DuMont RA-106 Club 20

[Tom Albrecht]

Earlier this week I was forwarded an email from someone who had contacted Radiomuseum.org mentioning that they had an old DuMont TV (large format) that they wanted to find a home for. Most such contacts don't turn out to be anything interesting, but given that this was a Dumont, I contacted the person and asked for pictures. It quickly became apparent that the set was a Dumont RA-106 Club 20.

I've been looking for a 20BP4 CRT for my DuMont RA-101 Westminster for quite some time, and the RA-106 is the only other model of DuMont that has it.

The set was in Inglewood, CA (Los Angeles area), and rather than simply driving down there to check it out, I contacted our fine fellow VKer Cherokeeroad, who agreed to go test the CRT. His test indicated that there was at least some life in the CRT, which made me rather happy.

Today I made the trip from San Jose to Inglewood and picked up the set. This ended up being the kind of find one might think is pretty rare these days. The set was in an old mansion (known as La Colina on a street of the same name in Inglewood) which had been abandoned for a number of years. The children of the owner (who had grown up in this house) were cleaning it out and preparing to sell the house. Check out the first two pictures to see the old mansion.

The third picture shows the set in the main living room, where it was currently sitting. The fourth picture shows the corner of the master bedroom where the kids remembered watching the set in the 1960s.

What's terrific here is that the person I bought the set from is the granddaughter of the original owner of the set, and she provided a wealth of information about it. DuMont sold the Club 20 to bars, and this was no exception. It had been purchased in late 1946 or in 1947 for a bar called the Green Cat in Santa Monica. The fifth picture is a copy of a business card from the Green Cat, which I was told opened in 1938 and closed in 1950.

The location of the Green Cat was 4th and Santa Monica Blvd. The building is still there today (see sixth picture).

The person I bought the set from spoke to her father (the son of the original owner) and here is an excerpt from the information she provided about this conversation:

"Just got off phone with my dad. In WWII he was in the radio operators training program for the Navy. When he got out in 1946 he recommended that his parents purchase this, based upon his knowledge of DuMont from the Navy program, to help bring in business to The Green Cat. The bar was located on the southwest corner of Santa Monica and 4th in a 1920s converted former bank building. It was 1 and a half stories tall. The vault was converted to the kitchen. I don't know if it's still there. DuMont was purchased for 950 and installation was another 250. They had to erect an extra tall antenna to get reception past the 4 story Hensheys building. Also, it was late 1946 or early 1947 when it was acquired."

More to follow...