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Advertisement for Radios
published in Maclean's Magazine,
April 1, 1951

Scan of advertisement

Height 13 5/8" (34.6 cm) Width 10 3/8" (26.4 cm)

text:

Maclean's Magazine April 1951

New and Exciting
55

Panda

Panda — sensational '51 set —ideal personal 'pet' . . . in Turqouise, Brown or Ivory.
Phono-Jack and Switch

The Powerful
Baby Champ

THE BIGGEST LITTLE RADIO IN THE WORLD
An eye-catching beauty —the 1951 Baby Champ. Available in six breath-taking colours — Green, Blue, Ivory, Rose, Brown and White.
Modern Speedometer Dial . . . Powerful Miniature Tubes . . . Phono Jack and Switch . . . Longer Built-in Aerial.
Tonal-Designed for better listening.

YOUR NORTHERN ELECTRIC DEALER IS A GOOD MAN TO KNOW
Northern Electric
THE NAME TO KNOW FOR ALL HOME APPLIANCES LARGE AND SMALL

MIDGE

The '51 Midge is the most dynamic little charmer in the low-priced fieds.

Six 'eye-appealing' colours.


I bought this ad on eBay. I couldn't resist it because the hero of the ad was a model exactly like my Baby Champ 5500, even the same colour. I also have a green Midge, and I plan to aquire a Panda.

[Update - I have a turquoise Panda now.]

It doesn't win any points for font usage - far too many different sizes and faces.
How about that Judy Garland look-alike and her mom up there, with the "N" and "E" embroidered on their matching outfits? Do you think they're wearing tap-dancing shoes?
No secrets about what design element they borrowed for the Baby Champ: "Modern Speedometer Dial".
I'm still somewhat in the dark about "Tonal-Designed".
The baby with the boxing gloves had been used for the Baby Champs since the "Rainbow" models were introduced in 1946. Some of those models even had a little sticker or decal of the boxing baby on the back cover.
The "Biggest Little Radio in the World" line was used at least three years earlier.
I've never seen that puppy before. I pretty sure that the model was named after the biting flying insect ("midge", "no-see-um", or "sandfly"), and maybe they wanted something a bit more cuddly for the ad.

Just in case you're wondering, the other side of the page had an quarter page ad for Gurney kitchen ranges (coal-and-wood fired, or gas fired), a half-page ad for the Hillman Minx automobile ("Not too BIG... Not too SMALL ... Just RIGHT" - product of the Rootes Group - Makers of the Humber Hawk and Sunbeam Talbot). I think I remember seeing a Hillman Minx, it was something like an Austin Cambridge. The other quarter page appeared to be the middle of an article about submarine technology. ("Whether the Russians are building an atomic submarine is not known. Lockheed figures the U.S. has a three-year lead.")

It settles one thing for me. I had first seen a Panda (far too expensive) for sale and it was called a "Baby Champ 5404" by the seller. Later I saw another on eBay (in real bad shape) with a "Panda" decal immediately below the dial, and what looked like it might be a Northern Electric logo at the left, and I thought that perhaps it was a 5404 clone under a different brand name, much like the Lifco L660 "Roamer" Midge clones manufactured by Northern Electric, but sold under the Lifco Record Players and Radio Mfg. Inc. label. Now I believe that the decal got removed in the restoration of the first Panda that I had seen for sale.


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