Zenith ad in Saturday Evening Post, 14 February 1953

Oh, 1953, where did you go ? Come back....Please ?

We don't necessarily need 1953 to come back. We just need to find the sets and get rid of those evil bumblebee caps.

We don't necessarily need 1953 to come back. We just need to find the sets and get rid of those evil bumblebee caps.


There is no sense in wishing that 1953 (or any other year or decade) will return, as time only goes forward. With DVDs and retro-TV digital channels like MeTV, Antenna TV and RTV, however (yes, RTV is still hanging on, but for how long is anyone's guess), almost any TV show ever made is now available, so we can watch those great old shows from the '50s to now on our old sets (with picture quality as good as the set's design will allow, given the state of the art when the sets were new) after we restore the latter to past glory. Granted, it's a big job recapping and otherwise restoring an old TV, but I'm sure the results will be well worth the effort when you see, for example, an old episode of Gunsmoke or Bonanza (or any one of 1001 other vintage shows) on your cherished 1950s-vintage Zenith or other make vintage television set.

Alright, don't be such buzz-kills, guys! There's nothing wrong with a little nostalgia. Or Bumblebee caps, when they were new. Being a little kid at the end of the 1950's was a magical time, and my world was quite happy back then.

Now we have grade-school kids with smartphones, Facebook, Snooki, Trump, Limbaugh, TV's that can't be repaired, and utter garbage to watch on them. Not to mention ugly cars like the Nissan Leaf and Subaru Tribeca, fast-food and even store-bought food that kills you in record time and channels full of liars to tell you how great all these things are...

So, grab a fist-full of Orange Drops, Little Devils and some leaded solder and have at it!

In any case, that's a cool Zenith ad. I am, however, a little surprised their 27" model was 700 bucks. Seems if you had 700 bucks to pay for a set in '53, you'd just wait till '54 and get a color set.

I wonder how well those 27" tubes held up back then. I have a mid-60's Maggie 27" set with a good tube, but it was replaced.

Somehow that '53 set looks a lot more modern than I remember other sets from that era looking. The styling is classic, and it must be the tube: more the size we're used to in the sets of the late CRT era. Back then 21" was the standard and larger sizes were few and far between. Also on this set controls on the right side of the screen rather than underneath is more "modern."

Einar72, I couldn't agree with you more!

Alright, don't be such buzz-kills, guys! There's nothing wrong with a little nostalgia. Or Bumblebee caps, when they were new. Being a little kid at the end of the 1950's was a magical time, and my world was quite happy back then.

Now we have grade-school kids with smartphones, Facebook, Snooki, Trump, Limbaugh, TV's that can't be repaired, and utter garbage to watch on them. Not to mention ugly cars like the Nissan Leaf and Subaru Tribeca, fast-food and even store-bought food that kills you in record time and channels full of liars to tell you how great all these things are...

So, grab a fist-full of Orange Drops, Little Devils and some leaded solder and have at it!

Amen, Bubba ! We also had pop music you could listen to w/o blushing/blanching, cars that had some personality, a future that looked bright, a country that was on the way up...

Somehow that '53 set looks a lot more modern than I remember other sets from that era looking. The styling is classic, and it must be the tube: more the size we're used to in the sets of the late CRT era. Back then 21" was the standard and larger sizes were few and far between. Also on this set controls on the right side of the screen rather than underneath is more "modern."

I agree, take a look at this 24" b/w Packard Bell 2118 from 1953:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=165924&d=1261813799

Nearly the same style cabinet, but the round tube IMHO, makes it look much older.

jr

I restored a Zenith from that year as my first successful restoration, but mine was a 21" metal faced leatherette cabinet with a cool factory wood stand that gave the impression of an end table.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/ElectronicMemory/DSCN0534.jpg

Alright, don't be such buzz-kills, guys! There's nothing wrong with a little nostalgia. Or Bumblebee caps, when they were new. Being a little kid at the end of the 1950's was a magical time, and my world was quite happy back then.

Now we have grade-school kids with smartphones, Facebook, Snooki, Trump, Limbaugh, TV's that can't be repaired, and utter garbage to watch on them. Not to mention ugly cars like the Nissan Leaf and Subaru Tribeca, fast-food and even store-bought food that kills you in record time and channels full of liars to tell you how great all these things are...

So, grab a fist-full of Orange Drops, Little Devils and some leaded solder and have at it!

Awe come on, Limbaugh is smarter than all the rest of those on your list your list (and maybe you as well seeing as how you insulted my intelligence and that of the majority of voters in my state of Wisconsin in a fishtanking thread a while back) combined. Even "with half his brain tied behind his back. Just to make it fair."(as Rush likes to say)!

If you look back at vintage consumer electronics (ignoring paper caps) it really looks military grade compared to the junk sold today.

