The Beatles in 1964: Sporting transistor radios

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Yowell, who writes:

Tom – next week Disney Plus is premiering a new documentary from Martin Scorsese focusing on the Beatles arrival in New York in 1964. This film has footage from the famous Maysles brothers who produced several documentaries in the 1960’s. For most of the scenes of the Beatles in limousines or in their hotel room in Manhattan you see them listening to a Pepsi vending machine radio – presumably given to them upon their arrival. They are listening primarily to WINS 1010 and the famous disc jockey Murray the K.

Then later in 1964 their film A Hard Day’s Night premiered . In the opening scene the Beatles are traveling on a train in First Class when a businessman gets annoyed when Ringo turns on a radio to hear music. You can clearly see in these screen shots it says “All Transistor” and Philips. Perhaps one of your readers can identify the exact model?

All the best,

Robert Yowell

Thank you for sharing this, Robert.

If you can identify the radios in these photos, please comment!

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5 thoughts on “The Beatles in 1964: Sporting transistor radios”

Barry Bogart November 23, 2024 at 6:15 pm

I just have some Sony’s in that size and vintage. But I wanted to mention my little Retekess V115. We just went through a windstorm in BC that knocked out the power. I am a long-time ham and have LOTS of radios, but this was handy. It has AM, FM and some SW. It sounds great, and I could not believe that I could get around a dozen FM stations from Vancouver Island. It saved my sanity, along with a few candles. Now I have to transfer some audiobooks to it for next time.

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