A look inside a 1950's Magnavox plant

[vinljnkie]

Found this on You Tube today. It's a newsreel report from the 1950's of Greenville, TN "New" Magnavox plant. I thought it was really interesting and that people here might enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/D32jtCClScA

Thanks for posting! That was neat to watch, and the other videos from the same series are great too.

It makes you think how much we have lost in the past several years. I live in a small town with several small factories, and many people just don't understand how important they are. Unfortunately, they find out after the company packs up and goes overseas.

As we say: once they're gone, they don't come back.

[vinljnkie]

Was this the same plant that Thompson used into the 90's?

[Findm-Keepm]

NAP had a location in Greenville - Snapps Ferry Road Plant. They had a huge auction in 2006 of all the manufacturing and parts stockage when they shut the plant down and went overseas with the manufacturing of Magnavox, Philips and Sylvania sets. New Country Enterprises got most of the stockage of their Philips Chassis and Philips-ECG stuff.


Cheers,

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by egrand

Thanks for posting! That was neat to watch, and the other videos from the same series are great too.

It makes you think how much we have lost in the past several years. I live in a small town with several small factories, and many people just don't understand how important they are. Unfortunately, they find out after the company packs up and goes overseas.

As we say: once they're gone, they don't come back.

You can imagine what happened in Chicago!
Look at all the firms, that were located there! Not only the electronics firms, but other manufacturing concerns.

[magnasonic66]

Thank you for posting this, it is quite interesting. I have a friend who lives there, in one of the new 1955 houses built during the boom. He collects Astro-Sonics but does have one or two early '50s Windsors with tv attachments. I wasn't aware that Magnavox was actually assembled in Greeneville, where the cabinet plant was. Fort Wayne was the main office, and some electronic assembly. I hope some other factory or promotional film from the '50s turns up for Magnavox. Thank you for the link!

[Sandy G]

Greeneville's a 30 minute trip from where I live... My dentist is over there. Patronised the Company Store several times when it was there. a guy I knew worked there, he claimed they had the highest quality of any of the Philips plants, but it still wasn't enuff...

[walterbeers]

It sickens me that nearly everything manufactured today is made overseas, cheap labor, cheap products, cheap junk, and when it breaks you just throw it away. No wonder there is so much unemployment in the United States today. Electronics and appliances made back then were made to last and yes they could be repaired. Today you can't even get parts for them after they are a couple of years old.

[davet753]

They also had a plant down in Jefferson City (about 30 minutes south of Greeneville) that manufactured wooden cabinets for console models. I think it shut down a few years before the Greeneville plant. Knoxville (about an hour from Greeneville) had a the main office and engineering department on Straw Plains Pike and a corporate sales office on Sutherland Avenue

I remember Greeneville was also where the parts warehouse was. As one of their authorized service centers, the parts I ordered from them were shipped from there.

Now, there's nothing left of them in East TN.

[Findm-Keepm]

I found my copy of the September 2006 Auction notice for the NAP closure in Greeneville - too big to post here, but lots of plastic injection machines, dies, and SMD automated placement machines. On the back page is the listing for the electronic parts:

$3,500,000 INVENTORY OF NEW TELEVISION PARTS & RAW MATERIAL
PTV Screens and Lens, Diodes, Speakers, Hardware, Screens,
Inlays, Overlays, Switches, Connectors, Terminals, PC
Boards, Variable Resistors, Fixed Resistors, Wire Wound
Resistors, Fixed Capacitors, Electrolytic Capacitors,
Transformers, Picture Tubes, Tuners, Yokes, Tape, Bags, Wire
Cable Assemblies, Motors, Fans, Zeners, Crystals, Labels,
ICs, Transistors, Insulators, Mirrors, Metal, Assemblies,
Solder, Adhesives, Packaging Materials, Chassis and Some
Raw Material.

I understand it went in 12 lots, knocking out the small bidders. Bids of 100,000 or more placed on several lots, and one lot went for less than 1K, probably the larger PTV components. I think the Philips ECG stuff was in an earlier auction, not this one.

Cheers,

[Sandy G]

Sad...

[KentTeffeteller]

Very Sad, Sandy G. Magnavox was a major beloved part of East Tennessee and we loved our Magnavox consoles like crazy. They were great folks. I am looking at getting me a Magnavox console and restoring a nice one and using it in the living room in honor of my grandmother. I love old Magnavox gear.

[holmesuser01]

I used to do Magnavox warranty work, and worked closely with the Greeneville TN plant, and also the Knoxville/Snaps Ferry plant.

It's a 55 minute drive for me to get to Greeneville, TN from my house in NC. No interstate at all between us... just a beautiful old 2-lane road that runs along the river.

Magnavox used to have a large cabinet plant here in Arden, NC, which is now part of Asheville. I bought several finished cabinets from the Arden plant over the years.

[zenith2134]

A relative of mine had a 70s Magnavox console color tv which he kept going until the year 2000 or so. It had a solid-state stereo with 8 track and 33rpm/45rpm and of course AM/FM radio.
When he was getting rid of it, I saved the speakers out of the console. They were 1 round speaker about 4 inches across and 2 small 6x9's. At the time, I was just getting involved with the audio hobby & I remember trying to build boxes for them. Never finished that project.

The TV itself had wonderful color; I recall watching cartoons on it on WPIX-11 analog back in the day.