Found a 1961 Motorola 23" Table TV!

[LovesZenith]

That house reminds me of my own grandmother's house. Her's is a little newer (1951). She's lived there for 64 years of her 89 years here on Earth. The house has it's original floors, cabinets, light fixtures, sinks, bathtub, and counter tops, ordered and installed by my late grandfather in 1950-1951. In the kitchen is a newer late 1960s-early 1970s stove. The living room and kitchen have light switches on the wall, but the bathroom and all bedrooms have pull chains from a bulb in the middle of the room. The house has the original light and phone wiring. I absolutely astonish my twin brother (who has a new Xbox and an iphone 6) whenever I'm over there and use her rotary phone (tan one in the kitchen, and a pink/rose one in her bed room, that's it for the whole house) without hesitation.

[Radiotronman]

Here is my set!

[old_tv_nut]

Hi Doug - can you tell who made the CRT?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by LovesZenith

That house reminds me of my own grandmother's house. Her's is a little newer (1951). She's lived there for 64 years of her 89 years here on Earth. The house has it's original floors, cabinets, light fixtures, sinks, bathtub, and counter tops, ordered and installed by my late grandfather in 1950-1951. In the kitchen is a newer late 1960s-early 1970s stove. The living room and kitchen have light switches on the wall, but the bathroom and all bedrooms have pull chains from a bulb in the middle of the room. The house has the original light and phone wiring. I absolutely astonish my twin brother (who has a new Xbox and an iphone 6) whenever I'm over there and use her rotary phone (tan one in the kitchen, and a pink/rose one in her bed room, that's it for the whole house) without hesitation.

It's hard to believe that a home built that late, doesn't have wall switches in the lesser rooms.
The only homes I seen, were homes wired well after the original construction. My mother's family had a home that was at least 60 years old when it was first wired for electricity in the mid-20's. That home was wired when the electric company subsidised the wiring of homes, so it was wired with the minimum of extras. All the lesser rooms had pull-chain switched lights, instead of wall switches.

[Sandy G]

Oh, MAN... Talk about "Pristine".... I'm in Love..

[bgadow]

Simply amazing how many super clean sets you're finding! Great housekeepers in Chicagoland, I guess!

In 3rd grade my homeroom teacher had a very similar Motorola in her classroom. I never saw it work. One day there was a space shuttle launch and she tried to tune it in. There was a brief flash of light on the screen but nothing else. One of the little things that kindled my interest in old TV.

[fixmeplease]

Great story and pictures! I want everything in that house but love the yellow chair next to the TV.

[TUD1]

WOW! That set is incredible! I have never seen a set that clean "in the wild." Amazing! Glad you found it, Doug!

[LovesZenith]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It's hard to believe that a home built that late, doesn't have wall switches in the lesser rooms.
The only homes I seen, were homes wired well after the original construction. My mother's family had a home that was at least 60 years old when it was first wired for electricity in the mid-20's. That home was wired when the electric company subsidised the wiring of homes, so it was wired with the minimum of extras. All the lesser rooms had pull-chain switched lights, instead of wall switches.

////

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by LovesZenith

I asked her today about that, and the story was pretty interesting. In 1951, they had two kids (Joe, b. 1945, and Geraldine, b. 1946), and another baby on the way. They didn't have much, as my grandfather at the time was struggling to keep a job. (He had problems with alcoholism, leading to his premature death at 60 in 1985). His brother was an apprentice electrician, and did the wiring himself. My grandmother took me around the house, showing me all the lights with pull chains. The lights were all slightly different, something I've never noticed, but they were all painted to match. She told me, since they were tight on money, that they got the fixtures (3) from a building that the brother's boss was called to inspect before it was torn down. The building was built in 1891, and wired in 1916. So, the brother was free to take the fixtures after they had removed them to demolish the building. Therefore, they had salvage light fixtures, (already out of date in 1951) and they were just included in the wiring of the house.

I knew, there had to be a reason for that wiring installation. In the big cities, any newly built home, had to be built, wired, plumbed by licensed contractors and inspected before occupancy. There were minimum standards, that had to be met.

[snelson903]

like new condition ,,,,nice

[timmy]

So how much did you get that Motorola for ?

[kramden66]

I had the same set. It was from a Tv shop and never sold. Had the original sales sticker on the front screen boasting of the 20k volts and the one on the channel knob. It was even still bolted to the cardboard bottom. It need electrolytics and ran like a champ. I no longer have it but was nice.

[Sandy G]

Oh, about 20-25 yrs ago, I started going to auctions around here in Greater Bugtussle, just for the Hell of it. Picked up a few items, but I got to see ALL MANNER of wiring & construction. Quite a few of the older homes had BARE copper wires, & glass insulators. But these things were apparently STILL legal, I don't remember many, if any ever being "Upgraded" to 20th century style wiring..

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fixmeplease

Great story and pictures! I want everything in that house but love the yellow chair next to the TV.

The home, where the set is shown, must be Doug's.
The old home, where the set came from, is totally different, from the home where the set was photographed.
If you look at the pictures of the old home, it looks like a stand from a newer large screen CRT color set, which would be in, what would be the dining room. It appears that the home has a newer furnace, by the looks of the thermostat. It looks like a lot of deferred maintenance of the home.
Awful narrow lots in the area, just like many areas of Milwaukee.