Frank A. D.

Andrea
Frank Angelo D’Andrea (born 1888, Salerno, Italy)
was the creator of FADA Radios. His widowed
mother moved the family to New York in 1890.

At age 11, he had to leave school and go to work

but spent his nights studying drafting and math.
His work during this time was as a newspaper boy,
stable boy and boxer.

He left all that behind when in 1913 he graduated

from an engineering course and began working for
the Frederick Pierce Co. doing experimental work
for the inventors.
Guglielmo Marconi came to the lab one day and had
Frank work on a radio apparatus for him.

Shortly after this meeting, Frank left the Pierce

lab and began a job with Dr. Lee De Forest and
soon became a plant manager for the De Forest
Company.

In 1918, Frank Andrea went into business for

himself with his 16-year-old half brother. They
rented a space in a Bronx butcher shop to begin
production of crystal radio parts and kits.
For the name of his company, he adopted his
initials: F.A.D.A. When the radio boom hit in
1921, FADA couldn’t produce crystal detectors
fast enough and soon was renting in three
different places on the same street in the Bronx.
Frank’s brilliant foresight recognized that crystal
radios would be replaced by tube radios and
around 1923, FADA started manufacturing
vacuum tube radios which were well accepted by
the public and experienced a rapid growth.

FADA licensed the Neutrodyne radio technology

from the Hazeltine Corporation.
In 1925 he expanded marketing to Canada and
the UK. Fada’s catalog included Fada-branded
radio components and vacuum tubes, sold
separately for the home radio experimenter.
In 1926, 500 of his 600 employees went on
strike and in 1927 his chief engineer left for a
better offer from another company. Despite
these issues, Fada continued to grow and moved
into a factory in Long Island City with 3 times
the manufacturing space.
In 1928, FADA’s status was in the top five of
radio manufacturing companies. Then, in 1929,
when the stock market crashed FADA more-or-
less fell apart. Radio production dropped
drastically and Frank sold his trademarks and
patents as the FADA Radio & Electric Co. in
1932 to a group of Boston Businessmen.

The new owners filed for bankruptcy in 1934

followed by a rescue and recovery in 1935 by a
group of New York investors led by Jacob Marks,
who acted as GM then president until the final
days of the FADA Radio Electric Co. in 1955.
Frank A. D. Andrea retired after the sale in
1932 quite wealthy. After 2 idle years, he
decided he wasn’t ready to retire. So, in 1934,
he re-established F.A.D. Andrea Inc. and began
marketing radios in direct competition with the
newly resurrected FADA Radio & Electric Co.

The FADA trademark was sold, so F.A.D. Andrea

Inc. began selling radios bearing the “Andrea”
name. Although it was successful, it never
reached the status of the FADA Radio & Electric
Company’s sales.
Andrea Building Model 1A5 Model 1F5
Circa 1935 Circa 1939

Andrea TV
Radio
Phonograph
Circa 1939
The FADA Radio name had become well known world-wide by
the 1930s. Frank capitalized on this by using his initials in
the Andrea Radio ads.
In 1937 F.A.D. Andrea Inc. officially changed its title to
Andrea Radio Corp.
In 1938 they started TV production and in 1939 displayed
their products at the New York World’s Fair.
During WWII all resources were shifted to the production of
military electronics and they developed a line of avionics
intercom systems that were sold to Boeing, Lockheed Martin
and other government contractors. They were awarded the
Army-Navy “E” award for their efforts.

1939 Andrea Model 1F5 3-inch screen

Shown at New York World’s Fair
 1940s Andrea “Sharp Focus” Radio Television
Pre War 2-F-12 Television
Andrea C-VL16 Television

Andrea 6G63A Andrea Short Wave Table Model

Andrea T-16

WWII Era Andrea Table Top P-163

Andrea T-U16
Andrea W69-P
The Andrea Radio Corporation did not abandon its
development of military electronics after WWII
and was beginning to lean more in that direction
but still continued to grow its consumer line of
products.
Besides the avionics communication, they developed
the guidance system for the first guided missile
successfully launched by the US and later
developed the communications system for the
Mercury space capsule program.
In 1946, Consumer Manufacturing resumed and
Andrea Radio again offered new yearly line-ups of
radio and television models.
Frank continued running the company until his death
in 1965.
His business was continued by his children.

