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  #1  
Old 08-21-2006, 01:12 PM
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Pete Deksnis Pete Deksnis is offline
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Roundie-daze Anecdotes...

How 'bout a thread with personal tidbits from the roundie days of color TV...


It was 1963. I came across a small crowd around a color console in a Sears retail store in N-E Philadelphia. I slipped into the group and cut my way to the front where a 21-in. roundie Silvertone wowed the crowd, but with its hue control cranked fully clockwise! Television in color was so new and created so much curiosity that these people were hooked to a stupid hue-distorted image. Yes, I did adjust it, shocking the color-starved crowd who had clearly been trying to make sense of the screwy colors on the screen.

Last edited by Pete Deksnis; 08-21-2006 at 02:03 PM.
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Old 08-21-2006, 09:27 PM
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I fondly remember those days of yesteryear when men were men, etc., etc., Roundies used to pour in the shop like water down the drain. Opening a roundie, or most any other ser was like opening presents on Christmas morning. One never exactly knew what would come out of the box (but had a darn good idea!). One never forgets their "first time". The first time live cockroaches, ants, centipede, millipeed, or 4-legged rodent comes bounding out. Heck, I could have started a bug collection with the dead ones I brushed/scooped/vacuumed out.

Then there was the time we were delivering repaired sets, and accidentally left the MUCH nicer set at the wrong house. Played hell getting that one back.

How about switching cathode wires on an unsuspecting associate, or sticking that small magnet under the mu-metal shield.

Why not expand this to include tales from the shop?
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Old 08-22-2006, 07:15 PM
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Thumbs down

Pete,
I don't think this one's going to fly
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Old 08-22-2006, 07:22 PM
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Pete Deksnis Pete Deksnis is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reeferman
Pete,
I don't think this one's going to fly

Crash!
Maybe we should try podcasting or something
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Old 08-22-2006, 07:26 PM
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I remember the early days when if you did see a show in color at the store, either the intensity was cranked up all the way, or the purity was not set, I remember seeing a Sears color set in the very early sixties, the scene was a guy skiing down the slopes, the purity was so bad I don't think I saw any white snow in the scene
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Old 08-22-2006, 07:29 PM
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I still contended that back then the introduction of color was far more amazing than anything in today's world. 1st of all life was a lot simpler back then, most people didn't have air conditioning or a dish washer, there was no video games or internet, but there was amazing life like images on those early color sets.
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Old 08-23-2006, 01:46 AM
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When I was first "noticing" TV sets at about age 8 or 9, most of the color sets were 10-year-old roundies in my neighborhood. A few people had 23" rectangular sets, and one millionaire had a 25" Magnavox solid state console. Most still had B&W consoles in the livingroom, or maybe a 19" Japanese portable color set in the den. Bedroom sets were not common yet.

But the roundie was the "normal" set that I would expect to see in any color TV household. I was really fascinated with the round tube, as we still had a late 50s 21" GE B&W console at that time. One neighbor in particular had a Sears roundie, which she had serviced regularly by Sears repair. I used to be allowed to go to her house when the repairman came, and I would watch him do a repair. In fact, it was one of those Sears guys in her house who taught me to do the gray scale setup. Before that, I was allowed to go and see the Saturday morning cartoons on it.

The roundie was such a big part of my childhood and my beginnings in the TV hobby (and TV repair career until I quit 5 years ago). It is a symbol of a magical time in my life, the fascination with color TV, my envy of color TV-neighbors, and the roundie will always have a special place with me. It is a component of my memories of easier and more innocent times.

Anyway, that's what I have to say about Roundies!

Charles
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Old 08-23-2006, 01:57 AM
Tom_Ryan Tom_Ryan is offline
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Charles, I agree that roundie's are great sets....hey remember the "Port Hole" round color set made by RCA you helped me load on my truck? Shoot me an email. I plan to be in LA/Irvine tomorrow. Would like to pick up the "destined for land fill" CRT and those 7F7 tubes Hassy says you have for me.

Last edited by Tom_Ryan; 08-23-2006 at 01:59 AM.
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Old 08-23-2006, 07:16 AM
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I only remember one roundie from my childhood. It was a console Zenith in my grandparents house in 1974. I remember being fascinated by the round screen as I had never seen one before. I have been fascinated by television receiver technology all my life. We stayed with my grandparents for two weeks waiting to move into our new house and I watched everything on that set. The picture seemed so big as I was used to 13" sets. One day the set made a loud pop and the picture went dim. I never saw it working again and I don't believe it was ever repaired. The TV repairman told them that the picture tube was bad and they should get rid of it. The round tube Zenith I recently acquired is nearly identical to the set they had back then.
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Old 08-23-2006, 11:47 AM
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We had 3 neighbors with Zenith roundies, although Zeniths were more expensive and not so common in general. Most of our neighbors who had round color sets had Sears or Admiral, etc, which were bought for under $500.

Charles
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Old 08-23-2006, 01:40 PM
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Although my age isn't too far out of the range (I'm 34) I cannot recall seeing even one roundie growing up. There were some early rectangular color sets but that was it. The first pictures I ever saw of one were 1)an ad in Time magazine for Motorola, in the late 70s or early 80s, showing a large picture of a 50s Motorola color set and 2)an article on pollution in National Geographic which showed a beauty of a roundie upside down in a landfill. The article mentioned the dangers of PCBs in the picture tubes. I did not lay my eyes on an actual set until I found 2 of them at the town dump one day about 1990-a mid-60s Admiral (now long gone) and a CTC-15 that I still have.
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Old 08-23-2006, 01:50 PM
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The first roundie I remember seeing was in my cousin's house in Kingsport, Tenn. I don't remember what brand it was, but it had a metal cabinet that was painted sort of a light-green color.Prolly needed some touch-up convergence work, there were purple/green lines around things when a B/W show was on. That had to be 1962-63, I remember there was one of those big Imperials w/the 747-sized tailfins that lived around the corner from my cousin's.
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Old 08-23-2006, 02:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bgadow
an ad in Time magazine for Motorola, in the late 70s or early 80s, showing a large picture of a 50s Motorola color set
SNAP! Finally, somebody else who remembers that ad. I've been wishing for all these years that I had cut it out and saved it, because even a trip to the library a few years ago to pore through back issues failed to turn it up. For some reason I was certain that I had seen it in 1982 . . . maybe 1981. But it's entirely possible the magazine was not a current issue when I saw it.

What makes it extra special is the fact that the set shown (being watched by mom, dad, junior and sis if I recall correctly) is the ultra-elusive 19CK1 console. I want to say it had the 21" tube, but it's been far too long to be certain about that kind of detail. What I do know is (wherever it is) it's a better illustration of a 19CK1 than you can find on the net today, if you can find one at all.
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Old 08-23-2006, 02:25 PM
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Oh yeah...I remember a few roundies from childhood. Grandpa had a ca. 1963 GE until about 1973, and the family of a friend, who swore he could remember as a tyke the day they got their new color TV, kept theirs until about '79. The rest I can recall had been relegated to basements already. They were considered old in a junky way by the time my collecting interest was gearing up. I've never owned one. To this day I scarcely have any interest in color sets beyond the fifties.
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Old 08-23-2006, 03:28 PM
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Talking

Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtvman
I remember the early days when if you did see a show in color at the store, either the intensity was cranked up all the way, or the purity was not set, I remember seeing a Sears color set in the very early sixties, the scene was a guy skiing down the slopes, the purity was so bad I don't think I saw any white snow in the scene
I can see it now (or then): The drive on the blue gun was set too low, which made for yellow snow... "Don't you go where the huskys go, and don't you eat that yellow snow..."
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