Back In The Day,

there was radio or records, 

so what if you wanted to listen to your favorite records on the move? well you bought one of the following, a 1956 Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, or Plymouth models, some of which could have a record player that played records at 45-speed as well as 7-inch record and in the latest 16-2/3 format, all housed in-car by Columbia, 

the players were installed on a slide-out turntable beneath the dashboard and hidden behind a drop-down compartment that could be opened at the touch of a button, drivers could switch between the radio tuner and the phonograph with the flip of a switch and use the same volume and equalizer controls for both sources, and yes that is a very young Cassias Clay as he was known then, 

the unit was not without is problems, as you might guess the records skipped as soon as the car encountered uneven surfaces. Another downer about the gadget was that it had an exclusive content contract with Columbia, which supposedly gave them the right to tell the driver that they could only listen to artists signed to Columbia Records in their car. The in-car phonograph last for one model year, came back a few years later on another Chrysler model and eventually disappeared from the industry altogether, but hey 10 out of 10 for trying! more photographs here, if you are into nostalgia, you can actually buy a unit here, for the full story have a look here.