Used that very same antenna. I bet the ground for the radio is wrapped around the finger stop on his telephone.

My house was used to broadcast radio in the 1930s and the next door neighbor told me (in the 1970s) that her bed springs picked up the signal and she could 'listen' to the station

says "I can't wait for Wi-Fi"

but they worked better if you could get them up in a tree. It seemed to be a regional thing, I remember seeing a lot of them in remote areas of Nevada, even into the 60's. The first time I saw them I suspected tornado aftermath, but was informed the bedsprings in the trees were TV antennas.

to the bed springs - could have given a whole new meaning to the phrase "hot-bunking!"*

*For all you non-Navy folks, practiced on smaller vessels such as submarines where there was little space and sailors would alternate use of the same bunk.

Young H.G.'s bed springs was an expedient choice, probably replaced soon after by a windom antenna. This photo brought back youthful memories of using a wood cabinet short wave radio and a bed spring antenna to listen to HCJB in Quito Ecuador in the early 1960s. I can still remember the smell of baked dust as the tubes of the old radio heated up.