Vintage colour tv anyone?

[rickr]

A friend of mine has a vintage Zenith top of the line colour tv he wants to get rid of. It is French Provincial in styling, and is in working condition. It has the antique white finish and is in very nice original condition. The pushbutton automatic tuning still works, as well as the duel speakers on both sides of the cabinet. The picture is dim, so it may need a picture tube, or recapped. My friend is in his early 80's and swears he and his wife bought this set in 1963, however it does not have the round picture tube, so I think it may be from 1965-1967. At any rate, my friend does not want anything for the tv. Just come and get it out of his house, otherwise it goes to the dump. The tv is located on the West side of Fort Wayne, Indiana. No shipping available.

If someone is interested in owning this tv for free, I will take the time to go take some photos to post.If you are not interested, and just want to see photos because your Aunt Berthas cousins ex husbands neighbour had one, please don't make me go take pixs of it, because I don't really have the time. If you are interested, I will gladly take the time to do it though.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[whirlcool]

I will take the time to go take some photos to post.If you are not interested, and just want to see photos because your Aunt Berthas cousins ex husbands neighbour had one, please don't make me go take pixs of it, because I don't really have the time.

That's exactly what I was going to ask! I love older color TV's especially Zenith's. I do believe that Zenith had a few select models with the rectangular screen in 1963. So this may be one of them.

Any you know how we all love pictures!

 

[rickr]

lol!! Ok Allen, just for you then... I will go see my friend tomorrow and take the camera.

I really hope someone will take this tv. It is in VERY nice condition, and it is TOL.

Photos tomorrow or Sunday...

 

[seamusuk]

Notices that Rick..

Has spelt colour the "right" way....

*Ducks and runs*

LOL

Seamus

 

[rickr]

Of course I spell colour the correct way...

My fam is Canadian Indian!

 

[rickr]

Now for the pixs of the Zenith...

The original owner swears this is from 1963.

 

[rickr]

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Zenith 2

 

[rickr]

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[rickr]

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[rickr]

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[rickr]

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[rickr]

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[rickr]

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Last shot of the Zenith

 

[rinso]

IIRC, Zenith did not have a square screen model until about 1966. Before then, they had the familiar round picture tubes.

 

[whirlcool]

No, Zenith came out with the rectangular screen 1964-65'ish. My parents bought a Zenith flat screen in 1964, very similar to this one only in a Mederterainian style. While the tone controls were the same as this one the tuning controls were totally different, no remote control only the click-click tuner for VHF and the standard radio like tuner for UHF.

1964 was pretty much the last year for the round screens from most all manufacturers.

 

[paulg]

1967

That unit is from about 1967. Was given one similar to it years ago.
Great TV, tube is probably pooped (same thing happened to mine). Glad to hear the power-tune motor still works as that part is long NLA. I had to send my set to its maker in about 1980 as the power-tune motor could not be found - even back then.
I think the CRT is probably a 25AP22 or similar which can still be found without too much trouble.
Not sure on this model... but I believe this one lights the RED, GREEN and BLUE badge depending on the volume level (not sure though).
With a new RCA COLORAMA tube in it, it'll look like a champ! However, upon renewal INSIST upon a genuine Zenith-Rauland picture tube for best results!

 

[appliguy]

Whirlcool you are wrong ...

1964 was not the last year for round screen color tv's Philco was using them as a draw as a late as 1968 to get people into the showrooms. Color tv at a low price. My aunt and Uncle bought a new 1968 Philco round screen color tv in mid 1968.

 

[bgadow]

The word is out...

I hadn't been on here for awhile, but someone else posted a link to this thread elsewhere. I seem to recall a collector in the Ft.Wayne area...hopefully they can grab it.

I think the '65 model year was the first for Zenith rectangular sets. Motorola was the only company offering them for a short while, probably through the '64 model year. I would have pegged this as a little later, maybe '66. A very nice set, regardless.

There were some "loss-leader" roundies on the market as late as 1970 according to some sources. (The last one covered in Sams Photofacts was, as I recall, a Magnavox-in '70) But, for the most part sets were rectangular by '66.

 

[tolivac]

Very nice Zenith set-could it be we will see more vintage TVs come out of the woodwork as more folks convert to digital.Keep that set working and---use it as a stand for your new LCD flatscreen!-you can watch the vintage shows from DVD or VHS on the older set for proper look and "atmosphere"!I am wondering if "pix" tubes are still available either rectangular screen or "round jug"?With the analog transmitters shut off-these older sets become unusable unless you get the adpator.collectors can scoop them up as they are kicked to the curb!Hope the beautiful Zenith set finds a new home-instead of the curb!At this point I am keeping my eyes open for sets out here-so far just the ugly plastic cabinet sets at yard sales.
Was thinking that rectangular screen CRT's replaced rouind ones during the mid 60's.I also remember that when you replaced a sets pix tube-round or rect screen you used the box the new one came in to return the old one back to the tube builder for "rebuild" like transmitter tubes.The guns in the old tubes could be easily replaced-"recycling" the tube.Sometimes the phospors were replaced too-this was done in the higher quality and -higher priced "rebuilds".

