1958 Philco TV

[circlew]

Our first color TV

was received as a gift in 1963 from my grandfather and my dad's uncle and aunt. It was an RCA in a maple finish colonial cabinet, which didn't match our furniture very well (cheap Danish Modern in the TV room, and Drexel mahogany in the other rooms). This set replaced a mid 50's RCA b&w. I remember the repairman having to come quite often to work on it, and it was replaced in 1968 by a color Admiral console, that gave us very little trouble. After that, we had a '77 Zenith on a cart, and then the '91 GE, which sits on the same cart. I still use it.

 

[112561]

Thank God I had only one teacher I didn't care for, in Fort Knox, KY, Kintergarten teacher Mrs. Chartok. I'd love to take an axe to lovely Mrs. Helmsley. I never could effectively deal with meanness. <br
I bought what I thought was a blonde end table, dated 1953, which almost became a casualty during my 6 week absense. It turns out it was sprayed grey and turned yellow through the years. I had a limed Oak Magnavox Continental hi fi for a while, I like that color range.

 

[cadman]

Sandy, as I understand it, rebuilding any of the glass/metal bonded tubes is a gamble due to the differing expansion/contraction rates of the materials <br
Whether the major risk is due to uneven heating or not being able to achieve "factory" specs with aftermarket rebuild equipment, I don't know. I was told the sheer size of the 30" make the odds pretty slim <br
For those unfamiliar, this is how it was done in the factory- (photo from the ETF)

 

[danemodsandy]

Cory:

Thanks for the insight into what's up with that 30-inch DuMont tube. I seem to recall something online about one successful rebuild, but I can't find it. I also seem to remember that it was something pretty unusual to accomplish.

 

[travis]

I turn my back for a minute and you guys are dissing the 50's color sets as Fugly. I have a CTC 5 like this. I stole this pic since mine is under a pile of stuff sleeping <br
Cory is right about the difficulty is rebuilding a metal CRT. There are only a couple places left that rebuild tubes. Sadly, we're going to loose this technology as few repair these things. The same is the case with timer repair for washers, etc <br
I heard the 30 inch CRT is too big to fit in the oven of the rebuilder in the US.

 

[whirlaway]

Replacement

The nice thing about a CTC5 is you can replace it with 21fjp22 glass tube,and still keep it original.Some very late sets and the 57s had a glass 21cyp22.The nonbonded safty glass is better you dont have to worry about it loosening with age.

 

[danemodsandy]

Travis:

I mean no disrespect to the technical achievements of RCA during that period, but their styling was problematic enough that there was a crash restyling programme in the early '60s. Every product got restyled, from the cheapest table radio to the most expensive entertainment centre. It was successful; sales grew. RCA's styling became some of the best in the business during this period, sleek and space-age in appearance, exactly right for the times. The biggest change was an impression of lightness, particularly in TV consoles, which had looked very chunky and heavy. There was a better mesh between console styling and the furniture-buying preferences of consumers; RCA broke it down to stuff like Danish Modern and Early American, with finishes that were a good match for most people's existing furniture (this was the big problem with the CTC-4 generation; the three major finishes offered were limed oak, red mahogany and French walnut, with only the French walnut blending well with most people's existing decor). <br
RCA topped off the restyling effort with its famous "picture in picture" ads showing famous TV shows in black-and-white, with the centre of the picture having a colour inset. That was the ad campaign that finally brought home the bacon for RCA with colour; sales took off like a rocket. It had taken RCA nearly ten years to figure out the sales message that would put colour across; like most great ideas, it was simple. RCA had long been showing colour in ads, but it wasn't really making people go out and buy sets in the huge numbers RCA wanted. By showing consumers the difference between BW and colour, using their favourite shows, the desire for a colour set was finally kindled in people who had been figuring they could live without one. It was one of the great ad campaigns of the '60s.

 

[112561]

And furthermore

Hazel's first season in black and white, had one color episode, in which she insists she has to have a color tv, once she talks Mr. Baxter into it, they hit what is obviously an RCA Victor showroom (brands obscurred), and she gets a look at the stereo color theatre. She ends up with a color table model, but in episodes shown later, no more color tv, and the Baxters never had one either, even with his money. Also, look out for the RCA ad with Star Trek, definately something to see <br

 

[danemodsandy]

Yeah...

...It was clear even to the most dim-witted consumer, who owned NBC <br
What was weird about all that was that the Justice Department broke up the movie business in the late '40s over exactly the same kind of monopolistic practises - owning both the entertainment stream (movies and the studios where they were made) and the delivery channel (movie theatres). For RCA and NBC to be doing pretty much the same thing would seem to have been a violation of the principles laid down by the Feds, but somehow, they got away with it. Perhaps the difference was that consumers owned the RCA sets they purchased, and could watch other networks besides NBC on them. But it was still a damn cosy arrangement.

 

[112561]

RCA VICTOR The Hathaway

Where no man has gone before......

