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Thread Number: 37329
Color TV brand popularity - 1960's |
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| Post# 555018 , Reply# 5 11/8/2011 at 08:13 (4,574 days old) by Blackstone (Springfield, Massachusetts) | ||
Yes, Motorola rectangular tubes were a big seller in the 1960s. The works in a drawer were a big advancement, making the servicing easier, and more likely done in the customer's home. It was a lot easier to replace circuit boards, rather than carry a console TV back to the store. The first models still had a few vacuum tubes on the replacement boards, later changing to all solid state.
The screen on the inside of the picture tube had a black background, through which the red, blue, and green guns projected. Improved contrast and detail on these Motorolas. Then, Sony had the vertical in-line screens, also with a sharper picture. I also remember that in the 1960s, as TV programs switched to color, the most difficult color to broadcast was yellow. I think that the show "Hazel" had her in a yellow uniform. | ||
| Post# 555050 , Reply# 10 11/8/2011 at 10:53 (4,574 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
I believe CBS went all-color in prime time in 1965 | ||
| Post# 555052 , Reply# 11 11/8/2011 at 11:04 (4,574 days old) by laundromat (Hilo, Hawaii) | ||
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| Post# 555062 , Reply# 12 11/8/2011 at 11:43 (4,574 days old) by ptcruiser51 (Boynton Beach, FL) | ||
Interesting Thread
My OM's excuse was "it's not perfected yet!". I won a 16" Zenith portable in a Church raffle in 1970. What a PITA to tune, every time you changed a channel you had to re-adjust the color and tint. We put it inside my parents' 1948 RCA cabinet as the set had gone kaput by that time but the cabinet was still beautiful. The OM was right, I guess, the set went on the blink ONE WEEK after the warranty expired. I vowed I'd never buy another Zenith product again. It was back to B&W for awhile. They had a fairly new B&W Magnavox Home Entertainment Center in the living room (TV, AM/FM, Stereo). When I got married in 1971 we saved-up for awhile and bought a Magnavox color table model, again manual adjustment but the color held from one channel to another. My parents' 25th anniversary was in 1972, so I bought them a 19" Sylvania table model. Automatic tuning! It was great! Back into the '48 cabinet it went for a good 15 years or so. My Magnavox lasted well into the 1980s and I replaced it with another. My aunt had the Motorola Quasar with the "instant on". My sister was dating a TV repairman, he disconnected the feature - said it was too dangerous; besides pulling current all the time was a waste.
Living in the NY/NJ Metro area we had color early. One of the neighbors when we lived in the 'hood worked at the RCA plant in Harrison, NJ. He built a color set (probably from filched parts) and put it in a packing crate for a cabinet. We kids used to go over to watch cartoons which was pretty much all that was on in color at the time. I do remember that ABC's "The Jetsons" was their first network program in color. Crazy what you recall. We kids were watching comedian George Gobel's show when it went to color. He said, "This is for the people with B&W" and pulled up his pant legs. His garters for his socks had the straps labeled "red" "blue" "green" "orange". Pretty funny. | ||
Post# 555069 , Reply# 14 11/8/2011 at 12:11 (4,574 days old) by rp2813  (Sannazay) |
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The Last NBC Peacock Holdout I believe it was the "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson. They continued to open the broadcast with the peacock sequence many years after NBC and the other two networks were filming/taping everything in color and had long since dropped their color presentation announcements. I stopped watching Carson on a regular basis well before he retired, but his production company may have required inclusion of the peacock up until his last show.
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Post# 555074 , Reply# 16 11/8/2011 at 12:29 (4,574 days old) by yogitunes (New Jersey) |
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we had an Olympic 25" inch color TV/Stereo combination console, seemed like for years, but the TV only lasted from 1965 to 1975, I mis units like this, plenty of big speakers for the TV and Stereo.......we would play records for hours.....
by the time the tubes began to fail, they weren't readily available for service, we had a few 19 inch color sets for a while.......the next color console TV we got by Magnavox, had the instant on, and the magic EYE to adjust color and contrast to the rooms light, which was a joke, it never worked right....... 1988 we went to Sears and got an RCA 26 console with remote, got about 15 years out of that before it went belly up.....then in keeping with RCA's, went to the 32 inch on a cabinet to house the Cable box, vcr, and component stereo system...... Irenes storm this past summer jolted that one......replaced by another RCA....this time 36 inch, with built in cabinet.......same remote as not to confuse Mother.... but true about buying anything that is the first model out there......it is the demo, with all the issues and problems.....give them a few years to perfect anything that is made....never buy the prototype! | ||
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Post# 555075 , Reply# 17 11/8/2011 at 12:29 (4,574 days old) by kenwashesmonday (Carlstadt, NJ) |
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We didn't get a color set untill 1972, it was a GE 19" portable. Portable, well, it had a handle, but it was very heavy to move. That set worked flawlessly untill about 1988, not bad considering it often ran all night while someone fell asleep on the sofa.
Ken D. | ||
| Post# 555093 , Reply# 20 11/8/2011 at 13:36 (4,574 days old) by drewz (Alexandria, Virginia) | ||
 While we had all brands at some point and being a RCA Victor fan and collector I must admit some of those works in drawer Motorola color sets had the best deep rich colors and great contrast.
