Phil Weingarten Items

Phil Weingarten Items

Phil Weingarten was a fascinating, occasionally controversial, individual who lived during the golden age of radio. He was born in 1914 and became fascinated with the novelty of radio and wireless at an early age. Upon graduation from high school, he began work at various jobs in New York's famous lower Manhattan "Radio Row" while furthering his technical education at the RCA Radio Institute. Phil ultimately became known as one of Radio Row's top technical talents giving him the opportunity to become friends and associates of many icons of the early radio age such as Hugo Gernsback. He served during World War II, involved in advanced vacuum tube projects, and afterward began a vintage and war electronics surplus business. Phil's main interest was in early wireless items and he ultimately had his Forest Hills Wireless Museum in  the borough of Queens, NY. In addition to this technical expertise, Phil was a master craftsman. He created many very high quality replicas - especially of early wireless items. More often than not, the quality was of such a high-level that it was very difficult to distinguish the replicas from originals - a distinction that often got Phil into controversy upon sale of the items. The founders of Radio Daze had the opportunity to meet and visit Phil on multiple occasions in  the mid-1990s and were fascinated by his stories of the early days of radio and his workshop areas. Of particular interest was his vacuum tube fabrication equipment including glass blowing/forming, vacuum pumps, a wide range of raw filament and element materials, etc. During the last few years of his life, Radio Daze acquired a variety of items directly from Phil who died in 1998.