NOS DuMont Adventures Continue

[bgadow]

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!