C'mon guys, let's NOT get "Political" 'round here...

Awe come on, Limbaugh is smarter than all the rest of those on your list your list (and maybe you as well seeing as how you insulted my intelligence and that of the majority of voters in my state of Wisconsin in a fishtanking thread a while back) combined. Even "with half his brain tied behind his back. Just to make it fair."(as Rush likes to say)!

Tom, I made two heartfelt comments, and I really didn't expect a belly-full of feigned indignation about the Walker debacle, a la far-right echo machine. Truly a waste of time and money, a voice of the people outspent 8-to-1 with a mere six-point spread as the result. I proudly contributed a few bucks here and there, just like many other NON-union folks across Wis. and America, unlike the handful of ultra-rich, many from foreign countries, who gave hundreds of millions to keep their lap-dog lackey in place.

As far as Limbaugh goes, there is no defending this miserable lost soul. He is paid millions to spread a message designed to ultimately end our democracy and cede control to his global, corporatist handlers annoyed with our little exercise in democracy. Are you a father, Tom? If he said YOUR daughter had a face like a dog (like he did with Chelsea Clinton), would you still kiss the ground he soils upon? If he called YOUR daughter a slut, wouldn't you be a bit less of a disciple at this point? If you consider him worth defending, then I feel sorry for you. :tears:

Let's leave it at that and get back to the great hobby of TV restoration that unites us on these web pages.

Guys, I WASN'T KIDDING w/my post above...You wanna argue politics, go to Political Chat, & have at it. Next one that says anything political, is gonna get some time on the bench. I'm SERIOUS. That's ENOUGH about this.

I agree with Sandy, Although it's a good conversation, it should continue there if it's gonna keep going in this direction.

That PACKARD BELL 2118 a roundie?
I have the older 2116 as in my avatar and its a 53 also.. In fact, my SAMS covers the 2117, didnt know there was still roundies after my rectangular model. Hmmmmmm :scratch2:

SR

Tom, I made two heartfelt comments, and I really didn't expect a belly-full of feigned indignation about the Walker debacle, a la far-right echo machine.
It is not rush that spurred my comment about insulting me and my state, but rather it was the following that you posted during college finals and or a following move when I was ticked, but too busy to respond.
05-21-2012, 10:00 PM
Einar72
It is no surprise, considering what's happened in MI, WI, FL and OH. Someone has to vote these devils in, and it sure isn't thoughtful, caring folks with a sense of justice. If they're clueless enough to say something so moronic, imagine how they voted!
Last edited by Einar72; 05-21-2012 at 10:07 PM. Reason: Mellowed out initial thoughts



As far as Limbaugh goes, there is no defending this miserable lost soul. He is paid millions to spread a message designed to ultimately end our democracy and cede control to his global, corporatist handlers annoyed with our little exercise in democracy. Are you a father, Tom? If he said YOUR daughter had a face like a dog (like he did with Chelsea Clinton), would you still kiss the ground he soils upon? If he called YOUR daughter a slut, wouldn't you be a bit less of a disciple at this point? If you consider him worth defending, then I feel sorry for you. :tears: If by "slut" you are talking about that female student from a Catholic college who expects the college to pay for her birth control (which goes against their beliefs and constitutional right of religious freedom) then I'll say this...As a half Baptist, half Catholic, Christian I don't hold that woman in high regard, and I heard what rush said before and after "slut"(he called her a whore too and WELL justified it with logic and no one complained about him calling her a whore which is IMHO a stronger pejorative:scratch2:). The other incident I don't know about or care about, and frankly the dems have slandered Palin (sometimes hiding behind comedy), also to an extent Bachman, so brutally and without reason that I feel sorry for you defending them(and no fake crying I'm serious!), what they have done goes far beyond Rush's mild insults into such disgusting vulgarity and misogyny that it should not even be uttered in the presence of children.
Also most companies would not be global if the dems had not regulated them off the face of the country.
As a hardline Wisconsin Tea Party Conservative your not gonna sway me. Especially after seeing WITH MY OWN EYES the contrast between the democratic union goons who wrecked the state capital after Walker's reforms(most were paid to come BTW) and Tea Party protesters at a major Milwaukee rally who came behaved civilly and left the place spick and span(This was the biggest crowd of people I've ever seen bigger than a state fair and all came simply form a small mention on the radio). Insulting me and the people I respect and admire because you disagree will not change my mind, though if you do it right I may mentally lump you in with the hired goons that have been patrolling my state.

Truly a waste of time and money, a voice of the people outspent 8-to-1 with a mere six-point spread as the result. I proudly contributed a few bucks here and there, just like many other NON-union folks across Wis. and America, unlike the handful of ultra-rich, many from foreign countries, who gave hundreds of millions to keep their lap-dog lackey in place.
You are wrong about the spending. The unions spent millions on behalf of Barret that that were not counted as campaign activity but rather union activity the spending was very close to even if you don't ignore that KEY detail.