But don't you think how RCA & Zenith both got to be staples was because of all their "Trade In Days At Your Dealer" promotions always keeping people trading up like cars with the latest and greatest? | ||
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Post# 555095 , Reply# 21 11/8/2011 at 13:43 (4,574 days old) by Ultramatic (New York City) |
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DuMont Color TV We had a 25" DuMont color console. I think it arrived around 1966. It was out first color set. To be honest I have not seen ANY DuMonts of that era. Even advertising for ANY DuMont color sets are very rare. When the DuMont died due to the NYC blackout of 1977, my parents got a RCA color console. The bedrooms had 19" Magnavox color sets. Those were strippers, no remote control, rotary channel knobs. | ||
| Post# 555157 , Reply# 24 11/8/2011 at 17:26 (4,574 days old) by ptcruiser51 (Boynton Beach, FL) | ||
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OK, Allen
Back to your original query. You are right that most early color sets I remember were either RCA or Zenith, with Admiral close behind. We lived in an early 60's development so all the neighbors had pretty much homogenized tastes. Same kind of appliances and TV's because all the houses were identical split-levels. Only the cars in the driveway differed!
Because DuMont's were manufactured here in NJ, some people had them (you weren't alone, Louie!) My relatives in Pennsylvania had Olympics. The first people on our street in the 'burbs to have color were the Andersons who lived down the block, a 1961 RCA Console. They were a little upscale for our development, the first family to have two cars (his was an MG convertible). Also the first ones with an above-ground pool. We kids got shuttled around a lot for babysitting. Maybe I was more attentive than most, I paid attention to things like appliances. Most were RCA/Zenith/Admiral/Philco. Diagonally across the street from us was a childless couple, he was an engineer for Bell Labs and built a color TV from "Heathkit" (anyone remember THEM?). This was about 1964. The late 1950s saw appliances go "big" with warehouse TV and appliance stores. We had them lining our highways here in Jersey to serve the flight to the suburbs: Prince Range, Brick Church Appliance, Davega's, many others. Lots of families bought their appliances/TV's at department stores where they had charge accounts: Bamberger's/Macy*s, Abraham and Strauss, Stern's, Gimbels' because they were so expensive time payments were a plus. A good amount still went to neighborhood independents that featured one or two brands at most. People were still afraid of the color technology (like my OM) and nearby "service" was an important consideration. The only major manufacturer of color TV's that I never saw anywhere was Westinghouse. This is odd because W'house had a big factory here in Newark, NJ. A TV Guide issue of the late 1960's listed manufacturers of TV's that gave up the ghost in the face of competition. Three that I remember were Westinghouse, Hoffman, and DuMont. They followed scads of others that abandoned the field when B&W was still "king": Hallicrafters, Stromberg-Carlson, Air King, Andrea, Capehart. How Emerson survived I'll never know! My cousin in Scranton, PA was the only one I recall that had a Silvertone 12" portable. Lousy picture, worse reception. He bought it, again, because of his Sears charge. Older aw.o members will know that at one time Sears carried only its own house brand. Silvertone electronics, Coldspot refrigeration, and Kenmore everything else! I think it was in the 1980s that they finally went "global" with other major manufacturers. Hope my "rememberies" entertained you all. My head is ready to explode! | ||
| Post# 555186 , Reply# 26 11/8/2011 at 18:06 (4,574 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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Yes, I find this thread very interesting. I have seen DuMont B&W sets, but never a color set. Maybe another east coast brand? Also there was Setchell-Carlson out of MSP that made B&W sets. They gave up the ghost well before color TV hit the market. On my various travels for my job usually most hotels had RCA sets. | ||
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Post# 555190 , Reply# 27 11/8/2011 at 18:32 (4,574 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI ) |
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 The majority of our family all had Zenith sets because of Jerry's Music here in Wausau. Jerry Goetsch, the owner, was my Grandma Baumann's 2nd cousin, and the store had a very liberal time payment plan. My parents received 1967 19" b&w Zenith as a wedding gift from Grandpa & Grandma Baumann, then they bought their 25" Zenith color console in 1972. It lasted until about 1983 when we got another Zenith console model. About 1990 or so my dad won a SONY 25" from a local grocery store. When my mom told him he'd won, he thought she was pulling his leg. That set lasted until about 2001 when they bought their current Durabrand set from Wal-Mart. | ||
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Post# 555209 , Reply# 28 11/8/2011 at 19:08 (4,574 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O ) |
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Oh the agony of being the last on the street, in the neighborhood, in the world to get a color tv.. I lived that nightmare LOL
But to answer the question first.. the vast vast majority of people in my little world back then (60's) bought RCA color tv's. I only recollect one of our neighbors having a Zenith and nobody having a Silvertone, although we had a Silvertone b/w set. My dad staunchley refused to get a color set and yes he used as someone above said, the excuse "they haven't perfected it yet" and the "if I wanted to get a color set I go on over to Sears right now and buy 10 of them for cash, not on a credit card if I wanted" Which he could have btw. I don't really know why he was so against it. Maybe because neither of my folks watched much tv and he thought most of it was garbage but then again as my mom said they were the first people in the whole subdivision to get a tv back in the late 40's and she had the first automatic washer (a Kenmore) before anyone else as well. For him if it wasn't practical it wasn't worth it I suppose. Anyways, they didn't get a color set until sometime in the early 70's, a crappy RCA which never had a good picture. | ||
| Post# 555278 , Reply# 30 11/9/2011 at 01:09 (4,574 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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"Oh the agony of being the last on the street, in the neighborhood, in the world to get a color tv."
