All these incredible TV's, etc., what will happen to them?

I get the impression that many of these restored priceless objects will end up in the trash if more is not done to find a place for them.

Should not almost every type of museum throughout this country and the rest of the world have a large section with operational TV's, radios, etc.?

Maybe more could be done to get museums to become interested in such things.

I believe multitudes of children would marvel at the incredible entertainment one can get from such things. Would such displays not entice more kids to think about much more than they are usually influenced to think of? Most any young kids I speak to are primarily interested in what new things they can buy to impress thier "friends". It was that way when I was in school but it's clearly harmful to deny children the history of anything, especially one of the most influencial devices ever created.

Such things could lead to children thinking about the people behind everything as well.

Ha... as if most kids would ever develope an interest outside of what thier idols influence them to desire.

[Old1625]

The problem is that museums have to cover not only television and radio, but all kinds of electronics technology, of which television is only a tiny part. There's computer, aerospase, medical and all kinds of other electronic fields.

With the exception of novelties such as the Philco Predicta, there has been very little popularity associated with antique television, its interest being restricted to a very tiny percentage of the population. I did go into a store in North Adams, MA a few years ago, and it was like stepping through a time warp, as the store was chock-a-block full of television sets, with none of them of a vintage later than the late '50s. All were mint and all were working. That store is gone now, and I haven't the foggiest idea where all those sets went. Needless to say they weren't exactly flying out the door back when the store was still open. No interest.

Ten years ago I threw out nearly 150 old TV sets--a few of them working ones--as nobody wanted them, and I had no ready means of making them known globally. Many of the sets were color roundies. A good number of them were later model sets. All I have left of the antique line is a Zenith porthole job and a GE model 810. I do have a few later model color sets, an RCA and a Zenith from the late '60s, and numerous Sony Trinitrons of various age. Many of them may end up getting flung as well.

I think in the next decade that antique television will attain the popularity that antique radio has long enjoyed. We just need to hang in there until this happens, and hope that not too many perfectly good sets get junked in the meantime.

As far as today's young are concerned they are too used to multimedia being in their face at all times, with iPods, text messaging, cellphones, etc, with everything happening instantly. Their ADHD world has no time to wait for a series string of filaments to warm up, and has no memory of the day where one only got 2 or 3 channels, and sometimes one stared at a blank, gray screen for a few moments between programs and commercials.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Brach

Should not almost every type of museum throughout this country and the rest of the world have a large section with operational TV's, radios, etc.?

Art museums typically have few if any 20th century household objects --the exception being those with a "modern design" section, and that is usually pretty limited.

Museums of science & industry often have a broad scope, both in terms of covering different time periods and the vast assortment of technologies. I would hardly expect them to have a big collection of TVs and radios, any more than I'd expect to see a big collection of telephones or vacuum cleaners.

There are a few specialized museums, such as the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting (http://www.pavekmuseum.org/) and American Museum of Radio and Electricity (http://www.amre.us/), which preserve a lot of radios and a few televisions.

And of course there is the Early Television Museum in Ohio (http://www.earlytelevision.org/), with what must be the greatest vintage TV collection in the world.

I'm not so confident that the next decade will see a surge of interest in vintage TVs. Once analog TV broadcasts have disappeared in favor of digital, that will place an additional barrier in the way of the average person being able to use an old restored TV.

(No, I don't mean to start a discussion of digital vs. analog -- that topic has already been discussed to death in this forum and others.)

