Calling Gloria

Sometimes a vintage radio appears on eBay that's an obscure little gem.  The obscurity may start right from a poorly thought out title, in this case: Vintage Deco Tube Wood Table Radio.  That narrows it down to about twelve hundred radios at any one time.  Like a chorus girl, she's lost in the lineup.  She's got to have a name.

Calling Gloria.

Her face is familiar.  As far I know only one company had dial like that, and that was Remler Radio of San Francisco.  But her name is Gloria---or so she claims, with a brass-plated accent.  She was once pretty, but her birds-eye maple complexion shows the ravages of time.  A highly qualified makeup man can fix that, if she has redeeming qualities.

Turn around, dearie.

Nice rear.  Oh, nothing special, really---just a four tube tuned radio frequency circuit with transformer.  But nice because she wears her union card proudly: Bruner's Radio Service, Santa Rosa, California.  At first I thought of Bruener's---a San Francisco furniture store that was established way back during the Gold Rush and became a phenomenon of sorts, with stores all over the Bay Area---but then I notice the different spelling.  So Gloria isn't quite the department store 'house brand' I imagined---although still a rebadging of a Remler radio.

Another nice touch: Gloria is date stamped---February 1[-], 1937.  Sure she's fresh, but we're more interested in keeping track of her.  Let's pencil in 1937, since it smudged when stamped.  Dating would not interest Remler or any other radio manufacturer; that's what serial numbers are for.  This was likely done by a Bruner's clerk the day Gloria was sold so to keep track of her warranty.

Here's a mild shock: While Bruener's Furniture sank into bankruptcy in 2004, Bruner's Radio Service is still alive and well in Santa Rosa---although now dealing more with two-way communications than consumer electronics.  I'm having a suggestion of deja-vu, a recollection of considering Bruner's for radio restoration when I lived in San Francsico some twenty-two years ago.

Gloria's starting price was right---twenty bucks.  She might have flown under the radar and out the door for that, but I restrained myself.  After all, I have to control myself from excess collecting by insisting that my California brand radios have the stations printed on the dial, and Remler didn't feature that until some time later.  I was a bit surprised when she caught on and climbed into the sixty dollar range.  Did the local history catch someone's attention---even Bruner's attention?  Gloria flew the coop for $92.78---surely making the seller happy.