TV with Tex & Jinx

[jmdocs]

Thought people would get a kick out of this glimpse into the TV room of Jinx Falkenberg and Tex McCrary, (model and PR exec, and radio talk-show hosts), 1947.

[Eric H]

That is so cool, wonder what the set is?
Looks like a projection set, no doubt a custom installation?

It's hilarious they're all dressed to the nines and eating out of fine China.

[Tom Albrecht]

Although the set certainly is not a DuMont, the setting looks like a typical DuMont ad, where they tend to show rich people all dressed up watching a DuMont while sipping tea in a fancy room in a mansion.

[Dave A]

Not your garden variety RCA or Fada. The cabinet height is too short for them.

[Sandy G]

I "THINK" she/they had a radio show back then called "Hi Jinx !" that was sort of a radio version of "I Love Lucy"...For whatever reason, they seem NOT to have had a big career in TV...I've always wondered about the "ALWAYS dressed to the Nines" business...Did it NOT get hot back then, in them non-air conditioned days? Did Ward Cleaver ever NOT wear a suit ? I remember seeing another Tex/Jinx ad, shilling GE television-"It's America's Grandest Value !" & mentioning it was made in a place called "Electronics Park"... Best one I've seen, though, has to be a Hallicrafters ham radio ad from 1935, "Science gives you the..." & some model of super hot-shit model of a ham transmitter sitting there w/this SCARY Frankenstinian dude in the requisite tie & lab coat gazing down upon it, the expression on his face suggesting HE might have just given birth to it hisself...

[jr_tech]

Can anybody here point out Tex and Jinx in the photo ?

"I've always wondered about the "ALWAYS dressed to the Nines" business...Did it NOT get hot back then, in them non-air conditioned days?"

I have read that air-conditioning started to make it's way into homes just after ww2, so it is quite possible that a swanky set-up like this was indeed air conditioned.

jr

[David Roper]

Tex and Jinx are closest to the TV, seated at either corner of it. (correct me if I'm wrong)

[jr_tech]

I think you are correct... I was trying to guess from the pictures on the walls, and thought that perhaps Jinx was seated behind Tex, closest to the camera. I have not found many pictures of the couple together except this cute little record, from:

http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/tj.html

I have been a fan of OTR for years, and can't believe that I have never heard of this famous couple!

jr

[Reece]

The picture was posed, of course, but people did dress up more back then, summer or winter. Men wore hats on the street and women had to have the latest hats to wear, almost never went bareheaded. It was a more formal time.

[Indian Head]

I read something about Hugh Downs (probably in the book "Please Stand By") in the late 1930s somehow getting roped into working in a television studio. He says that when he came on the set, it was freezing cold, presumably from A/C and his female co-host was wearing a heavy coat. He didn't understand why anyone would work in an uncomfortably cold situation. Shortly before the broadcast, the numerous studio lights came on, his co-host threw off her coat and they began. Within mere minutes, everyone was sweating!

At least that's one example of desperately needed A/C in early television.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Reece

... but people did dress up more back then, summer or winter. Men wore hats on the street and women had to have the latest hats to wear, almost never went bareheaded. It was a more formal time.

The local paper a few weeks ago ran a fluff editorial that lamented today's casual dress (T shirt and jeans worn by white collar workers at the office). Said that people dressed up during the Great Depression. But one thing he didn't mention was that people didn't shower as much then vs today. "B.O."

Back in college, a foreign student classmate mentioned to another classmate, in a friendly manor, that he looked like a bum, as he had on raggedy T shirt and worn jeans. I mentioned that there was an important difference between him and a real bum, that the classmate was freshly showered, and his clothes freshly laundered, even though he looked like something the cat dragged in, he didn't smell like something the cat dragged in.

[Sandy G]

I tried SO hard, to buy Bethany a dress when she was a kid....Finally talked her into trying one on once, acted like it absolutely KILLED her, never tried THAT again....And she looked SO cute in it, too...(sigh) We might be the last generation to remember that women actually wore things called "dresses"...My mom rarely, if ever, wore 'em after she got old.

[Sam Cogley]

Originally Posted by Reece

The picture was posed, of course, but people did dress up more back then, summer or winter. Men wore hats on the street and women had to have the latest hats to wear, almost never went bareheaded. It was a more formal time.

I often wear a fedora, and I'm 31.