…… Help. Were TV's custom made for VERY, very, rich people in the late 1950's?

ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
My grandson, a very prosperous and reputable contractor,
got a call to a big millionaires mansion on Bainbridge Island
that had just been sold and the new owner wanted the
TV removed. What's the problem?

The TV (worked) had been built into the brick or stone wall of the room. It was a late 1950's
COLOR, SQUARE , SIXTY TWO INCH CRT TV, with all analog wiring and dozens of vacuum tubes!

Unless it was custom- made for the former rich homeowner, I can find no record that such a huge CRT TV ever existed!
Anyone know where to look, i searched antique and vintage TV LISTINGS on Google. He said the maker of the TV was a common US name but he cant remember it. He said it was HUGE going way back into the special wall that was built for it. They had to break it up to get it out. The new owner didn't care that it was destroyed.

I said it should have had an access panel to adjust it and change tubes, and he said it did but it was not large enough to take the TV out.
 
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Macgyver

Macgyver

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Sony made the biggest tube at 45". Never really sold because they were 500 pounds.
Plus this was in the era of dlp (rear projection) so another reason to not take off.
I had a 36" and it was well over 300 pounds.
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
Owner has told me of his grandfather's RCA color TV - the first he ever saw about 1963.

Grandfather was a lawyer - and was fairly wealthy.

He says it had "round" corners - like the CRT was round and they "blanked off" segments at top and bottom to "simulate" the square black & white TVs.

Um. Lessee - looked like this?

1697321230576.jpeg

NBC "Peacock" - with all the colors...

Dobbin
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
Dobbin said:
Owner has told me of his grandfather's RCA color TV - the first he ever saw about 1963.

Grandfather was a lawyer - and was fairly wealthy.

He says it had "round" corners - like the CRT was round and they "blanked off" segments at top and bottom to "simulate" the square black & white TVs.

Um. Lessee - looked like this?

View attachment 439810

NBC "Peacock" - with all the colors...

Dobbin
Click to expand...
Wait - aren't TVs like this for receiving "analog broadcast?" But now we have "digital broadcast" which obsoleted the entire system - and TVs?

One imagines it takes some "magic" to make these work.

Dobbin
 
Wildweasel

Wildweasel

F-4 Phantoms Phorever
Dobbin said:
Wait - aren't TVs like this for receiving "analog broadcast?" But now we have "digital broadcast" which obsoleted the entire system - and TVs?

One imagines it takes some "magic" to make these work.

Dobbin
Click to expand...
NTSC (analog) TV broadcasts lasted until July 2021. There were a lot of digital-to-analog converters sold and that TV could still be used today with such a converter box.
 
K

Kennori

Contributing Member
Our wealthy neighbor got a color TV set in 1963 and invited all the neighborhood kids in to watch on Sunday night. It was Wild Kingdom followed by the Ed Sullivan Show. The first human being I saw in color on a TV was Petula Clark singing "Down town". It measured about 42 inches diagonal and there was a record player and 2 big speakers on either side. It was mesmerizing to this 10 year old who had grown up on 3 channels black and white with Howdy Doody, Romper Room, and Saturday cartoons. Soupy Sales was on channel 7 out of NY until he made that famous "How come every time I write F you see K" quip and was banned. It was a different world.
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
kyrsyan said:
Somebody had some serious money. And he'll need to be careful removing some of those things. Makes me want to go look up who owned the house at that point.
Click to expand...
ME TOO!
Unfortunately Alex doesn't remember the address!
It was 4 or 5 years ago
He probably died if he was buying color TV's in the late 50's.
 
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John Green

John Green

Veteran Member
Dobbin said:
Owner has told me of his grandfather's RCA color TV - the first he ever saw about 1963.

Grandfather was a lawyer - and was fairly wealthy.

He says it had "round" corners - like the CRT was round and they "blanked off" segments at top and bottom to "simulate" the square black & white TVs.

Um. Lessee - looked like this?

View attachment 439810

NBC "Peacock" - with all the colors...

Dobbin
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly, RCA owned NBC so they had color tv before the other networks .
 
