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Steelman Hi-Fi
My parents had a portable Steelman Stereo Hi-Fi (the words were on the front, I think) from about 1958, which was the year I was born. It had a separate right channel speaker with a long cord and a balance control that activated it. Case was a very dark tan color with gold anodized grillework and clear plastic knobs on top. Changer was a VM. I still have it in my basement, but it no longer works.
It had a Ronette turnover cartridge--probably crystal--and that bit the dust first, but only after about 20 years of use. This record player was my first exposure to the "tube smell" of warm vacuum tubes and it lasted well into my teenage years. We took pretty good care of it and rarely left it "on." I would even park the idler on 78 to keep it from getting a flat place, once I learned how record players worked. It never failed to work all those years.
One major childhood memory of it was mom playing Sousa marches while my sister and I rode tricycles up and down the oak hallway floor (ranch houses had long halls) on a rainy day. The wood baseboards still have scratches from that.
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