Zenith factory pictures, Zenith's fate, etc.

[Carmine]

I just wanted to thank Doug myself for taking those pictures of the factory sites, especially since I strongly urged him to do so. Living in Detroit, I know how quick we are to bulldoze manufacturing history. I took the pictures posted below just before an "era" ended. The top picture shows my '77 NY'er in front of Chrysler HQ in Highland Park, MI just before the compnay moved to new Headquarters in the 'burbs, about 1995. At least this was a bittersweet picture. The lower picture with my '79 NY'er, shows the Chrysler sign where I worked just before being removed for the evil Daimler sign.

Someone else mentioned the fate of Zenith's headquarters now that the company builds everything in China/Korea...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "real" Zenith Electronics Corp. went bankrupt in about 1998. The assets were sold off, among them the buildings (which now appear to be multi-tenant industrial) and the actual name, logos, etc.

The Zenith name was purchased by the parent company of Gold Star in an effort to ditch Gold Star's reputation for building low-quality VCRs and TVs which would best be remembered for clogging landfills in the US.

Thus "real" Zeniths no longer exist, and the name is just used like some kind of propped-up dead body (ala Weekend at Bernie's).

I have heard that one of the nails in the coffin for Zenith (besides cheaper overseas labor and engineering) was our own greedy & corrupt US elected officials who bowed to Sony, Toshiba, etc. and agreed to an HDTV system that was uncompatable with our current NTSC system. At the time, Zenith was putting the finishing touches on a compatable HDTV system, (the FCC mandate at the time) so any shareholders who were hanging on for this breakthrough bailed-out and the company's stock became worthless.

Correct?