Philco Radio promotional item-1930s

[oregano]

@Gerontius asked about this when it came up in the Al Capone thread. They asked for pix of this Philco promotional item from the Great Depression.

This is a scale reproduction of a real Philco console radio. I found out what model it was a while back but lost the slip of paper. The radio was made around 1933-34.

The back. This was apparently part of some sort of contest run by a newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Note that the back has been removed and replaced at least once. I believe that this was used as a hiding place, likely for cash.

A piece of tape on the side also indicates use as a hiding place. The tape is yellower and thus older than I thought.

 

[Gerontius]

@Gerontius asked about this when it came up in the Al Capone thread. They asked for pix of this Philco promotional item from the Great Depression.

View attachment 70099
This is a scale reproduction of a real Philco console radio. I found out what model it was a while back but lost the slip of paper. The radio was made around 1933-34.

View attachment 70100
The back. This was apparently part of some sort of contest run by a newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Note that the back has been removed and replaced at least once. I believe that this was used as a hiding place, likely for cash.

View attachment 70101
A piece of tape on the side also indicates use as a hiding place. The tape is yellower and thus older than I thought.

Thanks---The typesetting on those papers in the back matches 1930s fonts. I think that is not a modern reproduction but a real promotional piece from back in the day, certainly interesting!

Could it have been a bank?

I didn't know they had sudoku back then.

 

[oregano]

Not a coin bank, for there are no telltale slots and plugs that would indicate such. It appears to have been part of a promotion by a local newspaper, possibly to win the actual radio depicted. The pix don't show it, but the "dial" reads "65", which may indicate that the local radio station was involved-"65" standing for 650 khz on what was called "standard broadcast band", now "AM" in the states and "mediumwave/MW" in Europe. The little puzzle is really weird, and I have no idea what type of game it represents nor what the desired outcome was. It's possible that the original owner lost the game and tossed the item into storage and forgot about it. I purchased it in 2018 at a local flea market and paid $5.

 

[oregano]

Checked Wikipedia, Colorado Springs at the time of this promotional item was a resort town with a 1930 population of just over 33,000. It attracted people with respiratory illnesses such as tuberculosis, which at the time had no treatment or cure, due to the dry, high altitude, desert climate. Resorts were also built around natural mineral springs. It was a fairly important city, which surprised me.

 

[Suzette]

I suspect this would have been an on air trivia game. The four business would have sponsored the questions. You wrote your answers to each question given each day and had the answers verified at the retailer or mail your answers in. The winning entries likely would have participated in a drawing for the radio and other prizes. Games of this sort were common in the radio era.