I just wrote a post on the importance of state of the art audio systems in luxury cars. Sit back youngins for a tale of days gone bye.

Before there was the in-car CD player, before there was the in-car tape player, before there was the in-car 8-track player, even before there was the in-car 45 RPM record player, there was the Highway Hi-Fi.

In the mid-1950s until the early 1960s, some automakers and their suppliers experimented with installing record players in cars. Chrysler for example, marketed the "Highway Hi-Fi," an under-the-dashboard phonograph, in its Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, DeSoto, and Imperial models

CBS Labs and Peter Goldmark, who also invented the 33-1/3rpm "LP" record in the late 1940s, invented the Highway Hi-Fi in 1954. An early version of the Highway Hi-Fi played special 7-inch records that spun at an unusual speed of 16-2/3rpm. Also, the records provided 45 minutes to an hour of music, but only Chrysler and Columbia Records sold them.

A limited selection of records and the high price of the option (about $200, mucho expensive at the time) led Chrysler to discontinue the Highway Hi-Fi in 1960.

Delco experimented with a 45rpm car phonograph in the late 1950s, but also deemed it a commercial flop. Other suppliers of car phonographs in this period included Philips/Norelco and RCA Victor, which supplied an under-the-dashboard phonograph that resembled a jukebox; it could store and play up to 14 records consecutively.

On the next page I posted the original 1955 press release hyping the Highway Hi-Fi.





HI-Fl RECORD PLAYER
26555
CHRYSLER CORPORATION
Press Information Service
Detroit 31, Michigan
Tulsa 3-4500
For Immediate Use
September 12, 1955
HI-Fl RECORD PLAYER AVAILABLE FOR
1956 CHRYSLER CORPORATION CARS

DETROIT - - Highway Hi-Fi, a record player that provides music and speech as you go, has been developed exclusively for the 1956 Chrysler Corporation cars.

This novel addition to the pleasures of highway travel, specially designed by CBS Laboratories as an accessory for Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial, was introduced today at the press preview of Chrysler Corporation's new cars at the company's Engineering Proving Grounds.

For driver and passengers who prefer the lively scores of Broadway musicals, Highway Hi-Fi provides the lilting and memorable tunes from the hit show, "Pajama Game."

And if the children are restless on a long ride, Davey Crockett and Gene Autry are ready at hand to help keep them quiet.

Highway Hi- Fi plays through the speaker of the car radio and uses the radio's amplifier system. The turntable for playing records, built for Chrysler by CBS-Columbia, is located in a shock-proof case mounted just below the center of the instrument panel. A tone arm, including sapphire stylus and ceramic pick up, plus storage space for six long-play records make up the unit.

Using a new principle of design worked out by CBS Laboratories, the player and position of the stylus on a record are not affected by the angle of a car, its highway speed, or even severe cornering. Tests demonstrate it is extremely difficult to jar the arm off the record or even make the stylus jump a groove.

The special records also developed by CBS Laboratories, are seven inches in size, transcribed on both sides, and pressed especially for Chrysler by Columbia Records. They give up to 45 minutes of music and up to one full hour of speech per side, A collection of six disks will be presented to customers with each player.

Making up the collection are Tschaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, Borodini's Polovtsian Dances, Ippalitov-Ivanov's Procession of the Sardar, the complete score of the Broadway musical show Pajama Game, Walt Disney's Davey Crockett, Gene Autry and Champion, Romantic Moods by Percy Faith and his orchestra, quiet jazz by Paul Weston and his orchestra, Music of Cole Porter and Victor Herbert by Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra, and dramatic readings from Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell by a cast of top Hollywood and Broadway artists.