Kris Gandillon

Kris Gandillon

The Other Curmudgeon
_______________
Link from 2018 to article documenting the history of TV with names and dates.

www.soundandvision.com

65 Years Ago Today: The First Color TVs Arrive

The RCA CT-100 and Admiral C1617A were the first color TVs offer for sale on December 30, 1953. Both had a 15-inch screen. Even though 4K TVs have been on the market for less than five years, numerous companies will announce they’ll start selling 8K TVs at CES next week. This despite the fact...
www.soundandvision.com www.soundandvision.com
 
W

WOS

Veteran Member
Hmmm, if nothing else, some of those old vacuum tubes have gotten very expensive for those that need to purchase them for other equipment. You might check to see if there any resale value for the various bits that make up a television receiver... just a thought.
 
Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
By the late '50s television sets were mass produced consumer items. They were comparatively expensive, but not rare. I'm not sure when the first consumer color TVs were produced, but it doesn't matter because throughout most of the 1950s no one was broadcasting in color.

I recall our next door neighbor buying a console type color TV in the early to mid-'60s. It was the first one in our immediate neighborhood and was considered to be a really big deal. Of course my sisters and I were invited to watch it and though I could tell it was in color, I wasn't especially impressed. I was too polite to say anything, but that should've been one of my first clues that I was severely red/green colorblind! LOL It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I was officially diagnosed with colorblindness. Before that I didn't have a clue...

Oh, I also remember my dad taking suspect tubes from our black and white TV to the local drugstore where they had a tube testing machine.

Best
Doc
 
Elza

Elza

Veteran Member
Dobbin said:
Owner has told me of his grandfather's RCA color TV - the first he ever saw about 1963.

Grandfather was a lawyer - and was fairly wealthy.

He says it had "round" corners - like the CRT was round and they "blanked off" segments at top and bottom to "simulate" the square black & white TVs.

Um. Lessee - looked like this?

View attachment 439810

NBC "Peacock" - with all the colors...

Dobbin
Click to expand...
They had round screens for convergence. That is, the alignment of the three color dots. Due to the greater distance to the coroner of a rectangular tube than the side they couldn't get the dots to align. Round tubes are equal distance from the center to edges.

They finally cracked the convergence problem and brought out rectangular color screens in 1965. Odly enough that is the same year all three networks started broadcasting in color. And all hell broke loose. The factories were backordered for years. My parents got one because dad knew a local dealer. They were hard to come by for a good while. I remember it cost about $500 and it was a basic model. That's around $5,000 in todays fiat.
 
Txkstew

Txkstew

Veteran Member
1960 was my earliest memories. We lived in Mobile, Alabama, and I was 4 yo. The only TV we had, was a little 13 inch black and white. It was made by RCA, and was in a red and cream colored metal case. That TV was my best friend during the day, as I had not started school yet. That is except for the part of the day soap opera's were on. During the evenings, I had to share program choices with my two older brothers, and my parents, and there was much arguing. Youngest brother had just been born, so he wasn't a factor, unless he was crying. We had to put aluminum foil on the built-in rabbit ears, to get a good picture, and or wiggle the manual turner knobb. We didn't get a color TV until 1974, and was only a portable 19 inch screen model. How far we've come in 64 years except the programming sucks, even with 200 channels. Right now, I'm watching on a 60 inch flat screen.

The TV described in the OP, might have been built from a military contract.

As far a tubes, I have a foot locker in the shed with a bunch of my Dad's supply for his old Ham radios. I wonder if they are worth anything, or if they are even working. And yes, I've used the tube tester machine that they had in the 7/11 convenience store on the corner.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
Kennori said:
Our wealthy neighbor got a color TV set in 1963 and invited all the neighborhood kids in to watch on Sunday night. It was Wild Kingdom followed by the Ed Sullivan Show. The first human being I saw in color on a TV was Petula Clark singing "Down town". It measured about 42 inches diagonal and there was a record player and 2 big speakers on either side. It was mesmerizing to this 10 year old who had grown up on 3 channels black and white with Howdy Doody, Romper Room, and Saturday cartoons. Soupy Sales was on channel 7 out of NY until he made that famous "How come every time I write F you see K" quip and was banned. It was a different world.
Click to expand...

Read about him a couple times in Reminisce. "Go into mommy's purse and daddy's wallet and find all those green pictures of presidents. Then mail them to me, care of this station, and I will send you a postcard from Aruba."
 
D

Delta

Has No Life - Lives on TB
We had neighbors who had a color TV back in the early 1950s! We were invited over to "oooo" and "ahah". Turned out to be a black and white TV with colored plastic (Seran wrap?) over it.
 
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