Well my family probably was the last to have color. Early 70s for the first color set? Ha! Try not even by 1990! My family's first TV was a small GE black and white that my parents bought in the early years of their marriage. It gave up the ghost in the early 80s someplace, and it got replaced by another small black and white TV. I never heard the reasons for only getting another black and white TV. We weren't heavy TV watchers, so getting a high end TV would not have been a priority. But the timing may have been an influence--the new TV was bought right after Christmas. At that time, it may have been desirable for the family finances to keep the price as low as possible. I remember going to Fred Meyer with my mother to get the new TV. They were on sale, and she grumbled all the way home about that fact. Not that we'd saved a few dollars, but her view that it was to hook teenagers who had some Christmas gift cash, and get them to buy a TV for their room. She did not approve of that idea in the least. She had a low opinion of TV...and that opinion did nothing but sink as the years went by. There was some talk about getting color about the time we got a VCR. But that was a "someday" type of thing. Someday became "never." Meanwhile, we were probably the only family in America who did NOT have color, but DID have a VCR. Surprisingly, perhaps, I was never bothered by black and white. It was what I was used to. Plus at times it didn't really matter. For a while in the 80s, most of the TV shows we watched were old 60s reruns aired by a Seattle station specializing in classic TV. Many if not all of these were black and white, anyway. My own first color TV--and still the current one--is a Magnavox. Probably about 20". It was something abandoned when someone I know moved on to bigger and better things. It isn't the best set, but it works OK for now. I don't actually watch TV, just library DVDs, and thrift store VHS tapes. | ||
| Post# 555314 , Reply# 34 11/9/2011 at 05:54 (4,573 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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I remember the Homart name. The house I grew up in was partly updated in the 60s, and the people who lived there then were evidently Sears addicts. It appeared everything they bought was Sears. I can't remember what products had that name--it's been so long--but I do remember seeing it.
I think Silvertone was used for musical instruments in addition to TV and radio. | ||
| Post# 555320 , Reply# 35 11/9/2011 at 06:36 (4,573 days old) by drewz (Alexandria, Virginia) | ||
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Allen,
Here is a photo of an RCA 2000 set from 1969. Notice how those black bars stick out quite a way between the screen and the speakers? I wonder why they did that?
Those two black bars were closing panels which when closed made the entire front of the set black, ultra modern, model 2000, only 2000 made a collectors item now I guess? This set was part of a big promotion for RCA, if I am correct they also cost $$$ | ||
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Post# 555329 , Reply# 37 11/9/2011 at 07:13 (4,573 days old) by 112561 (River Park, in Port St. Lucie, Florida) |
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Zenith had the Avanti, which was an all white cabinet on its own sculpted base, and the fancy curved tv they had showed up in the community church thrift store in Jensen Beach months ago! I couldn't get it for some stupid reason.
We moved in here with a '52 Philco, on a hideous swivel table. Then Daddy got a Philco console with twin speakers and Cool Chassis, no UHF on it until he bought a top of set converter. Then we could see CBS! Next one was a GE console in an attractive Danish style cabinet. I walked into the house one day in '78, and the tv had a color picture! It was a new Zenith in a metal cabinet, on a plastic Danish modern base. Next was the '84 Space Command, which would only come on a few years later when it felt like it. Daddy was gone by '87, the tv lasted until '96 when Mom got tired of waiting for the Zenith to come on. She got a new RCA stereo Colortrak XS console with quite a few features for a modestly priced set. Convergeance went out on it, and it sits awaiting its fate. A 1971 Total Automatic Color Magnavox armoire sits in its place, I bought it for the Astro-Sonic, and I watch tv on a nine inch Zenith in a Vanilla cabinet. Have many little color and b&w sets now. Briefly, I actually owned the first color set in this house, a metal table RCA, from the owner of the gay bar in Fort Pierce, about two years before the living room Zenith. After I sold that, I got a swell Zenith 19 inch Space Command with the mechanical tuning. It had a hideous pic in the store, and I tuned it in before I took it. The guy would have charged more than $50 for it if HE had figured out how to get the picture fixed. Then, the '87 13 inch Zenith remote, and much later, an '87 19 inch table Zenith stereo. Then, the ultra modern '79 System 3 table set. On and on...... (not the Avanti, curved Zenith on base) 
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| Post# 555330 , Reply# 38 11/9/2011 at 07:18 (4,573 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c ) | ||
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Du Mont Color I had a beautiful DuMont color set that I let a friend talk me out of, Ive kicked myself ever since, It was a 21 inch round tube with 4 speaker Hi Fi sound, It uses a RCA tube and chassis, as did a lot of the older color sets. | ||
| Post# 555334 , Reply# 39 11/9/2011 at 07:55 (4,573 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA) | ||
I know we have some TV collectors on the forum...
Who I'll probably bore, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.
The RCA 2000 certainly IS a collector's item. It was RCA's first all solid state set, but also the first that I'm aware of to have digital memory for VHF stations, brightness, color, etc. An amazingly complicated feat...for $2000 in 1969! For those who don't know, Dumont was the Cadillac of televisions. I'm fortunate to own one and it's built like the proverbial tank. When set prices started to come down and manufacturers found new ways to cut corners, Dumont fell on hard times. Emerson bought them out in the late 50's and you can tell a distinct difference in Emerson made Dumonts by appearance alone. When I was a kid, a local thrift store had a round-screen color Dumont radio/phono combo that was every bit of 8' long. 5 bucks was the price. Try as we might, there was no way that my mom, the clerk and I could even get one end off the ground! I got the money handed back to me and told to take what I wanted off it. If you think that's a shame, you should hear the time I had to gut a mint condition Zenith black-laquer chinese cabinet color Hi-Fi Space Command set because a lady had just bought it for the cabinet half an hour prior at that same store for 50 bucks and was going to have the insides "smashed up". The CRT and all came home intact with me that time. There were still a couple companies making consoles and large screen B&W sets in the early 80's, but not many. I have a 23" Zenith table model from that era in a steel w/woodgrain cabinet. An odd duck. I read recently that Sylvania had at least one console from that period. -Cory | ||
| Post# 555351 , Reply# 41 11/9/2011 at 10:02 (4,573 days old) by cycla-fabric (New Jersey (Northern)) | ||
I can remember when we got our first color tv, it was a 1966 Motorola color set with the rectangular tube and 21" screen. I remember my parents liked the set as the tube offered a larger viewing area than the round picture tubes of the other sets. That was a good set and had good color picture. That set lasted until 1975 it was needing a lot of repairs near the end. Our next set was an RCA XL-100 with the 25" screen and it was on a swivel base with a black glass top, it was a smart looking set. But the picture on it wasn't the best, lacked sharpness to it. I was trying to steer my folks to get a Philco instead as the picture on it was better. The RCA lasted until 1991 and it just died. The next and current color tv which is still going strong is an RCA 27" Colortrack TOL series which for some reason the model was only made for 1 year and then discontinued for some reason. Oh well the set performs well as it is used daily. I am sure when this goes, a flat screen will be the next step. This was a good topic, loved looking at the old ads, as it brings back memories.
