William Carl Grunow was a partner in the the Grigsby Grunow Hinds Company which was founded in 1921. They manufactured automotive accessories like Sun Visors, Loudspeakers, and “Majestic” brand Battery Eliminators. Two of the company’s partners sold out in 1928 and the company was renamed the Grigsby-Grunow Company. In 1929 they began producing “Majestic” brand radios, eventually producing 3,200 radios per day. The depression and strong competition from Philco caused financial difficulties for Grigsby-Grunow, and in 1931 William Grunow left the company. In 1933 a merger was announced between U.S. Radio and Television and Grunow Corporation to form General Household Utilities Company. The General Household Utilities Company marketed radios and refrigerators under the Grunow brand. Grunow ended radio production in 1937 with its 1938 models.
Grunow Teledial radios, like this one, were introduced in 1936 and were advertised by Shirley Temple. The advertised $99.55 is about $2,400 today, so it was not an inexpensive radio.
Our Grunow Teledial model 1291 has a 12B radio chassis. With the Teledial, you push one of the pre tuned station buttons and rotate the dial until it stops. There are switches behind the buttons that mute the radio while it is being tuned. The set includes Automatic Frequency Control to help with the final tuning after you use the Teledial.
As of July 2026 the radio chassis restoration is nearly complete. All of the capacitors have been replaced and some wiring repaired. The radio works, but we still need to do final checks, alignment, and repair the muting circuit. The cabinet has termite damage at the bottom. We will use a wood stabilizer (Minwax) to reinforce the damaged parts, replace what is missing, and then refinish the cabinet.
Ken took many “before” pictures and made a restoration plan.
