Capehart Color TV

[Steve D.]

If you would like to see my vintage 1954 Capehart color receiver check out the picture on Tom Genova's great TV History site.
The set is currently on loan to the UCLA Collection of Television Technology & Design. I believe it may be the only remaining example of this limited production set. The Capehart can be seen by scrolling down the page to my tv collection. Although you may find the KTLA pictures interesting. Digital pix of Capehart by Steve K.

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

[Rob]

Steve has asked me to post some color pics of his really rare Capehart color set here. Unfortunately I was unable to deal with the .eml extension picture files he sent me so I can only post here those pictures now appearing on the TVhistory site.

Steve, get .jpg images to me and I can post them here.

This is one special vintage color set!

Rob

[Steve D.]

Thanks Rob, for providing quicker access to the photos. These are the best available shots. The area in which this set is stored is some what crowded with other vintage sets. Tom Genova's photo enhancement nicely dressed up the background. The only other photo is a close up of the pencil box controls. I found this rare set over 20 years ago through an ad in the paper. The set was in some guys garage. He only knew it was an old color set. He knew nothing of its history. I had the set in my home for a short time and because of space problems, what else is new, I offered it on loan to UCLA for display in their collection. Unfortunatly, except for a couple of exhibits, the public has never seen most of their collection. This is the first time this Capehart has been shown in those 20 years. Also included when I purchased the set was the original Capehart-Farnsworth owners manual which has complete schematics and set up procedures. If anyone can provide futher information on this set I would be most gratful.

[Rob]

SteveD,

Can you tell us why it is that UCLA has a vintage TV collection? Seems odd to me, outside the purview of a university so to speak.

Rob

[Steve D.]

Rob,
The UCLA Collection of Television Technology & Design was spearheaded by fellow tv collector & color tv historian Ed Reitan in the early 80's. The collection is a part of the UCLA Film & Television Archives. Ed's goal along with UCLA was to preserve certain landmark examples of early television technology. At that time several vintage receivers and broadcast equipment were donated to UCLA and over the years many others have been archived. Early on there were several exhibits of these sets which I had the pleasure to lend a hand in both the planning and actual staging. The hope was to promote the Archives by inviting the public to view these sets and other related artifacts in a permanent exhibit somewhere. Unfortunatly, this was never realized. The sets remain unseen in storage. However there is a plan to establish a new home for the UCLA archives near Los Angeles in the next few years. This includes a section devoted to the display of the TV collection. http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/