1965 Olympic console stereo

[radiotvnut]

About 25 years ago, I met an elderly couple through my parents and we bonded quickly. They married in 1934 and never had any children. They were married for 73 years, when he passed away. About six months ago, she passed away and for several years before she died, she told me that she wanted me to have this stereo when she died.

Last Saturday, they had her estate sale and I bought 3 tube radios, and old Emerson fan from the '40's, an old Kenmore motor from the late '30's, and a cardboard voice record of her from 1941. The stereo was there for sale; but, there were 3 problems at that moment: 1. They wanted $75 for it and I'd spent my money on the other stuff. 2. I didn't have any way to get it home. 3. I was already in hot water over my amount of stuff at home; so, I figured I'd lose the stereo.

The next day, about 4:30, I got a phone call from a lady and she informed me that the stereo was still there and had been marked down to $35. She said that a man was going to buy it; but, he didn't have any help to move it and the estate sale people won't help (they state in their ad's that it's up to the buyer to load and remove any items from the property).

I told her that I couldn't get over there that day and she said that the guy running the sale would probably let me come over later. I talked to him and he said he'd give me the key to the house so I could pick it up. So, I begged the only person I know who has a truck to help me and I brought it home yesterday.

The main thing that bothered me about the sale was that they were selling all of her personal pictures from the '30's on up. Their marriage license was even hanging on the wall for sale. Even if the family didn't want any of this stuff, you'd think that the people running the sale would have enough respect not to try and sell personal items like that. I can tell you that the lady would be rolling over in her grave if she knew that her personal pictures were tacked all over the wall and being sold.

This stereo was something that she won from a local drugstore and she had given me a picture of her standing by the stereo, along with the owners of the drugstore.

The stereo is from '65 and is all tube. Despite how big it is, the stereo chassis is BOTL (series string chassis and a single output tube for each channel). It looks to have one 12" Quam speaker and 3 tweeters per channel and the record changer is a BSR. This thing has some sort of goofy arrangement where it looks like you can play the tuner through the internal speakers and run the turntable to another amp and speakers.

I can tell that someone has been messing with the speaker and antenna wires and that's probably why one channel is dead.

Since this stereo has history behind it, I plan to restore it.

[CoogarXR]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

The main thing that bothered me about the sale was that they were selling all of her personal pictures from the '30's on up. Their marriage license was even hanging on the wall for sale. Even if the family didn't want any of this stuff, you'd think that the people running the sale would have enough respect not to try and sell personal items like that. I can tell you that the lady would be rolling over in her grave if she knew that her personal pictures were tacked all over the wall and being sold.

This always bothers me too. You would think that a clever identity thief could put together an identity based on some of this stuff. Especially official documents like a marriage license. It should be illegal to sell this stuff.

[DavGoodlin]

That looks like fine "MCM" furniture by today's standards. And it appears to not be Japanese, as much later Olypic stuff was.
Olympic was listed in an old sams index as "Lear-Siegler Corp - Long Island City"

I have an Olympic-branded German console made by Korting, with a Telefunken record changer.

[radiotvnut]

I was surprised that this one is mostly American. Several years ago, I had an Olympic tube AM/FM table radio from about '66-'67 and it was Japanese. On youtube, someone has a similar Olympic console from '66 with a tube tuner and solid state amp.

For what this is, it will probably sound decent; but, I don't expect it to shake the floors.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I was surprised that this one is mostly American. Several years ago, I had an Olympic tube AM/FM table radio from about '66-'67 and it was Japanese. On youtube, someone has a similar Olympic console from '66 with a tube tuner and solid state amp.

For what this is, it will probably sound decent; but, I don't expect it to shake the floors.

It looks like to me, that someone was in there changing the original wiring around. Did someone extend the FM antenna twin lead with some form of lamp cord?
Regarding, some of the Olympic products being imports, the portable B/W and smaller screen color sets were Japanese made. The larger screen color sets were US made in the mid-to-later 60's.

[radiotvnut]

I looked and this one is a Lear-Siegler set.

I wonder what ever happened to the Olympic brand? Somewhere in the back part of my brain, I think I remember seeing an early '70's "all in one" solid state Olympic-branded 8-track/radio/phonograph that looked like it was built by Electrophonic.

[radiotvnut]

Yes, someone extended the FM antenna lead.