Doug | ||
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Post# 555466 , Reply# 45 11/9/2011 at 19:30 (4,573 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago) |
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Totally agree with Whirlcool
He nailed Chicago's popularity list.
Our first color TV was a 1967 Motorola rectangular. We got it in 1975 only because friends knew I liked fixing TVs. It didn't work. I couldn't fix it so we had it fixed. After that I fixed it many times but it generally had a pretty crappy pix. After that I fixed up whatever I could find. We were not a wealthy family. We had RCA, Packard-Bell, Zenith. I'd put a tube in them, get them going for a few years than dump it when something better came along. I went through two Westinghouse colors. Hard to find. Worked well though. Sears color TVs in the 1960s were made by WARWICK in Chicago. I knew a bunch of people who had them. Later Sanyo. Warwick (a relative of Pacific-Mercury) was also known for making Thomas Organs (again Sears). Montgomery Ward TVs were generally made by Hoffman aka Cortron. When Admiral bought Cortron/Hoffman in about 1970, the TVs were sourced by them. In Chicago I came across a surprising amount of Olympics. They were decent, basic sets. Yes, B-Woods' GE TV is one of those never-fail designs. Love it. I think the only thing I ever saw go bad on those sets (PC chassis?) was a capacitor in the vertical output (pix shrinks). Other than that they run and run and run and run. | ||
| Post# 555509 , Reply# 47 11/9/2011 at 20:43 (4,573 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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| Post# 555510 , Reply# 48 11/9/2011 at 20:43 (4,573 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada) | ||
Joe, the RCA 2000 did also cost 2000$!
I'd kill to get one of these! (OK, maybe I'd kill a fly or something like that!) Seriously, I've been wanting one like this since I saw it in an ad in an old LIFE magazine (I collected them when I was a kid, the ads in these LIFE magazines probably caused my addiction to Frigidaire appliances too!) In the last few days I have been searching (again) for an early RCA TV set with a remote control. There's an old 19" RCA color TV in a local ad but it's a portable set without a remote, and it's priced above what I want to pay for a portable tube TV. Open the link to see one with the doors closed! CLICK HERE TO GO TO PhilR's LINK 
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Post# 555526 , Reply# 49 11/9/2011 at 22:30 (4,573 days old) by nanook (Seattle) |
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Great Memories and Info from All
There was no question that Zenith made the best (mechanical) TV tuner. Their Super Gold Video Guard Tuner could run circles around the competition. And Zenith's reputation for reliablity was well-deserved. But for all the hoopla surrounding "hand wired chassis" vs. printed circuit boards, hand wiring had their set of issues too and as pcb technology matured along with transistors, was able to beat hand wiring for reliablity, etc. An unfortunate mistake Zenith made was deciding to design their own color demodulation circuit, rather than licensing one from RCA - as other manufacturers did. And as such the color redition of Zenith color TV's was always inferior to almost all others. Too bad, as in other respects their sets were quite nice.
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Post# 555570 , Reply# 50 11/10/2011 at 01:02 (4,573 days old) by jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers) |
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Wow I remember seeing that RCA 2000 come out and thinking it was so futuristic! Like out of "2001 A Space Odyssey" all white design. I wished we could have owned one too. We had just bought our first color set in 1968, an RCA and it had the best color I have ever seen, even to this day. Vivid. The Tonight Show was the most colorful program I remember from back then.
Our neighbors had the first color set in the neighborhood,it was a Zenith. In our area it was Zenith, RCA, and then neck and neck was Sears and GE since we lived in a GE town. Mom didn't like the sound on either the GE or the Sears,to tinny she would say. So we got an RCA for the sound. That set lasted until I went off to college and then they got one with remote controls. I still have the cabinet, Dad turned it into a storage cabinet when it died.
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Post# 555575 , Reply# 51 11/10/2011 at 01:33 (4,573 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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DaveAMKrayoGuy's G&G's A/V:
I think one of the last TV sets I remember seeing my grandparents own was a fairly large-screen Panasonic, though it was a table top model complete w/ the rabbit ears & it was a Black & White, replacing a much smaller B&W, which might have been an Admiral or a Zenith!
Naturally, they were very much a lot more used to TV being black & white as opposed to color more than the rest of us, and this was in the late '70's so I don't think they have ever owned another television set since...! There was even a jack on the side of the set for an ear-plug, which they let me try w/ a plug normally used for their transistor radio; an AM-only, no less! Although Gramps listened to some multi-band one-speaker "boom-box" of its time, capable of Police (maybe like a police scanner) & even short-wave broadcasts, along w/ the standard AM & FM settings, and a few more I'm probably forgetting; it ran on "D" Batteries as well as AC & probably also featured a jack for that ear-piece, too! -- Dave | ||
| Post# 555671 , Reply# 55 11/10/2011 at 12:50 (4,572 days old) by ptcruiser51 (Boynton Beach, FL) | ||
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RCA 2000
A neighbor of mine had one of these. He said the black bars on either side of the screen were for window glare or too much lighting in the room. Come to think of it, most people had the lights shut off when watching TV. Even back in the 50s with the dim picture tubes. Hence the invention of "TV Lamps". Don't get me started, I still have and use one!
