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How about a 1:1 Scale scratch audio system from 69

bob letterman

Master at Arms
Staff member
I have been doing some reorganizing lately and came across several photos from the 1960s. Back in 1969, I left the police department for the corporate world. I had received a lot of national and even international publicity in the late 60s, such as this Saturday Evening Post Magazine article. For you younger guys, that was the magazine Ben Franklin started and later Norman Rockwell's paintings were on the cover. In November of 1968, after six months of having a patrol car with an ever-present reporter and photographer riding with me, the magazine was released. It seemed that St. Louis at that time was the highest crime city in America per capita and the magazine wanted to do an article on the worst area in the city. It happened to be my area. Here is the magazine with a really young Bob on the cover.

satevepost_zps4e0feb28.jpg


There had been many local and statewide articles preceding it, but this was the first nationwide article. The Saturday Evening Post was a 20+ page article and at the time it had the largest circulation of any magazine in the world, more than 8 million copies were printed. This was followed closely by more magazines doing stories on what they called a young idealistic cop working in the worst hell hole of crime in America.

Anyway, to the story. As all this publicity was being printed, it caught the eyes of several large corporations who thought it would be cool to have me in their employ. When one of them offered me 400% of my salary, plus a secretary and private office as well as a new car every year and an unlimited expense account, being placed in charge of 40 offices in a dozen states, guess what guys, I dropped all my ideals and caved! I left the department and bought a lot of three piece business suits and set out on a new career. That was in January, 1969. I was 27 years old.

I managed to do quite well in the corporate world, but there was something missing. As early as I can remember, I have always needed, (Maybe obsessed would be a more appropriate word), excitement, adventure and especially ongoing challenges. The corporate world was exciting in a definitely different way, but no adventure and no major challenges. So, I made a challenge of my own. During that period, I had been interested in stereo which was just being explored by people like me as a hobby. I had built two small systems previously, but I had imagined a true scratch built monster. I was a Star Trek fan and loved the colors and textures used on the bridge of the original Enterprise. I know, it looks hokey today, but back then it was cutting edge sci-fi.

I began making drawings and reading up on electronics at the time. After about a year of research, I started making prototypes. In the beginning, they were quite simple, but especially the speaker system had to be designed just not for aesthetics, but to produce what I wanted to be the ultimate sound. I was experimenting with partially sand filled chambers on both sides of either speakers to absorb and reduce vibration. I was using two types of bass systems in each speaker, several horn mid range and high frequency speakers as well as hypersonic and ultrasonic tweeters. I created electronic circuits using silicone controlled rectifiers to bring precisely the exact frequency range to the speaker best capable of reproducing it. I scratch built several of the components in the console as well as most of the light displays and color organs. Those too, were controlled by rectifiers in circuits fed by a HeathKit computer I built. Really crude by todays standards but a real WOW factor back then. Here are some pics during the build.

These pics are really old and were taken on the old Polaroid cameras. This is one of the earlier prototypes I built, rejected and started over.

prototype01_zpse87e1636.jpg


These were the final prototypes and became a permanent part of the system. They were 7 feet in height, 3 feet in width and 2 feet deep. They weighed about 200 pounds each.

Speakersbeingbuilt_zpsc0a696a9.jpg


Then I made them pretty with Black and smoked plexiglass with snow white and orange formica with aluminum trim throughout on the main console, dropping the orange on the speakers..

HAL9000_zps3672128f.jpg


Below is a couple of photos of the console. It was 7 feet wide, 7 feet in height and ranged from 2 to 3 feet in depth.

colorstereo_zps6e7c894e.jpg


A closeup of the controls.

Consolebeingbuilt_zps7876b17e.jpg


Another view.

ConsolePic_zps422ba446.jpg


Back then, there was a large electronics retail outlet that specialized in this kind of stuff. I showed them some photos, they wanted to see it and test it in person. They came to the house with equipment galore. At the time, the state of the art speaker system was the Bozak Concert Grands. A speaker system that I could have never afforded and was made for the filthy rich. My speakers stood up pretty well in testing results against them. Then the magazines came calling. Here is an article in Stereo Review magazine. I don't even know if it still exists.

