Presents
History of BELMONT Radios
The Chicago based Belmont Radio Corporation has been manufacturing radios from the very early days of radio history.
Magazine ads boast, "Manufacturers of High Grade Radio Receiving Sets Since 1925".
The first mention of Belmont Radio in the Riders Radio Troubleshooter service manuals is in Volume III.
Series 40 and 50 models are the first Belmont radios listed with the 50 Series schematic marked, July 21, 1931.
In the 1930s, they offered wood cathedral style radios and other wood table and console radios.
But Belmont is best known to collectors today for their curvy, streamlined bakelite radio designs.
Some of these Belmont designs have become icons in radio history.
Belmont-made radios are found with many other retailer's names on them; Airline, Coronado and Truetone for example.
Read more information on each radio shown above with close up photos;
Belmont, Airline, Coronado, Delco, Freshman Masterpiece,
Good Year, Grantline, Truetone, Western Royal.
Pushbuttons and their beautiful reflective dials are also features that make Belmonts such popular radios.
The familiar Belmont pushbutton mechanism with side knob tuning was used in many Belmont models from 1938 to 1948.
It was invented by Alexander W. Plensler in 1937. As an assigner to Belmont Radio Corporation,
Plensler applied for a US patent for the mechanism October 20, 1937 and the patent was granted September 13, 1938.
Plensler invented many other radio tuning mechanisms and other electronic devices for Belmont.
{Download the entire patent here (1.6 Meg PDF)}
Richard C. Marholz was another Belmont designer that contributed many inventions and cabinet designs.
Marholz invented a similar pushbutton - side knob tuning design in 1938 {patent (850k PDF)},
as seen in the Belmont 526/Coronado 521 and the Airline model 62-351 shown in the patent diagrams below.
He also designed the Belmont 526/Coronado 521 radio cabinet and pushbuttons.
The Stewart Warner "Varsity" series also incorporated this pushbutton and side knob tuning design.
Stewart Warner bakelite cabinets of the period were obiously influenced by Belmont design,
if not made by Belmont also, yet no verification of this has been made.
Marholz is also credited for designing the cabinets
for the Belmont 520 and Truetone D941 in 1938 shown below.
This is another radio designed by Richard C. Marholz for Belmont,
but for some reason it never made it to market.
Other inventors that contributed to Belmont radio design were Louis J. Wronke, William L. Dunn,
Leslie L. Royal, Anthony P. Olesky, David E. Sparks and Harold C. Mattes.
William L. Dunn is credited for the design of the pushbuttons on the well known Belmont 638/6D111 "Rabbit" shown below.
The exact knobs were used on some Wells Gardner made radio models as well.
Some Wells Gardner models also used identical knobs that were used on some Belmont radios,
and many Wells Gardner radio cabinet designs were obviously influenced by Belmont radio cabinets,
with similar louvers, dials and curves.
Louis J. Wronke is credited for some of the Belmont radio cabinet designs including
the Belmont/Coronado/Western Royal model 636 shown below.
Harold C. Mattes invented the "Teledial" tuner mechanism for Belmont Radio Corporation in 1937
as found in the Airline model 62-245, shown below.
{Download the entire patent here (890k PDF)}
Although the pushbuttons used on these classic Belmont models below were designed by William L. Dunn in 1939,
no designer credit was found for the fabulous cabinet designs.
Belmont introduced their signature reflective dials in 1939.
The dial colors would shift with the light giving a 3-D appearance.
They called their new dials "Enameloid Cloisonette".
Another '40s Belmont characteristic was the use of permeability tuning in many models.
Rather than the usual variable capacitance tuning, this varied inductance to tune in stations
by adjusting ferrite slugs inside coils.
Belmont sold their radios to many big name distributors including Montgomery Wards (Airline radios),
Gamble Skogmo (Coronado radios), Western Auto (Truetone radios),
Radio Wire Television Inc. (Lafayette radios), United Motors Service (Delco radios), and many others.
