I recall talking to Tony often after he retired to Costa Rica. If I recall correctly his call there was TI5EWL. 73 – Mike

I'm a big fan of Tony Vitale W2EWL and this major contribution to early SSB.   His original March 1956 QST article "Cheap and Easy SSB"  subsequently appeared in several ARRL publications over the years. 

The article refers to operation on 20 meters (as he did), or switchable 80/20 meters (as the switch on the panel of this example indicates),  my experience was that really didn't work well - I ended up separating the mixer and driver functions in order to get proper drive on both bands.   The original did not provide a VOX function and a close look at the photos will show that there is no PA tank coil present.  It's normally suspended between the two variable capacitors but the wire from the plate coupling cap just dead-ends at the plate tuning capacitor.   The original design does not have a VOX function and the panel layout here is different,  but on the other hand,  the 9 MHz crystal and 2Q4 phasing network are present, so it's definitely restorable.

As you'd expect, the first step in building a Cheap and Easy was "removal of all of the original wiring from the BC-458 except the 1626 oscillator circuit".

73, Bob W9RAN