1958 Philco TV

[countryford]

I got this tv a little over 5 years ago at a Goodwill store back in Rochester, MN when I was still living up there. It did not work at the time. After 5 years and a move to Arizona, it finally works. A friend of mine restored it for me. It also has a remote. The remote is a button to change the mechanical tuner. It has a 20 foot cord from the remote to the tv. The tv is a Philco Microgrid 390. My best guess is it is from 1957 or 1958. The picture is of me next to it working at my friend's shop just last week.

 

[112561]

Lucky lucky you!

Wow what a beautiful set! I want one good black and white console for my collection someday!

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Fabulous!

Super cute TV...! <br
Does the whole TV swivel on its base <br
Could you snap a picture of the remote? I love that the remote has a cord attached to it...

 

[gyrafoam]

A wonderful old Philco <br
A number of years ago, Georgedon and I went "'fishin" for the day over in Alabama. There was an old appliance and t.v. store there that was a Philco dealer. They were trying to sell off their inventory as the owner was sick and old and ready to retire <br
They had walls 12 feet tall and 20 feet long FULL of every kind of tube, phonograph needle, and everything else you can name associated with televisions, radios and record players. The most stuff I ever saw in one place. Clearly, at one time they had done a hell of a t.v./ Radio repair business <br
I posted notices about it here on this site in case anyone might be interested in some of these parts
Later on when I returned to the same place, many large appliances and other items had been sold off, but most of those electronic items remained <br
I got the impression from the son of the owner that they would end up pitched into a dumpster-----and that is exactly what ended up happening. Sad
No one wants to warehouse things forever. At least I wasn't a "day late" discovering that treasure.

 

[cfz2882]

nice find! my oldest tv is a hotpoint,salmon white and chrome
portable with late '56 date codes on components,so probabl
'57 model-took apart,fixed several bad solder joints,replace
a weak tube,and it worked! performance is ok,will probabl
be better if some dry or leaky caps were replaced and som
of the carbon resistors as those are known to creep up i
ohms with advanced age..
BTW this is a "transformerless"set with 2 big selenium
rectifiers

 

[countryford]

base

the tv does swivel on the base. I will try and get a picture of the remote later today.

 

[maytagbear]

There's a

TV in that first picture <br <br
Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[112561]

I think it's next to that good looking man, at least I thought I saw it.

 

[112561]

And on the other side

The rest of the story

 

[douglasdc6]

Philco made some beautiful cabinets

Promised myself I would never buy another 12 inch console tv but fell in love with a 1949 philco console tv on ebay awhile back & ended up having it shipped home <br
Mostly because the set was to beautiful to pass up.

 

[112561]

Yes they sure did

There's a site someplace that has original design studies for Philco television sets, never put into production.

 

[douglasdc6]

Thats the problem

Although this thing was over 1200 miles away how could I say no <br
Pardon the junk room.

 

[douglasdc6]

2nd pix

.

 

[countryford]

112561: What magazine did that ad come from? I would love to get a copy of it and frame it.

 

[countryford]

Maytagbear: Yes there is a tv in that first picture. It is right next to me.

 

[rp2813]

Lawrence, you couldn't have expressed my sentiments better.

 

[countryford]

Here is a close up picture of the remote. It is just for the changing of the channels. It looks like part of it got melted from something at some point. Possibly a cigeratte.

 

[danemodsandy]

Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeee!

Alan <br
That Philco ad you posted has a later version of a Philco clock radio I want real bad. The one in the ad has been gussied up with that "Fiesta Pink" colour and some added trim on the grille, but when I was little, my parents had a '51 (or so) model in black. I coveted that thing for years, everyone knew I wanted it worse than I wanted to breathe. One visit, I noticed it wasn't where it had been, and asked where it was. "Oh, we threw that thing out, it wasn't working any more," said Her Imperial Majesty, a.k.a. Mom. Well, it hadn't worked in about fifteen years - what gave her a wild hair all of a sudden? Anyway, I've been looking for one at a reasonable price ever since. Here's a pic from eBay, where it was not at a reasonable price (and didn't sell, either):

 

[danemodsandy]

Justin:

That is not a possible cigarette burn. That is a by-grannies, actual, absolutely typical cigarette burn. You used to see them in a lot of people's houses, with black burned grooves in the edges of table and dresser tops, to say nothing of the edges of Melmac dinnerware. How some smokers avoid incinerating themselves is beyond me <br
Full disclosure: I'm headed outside for a cigarette right now. ;-)