TotalStereo_zpscb9dfcae.jpg


To end the story. I eventually became bored out of my socks with conferences, dudes in meetings doing their blah, blah, blah to impress the bosses and the corporate mentality at that time altogether. I actually quit three times, the first two, they flew some suits down to St. Louis from Chicago and talked me into staying. The last time I refused to meet them and returned to my much lower paying, but really exciting precinct. I was made a detective a few months after I returned and that is a whole 'nuther story.
 
Something very old but really different.

Thanks for sharing Bob, love the story- for some reason Serpico comes to mind.
 
Something very old but really different.

Thanks for sharing Bob, love the story- for some reason Serpico comes to mind.

Thanks, Well there was some corruption back then but nothing like Serpico had to deal with. He was a peer as were The Super cops, Batman and Robin during those years. (A couple of cops in New York that were nicknamed Batman and Robin).

To give you an example of crime. Back then, St. Louis had an average of more than 300 murders a year. The population of the metro area is about 2.7 million, but the city is landlocked by surrounding suburbs and had only about a half million population. St. Louis had 10% of the population of Los Angeles and more crime. It remains in the top 5 in the nation, and, occasionally still rises to be number one from time to time.

When I returned to the department and made detective, my partner and I grew long hair and facial hair, wore jeans and T-shirts and the local TV and radio stations began calling us the "Hippie Cops", so there was some kinship to Serpico, although that movie wasn't released until 1973. This was taken during that era. (BTW, to avoid confusion, my full name is William Robert. I have always went by Bob).

Bob1973acopy_zps1bfca2e6.jpg


It just all goes to prove that doing what you love is worth more than money! Either that or I'm just not very bright!
 
Something very old but really different.

Love seeing these Dad, that stereo is off the hook (y)
 
Something very old but really different.

Looks right out of the headquarters of SHADO. Only needs a rotating wet bar. So is it the HAL 9000 or the Scorpio 6?

Great story. It's a different world now, but growing up in the 70s NYC, I don't think I'd want to be in the NYPD, hats off to you for going back to serve your community.
 
Something very old but really different.

Looks right out of the headquarters of SHADO. Only needs a rotating wet bar. So is it the HAL 9000 or the Scorpio 6?

Great story. It's a different world now, but growing up in the 70s NYC, I don't think I'd want to be in the NYPD, hats off to you for going back to serve your community.

Thanks, it seems the older I get, the more I like to tell stories about the past. I guess it comes with the territory. :yipee

I was really into Sci-fi back then. The console was the Scorpio. Scorpio because my wife Susan is a Scorpio. The speakers were being built and a buddy came by and remarked how much they reminded him of HAL 9000, the Heuristically controlled ALgorithmic computer in 2001, A Space Odyssey, so I named them that!

Here is a shot of the original cast in front of the Bridge computer. You can see where the inspiration came from.

Bridge_zps26c7e2f4.jpg
 
Something very old but really different.

Very , very cool bio stuff Bob , stereo is amazing !!!

You do know that after seeing your copper photo I.D. card everyone knows the familiar for William is Bill as the familiar for Robert is Bob , ...............

Soooooo , that makes you Billy Bob Letterman , you old red neck hooligan .

Ok , I get the idealistic cop in a culturally changing " 60's " in a crime ridden city , I get the dollar bills and the corporate thing , I also get the " wanna go back to the streets " , how in sweet Jesus did all this evolve into a master modeller ?

Billy Bob Letterman , .......... I love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Something very old but really different.

Old school stuff - love it !!!

I remember those, back in my old country only the ones linked to some high profile communist party members would be allowed to have a music machine like that.

Have a look at what pleased my ears when I was a teenager:


h11899b9.JPG



he69840c.JPG


Can I ask you a favour Bob? Never ever hesitate about writing these stories and showing us photos from your collection mate, it's worth ten times more to hear it from someone who was actually part of it, it has that personal touch and if a story teller is good, you can see it like a movie in front of your eyes, not just reading words on the screen.

Cheers,

Laurence
 
Something very old but really different.

Very , very cool bio stuff Bob , stereo is amazing !!!

You do know that after seeing your copper photo I.D. card everyone knows the familiar for William is Bill as the familiar for Robert is Bob , ...............

Soooooo , that makes you Billy Bob Letterman , you old red neck hooligan .

Ok , I get the idealistic cop in a culturally changing " 60's " in a crime ridden city , I get the dollar bills and the corporate thing , I also get the " wanna go back to the streets " , how in sweet Jesus did all this evolve into a master modeller ?

