 2611 Indiana Ave. has given way to a condo/apartment complex. 1731 Belmont is still there, however. Silver's place of exile on North Paulina St. is the same old terra cotta office building/store. Hallicrafters' first locations are now the Marriott Courtyard Hotel (417 N. State St.) and a funeral home (3001 Southport Ave.) The Case plant in Marion, Indiana has been demolished. I am indebted to the Editor of the AWA Journal, Marc Ellis, for making pilgrimages to these in 1998, as I have no knowledge of things Chicago."

This was taken from a post by member Indiana Radios, and it looks like he was quoting Alan Douglas (?)

I noticed that the chassis number on radiomuseum.org is "110RSME". The "SME" part must refer to Silver Marshall. I'm guessing that Silver Marshall must have manufactured other chassis for Case. Below is a list of dial belts compiled by Star City Antique Radios and Test Equipment. Note the other Case models that end in "SME".

By the way, I got this list in pdf file from here:

http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radi ... albelt.pdf

I had forgotten about that reference. Hallicrafters was in Marion between April and August 15, 1936, under an RCA sub-license of some sort. This was not a large operation, since the company's entire possessions fit on two trucks for the move back to Chicago. Halligan took over the Echophone plant and license in Chicago. If there were two Marion plants (and one of my references does state that) then Hallicrafters was probably in the old, smaller one. The new one would have been the factory occupied by Farnsworth and RCA.

When someone told me the Marion factory had been demolished, I didn't know there were two. I couldn't tell you now who it was that gave me that information (15 years ago).

For easier reference, here's the Hallicrafters/Howard/Silver Marshall time line:The heavier horizontal lines indicate actual manufacturing plants. Other addresses were sales offices.