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.

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?

Pete,
I don't think this one's going to fly

Pete,
I don't think this one's going to fly
:no:
Crash!
Maybe we should try podcasting or something :D

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 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.

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

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. :D

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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... :sing: "Don't you go where the huskys go, and don't you eat that yellow snow..." :sing:

I had a great-aunt that had an RCA roundie, possibly a CTC15 or 16. As various family members told me, she had nothing but trouble with it. A great-aunt and uncle (now in Florida) had a roundie, perhaps a Zenith. Another great aunt and uncle (both gone now) had a 16, verified from a photo. I think they replaced it with a rectangular before I had memory. In the early 90's, I decided I wanted one. Now I have 6. They all work, but most need a proper restoration. I paid the best price for all of them... FREE!

When I was in my prime trash-pickin' years, say mid/late 80s, I never saw a roundie in the trash. Mostly RCA CTC-38s. Except ONCE...

I made my parents stop the car. Luckilly they had just bought one of those new-fangled "minivans" that are great for TV haulin'.

It was a 64-ish low-level Zenith. As I recall, it worked fine, lol!

Every roundie I've had since then has been a trade/etc. Never new anybody who had one either... My whole cheapass family waited until about 1968, but it was always Zenith, so I guess they just waited to buy the good stuff.

Never seen a roundie in the trash since, or even an estate sale. :no:

The first roundie I ever saw was at a garage sale, it was a low end metal cabinet one. The round screen was insane - I had only seen rectangular ones. CTC-38s used to pop up in the trash all the time back then (last tube RCA color set I saw in the trash was about 5 years ago, but was a newer rectuangualar console andwouldn't fit on the back of my Harley :) )

For whatever reason, I saw very few tube TVs of any type being tossed when I was young. Oh well..

As a kid I used to work in my Uncles TV sales/service shop. He was a Zenith dealer. The first roundie I ever saw was when I was 7 or 8, which would have been in 1974/1975. I went to a friends house and they had an Admiral with the tilt out control panel. I thought it was so cool! My parents first color set was an RCA CTC-19 mini-console, so I wasn't even aware of round screen sets until going to watch cartoons at my friends. As for working with my Uncle.... There weren't very many roundies on his service route when I started helping in 1978. Mainly CTC-16's and a few Zeniths. In our area the RCA dealer must have had a HUGE sale on CTC-38's because that is what we ALWAYS saw. And with those it was ALWAYS flybacks....I could tell you some horror stories of what we would find in sets. I remember a dead mouse in an RCA portable. My Uncles main bitch was when we would go on a call and the customer had fiddled with the service controls. A few of them had gotten into and twisted every knob on the convergency panel. He reallllyyyy hated that! LOL!

We had a CTC-7 in our living room when I was a kid in the early '70s. I'll never forget watching Saturday morning cartoons on that set.


Dumont-First with the finest in television. :yes:

My aunt and uncle bought a remote round screen color rca set in 1963 and it was the first color set I saw in person. They were vary fussy when it came to the color adjustments and it had a vary good picture. I was the one who would crank up the color when watching cartoons and sit about two inches away from the screen. My aunt would tell me to sit back from the tv or I would go blind but I never did listen to her and I still do it now. { I am 48 years old.} That set was in service till 1975 and was on 8 to 10 hours a day. The flyback burned up in 1966 and the crt was replaced in 1970 if I recall correctly. { My uncle would show me the repair bills.} The first round color set I owned was a ctc15 that my step dad gave me when my mom bought a new one in 1972. The crt got busted when I moved out of the house in 1973. When I bought my house in 1979. I started collecting round screen color and b&w sets and now I have a large collection of round screen sets. I had no clue that there were other people that collected old color sets untill I met Tim in the 90's. Now I see people collecting 70's and 80's sets and I think that is so awesome. I hope our collections will be around for a long time for other people to love and enjoy just like we do.
Ed

I remember generally being pissed because I was seventeen and hadn't seen color television yet.