Radios with identical Belmont-made cabinets are found with different brand decals, names on dials, or names embossed into the cabinets.
These brand names included Airline, Coronado, Crusader, Delco, Freshman Masterpiece, Good Year Wings,
Grantline, Lafayette, Sky Rover, Truetone, Windsor and Western Royal.
Some outlets sold Belmont radios with the Belmont name as the brand marking.
It seems a few Belmont models were made exclusively for some of their retailers such as the mini Airline 74BR-1502 design
and the Truetone D2611 "Coronet" design, which haven't been found with any other brand name labels.
In the '40s, Belmont adopted a helpful new model numbering scheme indicating
the tube count and style, followed by the model number, ie: 6-D-111 (6 tubes, desk style).
Other model number style codes include B=battery P=portable and C=automobile radio.
Distributors of Belmont-made radios assigned there own brand names and model numbers.
The Belmont-made radios are easily identified by a "BRC" (Belmont Radio Corp.) marking on the cabinet, label or
chassis license tag, or "BR" incorporated into the model numbers as with Airline radios.
Montgomery Ward was one of Belmont's biggest customers and distributors.
Wards also distributed Airline radios made by other makers including Wells Gardner.
In 1939, a new Airline model numbering system began with the date of manufacture and the manufacturer included.
From 1942 to 1945, consumer radio manufacturing was halted, mandated by the government.
All factory manufacturing resources were to concentrate on helping the WWII war effort and needs.
Belmont continued manufacturing radios for the US Armed Forces during these years.
When World War II ended, consumer radio manufacturing resumed and in 1946,
bakelite radio models that were first released in the early '40s
were issued again using the same radio molds that were brought back out of storage.
Although the same radio cabinets were used, some chassis updates were applied and new model numbers were assigned.
This was especially the case in most of the Belmont-made bakelite models.
The iconic Belmont models 638 (1941) and 6D111 (1946) are a good example of this.
In 1946 Belmont also released one of the first pocket radios, the Belmont "Boulevard" model 5P113.
It used 5 subminiature tubes and required batteries and an earphone.
It is a historic, very rare radio, highly sought after by radio collectors today.
In April of 2022, a nice example sold on Ebay for $1,553.90!
Belmont joined the advent of television in the late 1930s, and continued both radio and television production well into the 1950s. In 1945, just following WWII, Belmont Radio merged with Raytheon Manufacturing, a major east-coast vacuum tube producer. Belmont Radio Corp was then listed as a Raytheon subsidiary until Raytheon's sale of Belmont to Admiral in 1956. |
Raytheon continued radio production
with their Belmont-made radios still being supplied to various retailers.
Some were labeled with the Raytheon name and show a departure
from Belmont's earlier streamline radios to new modern designs.
The 1954 Raytheon model R51 radio below is also found labeled with
Canada's Northern Electric brand and also the Truetone name,
with the Belmont Radio Corp "BRC" mark included on the back cover.
Belmont-made Raytheon model R51 (ca.1954)
(click for more info and a closer look)
In 1956 Raytheon sold Belmont to Admiral and television
manufacturing operations continued until 1957.
Belmont's primary manufacturing plant was located at 5921 West Dickens Avenue, in Chicago, Illinois
across from a Zenith manufacturing facility and just down the road from
Grigsby-Grunow at 5801 Dickens Ave in Chicago building Majestic Radios.
5923 and 5927 West Dickens are listed as Belmont's addresses in some advertisements.
In 1947, the WAA (War Assets Administration) advertised that "much of the huge inventory of electronic
tubes and equipment, declared surplus by the armed forces, has been allocated to approved distributors for disposal".
Belmont Radio Corporation was on the list of radio manufacturers, wholesalers and jobbers approved by the WAA.
Belmont's address was listed as 3633 So. Racine Avenue, Chicago 9, Illinois.
In 1930s magazine advertisements, the Belmont address was listed as 1257 Fullerton Ave, Chicago.
Belmont also had three other manufacturing plants in Iowa; Charles City, Oelwein and Mason City.
