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man, I'm jealous of that zenith. That is one that needs to be restored. Too bad its not a space command too, but if the cabinet is that crammed, where would they put the remote chassis ? :D

Great save.

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Thanks for posting those pictures, these are my favorite types of sets.
There was an even later model of tube type set than the one you have..a CTC-66 maybe? It had a high focus voltage 19V crt and a tripler. I don't think I have seen a low focus voltage 19V" set before.
My Mural TV CTC-53 is a lot like your second one, only the toggle switch is for power rather than AFC.

Welcome Andy, I am glad to see them restored. As Andy knows, I have far too many TVs for one person to handle. The amazing thing is that what I have at my house and in storage is less than 1/4th of what was in the shop. At the time I cleaned out the shop, there was no AudioKarma to post things on. The repairman had been in business since around 1945 and had just about every TV that had been left at his shop and some from other shops in his town(Athen's, Texas) He also had a bunch of TV stuff at his house as well as tons of other stuff(including about 15 immoble cars).

I had met the service man due to a large flea market(in Canton, Texas-just north of Athens) and had gotten a few items from him. However, he passed away due to Lung problems(he had been a life long smoker) and I and the his family inherited the job of cleaning out his shop(he was paying rent on the shop even though it was closed) as fast as possible. The room was 24X24 at least and had a tall ceiling and was full.

Later, I also got some of the items from his house, including some early color sets and a Philco Seventeener. I kind of feel for his family(who are not rich) as the rural property that he was on was full of stuff, including some that probably polluted the land. He and his brothers(who had passed away previously) had bought all kinds of surplus items over the years and stored it there. A couple of interesting non-TV items that I have from there is a bottle of hair oil with the price of 17 cents printed in the label and a box of Brasso brass polishing pads-these are still good.

I have since sold most of the early color sets, but still have a CTC 9 with a spare chassis. I also have some early 1960 roundies. I had more of these also, but have given them to other TV collectors-As I mention-one person can only handle so much.

As to the mouse damage, they must have been living in his shop-he had a herd of cats living at his house and I also have a few. I actually got one of his cats after he died also(the others vanished for some reason), it has just passed away.

As I side note, a couple of the TVs from his shop are now(or shortly to be) on display at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum here in Austin. Curtis Mathis was at least somewhat made in Texas, so one of the B&W models of these is on display there(The CM roundies were to large for the room) and the Museum is doing a special display on the TV series "Dallas". A small 1980 GE(solid state successor to the Portacolor) is to be displayed for this(as well as a VCR that I purchased for $600 in 1982).

One last comment as to the Canton Flea market, supposed to be the largest in Texas. It used to be a good place for radio/TV hunting, but the last time I went, it was mostly arts and crafts. I think Ebay has pretty much ruined it.

If anyone else has a desire for old TVs to work on and is somewhat close to Austin, please let me know, I still have to many for me to finish.

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I have gotten several other TVs from this shop working. These have been a mixture of solid state, hybrid, color and B&W. Earlier, when used TVs could be sold, I gave several of the solid state ones that I was able to get working to an animal shelter support store.

Andy is right that it is amazing that these sets are restorable. The shop had another 24X24 room adjacent that that was full of paper and other junk. A mouse home heaven. In that room were probably 50/60 computer tapes that were used prior to 1980. Some of the TVs from his house were full of mud dauber nests, but after cleaning, I have been able to get at least some of them working.

The shop also had a very large leak in the roof that ruined some things(including some Hoffman Easy Visions that I am partial to). The former TV repairman was afraid to ask the landlord to fix it as she might raise the rent.

Compare to that shop, my garage is a great storage place.

There has always been something I liked about those 53's and similiar sets. I have a stack of them now that JCFitz gave me...would love to find someone to give part of them to. RCA sure sold a ton of 'em. The -55 is really modern looking. This was around the time they were promoting the Accu-color, XL-100 solid state set. I could see where someone would be fooled into thinking this was solid state, too.

I often wonder if I will ever come across another big stash of stored sets like that. There are a couple places within 15 minutes of here that, at one time, were loaded to the gills with sets. I continue to try and find out from the semi-retired TV repairmen but have only been put off.

I used to find a lot of those series string RCA color portables around here. The one I regret selling was a '74 model remote control 19" AccuColor. This had the hybrid chassis (CTC63, IIRC) with the high focus voltage tube and a HV tripler. I was a teen then and sold it to buy more antique radios.

A friend of mine who has a friend that cleans out old abandoned houses told me he found a house way out in the woods full of old TV's. He said the place was about to fall in. I'd love to see what's out there provided that I don't get arrested or the place does not fall in on me!

Thanks for posting those pictures, these are my favorite types of sets.
There was an even later model of tube type set than the one you have..a CTC-66 maybe? It had a high focus voltage 19V crt and a tripler.


I've got a CTC-63, which is a 19V set like the CTC-55, but has a solid-state tripler. It's a last-gasp 1974 model with a more modern appearance than most CTC-51/52/53/55 sets. Indeed, there was also apparently a CTC-66 which was also a 19V set and essentially identical to the CTC-63 chassis; it's listed in an 1974 RCA technical guide, but it doesn't provide a picture of a representative set with that chassis, and I've never seen a CTC-66 set, so I don't know how it differs in appearance.

BTW, that's a neat CTC-53, andy-- those remote control versions seem to be pretty uncommon!

Here are some photos that I had around of my CTC-63 (which appear to have been taken before I finished cleaning up the front panel...) The cabinet style makes it almost look like an XL-100 set, but nope-- it's definitely not solid-state!

I agree that these are kinda fun sets. A couple weeks ago, I found a CTC-51 (which is basically a smaller version of the -53 with a 14V-size tube) at an estate sale. It's a low-end version that doesn't have Accucolor or lighted channel numbers, but it was in very nice cosmetic shape and worked perfectly. The estate sale was ending, and I kinda felt sorry for the li'l thing, so for five bucks figured I'd just take it home...

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I had this trouble with the vertical on my "best" -53. It looks like heat might work to do-in those orange drops. After swapping out every one on that board plus putting in a new tube I still don't have it perfect-it wants to roll every so often-but it's tolerable. Must be a resistor out of spec, too.

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A non-bonded 19" color tube seems like an odd duck. I know I've seen Sylvania-built/Zenith-branded crt's in several sets. I have also had below-average luck out of Sylvania picture tubes-they seem more likely to be weak than anything else.

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