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The Radio Hat was a portable radio built into a pith helmet that would bring in stations within a 20 mile (32 km) radius. It was introduced in early 1949 for $7.95 as the "Man-from-Mars Radio Hat." Thanks to a successful publicity campaign, the Radio Hat was sold at stores from coast to coast in the United States. The Radio Hat was manufactured by American Merri-Lei Corporation of Brooklyn N.Y. The company was a leading supplier of party hats, noise makers and other novelty items. Its founder, Victor Hoeflich, had invented a machine to make paper Hawaiian leis while still in high-school (1914), and by 1949 the company shipped millions of leis to Hawaii each year. An inventor and gadgeteer,〔Hoeflich, Victor T., "Machine for making convoluted structures of flexible materials", (US Patent 1888197 ), issued November 15, 1932.〕〔Hoeflich, Victor T., "Method of manufacturing noise", (US Patent 2280582 ), issued April 21, 1942.〕〔Hoeflich, Victor T., "Mouthpiece for sound-producing devices", (US Patent 2607162 ), issued August 19, 1952.〕 Hoeflich continued to develop and even sell machinery that manufactured paper novelty items. Battery-operated portable radios had been available for many years, but Hoeflich hoped a radio with innovative packaging and a publicity campaign could be a runaway success. The transistor had just been invented, but was still an expensive laboratory curiosity; the first pocket transistor radio was still 5 years away. This radio would have to use the existing vacuum tube technology and the tubes would be a prominent design feature. The loop antenna and the tuning knob were also visible. The hat was available in eight colors: Lipstick Red, Tangerine, Flamingo, Canary Yellow, Chartreuse, Blush Pink, Rose Pink and Tan.〔 Cover description: The Radio Hat, posed by Hope Lange. (page 4 ) "The Radio Hat is made in such gay colors as canary yellow, lipstick red, turquoise, chartreuse, tangerine, lavender, blue, and cerise for teen-agers, and in tan, gray, green-gray, and blue-gray for adult." (page 33 )〕 == Product introduction == In March 1949, Victor Hoeflich held a press conference to introduce the "Man from Mars, Radio Hat". Hoeflich knew a picture would tell the story so he had several teenagers modeling the Radio Hats for the reporters and photographers. Soon pictures and news stories appeared in newspapers coast to coast.〔 This Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) wire service story was printed in many newspapers, including these: Ames Daily Tribune (Ames, Iowa on March 28) 1949; The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland on April 1); The Lima News (Lima, Ohio on April 11); Lowell Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts on April 07) The Brownsville Herald, (Brownsville, Texas on June 03).〕〔 This Associated Press Wirephoto featured a boy, Ed Donegan of Brooklyn NY.〕 The articles typically included a photo of a young lady wearing the hat and a six-paragraph story. The Radio Hat also received widespread coverage in magazines. This included do-it-yourself magazines such as ''Popular Mechanics'', ''Popular Science'', ''Mechanix Illustrated'', and ''Radio-Electronics''. There was also coverage in general-audience magazines such as ''Life'', ''Time'', Newsweek, and ''The New Yorker''.〔 The Radio Hat was sold in department stores and by mail order.〔 A Van Nuys, California service station chain sold the hats as a promotion item to customers who purchased gasoline. The massive publicity did not lead to lasting sales. Advertisements for the Radio Hat stopped in early 1950. In a 1956 interview, Hoeflich said the company still got orders for the hat even though it was long out of production.〔 Hugo Gernsback, the Editor of Radio-Electronics, was impressed with the Radio Hat and the June 1949 issue had a two-page article describing the circuitry and construction of the radio. The cover photograph shows a 15-year-old Hope Lange wearing a Lipstick Red hat.〔 She went on to become an award winning stage, film, and television actress. She was nominated for the 1957 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Selena Cross in the film Peyton Place.〔 She was also in the 1974 film, Death Wish.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Radio Hat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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