The Bell + Howell Sound Machine, what boomboxes might have looked like

I found some of the old ads for the 1971 Bell+Howell Sound Machine a couple weeks ago and thought it was a nice attempt at a portable cassette player. I had never seen or heard one of these but I was looking for something else and noticed one on the bay for sale. Even the seller notes there's very little actual machine photos or information available so I thought I'd post this listing for future generations of boombox information collectors. This Ames or Wright inspired design might have been the future of boomboxes or what we call the past. I love the way it looks like they took an off the shelf tape recorder and mounted it in the cabinet, it would be nice to know what and how the speaker is mounted. It looks like there's two versions, square and round. Bell + Howell used to be a fairly visible brand, I remember a lot of tape recorders and 8mm projectors. My first Apple Computer was a Bell + Howell II+, B&H actually made the exact computer for Apple, I think so they could get the school market, but the B&H Version was black instead of off-white. Now the name just shows up on late-night informercials

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-BE...190777?hash=item1c5c928639:g:lTcAAOSwYGFUvrHl





And the round version from that great site Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording.
http://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/ManufacturersBellandHowell.html

 

Wow they are both groovy looking machines, never seen them before

 

I think at the time they still had a lot of money floating around. It looks like their original focus was movie cameras and this was an offshoot....

The design looks top-notch, wood cases with metal grills and leather tops, it's a mid-century modernistic lovers dream boombox...

 

Here's the only ad that circulates around the internet, it looks like he has some random tape recorder and she has the fashizzle.

 

I think that's an off the shelf standard recorder that every family in the US had in the 70's. Kids would burp and fart while recording it and play it back and think that was the greatest thing ever. Absolutely nothing special about the deck but it really didn't need to be, it looks like the unit only has one speaker, maybe firing up?

 

Your boss ended up tossing that POS console out to the curb and I just happened to have a pick up that day...

 

The old JBL Cabinets looked amazing and are getting serious dough now but B&O's are pretty cool, they also have the Danish Post Modern look to them. I've got a complete Beomaster 2400 System, except for the speakers. Richard Gere made these famous in the late 70's....

 

Bell & Howell was really big into projectors and the square mono tape decks everyone in the US had. The projectors were the standard for most schools and most homes had a nice little 8mm setup for the little five minute reels of film footage.

Just about everyone had this projector, built like a tank and tons of them on the used market back in the 70's. This is an all metal, industrial wrinkle coated machine, it was hard to hurt them although the wiring did need to be checked often, I think it was cloth wrapped. The only other issue was the bulb life was short.

 

Slide's were cool Longman, we were still doing our college presentations well in to the 90's using slides!

 

I found another ad for the Bell & Howell Boom Box! From 1971 this may be the earliest "Boom Box" find. This one is a little different with no radio yet.

 

The last one posted must have been the first version from 1971, I think the other one came out in 73?

The good news is it has 10 times the booming bass!