It was in the spring of 1957 that it happened, complements of an after-school job at a local butcher shop that included delivering orders in their '54 Chevy panel truck. The first time I delivered to a bar in West Conshohocken I saw a 'color TV' sign over the front door.

Walked in and there it was: a metal table model 21-in. roundie IN OPERATION SHOWING COLOR!

I didn't know it at the time, but I stood there watching "Matinee Theatre," a live color broadcast being beamed cross-country from Los Angeles.

I hung there mezmorized far longer than an underage kid probably should have in a 1957 bar. I didn't care.

That was a long time ago.

But hey, you can always remember your first time.

Pete I guess that's what makes us a different breed. As I said earlier, nothing I have seen in my life nothing has come close to the impact of seeing color television in the 50's, It was almost surreal. Color television was very good but almost out of place in that era. And although HDTV is a major improvement, it almost goes unnoticed in today's busy world.

Altho I'd seen Color TV before, one of the 1st times that made an impression on me was seeing myself on TV in color at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Of course, those poor roundies had been on 24/7 I guess for nearly 2 years at that point, & your face was a glorious shade of purplish green on one, & greenish purple on the other one. I'm amazed RCA would have let their star attraction go all to shit like that-especially the way they were ballyhooing it-SEE YOURSELF ON.....COLOR TELEVISION !! Here ! Now ! Live ! And each letter of "color" was a different color... There must have been several million people who saw that display, & lots of 'em probly said- "$600 for this ?!? They got a lotta nerve!" Too bad Sony didn't have Trinitron ready then, that woulda skunked RCA but good...

...although HDTV is a major improvement, it almost goes unnoticed in today's busy world.It's also been a slow starter for sure. I've seen people buy a widescreen HDTV, feed it with only NTSC, stretch the 4.3 sweep to 16.9, and proudly show it off to neighbors.

MeThinks HDTV is still too technical for most to wrap themselves around, but unlike the gestation of color, HD is being legislated into acceptance.

...one of the 1st times that made an impression on me was seeing myself on TV in color at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.You and other AudioKaramans were fortunate to have been there in front of an operating TK-41. My parents lived in Manhattan at the time, and so my Dad and I took the subway out to the fair one day. Keep scratching my butt but don't have specific memories of the RCA pavilion. I do seem to remember roundies on view around the park, but the Chrysler turbines keep popping up and fog my vintage TV recollections. Found a few slides of that trip a few months ago; drat it, no roundies to be seen, but we were both wearing suit and tie! That certainly was a different time. I barely own a tie today, and those turbines are dust. Viva color TV!

When I visited the NYWF in 65, the color adjustment at RCA didn't look so bad to me. However, it was really hard to see yourself in the live display with the lights shining in your face. The taped delay as you went around the turntable was better, but I didn't photograph it too well - the guessed exposure was way overexposed, plus the film saw it as bluish, so my avatar has had a LOT of color correction.

Here's a shot of the control room with a better exposure.

OTN,

Those sets look like TM-21 monitors. The best RCA had to sell to broadcasters and logically used in the control room at the fair.

I'm curious about the "tape delay". When you went through, did you see yourself later as you exited?

The only way to tape delay 2" tape (the only thing available then) was to record it on one machine, let the tape spill out to a basket (which I did in my broadcasting youth) and feed the basket to a second machine for playback. About 14" per sec record speed as I remember.

Dave A

A full write-up on the RCA pavilion starts at:
http://www.nywf64.com/rca01.shtml
especially the "see yourself" part at
http://www.nywf64.com/rca04.shtml.

They used a series of rollers, rather than bins, between the machines. I was absolutely floored when I saw it. I have been pissed with myself ever since that I didn't take a picture of the arrangement.

The technical difficulty was of course completely lost on the average visitor, but I was well aware of the "tape banding" that would show up frequently in on-air programs at the time. I think this was a tremendous bragging piece within the industry, to have three machines that were completely compatible with no "tape banding" visible. The servos and automatic correction circuitry had only recently reached this level of performance.

Some people I know in the TV industry have told me of doing both roller and binned delays. One binned setup, I was told, could do a 30-minute delay!