Found Two Zenith Metal Cabinet Color Sets!

[drh4683]

I recently went to a local estate sale and found a couple of Zenith table sets from the same home. It was a pretty large ranch, so there was a lot to see. The first set I found is a metal cabinet 1979 Zenith Chromacolor II with space command 800. Interestingly, this is a duplicate model of the one I recently found a few weeks ago in Skokie. I didn't expect to find two late model CCII table sets one after another like that. They only wanted $5 bucks for this one and it came with all of the original manuals and papers. It was in the finished part of the basement on top of an 80's Zenith console. I figured that was it for the TV finds, and I'd get help and move the TV on up into my truck and then look around the rest of the house afterwards. Before I did that, I had to flip through the paper work, and while doing so, I noticed paperwork all mixed in for a 1972 Zenith 25" tin can color set. Naturally, I figured that one was LONG gone and all that was left were the papers. So I kinda dismissed it. I went ahead to plug in the '79 and sure enough it worked. As I'm checking it out, this one lady who was visiting the sale walks up and says "there's another old TV kinda like that one in the back (basement) bedroom". Well I hadn't checked the back room yet. I figured it would just be some other newer set. So I walked back there, and to my complete surprise, it was the '72 Zenith color set! The set was originally sitting on a dresser, but the dresser had sold so they took the set off and set it down and there it sat on it's side. They were careful whoever moved it and the floor was carpeted so nothing got scratched.
A guy at the sale offered to help me load up, so I got the two table sets all in the back of the truck.

After I got these sets, I carefully looked through the papers again to see what I had. There was a purchase receipt for the '72 Zenith. The total price was $858.84 when it was sold new on 10-2-1971. That seemed kinda high for one set, but then noticed there were two models listed. The big '72 is model C4707W, but then there was also a model C5722 listed. That was a little 16" space command 100 color portable! I jumped back out of the truck and asked the ladies running the sale if they sold any other older sets. They said I was the first to buy any kind of TV from this sale and that they know they didn't see one like it when they first started prepping for the sale. I went back in to carefully look around one last time but no luck. However, I did find the SC100 remote for it! So my guess is that the set probably got junked years ago. The people probably bought it for their bedroom TV and it got replaced but didn't make the cut to get saved like the other ones.

One thing that had me curious was why they had those big full sized table sets to begin with yet none of them had carts and both were in the basement. While I walked around the house, I noticed in the upstairs family room that there was a spot where a TV would have sat in the wall to the left of the fireplace (pictured). So that's probably where they got used and once they had problems, they got pulled and replaced.

The '72 Zenith uses the 25CC50 chassis, which is a "mostly tube type" variety. This was the biggest table color set that year and featured the then new and ultra modern 25 inch "square corner" CRT. In the paperwork, there was a sheet from a TV shop from 1979 that said "bad yoke". So I looked in back of the set and I see the yoke plug was disconnected from the HV cage and just dangling. So lets assume the yoke in the '72 failed in 1979 and instead of fixing it, they upgraded and got a Chromacolor II with space command and brought the '72 down in the basement where it sat untouched for the next 36 years... While that seems to be the case, I find that somewhat strange though. The TV was only 7 years old then and I know a yoke would have easily been available for it then, so if they were going to keep it, why not get it fixed? The '72 looks like a low hour set too, all original tubes are still in there and no other signs of servicing, original Zenith bonded lens chromacolor CRT as well. As to why the '79 Zenith got pulled, who knows. Perhaps it developed an intermittent or they were just ready to upgrade. I think these people had plenty of money, they seemed to just buy a new TV every few years! Maybe they wanted a cable ready TV by the end of the 80's? Who knows.

But the good news is, the original owners decided to save them after all these years and they're safe now. Hopefully soon I'll see what's going on with the '72 and if the yoke is truly defective or not.


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