Request for Info - RCA Victor "Pop-up" Cocktail Table

[moyum]

Hi All,

I apologize in advance if I have posted this to the wrong forum.

I have an RCA Victor that "Pop-ups" from a cocktail table configuration (images attached.)

The model number is: N2026
The serial number is: 34052873

Although the tv is black and white, I have seen it in color tv advertisements. (The particuliar ad was within the intro of the television show: Michael Moores's TV Nation.)

How common are these? Any information...or a point in the right direction is appreciated. (Am I the only one that thinks that this tv is neat?) Thanks!

[jeyurkon]

I think it's very neat! Just not very practical. With the TV put away I'd be tempted to put stuff on top and then I'd have to move it to use the TV. The space saved is kind of useless.

But, many don't like to have a cold TV staring at them and making it look like a piece of furniture when not in use is prefered.

John

[Charlie]

We had a member that had two of these... I think it may have been Cory. I believe I sent him the Sams for them years ago.

[RobtWB]

Nice set.
A nice piece of 1950's styling.
I have never seen one in person, and have yet to stumble upon one that is for sale.
I do know that I would pay more than a fair amount of money for one it it were within driving distance of my home.

[Phil Nelson]

They're not too common. I haven't seen one before.

One of those ingenious ideas that didn't turn out to be popular, like the Predicta with a long cable for the separate picture tube. Clever, but how often do you want to move your picture tube around? Plus, you need to keep Uncle Joe from tripping over the cable on your floor.

Phil

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

They're not too common. I haven't seen one before.

One of those ingenious ideas that didn't turn out to be popular, like the Predicta with a long cable for the separate picture tube. Clever, but how often do you want to move your picture tube around? Plus, you need to keep Uncle Joe from tripping over the cable on your floor.

Phil

Zenith's "Lazy Bones" wired remote control had the same problem. The cable between the remote and the television ran across the room, and people had to be extremely careful they didn't trip over it. However, this was Zenith's first attempt at TV remote control, so you can't blame them for trying.

Zenith's "Flash-Matic" TV remote followed the "Lazy Bones" and was the first truly wireless remote control system, if I remember correctly. The Flash-Matic did away with the cable across the floor, but the system had other problems, the worst (or one of the worst; there were others) being that the set would go absolutely haywire if all four photocells on the front of the TV were illuminated at the same time, for example by ambient light or sunlight streaming in from a window. I often wondered what would happen if sunlight struck both channel-up and channel-down photocells on one of these sets. Since this TV did not have a fail-safe lockout system to prevent false triggering, it is entirely possible that the tuner could try to rotate in both directions simultaneously, resulting in either or both the drive motor burning out or the tuner drive gears being stripped and ruined. The same thing could happen with the volume up/down controls, resulting in the same type of damage to the drive system.

The best remote system Zenith ever came up with, IMHO, is their Space Command remote control that worked via sound waves well above the range of human hearing, later to be followed by the all-electronic version of the same system, still later to be followed by IR (infrared) remote signaling. The last is, IMHO, by far the best type of television remote, as it cannot be fooled into false triggering by ambient light or stray noises in the room where the TV is located--the latter was a real problem in the early days of ultrasonic remotes of all makes, not necessarily Zenith. The owner's dog, for example, could walk past the TV and the dog's tags could bounce against each other, creating a signal of just the right frequency to trigger the channel selector, volume, mute, etc. I'll never forget my dad, who was an electrical engineer and did a lot of TV servicing, telling me of one case where someone's TV came on in the middle of the night. The owner's dog had walked through the living room and the tags bounced around and against its collar, creating a signal that turned the set on. Must have been a heck of a surprise to the set's owner when he woke up and heard Johnny Carson's Tonight Show or a test-pattern tone (depending on when the TV switched on), blaring from his TV at two o'clock in the morning.


I don't know whether Zenith or some other company pioneered IR remotes, but whomever did, the idea caught on like wildfire among the other major TV manufacturers of the time and eventually became the industry standard.

[John Folsom]

I have that set, the model is the Hillsborough, Sams 462-1 (I think), from 1959. Not a common set, but several have gone by on ebay. A unique style, even if it not terribly practical.

[zenithfan1]

I'd like to have one of those, I think they look really cool.

[jmdocs]

There's a clip of this set in action on "The Bell Telephone Hour," 1964, with Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence. Here's a still; grabbed from the DVD:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43618028@N00/328651379/

[owl1012]

I can remember that some of the first VCRs had "wired" remotes. At least the cheaper ones. It became a selling point to include a "wireless" remote.