Friday 3 November 2017

RADIOLYMPIA



It's the 1930s, and radio rules the airwaves...

And here's the 'Radio Queen' greeting the visitors at RADIOLYMPIA held in London's Earl's Court, an annual trade and consumer show for radio and television devotees. 

For today's collection of images I will focus solely on the original RADIO element of RADIOLYMPIA which had its first exhibition in 1922, the very same year as the inauguration of the BBC. Early receiving sets, booklets of wiring diagrams and assorted electronic technology were displayed beside the very latest in gramophone players. By the mid 1930s, RADIOLYMPIA played host to the thousands of keen radio listeners who represented the seven million radio set owners throughout the UK.

The event was popularised in the press and the newsreels as well as the trade journals - and it continued as a mainstay of the radio and television industry until the last ever RADIOLYMPIA in 1964.












Zap! That's Elmira Humphries, the Radio Queen c.1930s




 A page from the acclaimed 'Weekly Illustrated' picture magazine from August 1935
Theme Tune to RADIOLYMPIA 1934