Reactions to old TVs

[Carmine]

Best is showing someone one of these old sets for the first time. When I lived in CT, my regular TV was a B&W Bendix console. The maintenance people, when they showed up to fix the perpetually broken a/c system, always did a double take when they saw the thing.

"Is that a REAL TV from the 50's?!?!?!?!?"

I thought this deserved it's own thread... What are some of the reactions you've had to your old sets?

Years ago I had a young lady (born in 1982) in my bedroom as a guest, When we got into bed, she noticed my "eyeball" Zenith B&W set, and said "What is THAT?" I laughed and turned it on, after it warmed-up, she excalimed "OMG, that's a BLACK AND WHITE TV!" I said, "Come on, you've seen B&W TV before." to which she replied, "Yes, but never on an actual B&W TV."

For a while, I was using a 23" 1966 Rectangular Zenith color set that Doug gave me as a daily-watcher (before I had re-modeled the living room). I had a few friends from work over, and they just fell out laughing! One of the funniest guys said I was starting my own religion... H.A.A (Half-Ass-Amish) This probably had something to do with my lack of Cable TV, DVD player, and because my 200K 1993 5th Ave is the oldest car in the plant parking lot! The theory goes, you can have a TV, but it's got to be old. You can have a cell phone, but no color display, and so on. (I did finally get a DVD player)

Later, I moved the set over to a house I'm selling because I thought it looked cool in the knotty-pine basement.

http://eastsidehomes.5u.com/photo4.html

Many people have come through the house with kids, and some of them do not even recognize this large, wooden object as a TV! When their parents answer thier question "What's that?" The reply has often been "That's ugly" , or "That's stupid". (I'm not kidding. Most modern kids lead such sheltered lives that the presence of something even slightly out of the norm, like a wood cabinet or knobs, causes them to loose all perspective. These are generally the bratty, ill-mannered kids that have to be reminded NOT to kick walls, etc. There have been a SMALL number of well-behaved kids who do realize it's a TV. Their reaction is generally positive and curious. I even let those kids turn it on. No doubt these are the kids with a bit more IQ and better parents.)

Unfortunately, my house isn't big enough to have rarely used rooms (like a formal living room) but when I eventually get a larger home, I plan to set-up a big ol' roundie for occasional watching and to generally "F" with people.

[Sandy G]

Oh, man ! That's at least half the fun of having old radios & TVs-messing w/"civilians" minds when you turn 'em on.A goodly number of these kids have never seen a black & white TV, let alone anything else from the 1940s-when I flip on the '48 Admiral 7" bakelite, that floors 'em. So does the little Philco Safari-WOW !! That's Keeewwwlll ! Or the '48 3" Pilot-EVERYBODY wants one of those when they see it. (They really are cute little guys, after all.) I've had folks here from Argentina who about went ape over the Zenith roundie-& it don't even work. Apparently, they didn't have roundies in Argentina, or they were exceedingly rare. Another thing that floors people who come here are the sheer number of TVs & radios I have-maybe I really am a little "teched" in the head...But I do get a lot of "Gee, we had one just like that when I was a kid..." -Sandy G.

[Big Dave]

I took three of my sets to last year's company Christmas party (Andrea, 17" Sylvania and 14" RCA). The owner basically told me that nobody would give a shit. He was wrong. A few of the older people were reminising about when TV was good. Another asked me if tubes were still available. Another asked where the color sets were (this year, as in CTC-16). Overall, I got very positive response.

Right now, I don't have enough sets working to really show them off, and my place is still a clusterfart. At this time, I have 6 restored and total (excluding solid state RCA) of 16, plus several at my mother's place.

[Chad Hauris]

I had to call the plumbers on Tuesday and I was watching the 1963 Zenith round color set when they came...they remarked about my old radios and school bus collection but didn't say anything about the TV...I guess they thought it just fit in with everything else.

[bgadow]

H.A.A.? Thats a good one! Might have to convert to that religion myself!

Last year at our town's hobby fair I set up a display of radios and tv's, including a 20s battery set, a display showing the progression from 01A's to compactrons to IC's...only one thing got much attention, though, and that was the Motorola VT71 playing Red Skelton. Mostly people wanted to know how this could be-maybe they thought somehow old tv's only pick up old tv shows, like the old wives tale that old radios will pick up old radio shows? I kept having to explain that there was a vcr hidden under the table. The fair is coming up again next week-I might take a '50 Philco 12". The volume is a little scratchy but I'll have it turned down, anyhow.

My wife loves showing off my collection to visitors-I always hope to get into a good discussion with folks but they pretty much just talk about the volume of the collection and thats all. Nobody wants to see anything demonstrated or hear the history of color television or anything fun like that.

