A Columbus collector’s fascination with radios comes across loud and clear in the newest exhibit at the Bartholomew County Historical Society Museum.
It features more than 400 Arvin radios, from four-foot-high console floor models to neon-shaded transistor styles and others made of genuine cowhide.
Arvin Industries Inc., which operated in Columbus from 1925 to 2011, developed a diverse product portfolio over its history. While its origins were as an automotive supplier, Arvin in 1930 — then known as Noblitt-Sparks Industries — also began producing household products at the onset of the Great Depression. By 1937, the company whose name would not become Arvin Industries for another 13 years, was making 33 different radio models for the home.
You can see many of them in the massive collection of former Columbus resident Larry Ruble, now of Edinburgh, starting with a free, opening reception at 5:30 p.m. today.
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Items in Ruble’s Arvin display, donated to the museum last year, will be featured for at least the next few months, with no current ending date.
“This is going to be quite a trip down memory lane for many people,” said Diane Robbins, the historical society’s executive director.
Besides radios, visitors can experience other items from Arvin’s product line including space heaters, portable tables, record players, eight-track cassette players, coffee-makers, toasters, waffle irons, televisions, clocks, ironing boards, dehumidifiers and children’s wagons.
Arvin’s housewares division grew so large that at one point the Fortune 500 company operated its own retail shop in Columbus.
Often, people regularly would request Arvin gifts for Christmas, Robbins said. As she spoke, one could understand why.
In the background, an early 1970s eight-track player behind her still featured the deep, rich stereo tones of an Elvis Presley recording as it played.
Ruble’s story
The 68-year-old Ruble worked for Arvin from 1971 until his retirement in 2007 as senior director of the integration office, when the company was then known as ArvinMeritor.
The companies had merged in 2000, and references to Arvin in the company name were removed completely in 2011.
Ruble’s father, mother and grandfather also worked at Arvin. When Ruble was a youngster, he would go into the office with his dad on some Saturdays and help him finish his work so they could go fishing — with an Arvin transistor radio in tow to listen to Cincinnati Reds’ baseball games. His three sons also worked at the company.
Ruble, who began collecting Arvin products in 1995 at garage sales and auctions, amassed hundreds of products in his former home’s lower level.
“It was floor to ceiling,” he said.
Same as his enthusiasm, some might say.
He bought the first console radio — a 1936 model — at an auction 23 years ago for $50 — and hardly to stare at its historic grandeur.
“Brought it home, plugged it in, and listened to Notre Dame football,” he said.
His collection grew for the next 20 years.
Ruble bought his final Arvin radio less than three years ago when nostalgia drove him to Maine to pick up a 1935 console model for $230. In fact, he said nostalgia and wistful memories triggered the whole concept of collecting from the beginning.
He has kept only four models from his radio collection.
One of the models he kept, owned by a different collector, sold a number of years ago for $5,000. But Ruble’s personal pursuit was hardly about building monetary value, especially given that he also has saved parts of marketing campaigns such as printed ads hawking the products.
Columbus native Bev Baker, who has her own personal interest in Arvin, saw the exhibit as it was being installed. Her late husband, James Baker, became chief executive officer in 1981 and chairman in 1986.
“It’s so wonderful that Larry went to all the trouble to collect all of this,” said Bev Baker, adding that many pieces were displayed on a rotating basis at the former Arvin headquarters at 13th Street and Central Avenue, where Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. is now based.
“It really was a labor of love for him,” Baker said.
Well, yes. But he swore that he felt no sadness in donating and parting with it after years of nurturing the collection.
“The world changes, and you move on,” Ruble said.
And maybe that’s the reason the exhibit, including a few radios displayed at The Commons, seems so significant. Moving on sometimes necessitates stepping back.
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What: More than 400 radios of every kind, size, color and shape made by Columbus-based Arvin Industries Inc. — plus a host of other items from record players to heaters and televisions.
When: For the next few months with no ending time set yet.
Where: Two levels of the Bartholomew County Historical Society Museum, 534 Third St. in downtown Columbus. Hours are 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.
Admission: Free, but donations are accepted.
Information: 812-372-3541 or http://bartholomewhistory.org
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