Radio News Hallicrafters Ad, March, 1947

This full-page ad from March, 1947 shows Hallicrafters' most popular communications radios of the time: Models S-38, S-40A, and SX-42. Like the cover photo from this issue of Radio News magazine, the ad touts the Gatti-Hallicrafters expedition. The caption near the top reads:

Hallicrafters famous radio equipment, sold and distributed around the world before the war and used with superb effectiveness in every theater during the war is once again on the move. Watch for latest details of the Gatti-Hallicrafters mobile radio equipped expedition to the Mountains of the Moon in deepest Africa—a new and exciting test for the ingenuity of hams and the performance of Hallicrafters equipment.

The artwork near the top looks almost comical, several decades years later. No contemporary advertising would feature a blatant ethnic stereotype such as African natives dancing around a fire. And the garland used to preserve the dancing girl's modesty (while still exposing as much as possible) looks more like a Hawaiian lei than anything you'd see in South Africa. Oh, well, it's still an effective piece of advertising art, conveying a sense of mystery, romance, and the far-away, which the ad copy connects to shortwave listening.

I own all of the radios shown in the ad. See Model S-38, Model S-40B, Model SX-42.