«Quality-built in America by well paid, highly skilled American workers»
These two Zenith Royal 50’s were manufactured in the USA in 1960. They were designed by Zenith to battle directly with the dominant Japanese shirt pocket imports.
During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s many American companies simply could not compete with the cheap parts and labor that went into Japanese sets however Zenith continued to design and manufacture radios using American parts and labor.
By 1960 Zenith’s American competitors such as Sylvania, Philco, Motorola, General Electric, Magnavox, RCA, Emerson and Admiral were buying either complete radios, components or both from Japanese suppliers. All of these former American companies were soon taken over by foreign interests and only Zenith remained as an American owned company until the mid 1990’s.
Ref: Zenith Transistor Radios; Evolution of a Classic by Norman Smith.
