What is the first all electronic color tv? Some say that it was "RCA CT-100", others that "Westinghouse H840CK15".

Depends on what you call first. Here is a link with 4 "firsts"


http://www.tvhistory.tv/advertising3.htm

Si, in fact it wasn't Westinghouse, it wasn't RCA, it was Admiral.

Hi all, it's been a long time since I've been here. I thought I'd throw my two cents in on this topic. According to Zenith in their Annual Report for the year ending December 31, 1953, they take credit for the first sale of an NTSC color television. Here's what the report says:

"Zenith made the first commercial sale of a compatible color television manufactured under the NTSC standards as approved by the FCC. This Zenith set was purchased by the Chicago Tribune's station, WGN-TV, in 1953. Production of similar sets will be limited, as explained in the President's message to stockholders."

"One of the primary reasons for building new color sets was Zenith's belief that they would be useful to help our distributor and sales organizations keep in step with the latest developments. They will also be of great value in the company’s program of training service personnel. This problem is national in scope and Zenith experts are preparing to handle it on a national basis.”

“Because it has been one of the pioneers in color TV, Zenith is in an especially advantageous position with regard to new developments. When a color receiver can be made with good picture size, simplified circuits, and popular prices, Zenith will be making that receiver. For the interim, no effort is being spared in the search for logical solutions to these problems.”

The set sold to WGN-TV was apparently one of the field-test prototypes, examples of which were present at all of the FCC tests of the NTSC system. A few of these sets have survived, one of which I own. Color broadcasts were being discretely transmitted for about three hours a week in Chicago throughout 1953, so Zenith could test their equipment and receivers in the field. I’ve been told that Zenith President McDonald wanted to beat RCA with the first NTSC color TV sold, and I guess technically he did, although it wasn’t a regular production model. :scratch2: Zenith didn’t market a color set until 1959.

I would like to thank Wayne Bretl for sending the Annual Report to me.
I just thought this might be of interest. :)
Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for that info. Is the set in your avatar that color Zenith you mention? Could you post a larger photo of it please? Can't recall where, but I've seen a photo of some sort of public display with a very early color Zenith tube and chassis. It was declared to be experimental but was being shown to illustrate how technically proficient the company was. The sad irony is that they also led the development of the new digital standard but once Gold Star took over that seems to all have gone out the window.

Anthony

Yes, the avatar is a close-up of the CRT escutcheon on my Zenith prototype. Wayne also sent me an old photo of the same set with a rectangular color CRT, from 1953!!! Here's a photo of my set:

Here's a scan of the rear view of the set. This photo is taken from the 1953 Zenith Annual Report. The wood cabinet panels have been removed.

Wonder if that bad boy is still around-somewhere? -Sandy G.

Fourtnley for the collectors the roundies where manufactured untill the '70's. Roundies are cooler the the old rectangular color tv sets!

Hi Mike,

Could we have your permission to post those photos in the Color Gallery section of our website?

http://www.earlytelevision.org/15_inch_color.html

Thanks.

Imagine, you are somewhere in a little used furniture store or flea market or antique mall, minding your own business, when you come across this unassuming tv with the doors closed. Hmmm, you think, probably a 16" or maybe 21", nothing special, lets open those doors & take a look...wow! Well, I'll keep looking! Maybe 2 survived?!

...or, you're in Seoul, looking thru a bunch of junk that got sent over when we bought Zenith from those hapless Yankee capitalists, & come across this strange television w/those funny tube thingies in it. Wow, this must have been something when it was new.... wonder if the boys over in R&D would like to play w/this thing.....wonder who this Cdr Eugene Mc Donald was...some sort of American imperialist, no doubt. Hmmmmmm....-Sandy G., grimacing at the thought of it all....

Steve, feel free to post the photos on your site. Here's a picture of my set with the doors closed.

I thought I'd share a scan of an old photo of one of these sets fitted with a rectangular color tube, from 1954. This scan comes from a collection of information sent to me by Wayne Bretl. Wayne has compiled information on these sets from collectors and Zenith employees, and has been so kind in sharing what he has learned with me. Thanks Wayne for your hard work in preserving the story of these pieces of history!

