nooooo
Posted on 09/08/2012 8:38:13 PM PDT by djone
^ The second main commercial application was in the field of auto sound. Earl "Madman" Muntz was a former Kaiser-Frazer automobile dealer who had earned his nickname through his loud, flamboyant television commercials. His motto was "I buy 'em retail and sell 'em wholesale. It's more fun that way!" Already a national celebrity by the 1950s, he soon jumped from auto sales to electronics, opening a chain of television retail outlets. ....Muntz had inexpensive Fidelipac players custom manufactured in Japan, and licensed the music of several record companies for duplication on carts. Even though the players were intended to be installed in cars, where "hi-fi" hardly mattered, Muntz sought to enhance the appeal of his product by adopting the stereo tape standards established by recorder manufacturers a few years earlier, and his players used the new, mass produced stereo tape heads being made for the home recorder industry......Just how Bill Lear managed to convince the auto executives to cram those players under the dashboards of Ford Mustangs and Fairlanes is a little unclear...early Learjet Stereo 8 player, pictured here, was designed with convenience in mind--and safety. The minimal knobs and controls were intended to make it quick and easy to play tapes while driving, without the driver taking his or her eyes off the road.................
(Excerpt) Read more at recording-history.org ...
‘Mad Man even tried his hand at cars’ ...no kidding?.,.. they’re beautiful {adj. Having qualities that delight the senses}....
nooooo
I remember Muntz TV’s when I was a kid. I think, but would not swear to it, our first TV was one. Parents bought it in probably 1954 or 55.
I had a 77 Old Cutlass with a combo 8track/CB original equip
Madman Muntz pushes too many buttons in '58 Ford and it folds up into itself'
Madman Muntz pushes too many buttons in '58 Ford and it folds up into itself'
As long as they played correctly (didn’t eat) the didn’t cram everything in on a narrow tape. The quad 8tracks were the top of car stereo listening at the time
Muntz 4 track cartridge player
The quad tapes sounded great, but were the most likely to eff up. They had twice as much tape crammed in the same size package.
Been dazed and confused for so long, it’s not true
A-wanted a woman, never bargained for you
Lots of people talkin’, few of them know
soul of a woman was created below, yay
You hurt and abuse, tellin’ all of your lies
Run ‘round sweet baby, lord, how they hypnotize
Sweet little baby, I don’t know where you been
Gonna love you baby, here I come again
Note the difference, however. The Fidelpac cartridge that Muntz used has a big hole in the plastic case where your 8-track has a roller. That’s because the Fidelpac, which was used to play most every Radio and TV commercial and jingle until digital audio came along, worked that way - the pinch roller had to be brought up into position after the tape was inserted. The fancy way to do that like was with a solenoid, but that added cost, so the cheaper radio station machines, and the ones Muntz copied, used a lever that was operated by the finger. This made for an ugly appearance, with part of the mechanism exposed and Bill Lear had the inspiration to put the pinch roller inside, and thus the 8-track came to be. It solved that problem and because all you had to do was shove the tape into the machine, made them much nicer to look at and reasonably realiable. It was the tapes that became the aggravation...a fluttering strip of 1/4” tape alongside the road was a common sight!
There you go - the lever I refer to is visible to the left, as is the open construction of the Muntz 4 track. I have a Pioneer 4 track machine that is very similar, except it is all chrome and has never been installed.
‘The Fidelpac cartridge that Muntz used has a big hole in the plastic case where your 8-track has a roller’ ...I knew the 4 track had a big hole where the 8 track had a roller but I didn’t know why not.. thanks ...
I had a 1967 Camaro Super Sport that had the 8-track option. I was the second owner of the car and it was three years old. Someone broke into the car one night and stole the casette player. They also did a lot of damage to the inside of the car. My dad woke me up early one morning and told me the passenger door to my car was open. Really pissed me off! I remember that kachunk sound, right in the middle of listening to a song. Does anyone remember 4- tracks BTW?
She looks like one of the girls I dated in College. Probably a Grandmother now.
I would love to have that car right now.
Muntz was (in)famous for his attempts to make TVs as cheaply as possible. He’d order his engineers to remove parts from the sets until they quit working, then re-install the last component. In his later years, he helped develop one of the first successful projection TVs and then expanded into the new world of cell phones and video equipment in the 80s. Finally had to retire when years of smoking caught up with him.
He was also widely credited with popularizing the term “TV” instead of “television”, although it was in fact already used in station names (eg. WCAU-TV)
Not to be forgotten!? The Muntz Jet.
Yeah, I would too.
I was going to a boarding school in South Carolina at the time. She was taking me back to school after a weekend at home when a South Carolina state patrol lit her up. She knew there was a 5 way intersection a few miles ahead and the road had gentle hills that cut down the trooper’s line of sight. She told me, “Watch this”, and floored the 442. I watched her bury the needle on the 125 mph speedo and leave it there until we reached the intersection. She braked hard and took the turn to the school then punched it again. When she was sure the trooper was no longer behind us she brought it back to around 70. I looked at her and said, “You’re crazy”. She replied, “But it was fun”. After I could I always insisted I drive when we were in a car together.
I’ve heard both it was 2 doors and it was dual exhaust. I don’t know which was true. It actually didn’t have dual exhausts. It had dual exhaust tips. A single exhaust went back from the engine and split into two just before the rear axle. It still sounded pretty good though.
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