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Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

Posted June 29, 2015 10:30 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: classic auto Music stereo vinyl

I spotted this in-car record player mounted under the instrument panel of a late-1950s Dodge this past weekend at a car show, and it just stopped me in my tracks. Though Chrysler had its optional Highway Hi-Fi beginning in 1956, this unit is instead an aftermarket Philips Norelco Auto Mignon that was produced a few years later.

Unlike the early Chrysler system developed by CBS that only accepted proprietary 7-inch, 16 2/3 rpm records, this Philips unit would play common 45s like the RCA Victor Victrola that Chrysler offered as an option in 1960.

Is period-correct audio a must for classic cars?

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Guru

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Location: Madison, WI.
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#1

Re: Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

06/30/2015 8:18 AM

So at one time roads in America were really that smooth?

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Power-User

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

06/30/2015 1:14 PM

No, this device was meant for, ahh...

..."Parking"!

Just call me, "Angel of the Morning".

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

06/30/2015 1:40 PM

Parking, oh yeah! I remember that. ;-)

ROFL, with the average song length on a 45 in the late 50's early 60's being right around 3 minutes 30 seconds this must have been a clever ruse by the chastity league.

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#4

Re: Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

06/30/2015 1:49 PM

Honest Charlie sold them in the 50's I only saw one and it was next to useless if you were moving or the car was rocking. Still you were the only one that had one.

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#5

Re: Spinning Vinyl While Cruising the Interstate

06/30/2015 2:31 PM

I got his adapter from Warshowskys:

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