[roundscreen]

Most young people around here think i am crazy. but they do show a interest in them. They ask me to turn them on and notice new ones i picked up.
My niece thought i had a new tv shoved in the cabnet. till i took off the back and showed the chassis to her. also they like to watch me work on them. {yes i was careful}. If the old electronics bug is in them it will come out.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, one of the most gratifying days I had was a couple years ago when my G/F's 12-yr-old niece wanted to "see your old radios". 10 yr old girl-old radios-Yeah this'll take about 3 minutes. Nope. "Turn that one on, what does that one do? Wanna hear that big 'un..." Then, she sees my TV-7 D/U tube tester. "What does THAT thing do? Well, show me. Show me again. Let me try. Get out of my way". Yes, boss... Young'un sat there the next 2 hrs & DEMANDED to test every tube she could get her mitts on. I'm sittin' there, dumbstruck. She figured it out pretty well. Ended up givin her a Philco 48-200 I had intended to keep. Only real problem is, she kinda knows the difference between "good stuff" & "junk"- & I can't pawn el cheapo junk on her at Christmas... Whadda you mean, giving me a Krako ?!? Why,you cheap old so & so....Kid's got the brass of about any 3 monkeys you want to name...but a lot of it's my own fault, I guess... Like I said, she's 12-and already makin' noises about What Kind of Car I'm gonna get her... Told her she could have the '73 Fleetwood if she'd keep it fed & clean...Got a REAL dirty look over that one...apparently, '73 Fleetwood Caddys aren't "kewl" amongst the jellybean set...-Sandy G.

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

I had to call the plumbers on Tuesday and I was watching the 1963 Zenith round color set when they came...they remarked about my old radios and school bus collection but didn't say anything about the TV...I guess they thought it just fit in with everything else.

Oh Krap, not another old bus nut!! Ya know. Gillig is in my area (about 30 miles south) and I saw the strangest bus built by them just last night. Overall it looked like an oversized school bus but had dual axles in the rear.....not just a tag axle but a powered one, and with dualies on both! I mean this thing was built for some giant loads!!!! It was painted army camouflage (not the official kind, more like what hippys and weirdos do) and was minus a lot of windows along the side (mostly only up front). Manual trans and loudish exhaust, but seem to have lots of power. Had to be from around the 60's or older. Just plain weird. But that's what caught my eye, and why I kinda liked it.

Here's a link to a site all about the famous custom pinstripper/custom car builder/artist Von Dutch:
http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/vondutch/vondutch.htm

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Oh dear God !! The infamous, notorious Von Dutch !! Hadn't heard of him in years...Thx for the memories, Anthony !! -Sandy G.

[drh4683]

Its always great when you can show someone an old TV to prove them wrong. When you talk about old tvs, most people think about either 1950's b+w or those junk 1980's taiwan tvs. Many dont think about the early color tvs. Ive talked with lots of folks who had color tv back in the 60's. All they said was "cool looking tv, but the picture was crap" I think they forgot how good those sets were. I do alot of repair work on the side for other people so there are always customers walking into the basement of my home so they can see all these old tvs.

First reaction: Why do you have all of these tvs?
Next: "you can only watch one at a time, so why have all of them"

Turn one on and show them and they are totally blown away at the sharp color picture.

In fact, last week I brought a 1965 rca victor 19" b/w portable "sportabout" set to work so everyone could watch the bears game. I was shocked that there were no smart a$$ remarks made about the set. Everyone thought it was too cool to watch a b/w set from the 60's that still worked! (with a good picture as well).

I think this same reaction applies to any vintage equipment. I cut the lawn with a 1961 lawnboy 3050 lawnmower. People that past the house slow down to see what Im cutting the lawn with. Others will actually stop and comment "man, I havent seen one of those in 30 years and it still runs!"

When it comes to cars, you always get a thumbs up or a honk when driving down the road but I think the best reactions are when people see the kind of stuff they almost totally forgot about like tvs, lawnmowers and appliances etc.

[captainmoody]

The only way people would know if I collect tv's radios or telephones is if they happen to go in my basement. When the cable guys were here to hook up extra rooms they got freaked out and told me "you have too much ju.. er uh stuff in the way" and told me everything had to be moved out of the way for their safety. I told them that the cable runs only needed were for two rooms and the wire only needed to go down the center of the basement ceiling not along the walls. One of the two guys called their supervisor and evidently he told them to do it as they got to work. when I went upstairs to talk to my wife I heard one of them commenting that "this is how my house wont be" and "what is he going to do, watch them all at once?" This is how most people think around here sadly. When they were done the one guy told me I would need an amplifier if I wanted to hook all of them up to cable! He really thought I was some sort of kook that was going to do that....

[bgadow]

Doug, I've got a '61 Lawn Boy, too! I forget the model off hand but I think it might be the same. I've cut the yard with it a couple times-right now the spring in the pull cord assy. is broken. I've got a Pennsylvania Exeter reel mower with a B&S on it and I used it several times this spring, does a nice job. Later I got lazy and went back to my "late model" push mower. Its quite the sight, me out there with one of these mowers, my wide brimmed Australian hat, dimestore sunglasses, dust mask-wife just shakes her head...

[nasadowsk]

My friends think I'm nuts. In college, the entire floor thought I was a weirdo, having all these old TVs and things moving in and out all the time.

I revived a Motorola VT-71 over a semester and that was cool. The art students thought old TVs were neat at least.

When I lived in my apartment, various visitors were forever amazed to see my sets. When I got my Setchell Carlson portal done, I used to leave it in the window facing outward to "burn in" the set.

I watched the 9/11 coverage on that set. It didn't let me down and still hasn't.

My mom thinks the old TVs are cool, my dad's like "blah", my brother doesn't notice, and my aunt ignores me...

[Carmine]

When I got my Setchell Carlson portal done, I used to leave it in the window facing outward to "burn in" the set.

Huh?

[nasadowsk]

Let the set run for a few hours just showing whatever channel, to let any little 'issues' pop up before I put it all together and use it.