[Ron Ramirez]

Huh. I can't say that I recall ever seeing anything like this, but then again I generally don't collect 1939 Philco sets of this type. I do have a Canadian 39-330AT (similar to USA 39-30T) which only has six pushbuttons instead of eight, and it does not have any strings in its escutcheon.

Oh, and as I recall, the 1939 translucent wine pushbuttons were made wider on the inside with clips, so they could not fall or fly out from the front.

So I really have no idea why the string is present, or what purpose it served...