Color TV brand popularity - 1960's - Part 2

[whirlcool]

This thread is a continuation of the Color TV brand popularity - 1960's thread. Please continue the conversation here.

Here's a short story about the 1961 RCA Color sets with remote control. It seems that Admiral wasn't the first with the pull out drawers.

 

[cfz2882]

stromberg-carlson

did stromberg-carlson make any color sets-i have seen some 1950s B/W sets,
but not sure if they made TVs after the 50s or any color sets.
I have some school P.A.equipment that was made by stromberg carlson in 1962,so
they were still active in electronics manufacture at least that late.

 

[whirlcool]

Stromberg Carlson was a company that was heavy into military contracts and a educational systems supplier. It was hard to go into a school in the 50's or 60's and not see the name Stromberg Carlson somewhere.

Stromberg Carlson's heyday was about 1948-1957 or so. In 1955 they did have one model of color television, a 15 inch round screen. It suspiciously looks like an RCA CT-100. It's model number was the Stromberg Carlson K-1. It did not reappear in 1956. So to find one today would be pretty rare.

Here is an advert for the K-1 set.

 

[maytagbear]

This is just

a bump, so that people will post here, in this thread.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[rp2813]

OK Lawrence, it looked like another bump was in order.

 

[arbilab]

A very large seller in the mid 60s was GE Portacolor. Very low priced is why, and you could carry it with one hand. The screen was only 8-9 inches but it did work admirably with the built-in rabbitears, even on metro fringes. As long as the scene was well lit. It had no DC restoration so dim scenes showed as milky grey and colorless.

Not the first TV I used but it was the first TV I owned. 1966. Just in time for Star Trek.

 

[chromacolor]

1961 RCA

Our own Gansky (Greg) had one of those sets.
Very cool, and very RARE, And yes... so very expensive in the day.

Also.. the GE Portacolor was the longest lasting, most unchanged chassis design from a TV manufacturer. Also the last one to use vacuum tubes (clear up to 1980)

 

[whirlcool]

The GE Port A Color also had spaces between the dots on the front of the screen so wide you could drive a truck through them. But people sure did love them.

Back in, I think 1965 or 66' WMAQ-TV the Chicago NBC affiliate held a contest for a GE 19inch portable color set. They had something like 25 of them and they were going to offer them to every 50th caller into one of the shows that morning around 7am. It was a total disaster. So many people called in that it took the entire phone system for "the loop" down for several hours. TV news programs were pleading with everyone to stop calling in!

It also seemed that in 1969 and thereafter manufacturers started to add more portable color sets to their lineups. At the time there were lots of sets that were 15, 15 & 17 inches. We had a 1968 model Zenith "luggabe" 17" that got the best picture I had ever seen on a television set. And that set never had one problem. One time I when we had a serviceman over to work on the big Zenith, I asked him why the 17" got such a good picture. He replied that because the screen is smaller, the color dots are packed closer and thus gives a better picture.

 

[passatdoc]

19" "portables" and the first Sony home recordin

Our first two color tv's were 19" table top models, but they didn't have a handle on top so I guess they weren't billed as portables. The first one, a GE, we won in a Lions Club raffle. That tv came with an attractive, modern styled cart. It had a nice handy storage tray (wood) below the tv. Better yet, the existing B&W tv in the den was small enough to fit on a shelf in the built in bookcases. The color tv was too deep to fit, so had the cart not been provided, we would have had to buy a small table or something to accommodate the tv. The den had two sofas and a recliner. Depending on how many people were present in the room, the optimal viewing angle for the tv might change, and so the cart allowed the tv to move or swivel. It never left the room, but sometimes the tv position was changed depending on who was watching.

Second tv was a 19" table top Hitachi to replace the GE when it died. This was in a different home than the GE, and within a year my folks had had cabinets built into a wall of the new living room. Having a table top model was more versatile because you could hide the tv in the cabinets, something you could not do with a large furniture-style tv.

Most of the Japanese models came primarily in table top models. That makes sense, since small Japanese homes would never have room for a large US style furniture cabinet tv.

The only time I ever saw a cabinet-style Japanese tv was a huge special order Sony with two screens and videorecording capability. This was in 1976, I'm not sure if they used reel-to-reel or U-matic, but the unit did not have a removable VCR, rather the recording equipment was built into the unit. As for why the unit had two screens, I'm guessing there were dual tuners and you could watch a program live while also viewing the program being recorded (like modern VCRs, except in the latter case you toggle between the tv's tuner---live---and the VCRs tuner--what you are recording).

I saw this Sony in the home of a rather wealthy family. I worked for a furniture company over the summer and helped deliver a table to the home. I knew one of their children from school, but only the housekeeper was home that day to let us in. So I didn't get to see the Sony in action. I did see a logo on the cabinet that said "home recording system" or something like that.

