Playboy radio at York’s Lincoln Highway Service Station
The several Lincoln Highway slides I include within my History of the Susquehanna Trail presentation always produce related questions; such as this one from Fred Hoover: “Where was the Lincoln Highway Garage that sold radios? My father always claimed it was in West York. Dad went with my grandfather when they bought their first radio there in the late 20s.” I keep a list of the questions I can’t answer on the spot. A year later, while doing other research in the York County History Center newspaper microfilms, I happened upon an ad with this answer for Fred.
York directories indicated the Lincoln Highway Service Station was in business at 624 West Market Street from the early 20s until the early 30s. Being in business for only a decade, obviously it was not as well known at the Lincoln Highway Garage on East Market Street.
The November 6, 1931, ad in The Gazette and Daily indicates the Lincoln Highway Service Station sold Crosley Radios. The ad specifically featured the $49.75 Playboy radio. Click on this LINK for a Full View of the illustrations in this post if details are cut off in the cropping of illustrations.
The eight tubes and superheterodyne circuit in The Crosley Playboy radio were claimed “so sensitive that stations can be heard with the use of the Crosley Tennaboard as an aerial. This makes it easily portable—simply carry it from room to room and plug in the light socket.”
I though it weird that service stations sold home radios. However a little research showed Crosley Radios were sold at many service stations, garages and automobile dealerships around the country; such as this 1931 ad for the same radio offered by the J. B. Cooper Motor Company in North Carolina.
Links to related Lincoln Highway posts include:
- Lincoln Highway Centennial Auto Tour at Haines Shoe House
- The 1920s Lincoln Highway Garage in Hallam
- Wrightsville’s Lincoln Highway Garage with a Movie Theatre
- Walking the Lincoln Highway from Coast-to-Coast
- Stony Brook Garage on the Lincoln Highway
- Haines Shoe House will be a June 23rd Lunch Stop on 100th Anniversary Lincoln Highway Auto Tour
- ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE Memorial in Paradise Township, York County
- Mystery Ice Cream Bar along the Lincoln Highway
- Melvin’s Drive-In, Lincoln Highway Ice Cream Bar; I-83 Opens
- St. Joseph reports on John F. Kennedy in York, PA
- Lincoln Woods Inn; Mystery of the Medallions
- 1906 York Automobile Owners form York Motor Club; their Club House still stands
- 23¢ per gallon at York’s Only Gasoline Shopping Center
- The Highway Bridge Service Station on the Lincoln Highway
- Motels & Restaurants named via the Lincoln Highway; Lincoln View in Paradise Township, York County
- Crossroads of the Susquehanna Valley
- Welcome to the Heart of the Lower Susquehanna
