1960's Spy Tape Recorder - Explore the 1960's SNOW-MAN Rim Drive Reel To Reel Recorder!

In the early 1960's, spy stories on TV and in the movies became very popular. While some shows focused on espionage and intrigue, others expanded into a type of “Spy-Fy” – a mixture of genres. They combined the suspense and adventure of espionage with the “wow” factor of hi tech gadgetry. The James Bond movie series shows the pattern. In 1962, the first Bond film, “Dr. No” played the “spy kit” very low key – it was the villain, Dr. No, who had the fantastic technology. Then, in 1963, the next movie “From Russia With Love”, showed 007 outfitted with a hi-tech attache case. It contained bullets, money – and a smoke bomb if you opened it wrong! The movie also showed an early “spy” tape recorder that was built into a camera. Television programs took a similar approach. The popular “The Avengers” series started as espionage and intrigue in 196, but they soon incorporated hi-tech in their plots to increase audience appeal. Later, spy programs such as “The Man From Uncle” and “Mission Impossible”, featured high tech gadgets, -- which became part of the shows appeal. What has this got to do with tape recorders? That's a secret hiding in plain sight. In 1962 – in the American consumer market – PORTABLE reel to reel tape recorders and radios were the highest tech available. Besides being new and exciting, these devices were following a trend – they were getting smaller and smaller, and they were selling very well! Spy TV shows quickly picked up on this - and little radios and tape recorders either appeared as, or were inferred to be, integral to many secret agent missions. 1966, real consumer portable tape recorders appeared in the prologue to episodes of the TV show, "Mission Impossible". Among those seen were the Concord “F-20 Sound Camera” and a popular Sanyo portable reel to reel tape recorder. The perceived espionage connection was so popular that even low end, and very cheap little tape recorders became enormously popular, and sales were brisk. All this brings us to the saga of this little tape recorder, the SNOW-MAN reel to reel portable recorder. It uses reels that are only 1-7/8 inch in diameter! This design appeared under many brand names, including: Star Lite, Elecktra, Toho, and Juliette. Fast forward to 2018. The little tape recorders of yesteryear are still with us – now as collectors items, often on E-Bay where this SNOW-MAN tape recorder was found. I thought – now THAT would make an interesting video for YouTube, and grabbed it. As expected, it arrived DOA! What had broken and how did I fix it? In fact what IS this little tape recorder and how does it work? THAT is the subject of this video. And yes – after 55 years, this little wonder still can tell its own story.