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Post# 555709 , Reply# 59 11/10/2011 at 15:03 (4,572 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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One of our neighbors had a mid-60's Curtis Mathes console and I was not at all impressed. In the mid-80's I was living in a household with a CM set of later vintage and it was a hot mess, with a quivering tilted picture that was irritating to watch.
Our first color set was a cheap Webcor 13" from White Front, purchased around 1969 or 1970 when my dad had finished converting our attached garage and workshop into a family room/laundry room/bathroom complex. The Webcor was stolen, along with a smaller GE Porta-Color that I won in a raffle, over Labor Day weekend 1972 when our house was burglarized. The Webcor was replaced by a Sanyo of the same size. It rendered a fairly crisp picture and good color. All of those sets got their signal from an early TV-era VHF-only "Double Yaggi" stacked antenna. Eventually I talked my dad into buying a new "color TV" antenna with UHF capability from Radio Shack. It's still up on the roof today.
In 1977 I splurged (because my parents never did) and bought a 17" Sony Trinitron. It displaced the Sanyo, which had tuner issues that became annoying. My mom had the Sony running almost all day long for many years and it later followed me from place to place, lasting almost 30 years before it started turning everything pink but the resolution, brightness and high contrast were still excellent up until then.
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Post# 555737 , Reply# 60 11/10/2011 at 15:55 (4,572 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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Post# 555749 , Reply# 62 11/10/2011 at 17:18 (4,572 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Muntz | ||
| Post# 555756 , Reply# 64 11/10/2011 at 18:12 (4,572 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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I saw this today, from around 1970-1 or so. It looked interesting, has anyone actually seen one in operation? It certainly would end the running to the set to adjust the color or tint. For the past 20 years or so once you adjust the color, it's set for years! 
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| Post# 555757 , Reply# 65 11/10/2011 at 18:13 (4,572 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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and.... I had never heard of it before.... Did any other manufacturer use it? 
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| Post# 555758 , Reply# 66 11/10/2011 at 18:24 (4,572 days old) by PassatDoc (Orange County, California) | ||
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I do remember the ads for VIR or "broadcaster controlled color". Never actually saw such a tv in operation. | ||
| Post# 555759 , Reply# 67 11/10/2011 at 18:24 (4,572 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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| Post# 555764 , Reply# 69 11/10/2011 at 19:01 (4,572 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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Or you could do as Motorola did in 1964, scare your customers into buying your set. 
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Post# 555771 , Reply# 70 11/10/2011 at 19:33 (4,572 days old) by jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers) |
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Wow sparked a memory I forgot about the GE radiation scare!
But when we got our 1968 RCAfrom Two Guys, Dad went up into the attic and installed a big antenna we bought along with it ! I helped him snake it down thru the basement and up to the wall behind the new RCA! And Mom helped align the thing from downstairs watching the set, while we turned the antenna in the attic!!
!! Forgotten all about that!
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Post# 555821 , Reply# 72 11/10/2011 at 23:34 (4,572 days old) by nanook (Seattle) |
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Muntz Wasn't the Only One... That sounds like something Earl Muntz would do. LOL. But in actuality that story is usually attributed to RCA. The engineers would design "proper" circuits and then the "bean counters" would force them to remove components until the level of picture degredation was such that someone would finally declare it "enough". I'm sure that practice was hardly limited to RCA or Muntz. After all, when there're profits to be made and you're selling millions of units... | ||
| Post# 555885 , Reply# 74 11/11/2011 at 08:08 (4,571 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA) | ||
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Muntz
I've got an interesting round-screen B&W Muntz console that showed up recently but I haven't opened it up to see what tricks were employed. It's kind of unusal to see any Muntz sets outside of large metro areas because part of the 'cost reduction' process was also to eliminate IF stages. All fine and good if you're in a big city near the transmitters, but go rural and suddenly you can't pick up squat.
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| Post# 555895 , Reply# 75 11/11/2011 at 09:44 (4,571 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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And as early as 1967 we started to see the beginning of color television imports from Japan as evidenced by this 1967 Panasonic ad. This ad addressed peoples fear about the reliability of color tv. At the time, nobody even considered Japan as an economic threat. 
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| Post# 555896 , Reply# 76 11/11/2011 at 09:50 (4,571 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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and for the even more nervous (1967) you have this advert. BTW the writing in this ad seriously reminds me of the type of language used in 1960's VW adverts. I wonder if it was the same ad agency?) 
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| Post# 555923 , Reply# 81 11/11/2011 at 12:05 (4,571 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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Does anyone anymore do in house television repairs?
One of my neighbors does--or did. But it's limited. I think he only does warranty work. And I don't think he's a real TV repairman. The repairs are basically swap out a circuit board and pop in a new board.
