Gay and Gifty… and very thrifty!
This offbeat Arvin 61R16 ‘Checkmark’ was manufactured in the USA in 1961. Although it was made in the USA it uses Japanese parts inside. In the late 1950’s American manufacturers started to use Japanese parts in their shirt pocket radios in an effort to lower prices. American companies simply could not compete with the cheap parts and labor that went into Japanese sets. By the end of 1963 there were no American shirt pocket sets being made with all-American parts.
Ref: ‘The Portable Radio In American Life’ by Schiffer
