Sixty-one years later today the pipe is still present with some listeners, and the wife by his side...sometimes. :b
I just stumbled by pure hazard on Stereophile's one of the very last articles.
Nice picture. At home looks like he is wearing a suit and she is wearing heels. Great wall paper and curtains, too. They look like they are sitting on either side of the center line. The ESL's were pretty beamy as I remember - need to sit in the relatively narrow sweet spot. Also make that singular - "Speaker" in 1956. Some stereo tapes had been released, but for vinyl from the major brands, you had to wait until 1958.
You are right, there is only a single mono speaker in that photo.
The electronics, I don't know; we are seeing a console here with what appears to have a retractable amplifier (mono?) and an analog radio tuner (AM mono?).
There could also be a platine under the center top console...78 mono.
Audio is fun; since we were very young and still today. I am relatively young myself so I only remember reading audio mags from the sixties. My elders lived in a fantastic musical Era...the Charleston jazz.
Anyone here?
* Those chairs, they still make them...a very similar design.
** The woman is holding something in her left hand, could you make what it is?
*** Are the fruits on the small table real or plastic fake?
**** Who is the artist's name of the painting on the wall?