View Full Version : When One Door Closes Another One Opens - The '54 Maggie Story


CurtisMathes
03-01-2011, 03:26 PM
I was looking for another TV to ad to the pile and I found this one. It was beautiful. I wanted it bad. I bid $150 - it went for over $350.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184890_1645075446480_1224702557_31609045_8202308_n .jpg"]http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184890_1645075446480_1224702557_31609045_8202308_n .jpg

Then I found this one. It was cute. I really would have liked to have had it. I bid $110 it went for over $150.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/185665_1645079126572_1224702557_31609069_2337970_n .jpg"]http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/185665_1645079126572_1224702557_31609069_2337970_n .jpg

Then as I was cruising through Craig's List I found her in Naples. Not only is she complete. I bought her from her original owner and got a lot of cool new owner paperwork with her. She may be a couple years older than me, but tell me - doesn't she look great for her age?

I think her CRT has been changed. The documentation references a Sylvania CRT but she has a GE in her. Haven't figured out the chassis number yet. Anyone?

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184222_1645076486506_1224702557_31609050_944695_n. jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184668_1645076606509_1224702557_31609051_6498569_n .jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181510_1645076766513_1224702557_31609052_686166_n. jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/183787_1645077086521_1224702557_31609055_1562438_n .jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/185674_1645077206524_1224702557_31609056_1063315_n .jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190712_1645077406529_1224702557_31609057_1399950_n .jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184313_1645078166548_1224702557_31609063_5375496_n .jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/183441_1645078606559_1224702557_31609065_5349039_n .jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190044_1645078806564_1224702557_31609067_6174569_n .jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/189294_1645079006569_1224702557_31609068_3327262_n .jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/190565_1645076286501_1224702557_31609049_6513874_n .jpg

wa2ise
03-01-2011, 03:49 PM
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/185674_1645077206524_1224702557_31609056_1063315_n .jpg
Back in around 1960 my father acquired a bare TV set (chassis with CRT, but no cabinet) that looked an awful lot like yours. The channel knob looks the same as I remember, as well as the rectifier tube atop the power transformer. This chassis had no audio amplifier, so my father ran a cable from the sound detector to his pair of monoblock audio amps. Which in turn drove some big speakers we had in the living room, which the TV chassis sat atop one of. Only thing was that the sound came out of the other of the stereo speaker pair, sitting about 8 feet away from the TV. As TV was in mono he only fired up one of the monoblocks, and we never bothered or get around to swapping the speaker/amp connections to make the TV sound come out in the speaker just under the TV... :)

It's long gone, as well as any schematics too... :sigh:

DaveWM
03-01-2011, 03:57 PM
that finally sold, its been listed for a LONG time, I think at least a year. Glad it got a home.

CurtisMathes
03-01-2011, 04:11 PM
that finally sold, its been listed for a LONG time, I think at least a year. Glad it got a home.

That's what the owner told me. Said she's had it on and off Criag's for a while. For $25 I couldn't pass it up.

CurtisMathes
03-01-2011, 04:14 PM
Back in around 1960 my father acquired a bare TV set (chassis with CRT, but no cabinet) that looked an awful lot like yours. The channel knob looks the same as I remember, as well as the rectifier tube atop the power transformer. This chassis had no audio amplifier, so my father ran a cable from the sound detector to his pair of monoblock audio amps. Which in turn drove some big speakers we had in the living room, which the TV chassis sat atop one of. Only thing was that the sound came out of the other of the stereo speaker pair, sitting about 8 feet away from the TV. As TV was in mono he only fired up one of the monoblocks, and we never bothered or get around to swapping the speaker/amp connections to make the TV sound come out in the speaker just under the TV... :)

It's long gone, as well as any schematics too... :sigh:

Rod Stewart was right. Every picture does tell a story.

CurtisMathes
03-01-2011, 04:42 PM
Dug a little deeper. Looks like her chassis is a '52 design - a CT 306. She was sold is November of '53. A leftover?

Looks like I'll be looking for a Sam's 161-4

Eric H
03-01-2011, 05:11 PM
Here's an ad dated 11/51, probably for the 52 model year.

The CRT is what was sold in 53, that's the warranty card, looks like the original CRT only lasted two years at most.

CurtisMathes
03-01-2011, 05:27 PM
Here's an ad dated 11/51, probably for the 52 model year.

The CRT is what was sold in 53, that's the warranty card, looks like the original CRT only lasted two years at most.

The warranty card kind of implies a Sylvania CRT was sold in Nov 53. It has a GE now. Man, this thing really eats picture tubes.

holmesuser01
03-01-2011, 07:28 PM
Thats one sweet Magnavox. Maybe you can cure its' kine-eating habits!

bgadow
03-01-2011, 09:54 PM
I'm guessing somebody just watched an awful lot of TV, and used those tubes up. I picked up a pair of sets one time from a friend of mine (now deceased.) One was his first set, a '53 Silvertone which was on its second crt, which is pretty well shot. The other is a '60 Motorola, also with a weak crt. He had long ago trashed the color set he bought to replace the Motorola, sometime in the 60s. The set must have never got turned off in his house!