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[mr_fixer]

Yeah , I also wonder about the future of this hobby. I think collecting of vintage TV's has not yet reached the necessary critical mass, to become mainstream. I have noticed that there is a free medium that it helping to draw interest. It is Youtube, it was about a year ago I found a person who was taking movies of his 70's color Zenith playing vintage cartoons, tv shows, etc. and it was spreading the word and creating interest in vintage electronics. Doug of drh4683 has just added some movies of his roundie Zeniths also playing vintage Tv shows. I think the use of YouTube could inspire new generations of collectors. Logan

[zenithfan1]

I've been wondering about this as well, I've been collecting tvs most of my life and would like to do so for the rest of it. But what happens then? Who do I leave these things to? Everyone I know personally, hates them and would not hesitate to toss them{except maybe my GF } I have thought about donating them to the ETF {given it's still there} or something like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I was there recently and the only example of early color or tv in general was a crappy Heathkit that you couldn't even see the screen on because of the way they had it displayed, I thought hmmm... I can see a better exhibit in my own home.

[walkandtalk]

I'd like to point you gentlemen this way...

http://www.cofc.edu/~jrmuseum/

Rick is an great guy, I've known him for a while and he loves to talk about his stuff. The museum is open for visitation by the public at no charge!

Please consider him for donations of any kind (I'm not affiliated, just a big fan)

[Captain Video]

I have, in a recent past, pondered this question myself, about the safety and integrity of my vintage TV sets when I'm gone. Well, I don't know about you guys in North America, Europe and Australia, but at least here in Brazil it seems that there's a legal way to prevent the worse from being done to them. Looks like I can make a register of my collection, on the related governement organ that deals with museums and so on, as a "private" or "personal" museum. Meaning that I am the sole owner of this collection, but also, that legally no one, including myself, can destroy, dump or promote changes on any item of the collection - can restore, but not change the normal configurations. It means that in the event of my death, whoever inherits my TVs will legally be forced to find a decent place for them, if he/she is not interested in keeping them.

In the southermost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, there are many of this personal museums, created by descendants of German and Italian immmigrants on their own houses. Those houses are true heavens for "nut people" like us, with lots of interesting stuff, like 1930's radios, 40's and 50's refrigerators, and, yes, some of them do have some late 50's/early 60's TV sets, like the Philco Predicta.

I went to one of those museums many years ago, and the family still had a 1920's refrigerator in working condition.

One nice thing is, once you make the legal registration, the government people even teaches you some "museology techniques" to help on the preservation of the collection.

Since I not only have those ( here in Brazil ) rare 1950's TV sets, but also other types of vintage stuff, like 1940's, 50's and 60's magazines of different types, 78 RPM records, political propaganda material from the 50's, vintage toys and some vintage home appliances, it's really the best thing to do. I don't have any children yet, but since there's no way to be sure if he/she will be interested on keeping those things, I can be happy that there's this law.

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

Yeah , I also wonder about the future of this hobby. I think collecting of vintage TV's has not yet reached the necessary critical mass, to become mainstream.... I think the use of YouTube could inspire new generations of collectors. Logan

ACK. Here in Germany, every small town has it's own museum of local history. You can see vintage beds, forks, knifes, torchs, washboards, coffee mills in large variations and so on. But no radios, no tv sets.

People come with busses and trains to see these old devices, and combine it with a break for coffee and cakes. This is a great business over here.

But no one seems to be interest in vintage television.

But when I make a presentation of vintage tv sets, everybody say, we urgently need a museum for this stuff. Many people have to see it and so on.

The greatest problem is: more than 99 percent of the people do not know that vintage television sets do exist!

An example: when I operated the removed chassis of the RCA 9t-246, I had an academic visitor here. He saw the picture on the screen and he asked me how this could be? He meant the television picture on this large light bulb. Again, I did not understand him. After a while I understand that he meant I had replaced the picture tube by a light bulb. He has never seen a round picture tube in his life and was wondering why this could functioning without a rectangular screen!

There is so much lack of knowledge which avoid people to get in touch with vintage television. The functioning of beds, forks, knifes, torchs, washboards, coffee mills is self-evident. But a vintage tv set has to be explained. That's the difference.

We have to be professionals in public relation to do this job.

