Some will remember the new old stock DuMont color TV found by drh

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12850

(with several other threads to follow)

Later this Jersey City native travelled from its longtime home near Chicago to be with Captain Moody in Michigan; it then went to Baltimore under the care of Veg-O-Matic. And lastly it came to stay with me, here in the land of pleasant living. After lots of work the bugs are worked out and, knock wood, the DuMont works quite well. Now...

Last year the historical society in a neighboring county held an exhibit on life in the fifties. I missed the "casting call" for that one; the TV they had on display ended up being a gutted mid-50s console. Their new exhibit covers the 60s and 70s. This time I called and invited the curator over to look at all the stuff I have. Well, she left here with everything from old TV Guides to a transistor radio; a harvest gold Waring blender to a stack of 8 tracks. She really wanted a TV, and I thought sure she would pick a roundie. But she felt they looked too old. The perfect example, she thought, was the DuMont! We loaded it in the back of her Honda and off she went.

The exhibit opened this past weekend & yesterday I went to look at it. Pretty well done. There were some mistakes in the caption attached to the TV. I had explained to her that Emerson/DuMont was put out of the TV manufacturing business by Japanese competition and that this was one of the last sets they built themselves. Her translation was that this was the last American made television, period. I'll have to email a correction to her, not that many people really know or care about these things. Anyway, thought the story was worth sharing. I'll try to get a pic sometime. I initially thought this only lasted for a month or two but it turns out it doesn't finish until next fall. It will be like Christmas when I get all that stuff back! They asked me the other day if they could use the set; I told them it was okay if done sparingly, maybe just for special occasions. When I stopped in yesterday I noticed that the Instant-On was turned on so I flipped it off. I did also tell her not too fret if it tore up as half the fun of my collection is fixing them!

I hope it is returned unharmed.
I wonder how the intant on was left on. I suppose someone was playing around with it.
I think it is a shame to have historical details changed as if they do not matter. I guess if it looks pretty everybody could care less about boring facts.
Is it good to influence kids that way? I am still recovering from all the misinformation I was fed as a kid who tried to learn all he needed only to find out those around me didn't feel like bothering with the boring details.

The museum has some pretty good paperwork they fill out, showing that the items are covered by insurance and so forth. The instant on may have been in that position when it left here, or maybe they mistook it for the power switch. On that set the instant on is a very prominent switch right underneath the power. I would leave the switch in the on postition sometimes, but always unplugged so it didn't matter. Just kinda neat for it to spring to life so quick after I flipped the switch.

I can think of examples where I was fed wrong information as a child and it takes awhile to get over it. Like my third grade teacher who said ducks can't fly. I suspect I must have heard it in the wrong context or something? I once saw, on Mister Rogers, a man with a large sunflower. I could have sworn he said that globes were made of sunflowers. I stated this "fact" in class once & was embarrassed to hear I was wrong. (years later I reported in history class that JFK once gave a speech in Germany where he stated that he was a jelly donut...and that I know is a fact...for that I earned the nickname "Jelly Donut" for the rest of the year!)

It is good to know it is being cared for as I would expect it is the only set like it on the planet and I think it should be considered to be of great value. I think it would be great to see the picture it produces before it gets too many hours on it. For me it would be worth driving to the convention to see!