estate sale finds again, for 2004

[Eric H]

That Moto is sweet! you are finding some really nice stuff

Question: Is that an RCA B&W portable sitting next to the Motorola?
Looks very similar to one I had in the early 70's except the knobs are in different positions.


Eric

[polaraman]

I have the same Motorola set. Mine works but needs a diode. It is also in equally as good shape as yours. Been thinking of digging it out and working on it.

polaraman

[Jeffhs]

Doug,

I find it even more amazing that your '56 Admiral TV still has its original CRT, and the tube still makes a nice bright picture. Most sets I've seen of that vintage have had the tube replaced at least once over the lifetime of the set, though some folks try to get by with using a brightener on a weak tube just to get every bit of life they possibly can out of the cathode. Replacing the CRT in these cases is reserved as an absolute last resort. I've read of people who will use a TV with a picture so dim they had to watch it in the dark, rather than replace the CRT. I understand this happens (or used to, before the era of throwaway TVs) quite a bit more with color CRTs than their b&w counterparts, because of the sheer expense of replacing a color tube.

BTW, your Moto looks nice too. Almost incredible shape for an older set. It's one of the few (very few) '60s-vintage console TVs I've seen that has sliding doors which can cover the entire set when it's not in use. This cabinet design was very popular in the '50s, but few manufacturers except Zenith were still putting their high-end sets in such fancy cabinets by the '70s or thereabouts (though I did see a very nice Zenith three-way SC console, 1970s vintage, on ebay recently).

By the '70s, portable TVs were becoming popular, but almost none of them (then as now) were in any sort of metal cabinet. (I've seen only three metal-cabinet TVs--a 1955 Emerson 17" portable, a 1965 RCA Victor transformer-powered portable and a 1959 Zenith 19" portable--since I've been fooling around in this hobby.)

The black plastic "cube" design of most televisions coming from Korea today got its start about thirty or 35 years ago, and will likely be with us for quite a while yet, so I'd hang on to both the Admiral and the Moto consoles--they are becoming very scarce except at estate sales, etc. and are very difficult to find new, as only one manufacturer (Zenith) still makes sets housed in console cabinets. However, the only thing "Zenith" about those consoles is the lightning-bolt Z at the base of the CRT mask and maybe on the remote; the chassis is all Gold Star. It wouldn't surprise me, either, if the decorative pieces at the base of the cabinet are just brass-colored plastic rather than real brass. (The cabinets probably aren't real wood anymore, either--probably just particle board with a photo-finish or other fake veneer over them, not unlike the "wood grain" used on cabinets of Zenith radios of 1930s vintage.)

RCA did have one 25" console in its product line a few years ago, but it has probably been discontinued by now, as all I see on Thomson's website these days are CRT-based table models and LCD/plasma widescreen sets.

Just wait, however, as it may not be too much longer before both companies abandon CRT-based televisions altogether. As the deadline for the analog-digital conversion comes closer (it will be here before we know it), I think the production of tube TVs will slow down, by degrees, until it's to the place where very few if any of this type of sets are being produced anymore.

[bgadow]

Jeff, I guess some folks just watched a whole bunch more tv than others. Last spring I bought 2 consoles from a gentleman who bought them new. One is a Silvertone from about '53, the crt is a GE with a brightener; the other is a '60 Motorola with a weak crt. From talking to him he replaced the Moto with a color set sometime in the 60s. By my figuring he was going through a picture tube about every 3-4 years. Meanwhile, there are still a number of late 40s sets that appear to be on their original tube.

[Carmine]

Jeff, I guess some folks just watched a whole bunch more tv than others.

By this logic, my sets may last forever!