A fast Google search turns up repair services that claim in home service. One service even apparently is ONLY in home, and claims lower prices due to lower overhead. (This could make sense, since the business could be located someplace cheap, and wouldn't have to be set up to be ready to receive customers.) I wonder how well repair people do these days. So many people treat electronics as throw away items. Over the years I've seen several repair shops close down. | ||
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Post# 555926 , Reply# 82 11/11/2011 at 12:23 (4,571 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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The first UHF station went on the air in Portland, OR in 195 | ||
| Post# 555933 , Reply# 83 11/11/2011 at 13:20 (4,571 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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Yes, Channel 27 in Portland started in 1952. It was also the first television station in Portland, too. I wonder why they didn't get a VHF station earlier? CLICK HERE TO GO TO whirlcool's LINK | ||
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Post# 555966 , Reply# 86 11/11/2011 at 15:57 (4,571 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O ) |
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Somewhere back I read about the big gains in Japanese tv's was the obvious difference in their advertising. Companies such as RCA in particular heavily advertised their after sales service (a negative actually). The Japanese companies heavily advertised their reliability, aka little to no servicing ever required.
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| Post# 556050 , Reply# 88 11/11/2011 at 23:46 (4,571 days old) by ptcruiser51 (Boynton Beach, FL) | ||
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Wowser!
I take one step away from this discussion and off it goes!
My mom was from Wilkes-Barre, PA, my dad from Scranton, PA. They migrated to NJ during WW2. We often went back to visit on vacation through the 1950s and 1960s. W-B/Scr is located in a big, elongated, hollowed-out valley. To this day, there are big microwave towers beaming TV/Radio transmissions down into it. I can remember TV's with that "extra" dial on the side that everyone used. 22=WCAU (CBS), 28=WBRE(NBC), I forget ABC (16???). Anyone help me out here? I don't recall any VHF stations at all. Radio signals were equally spotty. Auto/home receivers were static-y and fading in and out. Forget FM, they might have been broadcasting from Mars. What a treat to visit nowadays and have scores of stations to tune in! Fading memories here, no offense at correction. | ||
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Post# 556112 , Reply# 95 11/12/2011 at 12:59 (4,570 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Tubes and Testers We did some tube testing at the drug store and maybe even at a local grocery store (if memory serves me) when I was a kid, but we lived very close to United Radio and TV, which was an independent electronics supply store and had a whole bank of tube testers, so it made more sense as a one-stop shopping option.
While we were able to isolate the occasional bad or weak tube, most would test OK. I still have a box of tubes in the garage that are presumably good, and likely were components of a 1951 Capehart 13", a 1962 Airline 21" (B/W) and its companion multiplex stereo/phono console, or various GE clock radios.
When I had all of the capacitors replaced on my 1950 Admiral 10" round CRT set, I brought that box of tubes with me to the repair guy. He advised that tubes rarely ever go bad and he didn't touch a single tube on that chassis. The TV works fine, presumably with the majority -- if not all -- of its original factory tubes. There could be variations in values from one tube of the same type as another, and switching out, say, a good 5U4 with another known good 5U4 could be enough to improve or resolve a minor horizontal issue a given set might be experiencing.
The bottom line is that most 50's TV sets, particularly the early 50's ones, were replaced because they had problems with capacitors, not tubes, and often weren't worth repairing due to cost and the fact that larger screen sets were desirable and affordable. This is why sets like my Admiral deliver a fine picture with their original CRT's. They were commonly replaced rather than repaired, long before the end of their CRT's useful life, by a TV with a screen that was twice as big. | ||
| Post# 556132 , Reply# 96 11/12/2011 at 17:28 (4,570 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA) | ||
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| Post# 556168 , Reply# 98 11/12/2011 at 19:59 (4,570 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD) | ||
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Quasar weren't the motorola sets branded"Quasar"after panasonic bought them?-still U.S. made and still motorola models with a different name...? | ||
| Post# 556174 , Reply# 101 11/12/2011 at 20:47 (4,570 days old) by bwoods () | ||
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and another... 
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| Post# 556176 , Reply# 103 11/12/2011 at 20:49 (4,570 days old) by bwoods () | ||
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and some info.... 
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Post# 556184 , Reply# 105 11/12/2011 at 22:33 (4,570 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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Quasar II? 
Does anyone remember something called "Quasar II" by Motorola? We had one that was new about 1973 (after the color Heathkit my dad had put together in 1967 was stolen, to our relief -- it was always shorting out).
The Quasar II did NOT have works in a drawer. I remember being disappointed by that, as I'd seen the ads. As it turned out, it ran until 1986 with the only repair being a new tube. It was solid state except for one large tube (don't know what it did) that stayed on all the time so you'd get a picture as soon as you turned it on. It may have needed replacement more than once. Oh, and I think the channel knob stripped, but most of them did back then. | ||
| Post# 556187 , Reply# 106 11/12/2011 at 22:47 (4,570 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c ) | ||
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Motorola! In my opinion, Motorola was as good as it got! Especially the three channel stereos! | ||
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Post# 556190 , Reply# 107 11/12/2011 at 22:56 (4,570 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Post# 556233 , Reply# 108 11/13/2011 at 04:23 (4,570 days old) by 112561 (River Park, in Port St. Lucie, Florida) |
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Bwoods, I wish I could have gotten the GE books from our dealer, I hate to think of where they went! I have three GE color sets, one is a three inch, one a thirteen, and the other is a fifteen or thereabouts. I also have a nineteen inch black and white stereo combo, The Custom Decorator. I love GE anything, regardless of whatever their quality practices were.
I also notice the painting in the one television picture is by Dick Van Dyke! The stereo console has the GE Tonal 1 "wrist action" floating pickup. Fantastic! I had a tube GE console with that changer. Idiot I am, I got rid of it. This post was last edited 11/13/2011 at 06:26 | ||
| Post# 556329 , Reply# 119 11/13/2011 at 15:33 (4,569 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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Common Repairs And Chromacolor, what were the most common television repairs you encountered? | ||
| Post# 556335 , Reply# 120 11/13/2011 at 16:01 (4,569 days old) by drewz (Alexandria, Virginia) | ||
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My 1968 New Vista Home Entertainment Center still works well, everything original.