 

[whirlcool]

Quoting Laundress from Part 1:

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*

My parents tried that for awhile. Then there were arguments over who got to watch "their" show in color. That's when the Olympic B & W set was traded in on the Zenith 17" color luggable on a stand. That put an end to any disagreements.

 

[whirlcool]

A guy I used to fly with here in Houston had a Sony console set. He said he bought it around 1980. It's a large piece in "Scandinavian Modern" cabinet and a 25 or 27 inch picture tube. I thought it was a Zenith or RCA when I first saw it, but then when I saw SONY on it, I said I never knew Sony made console sets. In fact I actually found a photo of it! He had his on the floor in his den.

PassatDoc, that combination with recording facility sounds like a dream boy toy!

 

[passatdoc]

The family in question had lots of money and consequently lots of toys.

My parents couldn't restrict us from using the color set because I was the only one who figured out how to adjust the color intensity, tint, contrast, and brightness. There was an Auto Color button, but on some channels it made things look washed out. As whirlcool has suggested, the washed out effect may well have correlated with "Color by Deluxe".

I used to disengage the Auto Color button and play with the color controls. My sister used to request that Lucille Ball be given green hair, and it was easy to oblige her request.

<span style="font-size: large;">"But Mr. Mooney, I need more money so I can get my hair dyed back from <span style="font-size: x-large;">green </span>to <span style="font-size: x-large;">red</span>....waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh......."</span>

 

[maytagbear]

Our Sylvania color console

was, at the time, our only set.

I don't know if Ma was extraordinarily lenient/indulgent, or if other parents were a bit strict.

Ours was before automatic color, and the fine tuning knobs were below the picture tube, and therefore easier for my sister or me to adjust than they were for Ma.

I rather miss console television. Today's 79 inch (slight exaggeration) flat screens aren't the same. When off, they are less interesting to look at than a good washer! Also, a flat screen isn't a place for photographs, or bric-a-brac, or a kitty keeping warm.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[whirlcool]

Talked to my sister today and asked about our original 1964 Zenith and what happened to it. She said my parents got tired of messing with the controls and getting the color right with me off at college they had a hard time with it.
In 1970 they were in an appliance store and the salesman told them that the new sets have "automatic color" and they were sold. They traded in the old (6 at the time) set for a new set and kept that one until they passed on in 1982. Then my sister got it and she "can't remember what I did with it.". Probably sold it.

And for those of you who worked on sets, do you think this was true? Even though they are not mentioned, who do you think Brand B, Brand C and Brand D is? This was an advert from 1972.

 

[whirlcool]

And here is a guy demonstrating a 1961 RCA New Vista televsion (fully restored) that was way ahead of it's time.

 

[paulg]

I think the Zenith ad is true

For those techs that bought a new TV, I do believe they bought Zenith most often. I spent years working for Zenith's largest independent repair outfit.
Everyone knew how to fix the sets and their training, parts delivery and tech support was terrific. The steak dinners weren't bad too. They supported schools. I got to tour the Melrose Park picture tube plant and visit the television plants in college. Quite honestly I miss them a great deal but keep them in mind as a reminder as to "how it should be done" as I purport my business today.
Certainly RCA was just as good - but If I had to place my bets I would guess that Zenith beat them out by just a hair.

 

[whirlcool]

And RCA really had a slightly larger market share by about 7-10%.

I looked up 1900 N Austin to see if the Zenith factory was still there. It is!
But it has been subdivided into smaller sections for smaller companies. I remember driving by it on occasion with my parents as in the 60's they usually bought their cars from the car dealerships on N. Western Av. And those were some pretty large dealerships too. Like Z-Frank Chevrolet.

I have read a lot of people saying that Color TV's, esp. RCA had a tendency to overheat. Why didn't they put a fan inside the sets mounted on the chassis? At the time tape recorders and such had quiet cooling fans.

 

[cfz2882]

cooling fans

a fan would help some of the sets last longer-some are kinda badly designed for
cooling of certain parts or have heat-affected parts badly placed-on most of my
TVs the cooling is decent and i haven't felt the need to add a fan even though i
have dozens of suitable fans(rotron"whisper",IMC"boxer",ETC)The 1976 RCA solid
state i had years ago could have used one-it had some parts badly placed where
they were getting baked and seemed to have a lot of hot-running big resitors in it.
My little 1957 hotpoint BW portable also has some hot running tubes placed right
below some electrolytic capacitors,baking them and there is some heat damage to
a couple tube sockets and PC boards.
Ca. 1980,a friend had a partway tube early 70s era 19" color tv(sears IIRC)that
quit-cats liked to lay on the back of the set and bask in the heat coming up
through the vents-fur accumulated on the chassis and baked parts till it quit
-repairman said TV was beyond repair with all the heat damaged parts...

 

[norgeway]

Zenith Vs RCA...

Zenith did have a better picture in the 70s, but RCA was better in the old tube sets I thought, BUT Zenith and Motorola were always built better, hand wired!