Favorite Crosley -And a Mystery

IN a previous post I mentioned that one of my favorite Zeniths is the 1937 5-S-127. It was far from top-of-the-line, in fact,, closer to the bottom. I suppose that the real attraction is the cabinet design, though the radio is not bad for only having 5 tubes.

The Crosley 6H2 is probably my favorite Crosley. Like the Zenith, it is the cabinet design with a not-too-bad radio that appeals to me. And, like the zenith, it seemed to have been popular at the time of sale. Far from the WLW (or stratosphere), it has good performance in a 6-tube chassis.

There is some confusion over the number of this model. Instead of giving it a name, like Buddy Boy, Crosley used a model number. 6H2 was assigned to the chassis and this is usually the "Model" on the tag, though there are certainly variations of this chassis. In some cases the model is called the 61 which seems to refer to the radio/cabinet configuration. Confusion is amplified by the question of model-year. I call the radio above a 1934 model, but there were likely to have been versions of this radio sold several years later

I did replace the broken pointer after this picture was taken..

Above: Typical version of the 6H2/61 with router work on the side panel, partially covered by a solid wood panel. (which often cracks/splits as solid wood panels often do)

The chassis on this radio is also a 6H2. The cabinet, though toned slightly different, and with different veneers, is missing both the decorative enhancements(?) on the sides. It appears to have been sold this way - rather than modified.

So, the real mystery, for me, is  - Why did they change this popular cabinet during its production run?

I have always wondered why Crosley slapped the hardwood panel over the top of the scroll work.. Possibly more to the point, why did they do the scroll work in the first place? It was not a common feature of radio cabinets at the time. It would have cost production time/money (which Crosley was famous for conserving). Was the original  appearance so objectionable (to somebody) that it needed to be covered by the panel which would have cost more time and money?

The radio cabinet without the enhancements appears to be produced later than the more common version. Did they finally run out of cabinets with the panel and just decide to skip the whole thing? Or was the change made simply to save production costs?

What do you think?

​Russ