 

[cornutt]

1963 would have been a bit early for color broadcasting in the U.S., plus not that many sets came from the factory with the UHF tuner installed back then.

 

[ptcruiser51]

Color availability

at least in the NYC area was in the 1950s. A family in our 'hood had one in 1958, the color was garish but hey, it was color!

My ex's family bought a round-screen model in 1968, a Sylvania. Funny thinking about it today (40th anniversary of the moon landing). We were just dating then, had just graduated high school together; everyone went over to her house to watch the moon walk because they had color TV. Joke was on all of us - it was broadcast in B&W.

 

[danemodsandy]

David:

Colour broadcasting began here in the U.S. on New Year's Day, 1954, with a broadcast of that year's Tournament of Roses Parade; there had been experimental broadcasts before that. That first broadcast wasn't seen by many people, because few owned the $1000 Westinghouse or RCA sets available ($1000 in 1954 dollars was equal to more than $7600 today). By Summer of '54, there was a regularly scheduled programme in colour, and things went from there.

UHF was already increasingly common by the early '60s, and very common by the late '60s.

Rectangular colour tubes were the big news in TV for 1965. Round tubes were still produced after that for low-end "loss leader" sets, but people who'd seen rectangular preferred it. I always thought Philco made a bad mistake in offering roundies for so long; it made the brand look behind the times and gave it a "poor man's" reputation.

 

[whirlcool]

It was in 1964 or 65 that the FCC mandated that new televisions come with UHF tuners built in.
Obviously I wasn't aware that round tube sets were around so long. I now know better.

 

[cornutt]

Whirlcool, that's what I was trying to remember. I know that some TVs in the early 1960s were made with a place for a UHF tuner and preamp, as a dealer-installed option. The FCC in its infinite wisdon decided to experiment on those of us here in north Alabama with all-UHF broadcasting, in an area where UHF propagation is terrible due to the terrain. I can well remember all of the fussing that was necessary with radio-style tuners and antenna rotators to get even a halfway decent picture, and you had to get up and adjust it every few minutes especially when the weather was changing. This resulted in Huntsville having cable TV very early on, starting around 1964.

 

[jaxsunst]

That's a cool TV. Coming from a family that only owned Maggies, I haven't seen many vintage other brands.

 

[whirlaway]

UHF

Most people around here had built in tuners or box tuners on top of the TV in the 50s because ABC was on channel 15 until 1959 then switched to 13.Disney and of course Lawrence Welk were on ABC.My 1956 RCA color set has a UHF tuner the tube in the tuner usually lasts about a year a 6af4 it gets weak.

 

[jaxsunst]

I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. We got our first UHF channel in the early 80's. It was a big deal, they ran ads on how to access the UHF tuner on your TV.

 

[cornutt]

It's interesting now that the FCC has reallocated the upper half of the UHF band to other services. The channels from 52 to 69 were taken away last month. (There was a station broadcasting on channel 54 here; I wonder what physical channel they are on now? They still use the virtual channel number 54.) The channels from 70 to 83 were taken away back in the 1980s, and allocated to the now-obsolete AMPS cell phone system.

I've enclosed a link to an interesting article on how the TV frequency allocations have changed over the years. There was a period around WWII where it would have made your head spin to track all of the changes. The television industry got a bit lucky that consumers didn't get fed up with it at that point, but I suppose most of the early adopters at that point were enthusiasts who were willing to put up with having equipment obsoleted.

http://www.tech-notes.tv/History&Trivia/Channel One/Channel_1.htm

 

[whirlcool]

My Mother won a Admiral B&W TV at a Tupperware party back in 1962-63 or so. Right below the VHF click tuner was a silver plate that said "UHF" on it. But there was no tuner.

Somewhere around this time TV Guide had a rather extensive article about converting your set to receive UHF.

We ended up getting a tv top converter for Chicago's channel 26, which was Chicago's first UHF station. All they usually played was news and bull fights from Mexico.

I always thought it was REALLY strange to have television stations outside of the 2-13 band. I always wondered why the tuning dials were more like radio dials than the clickable VHF dials. I did see at one time, I think it was a GE set with a clickable UHF tuner on it.

 

[appliguy]

My 1957 GE Ultravision console has a channel marked UHF but no UHF channels...you had to add it with the converter box on top of the tv (I have one of those in the box never used from Mallory).... I have a 1963 Sears catalogs and all there TV's shown, whether B&W or Color, had 2 prices...one price without UHF the other with UHF. According to my research built in UHF became mandatory on TV's in 1964.....PAT COFFEY