 

[112561]

Ooh la la!

The Martinique, is dazzling white French Provincial:

 

[danemodsandy]

Oh, God - French Provincial!

That was one furniture style that midcentury kids remember very well, because it seemed to attract moms who were much more house-proud than average. If you went into a friend's house and saw French Provincial, you kind of knew right away to be very careful about making any kind of mess or causing any damage. <br
We had one Francophile mom on my street whose house never changed one iota the entire time I was growing up - every fold of every drapery was exact, every chatchke was placed Just So, every damask-covered chair had its own particular needlepoint pillow and every inch of fruitwood and antique-painted wood had been rubbed with Pledge until it glowed. In the dark. <br
My friend was named Rusty, and he liked motorcycles and bikes and fooling around with anything dirty or greasy. He shared a bedroom with his brother, and they had fruitwood French Provincial bunk beds with green damask spreads and matching curtains (walls were yellow-gold). You could have eaten off any floor in that house, and Rusty lived to get out of it and go someplace where he could make a glorious mess working on something.

 

[ironrite]

Dumont in Phoenix

I was born and raised in Phoenix. In the early-mid 1970s around 7th Street & Roosevelt area there was a collector had a bunch of older Cadillacs and such. Lived on the east side of 7th. The place looked like his own wrecking yard. I had the chance to meet and talk with him on a few occasions. He also had a collection of old phonographs and televisions. As we were finishing up our visit, he took me over to this huge modern looking cabinet, opened the doors on the front and showed me one of those Dumont 30" TVs. The cabinet was in a dark finish, either mahogany or walnut, modern and rather plain, but elegant. It was the largest set I had ever seen. I believe he lived here into the early 1980s. It is possible that the set is long gone, but sometimes these things do have a way of hanging around an area.

Justin, you may want to make some inquires with your contacts there and see if anyone else may recall this set.

 

[rp2813]

French Provincial

When my parents married in 1949, they bought a brand new tract home and loaded it down with brand new French Provincial furniture. They never changed the style. The Great Depression taught them that you buy once and hang onto it. We eventually had a 1962 Airline B&W TV and matching Airline multiplex stereo console in the style of the "Martinique" above, but in a more maple-ish finish.

Amazingly, a lot of that furniture sold at the estate sale some 18 months ago. We did end up giving away the dining room table and chairs, but somebody did buy the matching hutch.

Neither my sister or I wanted a single stick of any of that furniture. It looked lost in the large living room where it landed in 1960. My partner and I have since installed big beefy leather pieces that actually take charge instead of being dwarfed. The room has high ceilings and demands large pieces.

I can't imagine French Provincial being a look anyone would ever want for a retro scene. Too bad my parents weren't into contemporary furniture when they set up housekeeping. There may have been some choice pieces worth saving.

 

[112561]

Ever since I found my $10 French Provincial console, I've softened to it. White French is so foo-foo, and regular French is in fruitwood or mahogany, but there is such a mess of curves and those horrible pot metal pulls, so it gets old fast. One neighbor who fancied herself a decorating genius, took a tolerable French P. buffet, sawed the legs off, and painted it grey. Barf out. Danish or Chinese Modern are two styles I could go crazy on.

Here's a nice Far Eastern Contemporary theatre:

 

[hydralique]

"white French is so foo-foo"

Well, yes indeed it is, but doesn't everyone need some foo-foo in their lives? Remember that the theme to "Polyester" actually mentions French Provincial: "French Provincial, they try not to offend, to stay neutral . . . "

I'll never forget my mother's best friend's living room table lamps: white plaster with painted gold accents, modeled as miniature Eiffel towers . . . placed in front of a wall that featured white wallpaper with faint scenes of someone's idea of what the gardens of Versaille should look like, as distinct from what they really do look like. And in the driveway lurked a white '66 Olds 98 four-door hardtop, as if to prepare one for the living room.

 

[112561]

You're right Hydraulique

But real butch guys like me have a image to maintain, we gotta keep it real, but I draw the line at log cabins and those vomit making 1950s rodeo living room suites. Huh, guess I prefer foo-foo after all!

I think I could have survived your mom's friends house, those 98s have a hypnotic effect on me. The basement in the firehouse in Kutztown, Pennsylvania had or has a bar which had French poodle street scene '50s wallpaper behind the bar. I'll bet Pennsylvania has a million houses and places that time forgot. Love to see them.

 

[ironrite]

Picture Time Today

Am doing a Spring Cleaning and rearranging the house today so I'm finding some old photos. Here's another Stromberg Carlson TV that may be in the Phoenix area. I had it until the mid 90s and then sold it to another collector friend of mine. He kept it a few years and it sold to another Phoenix collector. The tube would light up, some sound out of the radio and the record player worked. The changer was in a drawer next to the speaker. Was a fun machine. Never did figure out a date on this, other than the TV channel selector had Channel 1 on it.

I just wish I had the time and resources to have kept it.