I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but I'd kill for that Zenith set! :yes:

How far removed is that thing from working?? Who made the tube? Can we see a close-up of the controls? Can I have it? :cry:

BTW, I thought the first color Zenith was a late '61, '62 Model year. Who knows about a '59 Color Zenith???

Mike, that's the exact picture I was speaking of in a previous post! It's also on one of the many old TV sites but just can't recall which one, maybe someone else does.

Anthony

An article from the Dec. 31, 1953 N.Y. Times reads as follows:

FIRST ADMIRAL COLOR TV

"Admiral Corporation introduced yesterday it's first color television receiver. It has a fifteen-inch tube and will retail for $1,175. Also added to the company's line were several new black-and-white receivers, including a twenty-one-inch model to list for $179.95. Joe Marty Jr., general manager of Admiral's electronic division, said the company expects to turn out 30,000 color television sets next year."
I have researched this announcement from Admiral and have yet to come across a single Admiral ad or other promotion for the sale of these sets. I think it was more hype then happening. At least one 15" Admiral color set does still exist. There is no record of when it was first sold. Or how many were produced. There was also a "Little fuse" co. ad that pictured the Admiral 15" color. Many companies produced prototype color sets for demonstrations and testing. Westinghouse still, IMO, marketed the first consumer color set in any volume in Feb. 1954.

Well, you have to consider the source of the Zenith claim of being the first to "sell" a NTSC color set....Zenith! They certainly weren't available to the public. Zenith was involved in color tv development for many years, and were involved in lawsuits with RCA at the time, and I think Cmdr. McDonald wanted to steal some of RCA's thunder with the claim of being the first to sell a color set, so they "sold" one to a local broadcaster! (Do you think it came with a service plan! :lmao: ) I have heard this story from more than one source.

Unfortunately my Zenith is a LONG way from working. It is in fact missing the secondary chassis :worried: , which houses the power supply and the high voltage :sigh: . I've never had the shrouding off of the CRT, so I don't know if it has a Rauland or RCA tube (I've been told that Zenith discretely used some RCA tubes because of manufacturing difficulties at Rauland), but the tube seems to be intact. My set is in storage, and I don't have any close-ups of the controls right now. Plus, there are supposed to be controls on the secondary chassis (missing on my set) that are accessed behind the flip-down speaker grill.

Knock the neck off that old tube for safety's sake and remove it.....install a fish bowl instead.

Anthony

Si, in fact it wasn't Westinghouse, it wasn't RCA, it was Admiral.

I would like to see some documentation to the claim that Admiral beat RCA and Westinghouse to market with a NTSC color TV. Certianly, there were other sets produced before the RCA and Westinghouse were marketed, but they were not for sale.

Coments??

I think everything that has been uncovered is on Tom Genova's site:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/advertising3.htm

It doesn't prove that Admiral actually sold sets, but they had a model number and advertising brochure.

Was a Sams published for the Admiral?

I contributed some of the material on Tom's color tv page. And I believe there is no argument that Admiral produced a color receiver early on. I'm sure in somewhat limited quantities. Most of the sources that claim Admiral's Dec. 30, 1953 "first" take it from the newspaper article I posted above. An Admiral Corp. press handout. But when was the public able to go into a store and purchase one? Since Admiral was located in Chicago, perhaps they offered the sets for sale there. If a Chicago area fourm member wants to take up the challenge and check out the Chicago Sun-Times or Tribune archives at the library, for Dec.30, 1953 to perhaps Feb. 1954 and see if Admiral advertised color receivers for sale, It will settle the question. There is no SAMS listed for an Admiral color set until the 1957 models. In response to a previous post, RCA demonstrated all electronic color tv with a shadow mask picture tube as early as 1950. See Ed Reitan's site. http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/

Steve

@Steve D. But www.earlytelevision.org says taht "Westhinghouse" was sold in NYC. Maybe you must look on New York newspapers.

