The Famous "Mae West" Short-Wave Radio BD-197 from 1938 - inspired by the Brooklyn Bombshell, designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, made by Ingraham & Co., sold by Emerson, restored and commented by my humble self

In a Nutshell
Mae West: "It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men"
Or more to the point: "Why don't you come on up and see me sometime when I've nothing on but the radio."

Introduction:
This 1938 Emerson radio model BD-197, was designed by the newly Emerson appointed Russian-Swiss-Belgium-American industrial designer Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky [1901–1964], who was known primarily for his curvy Streamline-style automotive designs. Paul Turney (ref.1) says it is unknown who gave his most famous creation its byname "Mae West", but - why could it not have been himself? Alexis had a lot of life and, according to an article in the Milwaukee Sentinel of June 1, 1941 (ref.2, also quoted by Paul from the San Antonio Light of same day), being only 8 years older than Mae was unhappily married to Ethleene and apparently had a love affair with "Harmony", a "buxom and voluptuous blonde", who was never identified. There is a striking similarity between Mae West's profile and the streamlined picture, the count alledgedly made of his wife (pict.54), and there is a striking similarity between the design of the two cones of the speaker grille and dial of this radio with a bra sported by Mae in a scene of the 1935 Paramount picture "Goin' to Town" (ref.4 and pict.51). As the Technical Fashions Editor of the men's magazine Esquire from 1934 to the 1960's Sakhnoffsky must have known her, since Esquire had several stories about her: August 1951: "The Indestructible Mae West" by James R. Savage; December 1957 "She Made It Funny" by Allen Churchill, January 1965: "Emotion in Motion" by Diane Arbus. Sakhnoffsky was known as a womanizer and Mae (the "Statue of Libido") as a man eater as she herself confesses: "I've been in more laps than a napkin". Here my speculation: the buxom voluptuous blonde was indeed Mae West and it was Sakhnoffsky himself who nicknamed his famous radio. Possibly opposed by Emerson, fearing further sales losses of this slow seller, regarding the considerable moral censorship and clerical opposition against all things Mae West, let alone her bad reputation from earlier police raids in New York against her own stage plays "Sex" (1927), "Drag" (1928), "The Pleasure Man" (1929), and others.
The cabinet of the radio as those for Emerson's Sakhnoffsky designs AX-212 (also for sale) and AU-213, are made by the Ingraham Co., Bristol, Connecticut. The "Miracle Dial" or "Visual Cone" dial, also designed by Sakhnoffsky were used also in models AY194, AZ196, BQ223 and BQ225 consoles, BQ228, BR226 ("Symphony Grand"), BS227 ("Queen Anne"), BU229, BU230 ("Chippendale"), and BW231, all of them being very rare and collectible. The dial was advertized as being "readable from any standing or sitting position".

Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.tuberadioland.com/emersonBD-197_main.html
ref.2: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19410601&id=qFNQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HA4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6225,5766418
ref.3: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mae_west.html
ref.4: http://soundtracktomyday.blogspot.com/2011/01/mae-west-as-only-mae-can.html


About my radio:
The radio is in near mint condition. "Near" refers to the fact that I had to, and did refinish the cabinet (pict.22) and remodeled the back plane from plywood (better as original, pict.s 21, 29, 46). The cabinet has no cracks, hairlines, chips, scratches, heat burns or loose veneer, and has the two original band indicator crystals, feet, 12' antenna, Ingraham tag and wooden knobs. The chassis is in mint condition, the speaker and the visual cone dial having no flaws. The radio comes with four ST shaped G-type tubes and two original Emerson tubes, including the rare and working original ballast tube 3CR-241. The radio plays nicely (see movie by clicking on thumbnail 57, soon coming), with good sensitivity and selectivity, with its 12 feet long original wire antenna. It is also one of the best short-wave receivers I have seen, since I get many stations in. Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

For the cosmetic surgeons only:
When restoring a BD-197 one generally faces 3 problems: a. the speaker grille, b. the tenite parts, and c. the decals.
ad a. The radio's left-side speaker cone, that is Mae's right breast tends to deflate. It was made from a stiffened (and strengthened with embossed ripples) but otherwise unsupported and pliable coarse fabric (pict.26 left), that gets deformed when touched and with time loses its strength. Too much touching also makes the cloth dirty and filthy. I restored Mae's right breast with a custom-designed conical implant (pict.s 25,26), covered with a golden colored fine mesh cloth, that perfectly resembles the original one and matches the color of the dial and the decals. There is no glue except for the central cone, and the whole structure can be disassembled, to replace the cloth itself if wanted. The new cone tolerates quite a bit of canoodling!
ad b. The two breasts each have two pieces made from tenite acetate, a thermoplastic introduced in 1929 by Eastman Chemical Company, which is chemically not very resistant and tends to warp with time. Since it is an amorphous (i.e. not crystalline) plastic, it can be reflattened under the right conditions. The often heard recommendation to use boiling water is not working, since water makes the material get milky (but why not in this special case?). The nipple piece of the right breast was quite warped (pict.22, top left). I clamped the piece to get the right shape and put it for 10 minutes into our kitchen oven (sorry, Mae), preheated to 220°F = 105°C, which is sufficiently below tenites melting point of 284°F = 140°C. I let the piece cool down inside the oven. Mission accomplished, warping gone.
ad c. The radio originally had decals, one Emerson clef decal right on the cleavage, and function writings for the band indicators and each of the 4 knobs. I had to sample all published literature to reconstruct these writings, carefully avoiding refinished radios, because some of them have the wrong decals. The correct set is (pict.15): SHORT-WAVE, BROADCAST, MUSIC VOICE (Tone control), OFF ON VOLUME, BAND SWITCH, SELECTOR (Tuning), with letter size of 1/8". The decals were custom-made by jt-graphics.com (pict.27) on an ALPS printer and after refinishing show no trace of any cutouts. The original production file (in .cdr Coreldraw format for jt-graphics), including many more popular decals (pict.27), is available for a small fee.

For the techies only:
Several AA5 (All American 5-tube) radios of the late 1930's used tube sets with a high (compared to later designs) 0.3A heater current, the (cascaded) heater voltages of which do not add up to the line voltage of ~125V. The voltages of the Emerson BD197 tubes (see table below and pict.45) add up to ~68V (2x25 + 3x6). The missing 57V are dropped in a wire-wound resistor, that is housed in a tube shell (ballast tube 3CR-241), between pins 3 and 7, see pict.47), thus generating about 17 Watt (or about 45%) of useless heat. The Mae West cabinet has a volume four times larger than the one of the Bullseye (same designer, same year, similar tube line-up, also on sale), where that useless heat had to be burried into a resistive line cord. The other resistors inside the ballast tube (between pins 7 and 8 and pins 2 and 8) help prevent a potentially dangerous voltage surge for the dial and band indicator lamps.
One more note: Mae West's with serial number higher than 1,580,950 have a 4-point tone control (mine has serial 1,581,011).

Here are the specifications:

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