One last thing for you to sit on is that walker took a strong conservative approach, improved the state(he turned a monsterous state deficit into a surplus, freed up localities and their school boards to get their budgets right[so right that property taxes have dropped and schools are hiring], and all only at the expense of making some public employees work under similar conditions to their private sector counterparts[they still have it {too?-}much better than their private sector counterparts and should count their blessings that Walker went easy on them]), he ran on his policy record and won.
Obama did an equally strong job making policy that swings completely the other way, but should he employ Walker's election strategy of running on policy record Obama will destroy his own chances of getting re-elected as the majority of Americans strongly dislike his defining policies.
In short Walker merely had to say 'look around you at the improvements I've made' but Obama will have to distract from his own record and try to convince America that he is not in fact the politician we have come to know. And don't get me started on Barret I go to school in Milwaukee and can rattle off a long tick list of that guy's garbage. I'm surprised that Milwaukee has not recalled him yet.

Let's leave it at that and get back to the great hobby of TV restoration that unites us on these web pages.
This we can agree upon, and had you not gone into politics in the first place I would have not responded.

Have a nice day!

Guys, I WASN'T KIDDING w/my post above...You wanna argue politics, go to Political Chat, & have at it. Next one that says anything political, is gonna get some time on the bench. I'm SERIOUS. That's ENOUGH about this.

Opps! I did not see your post until just now I'll remove mine if asked.
Sorry!

Edit:I don't see a political chat section here. What are you making reference to?

That PACKARD BELL 2118 a roundie?
I have the older 2116 as in my avatar and its a 53 also.. In fact, my SAMS covers the 2117, didnt know there was still roundies after my rectangular model. Hmmmmmm :scratch2:

SR

Yep! here is a pix from one of the inside pages of Photofact #204 - 7:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=165925&d=1261814624

CRT is listed as a 24BP4.

jr

Hehehehe yep, ive seen that chassis before!! :D

Mine uses a 17HP4 :)

SR

Hehehehe yep, ive seen that chassis before!! :D

Mine uses a 17HP4 :)

SR

Cool! I looked at the schematic halfway expecting to see a voltage doubler in the HV for the larger CRT, but it has just a single 1B3 supplying only 14.5 kV to the CRT... bet it wasn't super bright!

jr

jr. tech, that PacBell has the same more modern "flavor" as the big Zenith. With it turned off, at first glance you could take it for a color roundie of the sixties or seventies.

jr. tech, that PacBell has the same more modern "flavor" as the big Zenith. With it turned off, at first glance you could take it for a color roundie of the sixties or seventies.

Interesting perspective!
I guess that if I saw the two sets side-by-side, I would judge the Zenith to be a later model (perhaps as late as the late 50s) and the Packard Bell to be earlier (like '51 or '52)... If brand names were not visible, I would likely conclude that they represented samples over a time spread from the same manufacturer. I might mistake the Packard Bell for a CTC-4 clone, but not anything much later than that.
I agree that both sets very much exhibit a certain "timeless elegance", but the mahogany finish shouts "50s" to me.

jr

Opps! I did not see your post until just now I'll remove mine if asked.
Sorry!

Edit:I don't see a political chat section here. What are you making reference to?

Tom, go over to AK, find the thread and wish our good freind Sandy a happy birthday :yes:

Right about mahogany, which in those days was real veneer and solids. So much later on was photofaked imitating walnut.

Tom, go over to AK, find the thread and wish our good freind Sandy a happy birthday :yes:

I don't have an account on AK, and have not had enough reason/motivation to do so yet.

So, grab... some leaded solder and have at it!
I consider myself to be RoHS-resistant. :)

And what better band to listen to while re-capping with LEADED on a Saturday than LED Zeppelin? :guitar:

http://kzok.cbslocal.com/2012/05/18/lunch-with-led/

Looking in the back of the PacBel: that plywood box holding up the CRT seems like overkill. Suppose there's nothing "in" the box? Could have been done with just a strut or two.

Cool! I looked at the schematic halfway expecting to see a voltage doubler in the HV for the larger CRT, but it has just a single 1B3 supplying only 14.5 kV to the CRT... bet it wasn't super bright!

jr

14.5 kV of "picture power" on a big tube would not be very bright:no:

I wonder what the Zenith's voltage is:scratch2:as they were traditionally judged as having the best (brightest?) pictures

Checking back on my Tab Books color TV service manuals for the different makes from 1964-1975, I noticed the HIGHEST - 29 kV :yikes:was
in Zenith sets, specifically the 1973-75 CCII 25DC57, 25EC58 etc

PS Happy Birthday Sandy G, My Grandad's B-day was today he'd be 102 and probably on his 5th Zenith!