Between the frequent use of diegetic music and the art department’s consistent aesthetic choices, Twin Peaks is a vintage radio aficionado’s dream. One piece that appears onscreen with some regularity is the Zenith X316 table radio at Shelly and Leo Johnson’s house.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ZENITH RADIOS
Though fellow Bookhouse Boy Steven Miller touched on this in a previous Twin Peaks Blog article about Teresa Banks’ Zenith television, this deep dive would be incomplete without a bit of history.
The company, now known as Zenith Electronics, LLC, was originally a small workshop called Chicago Radio Labs, founded in 1918 by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel. The duo brought on Eugene F. McDonald in 1921 and the Zenith Radio Company was officially incorporated in 1923.
The young company shot to the forefront of portable radio technology in the 1920s, adding automobile radios to their line of products in the 1930s, and establishing one of the United States’ first FM stations in 1940.
ABOUT THE ZENITH X316 RADIO
A listing at RadioAttic.com states the Zenith X316 was made in 1960. It doesn’t necessarily say it was first introduced in 1960, but this is the earliest production date I have found in reference to this model. However, the label on my replica indicates that patents for various technological components of the X316 and the similar X318 were filed in 1946, 1949, 1950, and 1951.
The X316 was produced in several different colors, but the plastic shell of the Johnsons’ radio is plain white. In my search for a replica, I found the model number is accompanied by a letter that seems to correspond with the color, with the white version listed as X316W, baby blue as X316B, and a brownish shell listed as X316J (I guess too many colors start with “B”).
Considering that it was made roughly 60 years ago and the cabinet isn’t particularly heavy-duty, I was pleasantly surprised to find a replica in such great shape.
In a 1966 advertisement in the Boston Globe, the Zenith X316 radio was listed at $36.88.
ZENITH X316 RADIO IN TWIN PEAKS
This prop makes its Twin Peaks debut on top of the refrigerator in episode 1.001 as Shelly Johnson returns home from work with a slice of pie for Leo.
Leo is not interested in pie and demands to know what happened to his bloodstained shirt. He turns on the radio to mask the sound of his abuse as he attacks Shelly for misplacing it.
The volume knob serves as an on/off switch, and even if this was enhanced in post production, the clicking noise we hear as Leo turns it up is accurate to the sound of the Zenith powering on.
In the next episode, we can see the side of the radio through the Johnsons’ unfinished kitchen wall as Shelly walks into the other room to answer the door.
Shelly and Bobby Briggs plan to end Leo’s abuse once and for all with the Zenith visible behind them in episode 1.004.
In a similarly framed shot, we see the radio over Shelly’s shoulder in episode 1.006 as she tells Bobby that she shot Leo but he got away.
Though it’s barely visible in the background, the radio closes out the first season perched in its usual spot as Bobby finds himself on the receiving end of Leo’s “chopping wood inside.”
We don’t spend much time at the Johnson house early in the second season, but the X316 briefly appears as Bobby wheels Leo through the doorway in episode 2.006.
It narrowly escapes the splash zone as Shelly feeds Leo in episode 2.013.
We see the side of the radio once again as Shelly is awakened by a power outage later in the episode. The diegetic music eerily swells in and fades out with the electricity. As a music nerd, I’m relieved that this scene opens with a shot of a different console playing a vinyl record, because this is the sound that a turntable would make in response to fluctuating power and it would not be accurate to an AM/FM radio like the X316. I am grateful for this attention to detail, making sure even a finicky viewer like me wouldn’t be distracted in this tense moment.
Episode 2.014 offers a few spooky shots of the Johnsons’ kitchen in the dark, the Zenith still atop the refrigerator.
A thrown jar shatters against the fridge as the camera closes in tight on Shelly with the radio in frame.
In the final shot featuring the Zenith radio, Leo looms menacingly much like he did in its first appearance, this time replacing the soap-in-a-sock with a hatchet.
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That’s wild! My parents bought one way back. I plugged it in yesterday to see if it still worked. It does. Then I looked it up to see when it was made, etc, and found this page. As a TP fan, it makes their radio even cooler.
Very cool! Sometimes you find the replicas, and sometimes they find you first.
Is Leo’s radio the powder blue model?
There is one scene where it almost looks light blue to me, but based on the rest of its appearances, I believe it’s the white model.