TRK-12 RCA Invoice "AS IS" - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Dave A · #16 06-30-2016, 08:14 PM

I think it was Paul Whiteman's Rockin' New Years Eve. Paul lived up north of there along the river and was a local tv star on early WFIL-TV in the 50's after his 30's band fame faded.

My search at the church is to find the kids. This church is a large church to be dealt with.

Polaraligned · #17 07-01-2016, 04:45 PM

Great find! I love seeing the old paperwork.

Dave A · #18 07-02-2016, 01:38 AM

I have a note to the pastor of the local church to see what I get back. After that I will use Steve's view of the neighborhood to knock on doors and get arrested as crazy. Stay tuned. And thanks to Steve McVoy for adding this to ETF.

baursam · #19 07-02-2016, 08:20 AM

Good luck Dave!!! This makes for great reading!

Dave A · #20 07-03-2016, 12:10 AM

This got very interesting today. The pastor kindly answered back with the full name of Mr. Simons...a late congregant at his Bryn Athyn church and memorialized with his own Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keneth_Alden_Simons

Keneth is beyond brilliant and historic in broadcasting and cable. As to his need of a TRK-120 I am now thinking he did not need a new/used set but maybe parts for another invention for $100. Just a guess. Add your own guess.

I answered the pastor offering to donate the paper to any of his family still around and did note that I was interested in the fate of the set. If not, I will send it to Steve. I think one daughter and son are still around the area. Another daughter is an artist in the New Orleans area. The whole family is very thick in this church. I hope the pastor will help as he seems to be a good guy from his email tonight...and I offered free Phillies tickets. I am now not going to inflict myself at someone's doorway and will wait for help from the pastor.

colorfixer · #21 07-03-2016, 04:18 AM

Look at the CRT on the right rear side of his bench as pictured on the wiki page. Looks like the TRK120 was put to good use...

vts1134 · #22 07-03-2016, 07:15 AM

My my...this IS getting interesting

!

Joe Connor · #23 07-03-2016, 08:05 PM

Interesting stuff:

1. This fellow was born in 1913 so he would have been only 27 in 1940.

2. The $100 was not chump change. Per the CPI calculator, $100 in 1940 equals $1,715.97 in today's dollars.

3. Per the Wikipedia article, this fellow was pretty busy in the years around 1940.

"In 1938 he graduated from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania,with distinction and recipient of the A. Atwater Kent Prize in Electrical Engineering] (see Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia) He then became a television field engineer for RCA. On one occasion in 1939 he and another field engineer installed a television set in the honeymoon cottage of movie stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, and Simons showed her how to operate it. Later Simons helped run the RCA television exhibit...at the 1939 World’s Fair. In the summer of 1940 he was sent by RCA to run the public address system and make recordings of speeches on the campaign train of Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for president that year."

4. Given his TV-related activities for RCA, why would he have to buy this set? He sounds like one of their go-to guys for TV matters.

dieseljeep · #24 07-04-2016, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Connor

Interesting stuff:

1. This fellow was born in 1913 so he would have been only 27 in 1940.

2. The $100 was not chump change. Per the CPI calculator, $100 in 1940 equals $1,715.97 in today's dollars.

3. Per the Wikipedia article, this fellow was pretty busy in the years around 1940.

"In 1938 he graduated from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania,with distinction and recipient of the A. Atwater Kent Prize in Electrical Engineering] (see Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia) He then became a television field engineer for RCA. On one occasion in 1939 he and another field engineer installed a television set in the honeymoon cottage of movie stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, and Simons showed her how to operate it. Later Simons helped run the RCA television exhibit...at the 1939 World’s Fair. In the summer of 1940 he was sent by RCA to run the public address system and make recordings of speeches on the campaign train of Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for president that year."

4. Given his TV-related activities for RCA, why would he have to buy this set? He sounds like one of their go-to guys for TV matters.

Regarding your fourth entry!
Most firms, if not all, don't give anything away for obvious reasons. Liability and maybe disention from other employees. Anyone that worked for a firm, for any length of time, knows what thats all about. Children come in all ages.
Many times an item is posted and bid on.

Dave A · #25 07-04-2016, 08:55 PM

We have come to the end of the road and it is not as we hoped but common for the time. Phil was right in the reverse chase and the family did come through with an email this morning from one of Ken's daughters that got my notes from the pastor. She is spot on as to the set and it's demise. The internet is a great thing.

I have excerpted her email so as to not identify her. Her response;

"I am not sure, but I believe the TV you have a receipt for is the old one we had for years with the lift up lid. The sad story of this is that Pop saved it for many years and one day while cleaning his workshop, he decided it was of no use and broke it apart and burned it. As the story goes, three weeks later the Smithsonian called about it and Pop regretted this until the day he died."

Now it sounds like a family set and not a shop queen. As to it's fate, I am thinking back to a Smithsonian observance of the 50th anniversary of television they mounted in a few rooms in the summer of 1989 with a great display of old sets. Somewhere around here I have photo prints of the event as I went to see it. And I still have my coffee cup from the gift shop.

She continues;

"I will check through the family photos to see if we have any pictures that include it. We also had an early TV with a large round screen that I remember watching as a child. I don’t know what happened to this one but I will check with my brother to see if he knows."

"As for the receipt you have, feel free to keep it and it would be nice if you want to donate it to the Museum. I haven’t a clue how you have this receipt and I can tell by looking at it, that it is a piece of memorabilia that survived out family house fire on Oct. 1952."

Her mention of a large screen could refer to the 15" or so larger screen on Ken's bench but that would not be what a child would watch. Ken was busy with screens. Chuck A sent me a note as to him having met Ken in the 70's in his cable days and noted that Ken wrote the book on early cable. And now we know about the jagged edges of the paper surviving a house fire. How I got it is up for guess. I think it may have been in a bunch of paper I bought which may have been passed along numerous times. If Steve wants it I will frame it and send it to ETF.

You may now all turn your cars/vans/box trucks around and return home from SE Pennsylvania. Delete all you Google map photos and return to Craigslist for the find of all time. And check your paper you have stashed that you never think about.

"I rely on the kindness of strangers." Blanch DuBois

And a happy 4th of July to all the fans of this thread.

***Eric H*** · #26 07-04-2016, 09:01 PM

If the Smithsonian wanted it I wonder if it was one of the 39 Worlds Fair sets?

Hard to read about it's fate but it's probably similar to the majority of the sets we now consider so collectible.

Dave A · #27 07-04-2016, 10:03 PM

The World's Fair sets were TRK-12 sets. Ken's discount TRK-120 set was later...$800 later. The fate is not surprising given the day.

Polaraligned · #28 07-05-2016, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave A

The World's Fair sets were TRK-12 sets. Ken's discount TRK-120 set was later...$800 later. The fate is not surprising given the day.

How do we know that it is a 120? The receipt says that it is a 12.

***Eric H*** · #29 07-05-2016, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polaraligned

How do we know that it is a 120? The receipt says that it is a 12.

Exactly, he bought the set directly from RCA at basically a scrap price, I would think the only reason they would do that is if the set was used for some purpose within the company then retired.
Too bad the receipt doesn't have the serial number of the set on it, unless it didn't have a serial number because it wasn't a retail set.

Dave A · #30 07-05-2016, 10:15 PM

Guilty of overthinking this. I was thinking the invoice was in the 120 neighborhood. The 12 is obvious from the invoice and it does look like a leftover from the day...and stayed around a while.