Weird that the stereo was ss and the tv was tube and worked as two independant systems just sharing the speaker system, stereo has it's own cord and electric system and just plugged into the tv so you can't work both at one time. New Vista Color, (all tube) has the matted (frosted) non-glare glass classic color. Trans Vista cost more and was half ss and tube? And to think the very next year 1969 you could purchase a RCA 2000 set that looked space age in design and no moving parts. I have hundreds of spec sheets for all models in my RCA binders, just need to get a scanner to post them. 
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| Post# 556343 , Reply# 122 11/13/2011 at 16:12 (4,569 days old) by drewz (Alexandria, Virginia) | ||
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1986 A VERY SAD YEAR FOR RCA,
Don't know how true this rumor was but many said at the time GE got their hands caught in the cookie jar with regards to defense and other government contracts, and were banned from doing business with the government for a period. RCA was not doing well at the time and who else had alot of government contracts...R-C-A! So guess what, GE was back in the business again, then they decided what they wanted and sold off what they did not want. | ||
| Post# 556358 , Reply# 126 11/13/2011 at 16:42 (4,569 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA) | ||
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Regarding the CBS color system, it wasn't so much bullying and outspending that put RCA into first place in the color war, it was that their system would prove to be technically superior. Remember that the FCC actually chose the CBS system as the color standard as work on electronic systems at that time weren't quite ready for prime time (groan). As field trials progressed and improvements were made it was obvious a mechanical system was not the right choice- the signals were completely incompatible with B&W broadcasts, picture brightness suffered due to brightness loss of the filters (this was pre-aluminized CRTs), size was limited to approx 10" tubes and once you went larger, the rotating color wheel grew to ridiculous proportions.
Interestingly, RCA and NBC had a bit of a chicken and egg scenario going. How could you justify the expense of color programming with a limited number of sets, and who would buy a color TV with limited programming? Knowing this, RCA worked with other manufacturers to spur development of competitors' sets, even supplying engineering sample CRTs for development. Westinghouse, Philco, Admiral, Motorola, Sylvania and the other bug guys developed their own sets using the 15” RCA tube with their own circuit designs and some of these 1954 sets exist today (big bucks and VERY rare). But they learned what RCA did. Nobody was ready to drop a grand on a TV without a proven record and without programming. For the next 5 years, RCA stuck it out and they were really the only game in town until the technology became affordable and buyer interest began to rise. Zenith finally came on board with their own design, with others following. -Cory | ||
| Post# 556401 , Reply# 132 11/13/2011 at 22:06 (4,569 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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"I remember those videodisc systems by RCA & Pioneer. The first time it died most people say it was because there weren't enough titles on the market, the second time there was a bunch of titles, but everyone was VHS oriented by that time."
LaserDisc (Pioneer) was probably killed off by DVD, actually. LaserDisc remained in production--both players and discs--until the DVD era sometime. It was very much of a niche format--most people went with VHS--but LaserDisc was preferred by people into high performance. Years back, I did business with a small audio dealer. A specialist, one shop operation. The primary focus of the store was stereo, but he also was selling surround sound. (This was before home theater had become so hot.) His demonstrations ALWAYS used LaserDisc. He did not have VCR in the store--not even a store owned unit to use to demonstrate surround sound. | ||
| Post# 556409 , Reply# 133 11/13/2011 at 23:15 (4,569 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada) | ||
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My first color TV was a 1974 GTE Sylvania GT Matic 26" solid state with "instant on" feature. I got it from my parents when they got a new RCA Colortrack in the mid eighties. It replaced my black and white RCA "Townsman Series" tube set which my aunt gave me when I was 6-7 years old. The Sylvania lasted quite a few years. I had it repaired once in the late eighties and the technician just replaced chips until he found the wrong one I remember I paid 85$ for that (I was 11 or 12 years old then!). In 1992, the colors began separating but the picture was still ok if you turned the color control to have a black and white image. I had to throw it away a few years ago as I was lacking space to keep it but I wish I'd still have it!
The oldest color TV in my family was my grandfather's 1966 JVC. He gave it to my uncle when he got a Sony Trinitron in the late seventies. My uncle still used the JVC in the late eighties. Another uncle had a Quazar Motorola set from the early seventies which wasn't solid state. I also watched a lot of TV and played video games with my cousin on this one. My parents and many friends had solid state Zenith Chromacolor TVs from the late seventies/early eighties and I didn't like the picture on them. I still have one from 1984 and it has the same strange colors as the other sets I remember from my childhood. My parents also had a Zenith TV with the "Space Phone" (pulse type, hands free phone which used remote control to dial or answer the phone) from around 1983 until a few years ago. I really liked the look of this TV and it had a stronger tuner than their RCA (we had no cable TV and both sets were connected to the same external antenna) but I preferred the picture on the RCA. You had to open the speaker doors to access the controls. This picture shows me and my parent's 1974 Sylvania in 1979. 
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Post# 556492 , Reply# 138 11/14/2011 at 11:29 (4,568 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Admiral made the Airline color sets that Montgomery Ward sol Allen, thanks for the run-down on who made what for who.
I thought that Admiral color set in post #89 bore a remarkable resemblance to our 1962 Airline black & white, shown in the picture below, taken from the product literature for the set. I'm thinking Wards may not have yet offered color sets in 1962. I suppose that by 1962, Admiral was as close to the inferiority of Norge as Wards could get for their TV vendor.
This particular Airline was too early for the tilt-out controls, but they were located in the same area. The top right "drawer" on the cabinet actually slid down to reveal the controls.