Billy Bob Letterman , .......... I love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aw Shucks Glenn, you got me!!!! Just an old country boy! To make it even worse, I was a junior! Actually I have always been a city boy, or was never called Billy Bob. I've been ribbed about this before.

Missouri is a unique state. It has never decided whether it was north or south. Even in the civil war, the unionist northern part of the state was fighting the southern pro-confederacy Missouri guerillas like William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson.

Double first names even in Southern Missouri are not common like they are in the deep south. My father had the same name and he went by Bill. To avoid confusion, I was always called Bob.

Now, to the modeling thing. I've had this really weird, really diverse life. People who know me have always told me I should write a book. While I was living it, I never thought about it, I'd just get up everyday and do what I did. Now, in my 70s, I think back upon it all and it almost seems like there were several Bobs. It is all very dreamlike now. All the things I have been involved in had no normal patterns and none of the facets of my life seems to connect with any of the others.

I have been a high school dropout, a juvenile delinquent and boxed in the Golden gloves. When I was a kid, we were the only white family in a black neighborhood. I shot a man when I was 15, (He survived). I was kicked out of school in the 9th grade for beating up a vice principle and could never get back in. As a teen, I bummed around with seven buddies. Four of the seven spent their lives in prison, one became a doctor, another a pharmacist and there was me. One summer, 1956, we stole nearly a hundred cars just for joyriding at age 15, and the cop that arrested me for all that later was the same cop who broke me in as a rookie. All my crimes were as a juvenile, so I had no criminal record barring me from becoming a cop.

I have hobnobbed with billionaires, mayors of great cities, governors of states and members of foreign parliaments. I have been invited to the White House for dinner, I have known entrepreneurs and businessmen from the world over. I have garnered hundreds of awards, medals and trophies from law enforcement, from universities, modeling, business and other areas. A Montbatten and member of the British Royal family, nephew of Prince Charles has placed a gold medal around my neck for my entry in the Model Engineer Exhibition in London. I have also lived with the poorest of the poor and fought and imprisoned some of the most dangerous criminals in America, including members of the Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis mobs.

I have been a cop, an undercover narc, some bean counter once announced that I had kicked in nearly a thousand doors in my police career. I once had a Governor of the State of Missouri summon me at an event I was covering as security and ask me who my press agent was. I have been the body guard for three presidents on their visits to St. Louis. I have attended more than a dozen law enforcement academies including the FBI, The IRS, The DEA and the ATF Academies. Under international extradition papers signed by President Reagan, I was sworn in as a deputy United States Marshal, flew to Europe, met with Interpol in Frankfurt and took custody of a serial killer and returned him to St. Louis.

I spent four years in the army, 3 years in the navy, and hold 3 post graduate degrees including an MBA and a Juris Doctorate. I had a son who died very young and a daughter I never realized I had until I was 68 years old. I've been a modeler, an artist, a lifetime power lifter and a runner, a successful businessman, (I founded the VLS Corporation and was it's CEO for more than 20 years), spent 3 years in the corporate world of finance with a Fortune 500 company, been an editor for two publishing companies. I have travelled the world, commuted from America to Europe more than a hundred times, explored South America and Asia. I have founded and managed 15 production companies. Me or my work have been published in articles and on the covers of dozens and dozens of national and international magazines referencing five totally different areas of human endeavor. My wife has always told people that she has hung on to this amazing roller coaster life for nearly a half century, barely managing to catch her breath. Somewhere in between all this, I managed to build a stereo and some dioramas.

How did I do all that? You freakin' got me, I don't have a clue, but I'll tell you this, it's been one hell of a ride and my only regret is that I can't do it all over again!
 
Something very old but really different.

Old school stuff - love it !!!

I remember those, back in my old country only the ones linked to some high profile communist party members would be allowed to have a music machine like that.

Have a look at what pleased my ears when I was a teenager:


h11899b9.JPG



he69840c.JPG


Can I ask you a favour Bob? Never ever hesitate about writing these stories and showing us photos from your collection mate, it's worth ten times more to hear it from someone who was actually part of it, it has that personal touch and if a story teller is good, you can see it like a movie in front of your eyes, not just reading words on the screen.

Cheers,

Laurence

Thanks Laurence,

Yep, those look really familiar!