Telecolor,

There is no question that Westinghouse sold color sets both in New York City and Los Angeles in early 1954. I have ads for both areas. I think the primary question was the Admiral 15" color set and the fact that no ads were seen in the New York or L.A. metro areas in late '53 or early '54. and perhaps they were only marketed in Chicago, Admiral's homebase.


Steve

This thread prompted a new page on the subject at my CT-100 site:

http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/input/who_was_first_1.htm

Perhaps a slightly different angle.

This is one of those questions that can have several answers depending on which formula you use. Pete knows I am an avid CT-100 fan. However, my criterion for which company produced the first consumer color set, is still who first had a set in the stores for sale to the public. That was Westinghouse in Feb. 1954. Even though RCA Victor produced 10 times as many 15" sets, they were't available for sale until April '54. As for Admiral, I haven't seen proof yet as to when their sets,if any, were actually offered for sale. RCA, Westinghouse, Stromberg-Carlson, Sparton, Arvin ect. all have SAMS folders. This suggests that they made at least a large enough run of 15" color sets to warrant the SAMS coverage. Westinghouse had an extensive advertising push for their H-840CK15. Including a full page color ad in Life mag. And many local dealer newspaper ads in the larger TV markets. RCA also had several national and local newspaper ads for their CT-100. I'm not sure if the CT-100 was ever pictured in an RCA brochure. I would also like to see the CT-100 production tour brochure that Pete refers to in his post. Anyone have that in their collection? Also, I have read that Gen. Sarnoff of RCA, was absolutely livid when he was beat to the punch by Westinghouse which used the 15GP22 tube. This after RCA spent milions developing the 15GP22 tri-color picture tube and the chassis that ultimatly became the CT-100. The General cracked the whip and got the CT-100 lines rolling well ahead of planned production dates. He then scrapped the planned 19" color models and a crash program was instituted for the 21" color set. He would not be denied the first large screen color tv.


-Steve

I'm just curious, does anyone know what a color set of that era normally goes for? I know these are pretty rare sets so I doubt you would ever see one on ebay. But how much would an RCA ctc-100 be worth today? I'm just curious.

The last few I've seen on ebay have gone in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

@Steve D. Why don't you try to get in tuoch with the people that today are owning the "Westinghouse" H840CK15. Maybe them or the poeple from whom they bought the sets still have the original recipts, with the date when they bought the tv.

@Steve D. Why don't you try to get in tuoch with the people that today are owning the "Westinghouse" H840CK15. Maybe them or the poeple from whom they bought the sets still have the original recipts, with the date when they bought the tv.
Telecolor,

The question is still, what company first offered color sets for sale to the public? Not when customers purchased those sets.

Marlin Mackley is the go to guy on the Westinghouse H840CK15: http://studio4-17.com/westlist.htm

-Steve D.

The only literature I know of covering the Admiral 15" set is the "Admiral Color TV Training Course" dated 1/1/54 published by Admiral. Does anyone else have one? I happened to come across mine at a local electronic surplus shop YEARS ago. Many moons ago I lent it to our esteemed guru in Ca., who still has it. He photocopied the schematic and sent it to Bruce B. who has the only known set still in existence (found it in KANSAS of all places). Has anyone heard from Bruce lately?

Not trying to be argumentative, but I've seen many times that literature had been printed and released for something that never did get into actual production (am speaking of automotive stuff primarily, but am sure this situation applies to most any industry or product)

Anthony

In 1954 the American consumer couldn't buy an "Westinghouse" H840CK15 if it couldn't be found on the market.

I agree with what you say, Heathkit. To me, that is what makes it interresting.

I spoke to an old TV Repair Guy that said the RCA 2000 was the first Solid state TV , --Color for RCA. Has groovy modern 60's styling and supposed to sale for $2000 originally!!!!

:banana: :yes: :lmao: :smoke:

Oh no, not the dreaded 2000 again! Search this site for some 'interesting' threads concerning a certain person repeatedly trying to sell one on eBay. It resulted in some cretin falsely accusing me of sending him a virus laden e-mail. To this day he's too stupid to understand the truth of the situation. Yeah, you know who I'm talking about, deal with it. :lamo:

Anthony