see Zenith's Rauland tube plant on "youtube"

[drh4683]

First off, I give credit of finding this to mr fixer. It was posted in the estate sales thread and wanted it to be seen by others that could have missed it.

This is a 10:50 video of photographs of the Rauland tube plant in Melrose Park, IL. According to the video, the plant opened in 1967, but for some reason I think it was earlier than that. The original Rauland tube plant is still in chicago on N. Knox Ave.

I know for a fact that the plant got demolished in 2003 as I saw it in peices earlier that year. There are many good photos here. Its good to see someone else in the area cared enough about zenith to take some photos before the building was gone.

After looking at the photos, many of them are of the HVAC system in the building and do not neccessarily pertain to the process of CRT assembly.

My uncle was an electrical engineer for zenith, and started there in 1981 and was one of the last to leave in 1998 when he went to indianapolis for thompson after the buyout. He worked at the rauland plant most of those years. Ive heard some bad storys about how the koreans treated the original employees when they bought it out back around 1998. I guess they treated them like dirt and were very arrogant tward the orignal engineering staff and assembly workers. I could go on.....

They were probably jealous because the Zenith and American company was the best and they knew it. We all know how the Americans are responsible for most developments in todays modern society.

We can just watch it fall apart now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RSEIa3TZ6k

[240sx4u]

I remember that plant when it still stood in melrose park. Very interesting video, kinda gives me the creeps and also makes me wonder what got destroyed besides the building.

I grew up in Geneva, and lived in Batavia until a few months ago.

Evan

[Carmine]

Back in '90, my parents bought a new 27" set. The picture on the Zenith stood out as by far the best (We had always bought Zenith sets, except for a 19" Sylvania Superset in 1984). The fact that the Zenith set was American made was simply icing on the cake.

Around '93, my grandparents were ready for a new set. My parents bought them a 27" Zenith based purely on the good luck & picture they had from their set.

Within a few years, the picture on the '93 was green-tinted garbage. The only good thing I can say about it was that I made a Franken-set from a 25" with a good tube and a bad chassis. I traded this pincushion'ed monster-hack for the '78 Space-Command set I still use today.

My parent's 27" set survives to this day, with a great picture, albiet in recycled form...





I won't go into my feelings on the subject of the plant closing, I'm sure you all know. I will say that if a company like Zenith still existed today in Chicago, Doug would likely be working there and we'd all be enjoying 3D sets with mind-reading remotes.

[mr_fixer]

I think the differences between Corporations then and now is the idea of Ownership. If you had a problem with a product you could write Mr.Henry Ford, Mr. Sarnoff, Mr. MacDonald or whoever was the CEO and they kinda cared.They loved the business they were in. I think the Zenith Trans-oceanic was created because Commander MacDonald wanted something to listen to on his boat? Nowadays most CEO's hop from corp. to corp. and only care about making the most amount money, in the shortest amount of time. Heck alot of CEO's aren't too concerned if their actions weaken the U.S. let alone a few thousand employees. Pardon my rant again, must be time to take my meds.

[fsjonsey]

Maybe someday in my lifetime I will be able to buy an American made TV set again. I can only hope.

I worked as an Electronic Maintenance man on 2nd shift at the Melrose Park Rauland plant for almost 13 years. I only recognize about 2 pictures. This was not the Zenith I remember! I remember walking down the main aisle with glass and clean rooms on each side. One side the gun room and the other the Frit room. We called it Michigan Ave. This was one example. The Zenith I remember was alive. Not a slide show of depressing pictures from who knows were! The narration was close to accurate. The slide show was not! I know, cause I was there! I encourage other people who worked there to defend this poor and sloppy image that distorts the truth!

[bgadow]

I know I speak for many here: we want to know more!