by Lynn Fuller
In early 1967 the four-track cartridge was controlling the industry with Bill Lear and his 8-track format waiting in the wings to become the “format of choice” for the next decade of pre-recorded taped music. Enter Frank Stanton, the innovator of the 2-track PlayTape system. Stanton conceived the compact 2-track system in the 1940’s war years when he served in the Navy. Sears and MGM records bought the first working model. The machine was unveiled to the general public at an MGM Records distributor meeting in New York in mid-1966. It was almost instantly a success. PlayTape was touted as a replacement to the transistor radio with the disc jockey removed. It was a light little machine, playing whatever music you wanted to hear. The self-winding tapes played from eight to 24 minutes, and they played anywhere. Quite an accomplishment in 1967!
Playtape 1200 — picture by James Flanagan
Stanton felt that Playtape was a “standard system-not competitive with anybody. We have our own niche – from $1.00 – $3.00 retail cartridges, from mono to stereo, from the Beatles and Sinatra to Shakespeare and poetry.” He would be proven wrong.
The first two PlayTape units offered were a $19.95 unit sold by Sears exclusively and an MGM model (retailing at $29.95) that had tone controls and a better speaker. Stanton had in mind over 15 different models to be available in 1967 — home tabletop models featuring hi-fi speakers, an auto hang-on unit, a wide variety of portable units and special stereo models. units were cheaply made, sounded like you would expect a 3″ speaker to sound and were troubled with the same crosstalk, azimuth problems of the 8-track.
In addition to musical entertainment, Stanton had the business market in mind for the PlayTape system as well. He introduced a special dictating device for the business market which he envisioned as a replacement for written memos and letters. His idea was marketed to the Smith Corona Corporation and called the Mail Call Letter Pack. The units that recorded the messages were advertised at “less than $70.00 a pair.” Letter Pack cartridges were offered in 3, 6, or 10-minute lengths and were reusable. Even though the idea was a forerunner of the IBM dictating machine and to some extent the Internet and E-mail, the concept did not take off and music is still the medium for which PlayTape is remembered.
In September of 1967, PlayTapes were distributed in five distinctive color cartridges in the following categories:
- Red cartridge – equivalent to the 45 r.p.m. “single” – $1.00
- Black cartridge – equivalent to a 4-song EP – $1.49
- Blue cartridge – children’s albums – $1.00 – $1.50
- White cartridge – 8 songs like an LP – $2.98
- Gray cartridge – talk and educational – $1.00 – $1.50
In its heyday of 1967 and 1968, the personalities in the PlayTape inventory reads like a “Who’s Who” in the entertainment world. In the popular music category were such greats as Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Connie Stevens, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Wayne Newton, Judy Garland, Nancy Wilson, Petula Clark, Connie Francis, Ella Fitzgerald, Eddie Gorme, Steve Lawrence and hundreds of others.
The rock ‘n’ roll category includes such names as the Beatles, the Animals, the Supremes, the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Grateful Dead, the Mamas and Papas, the Righteous Brothers, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder.
Also in the PlayTape inventory were the standards – Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes and an assortment of current Country music hit artists. The total number of artists available on PlayTape at the beginning of 1968 was over 3,000!
A big boost to the PlayTape format was a contract in April of 1967 to license the entire Motown catalog. Previously, Motown had only once licensed their entire catalog to Ampex in the open-reel format. Another boost was a contract with Pepsi to promote the youth market. Pepsi offered a PlayTape unit for $12.95 plus 6 cork liners from Pepsi cans. Pepsi promotion increased the sale of PlayTape cartridges almost twofold.
The PlayTape format targeted two distinct markets – the youth music market and the business market. For whatever reasons the business market never took hold. The music market enjoyed limited success. The PlayTape was limited to two tracks, and even though there were several car units they never really targeted the car audio market as did Mr. Muntz and Mr. Lear. Both of these factors helped lead to PlayTape’s demise. PlayTape leveraged its company in the direction of educational and business fields rather than entertainment. LearJet and Muntz both introduced portable players for their formats in the late 1960s, which stripped PlayTape of its unique portability selling point. Consumers had to commit to a uniform format and PlayTape was not to be the choice. PlayTape did, however, enjoy several more years in the limelight in Europe, most notably Germany.
Collectors of the PlayTape format should look for the following:
- Most PlayTape entertainment cartridges were marketed in sealed “bubble paks” that could be hung on a rack in the store. Original sealed paks are very collectible.
- Any car PlayTape unit is very collectible.
- PlayTape carts or players in the business field and children’s tapes are very rare.
- As with other formats, Beatles, Stones and other big name groups are the most desirable.
Discarton Limited released a portable unit in 1968 which played both 45 records and PlayTapes. This unit is considered the most collectible PlayTape unit.
PlayTapes are an important part in the history of cartridge tape formats. Although short-lived in their existence, PlayTapes offer the collector a challenge in preserving this unique format.
PlayTape equipment and tapes. Thanks to Dan Jobin for the pic and descriptions.
On the left is a Playtape Model 1441 Hipster. This seems to be one of the most common 2-track players.The Hipster has a battery compartment and has an input on the back for 6 volts power. In addition, it has an external speaker jack.
Rear center is the Playtape 2-track model 1310 “The Music Machine” portable automatic tape cartridge player. It runs on batteries and has an external speaker jack.
On the right is a VRC Valiant. The sticker inside the battery compartment says “Serial #03089 April 13, 1967”. The Valiant player has a switch for channel 1, 2 or stereo. It also has a tone control.
At front and center is a Smith Corona Mail Call player. It is designed to record and play 2-track tapes for communication purposes. A person would record a message on his/her machine and mail the tape to the recipient. The recipient would then play the recorded message on their machine. It has “Playtape” written on the inside of the case.
A few more tidbits:
“I was looking through some Sears Christmas Catalogs for the years 1967, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, and in the ’67 they had a Hipster for $24.95, the 1200 for $19.99, and also had a case for the 1200 which held 12 tapes and machine for $3.59 The catalog Had 30 tapes listed for $1.29 each also had a unit called Disneyland for Kids, which was a red/white unit flat table top kind that sold for $16.95 with 12 children tapes for $1.29 each.
The ’68 cat. had only the Disneyland for $9.95, 4 tapes $3.49 each. The ’69 had Model 1200 for $.9.99, carry case for $3.79. Had the one with AC adaptor called Music Machine for $15.99, carry case for $3.99, and 25 tapes $1.69 each.
No ads in ’71 to’ 73. The catalog had no info on the 1300 in ’67, ’68 or ’69.” From larrygriggs@hotmail.com
Playtape Car Player for Volkswagen: The Sapphire Playtape I player with AM Radio
Check out the VW Accessories catalog for 1968 (55-00-98021) and you will find this little jewel on page 4. The catalog indicates this unit fits Beetle and Type 3, but I am sure it would fit a Type 2 as well. It is the same shape and size as an ordinary Sapphire unit. Has sticker that states it was designed exclusively for VW dealers in the U.S.
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