Frank and his daughter,

Camille with an Andrea
Radio Television Kit.
May 1950
In 1961 Andrea became a public corporation now trading under the ticker
symbol ANDR.
During the 70s and 80s, Andrea was a big supplier for Boeing, Lockheed,
General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins, Sikorsky, and Bell Helicopter.
In 1990 the name was officially changed from Andrea Radio to Andrea
Electronics Corp.
The Company successfully transformed itself from a manufacturer of
industrial and military intercommunication systems to become a supplier of
revolutionary digital audio noise reduction technologies.
They pioneered high fidelity headsets, USB audio adapters, DSP array
microphone technologies and noise reduction algorithms for use of Automatic
Speech Recognition software.
AI, personal Digital Assistants, Robotics and IoT
Direction Finding and Tracking Array, Digital Super Directional Array,
PureAudio Noise Reduction, EchoStop and other speech technologies.
FADA gears back up in 1935 under the new direction
and leadership, revived as the FADA Radio &
Electric Company Inc.
J.M. Marks took over the helm and never minced
words about its position in the radio industry. “…our
company is the original FADA Company and controls
all the rights and trade-marks, patents, etc. dating
from its inception since 1921; and that the firm of
F.A.D. Andrea Inc., selling Andrea Radios outside
of the fact that Frank Andrea is the head of the
company, has no more relationship to our trade-mark
(Fada) than Mr. DuPont has to the General Motors
Co., with which he was importantly affiliated at the
time of its inception. Our Company is a bonafide
licensee of RCA as well as Hazeltine.”
Marks was a great marketer and played a big role in
the push for radio cabinets with bright colors.
The re-established FADA was an early success.
FADA’s “Coloradio” and “Fadalette” lines in 1936-37 sold well.
The radios were made with colorful plastics, some with chrome or
gold trim. FADA produced what have become some of today’s
most sought after radios. Some designs were so popular that they
were shared with, or “borrowed” by other radio makers.
August 1936 Radio Retailing Magazine March 1941 Radio & Television Today Magazine
In 1941, Marks recruited well-
known radio pioneer McMurdo
Silver.
McMurdo Silver radios of the
1930s were beautiful high-end
chrome plated radios.
In 1938, Silver had sold out the
remainder of his company to his
competitor EH Scott Radio
Laboratories.
Silver became VP of FADA’s
Special Equipment Division,
handling commercial and National
Defense radio production.
FADA production shifted to
equipment made only for military
use from 1942-1945
After WWII ended, FADA returned to consumer radio production and
picked up where they left off, continuing sales of the popular catalin
FADA “Bullet” (Sold before the war as model 115 and now as model
1000. Other radio molds were also revived with updated circuitry and
newly assigned model numbers.
FADA also sold their radios to independent distributors who
displayed their own brand names on them.
Some of FADA’s bakelite models from the late 30s were labeled
“Co-op”, “Lafayette” or “Dictograph”.
In most cases, a metal nameplate was applied over the top of the
embossed FADA name, but Lafayette had the molds adjusted to
emboss their name instead.
FADA was resourceful when designing cabinets. Many were designed
to house different chassis designs which is why so many different
FADA model numbers are found on what look like the same radio.
The last consumer radios FADA made were in 1955. It was model
660 and came in Ebony, Ivory and Maroon with a gold grill on the
maroon and ivory colors and a silver grill on the ebony color.
Early FADA Radios

Model 25 console Model 35 console

1929 1929

FADA Seven
Model B battery powered
with fold-out antenna

Tweed 1939
FADA Speaker
1930 FADA Special ~ 3 Tube Radio
1927

FADA Radio FADA Cathedral

Phonograph
FADA 790 FADA 1001

FADA 352J
FADA 602
 1939 FADA ~ Model L56

Fada Art Deco ~ Green

1940 FADA ~ Model 652

Marbleized Blue

1946 FADA ~ Model 605

Fada Art Deco ~ Cream

One Last Note: