The "Sony Boy", also known as TR-54, was Sony's 1st transistor radio. It was the 1st model using the company's new name "Sony".(Which had been Tokyo Ysushin Kogyo since 1946)
It was built in very limited numbers in 1954, and was replaced the next year with the updated TR-55.
While vacationing in New York in 1953, Masaru Ibuka, co-founder of Sony, became friend with songwriter celebrity Lew Brown. Who was one third of a successful songwriting team with ray Henderson and Buddy De Sylva.
According to Ibuka, Lew Brown was, by then, obsessed with his old 1928 hit "Sonny Boy".
Ibuka would have to listen to Brown's rendition of the song multiple times a day.
Upon his return to Japan later that year, he chose the name "Sony" for the brand. And "Sony Boy" for its first ever portable transistor radio.
Sony's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong negative feelings about both the name and the song. Forcing "Boy" to be taken out by the next year.
The "Sony Boy" remains to this day one of the rarest vintage radio model ever produced.
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