Scott,
The magnetic cartridge was mostly confined to high-quality equipment in the 1950s (real audio enthusiasts, broadcast, etc.).
Almost all of the regular domestic units were fitted with a crystal or ceramic cartridge (also called a "pick-up" over here). This one contains a BSR "ful-fi" type, and like most of those around at the time is the turn-over type with 78 and microgroove stylii (generally sapphire rather than diamond on these cheaper types). The full turn-over types with two separate stylus/cantilever assemblies were gradually replaced with the fixed body type and the stylii mounted on opposite sides of a single cantilever, so that only the stylus assembly was turned.
The output of these crystal types is actually up in the 300mV range. This was high enough that some of the really low-cost portable players (the valise-size units) just fed the signal straight into a single pentode amplifier stage (often an EL84) which drove the speaker directly. These portable players then often had opnly two tubes, the second being a rectifier (often an EZ80).
