What I find interesting is that the regular Ocean City 600 series big game reel grew from these original cradle reels and that all the parts from the 600 series were interchangeable with these reels.
Here is one I built up using the parts from a original 1942 806 cradle reel, a 606 and a 605 which were made in the 1950's. When I found this assembly, the cradle was good but the original reel was a mess with broken and chipped side plates. All the fittings of the handle assembly were loose but all parts were there. After the restoration, all that remains of the original reel is the logo, white handle and spool. The posts are off a later Ocean City 606 and the side plates come off a Ocean City 605. All internals are exactly the same, so I used the newer 605 internals. The reel runs like new.
The logo is easily moved from one reel to another by removing the tiny rivets from a bad side plate. The rivets can be removed using a very small drill bit as a drift pin to punch out the rivets from the inside of the side plate. The rivets are the only thing holding the logo plate in place (no glues were used on the logo plate). Once you drive out the rivets the logo falls off the side plate and can be installed on a 606 or 605 side plate by reusing the old rivets.
The tail plate from the after the War Ocean City 600 series reels and even the later Ocean City / True Temper reels stayed the same as the original OC / EVH design.
One of the types of reels I collect is cradle reels. I still fish with a Neptuna cradle reel built with a Penn Jigmaster. The 1960's Neptuna cradle is strong but not nearly as over built as these old Ocean City creations.
Adding a rod to these old cradle reels is simple. There is a collect built into the cradle and any rod with the correct size ferrule can be put into the cradle. Many rods were made by Montague for these cradles in the late 1940's when Ocean City and Montague shared a catalog, so this set up can be a compilation of many makers.
Well there it is, the wonders of production reels, their interchangeable parts and the combination of different makers combining their ideas and products to bring a great item to the markets. The production run on these cradle reels was from their introduction in 1942 to around 1955. Even though they were around for approximately ten years (I do not included the war years for production spans), I feel not too many were sold and that was the reason for their being discontinued.