Leave it to Wards to use something as awful (and yet colorful) as the image of a clown to show off their B&W televisions.
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| Post# 556518 , Reply# 139 11/14/2011 at 14:23 (4,568 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA) | ||
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Tolivac, actually you can have color on a B&W set, in fact an entire system was devised to do so using both b&w cameras and receivers. No chroma. No tri-color tubes. Check this out! www.earlytelevision.org/butterfie...
Also, see my post halfway up about that commercial. It relied on the same Fechner effect but of course everyone sees the colors differently. -Cory | ||
| Post# 556525 , Reply# 141 11/14/2011 at 14:57 (4,568 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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And the largest supplier of Color CRTs was: Name Number RCA .... 2,300 (in thousands of units) Sylvania/GTE ..... 1,150 Zenith ..... 1,100 So I take it that a lot of different brand sets had Sylvania picture tubes in them? | ||
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Post# 556542 , Reply# 142 11/14/2011 at 15:44 (4,568 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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The guy that fixed my 1950 Admiral advised that in the early days of TV, Admiral was right up there with RCA for quality and market share.
If we rely on the messed-with-for-TV version of Admiral history per "Mad Men," in the early 60's the brand was slipping and the suggestion from the advertising agency was to target the demographic that was buying their products, which was the segment of the population that fell somewhere below the middle class.
This would agree with Ward's marketing of lower quality appliances, electronics and power tools that cost less than the better quality items that Sears was known for. | ||
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Post# 556552 , Reply# 143 11/14/2011 at 16:32 (4,568 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago) |
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Wards = Hoffman/Cortron, Wells-Gardner, Admiral
In short, the 1960's Montgomery Ward color TVs were often Hoffman -
But there were many Montgomery Ward televisions made by Wells-Gardner too. Look for models beginning with WGEC or WG for Wells Gardner Electronics Corp. That Wards Airline "5235" was likely the "WG5235" which would make it a Wells-Gardner set. Wells-Gardner still operates in Chicago. Warwick, Wells-Gardner and Admiral were the three big OEMs in Chicago. Boy, with Zenith and Motorola too - Chicago seemed like THE place for television manufacturing. I recall that after about 1970, Admiral chassis seemed to drift in their design style. I suspect they were using some Hoffman designs although i cannot prove that. (And why not? They owned them.) Rockwell International didn't come into play until about 1974. In the 1970s, Admiral's designs became more refined under Rockwell International. I remember that Admiral and Wards TVs then became largely identical. Admiral seemed to make some iffy decisions near the end. Their 1965-1970 picture-tube manufacturing plant opened when rectangular picture tubes were in short supply - ran into issues when the industry became over-supplied. Their water system was allegedly sabotaged and the tube quality dropped. I believe the phosphors wouldn't stick. Admiral bought Hoffman/Cortron, a fading color-tv manufacturer in about 1970, just as the Japanese sets were taking hold. Admiral supplied CARTRIVISION sets under Wards, Admiral and Emerson brands but that recording system went bust very quickly. This was about 1972. By 1974 Admiral was sunk. Losers, losers, losers so it seemed. I found Admiral an interesting company. I worked with quite of few ex-employees of that company. They seemed to do a good job of remaining marketable but went about it in somewhat screwy ways. Did you know Admiral made their own microwave ovens in the 1970s? That seemed like a smart decision as Magic Chef continued to do so after purchasing Admiral in 1979. Wards used SHARP to make the microwaves through the 1970s and essentially through to the end. Unrelated clarification: When CBS decided to enter the TV manufacturing business they bought AIR-KING, a small TV manufacturer. Air-King brand went away and was replaced by the CBS brand. The tubes used in the sets were CBS-HYTRON | ||
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Post# 556570 , Reply# 145 11/14/2011 at 17:19 (4,568 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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| Post# 556579 , Reply# 146 11/14/2011 at 18:07 (4,568 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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I think that this thread is getting too long, especially for people who have slower connections. Please make any new responses to Color TV brand popularity - 1960's Part 2. | ||
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Post# 556585 , Reply# 147 11/14/2011 at 18:31 (4,568 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Admiral I didn't find a new thread, so am posting here.
I was going to mention Admiral's bigger-than-Vegas animated display smack in the middle of Times Square. You can't miss it in most of the vintage TS film footage. Only a company that was riding high could afford what was arguably the ultimate in prime advertising space for the entire free world. | ||
| Post# 556628 , Reply# 148 11/14/2011 at 21:20 (4,568 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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In fact if you look closely, the Admiral sign in Times Square is right above the Braniff sign! | ||
| Post# 556637 , Reply# 149 11/14/2011 at 22:23 (4,568 days old) by Spankomatic (Ukiah,CA) | ||
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| Post# 556638 , Reply# 150 11/14/2011 at 22:24 (4,568 days old) by Spankomatic (Ukiah,CA) | ||
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Post# 556684 , Reply# 151 11/15/2011 at 01:56 (4,568 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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You Boys And Your Toys (Electronics)
*LOL*
I could sit here all day listening to y'all go back and forth with this interesting conversation, but there are a few things I should be rinsing out. *LOL* My color television story? Boring and simple. We had a B/W set (Emerson) until one day Mother Dear redecorated the living room and then we had a nice new Zenith color television with wood cabinet. That wood cabinet was about as close as one got to the thing (when polishing as part of one's household chores), as the old B/W set was banished downstairs to the rumpus room for we children to watch. The living-room and thus color set were strictly off limits for us, though we were allowed in when one or both parents were watching something. *LOL* | ||
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Post# 556687 , Reply# 152 11/15/2011 at 02:11 (4,568 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Magnavox Remote | ||
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