As to the favor? Be sure you know what you're asking for before you ask! :D
Us old fogies love to tell stories about the good old days! If you don't believe that, read my reply to Glenn!

Bob
 
Something very old but really different.

And I love to listen to old stories, pretty sure I'm not the only one :D

If I have one regret in life, it would be not having asked my grandparents to tell me more stories about life back when they were young.

So keep them coming

Here are two pics related to the communist police in the 1960's. One of the showing the new vehicles for the traffic police in the capital, the other one is a locally made Dacia 1100 - Renault 8 body with Renault 10 engine. My dad had one of them, know it inside and out, brilliant little cars.


h8fa5ffb.JPG




hb1f1acf.JPG



Cheers,
Laurence
 
Something very old but really different.

And I love to listen to old stories, pretty sure I'm not the only one :D

If I have one regret in life, it would be not having asked my grandparents to tell me more stories about life back when they were young.

So keep them coming

Here are two pics related to the communist police in the 1960's. One of the showing the new vehicles for the traffic police in the capital, the other one is a locally made Dacia 1100 - Renault 8 body with Renault 10 engine. My dad had one of them, know it inside and out, brilliant little cars.


h8fa5ffb.JPG




hb1f1acf.JPG



Cheers,
Laurence

Laurence, we are kindred spirits.

One of the great regrets in my life is the same as yours, not asking my ancestors enough questions about my past while they were still alive. They all died too soon. That is why I overcompensate telling my daughter all those things I wanted to know from my parents and grandparents and never had the chance. Trust me guys, don't make the same stupid mistakes I did. I have loved my life and want my daughter to experience all the unbelievable wonders that life can be.

I think she is finally understanding all that. She is far a greater person that I could ever be and that is how it should be.
 
Something very old but really different.

:popcorn

I had two aunts who were the keepers of all odd knowledge of my Dad's clan, we setup a video camera one night, one of the holidays and let it just roll. Didn't tell them it was one. Dad feed them a couple of questions and it got the ball rolling. Funny thing, they kept looking around to see if someone was listening...:rotf So folks, get those ol' folks talking and pay attention!

I was just doing some research and reading from some news papers back in the 40s. Ran across this and thought it kinda funny. This is from Jan 27, 1942 Spartenburg Herold Journal.


hc8521ca.PNG

:good:

Another thread Hijacked....sorry. :facepalm
 
Something very old but really different.

:popcorn

I had two aunts who were the keepers of all odd knowledge of my Dad's clan, we setup a video camera one night, one of the holidays and let it just roll. Didn't tell them it was one. Dad feed them a couple of questions and it got the ball rolling. Funny thing, they kept looking around to see if someone was listening...:rotf So folks, get those ol' folks talking and pay attention!

I was just doing some research and reading from some news papers back in the 40s. Ran across this and thought it kinda funny. This is from Jan 27, 1942 Spartenburg Herold Journal.


hc8521ca.PNG

:good:

Another thread Hijacked....sorry. :facepalm

Never apologize Son,

I only wish I could touch all those ancestors. Compared to them, we aren't much.
 
Something very old but really different.

Since I lost my parents I sadly realized there were so many more questions I never asked..... :(

So keep telling Bob, its your thread :popcorn

Even better because your stories reflect my memories of those times (Im 62) B)

Yes over-the-top stereo, tell me.... :woohoo:

I was not a cop, but I know everything about long hair, painfull coloured clothes and everything connected.

willem
 
Something very old but really different.

Oh my what a wonderful life* :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

Do you drink Dos Equis by any chance ? :D





* I can understand certain parts were not so glamerous
 
Something very old but really different.

Oh my what a wonderful life* :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

Do you drink Dos Equis by any chance ? :D





* I can understand certain parts were not so glamerous

Hahahahahaha!!!

Andy, I have heard that before. I think it was panzerace that posted this a year or two back. It was so cool I saved it!

the-most-interesting-man-scale-model-building-models-bob-tan-demotivational-posters-13431049790_zps8f509bba.jpeg


In any case, I have learned over the years that accomplishments never fall in your lap, they are mostly paid for by an unequal amount of work and many failures. The key is to not let them stop you. You may have talent or intelligence, but without persistence and determination, those are never a free ticket to anything.

You see, I'm allowed to philosophize like this! I'm elderly! :yipee
 
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