Another great problem here is the dying of knowledge. Even the young tv servicemen do not know how a tube is functioning. Tubes are dangerous, they can implode, they are hot, they are full of life-risky EHT and so on. We have no secondary growth in the tradition of this old knowledge.

- Eckhard

[bgadow]

Our town is working on building a permanent musuem. They do have a couple items that are radio/tv connected (a dime store tube tester and the lighted RCA sign that hung in front of a local dealer) and I intend, once they get up and running, to lend them something if they will take it. I have had some people casually mention that I should open a small museum; among other things it involves keeping regular hours. I don't think the collection would be protected like in Brazil. One local man had a radio museum; it was incorporated but never opened. When he died the family disposed of everything. I know of some valuable stuff that was sold for peanuts.

[Aage]

I think it might be sorta like collecting tractors. Old tractors are way cool, but who in hail can afford the space to keep a lot of them!?

Friend of mine gave up on old tube radios and switched to transistor portables, in order to save his marriage...

[Captain Video]

Town museums here seem to have interest ( luckily! ) in at least having some of those devices on their displays. On the first picture below is the communications display on the museum of the small town of Amparo, in the southeast state of São Paulo.

The other picture is not really related to this topic, but I found it curious and decided to put it in anyway. It's a 1950 American GE ad, promoting GE role in bringing television to Rio de Janeiro. I never thought GE would advertise it's international business on the US market.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

But what happens then? Who do I leave these things to?

Specialty museums have limited space, and might be drowning in donations.

I went to a "garage sale" at the Pavek museum a few years ago. It was a cavernous room piled with items that were duplicate to their collection, waiting for restoration, etc. Other museums auction off donated items to help offset their operating costs.

Think about it -- if your TV/radio museum already has two restored Predictas, and someone gives you six more, what would you do with them?

The Brazilian private museum is an interesting concept, but there is nothing like that rule in the USA, as far as I know.

The small-town historical societies and museums that I have seen typically run on a shoestring budget from the town, rely on volunteer helpers, and would have no idea what to do if someone donates, say, 50 televisions to go along with their cramped collection of old photographs, tobacco pipes, and infant baptismal gowns.

In recent years, I have shifted from "accumulation" mode to "upgrade" mode.

Who really needs dozens of boring brown Bakelite radios? I have disposed of a lot of them at swap meets, etc., and used the proceeds to get a smaller number of more interesting/valuable things, such as a red Tesla Talisman 308U -- a beautiful and uncommon Bakelite set.

I don't have any family or friends who have any interest in my old TVs and radios.

My plan is to gradually upgrade and whittle down my collections by selling or giving things to other collectors who will appreciate and preserve them. No, your collection won't remain intact, but that's probably not in the cards, anyway.

The worst plan would be to hoard everything until you unexpectedly kick the bucket, at which point it is all dumped by an estate-saler or auctioneer to people who will buy things for pennies and turn them into fishtanks or "Deco" plant stands.

A couple of weeks ago, a visitor to my website sent an email saying that his uncle left behind 1500-2000 (his wild guess) radios and related things. His first question was, "Do these have any value, or should I just put them in a dumpster?" Clearly not someone who knows anything about old radios or TVs.

My usual luck -- he's located on the opposite side of North America, so I can't just drive over and help him figure out what he's got.

I gave him some basic advice about selling things, and tried to put him in touch with a collector in his area.

Long story short, don't assume that your "stuff" will automatically find friendly hands after you're gone. This guy replied to my email thankfully, and mentioned that he had tried to contact several other Internet sources who didn't respond. If he hadn't been savvy enough to use email, or find my website, it would all be in the landfill by now :-(

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[zenithfan1]

Who knows, maybe by the time I hit 70 they will be able to transplant our brains into a new cloned body! Anyways, thanks for the input! Gives me something to think about.

[shrinkboy]

somehow, i think the OP is being misunderstood...i think i detect some irony going on in his post...

[Captain Video]

Sometimes, a government museum is the worse place to send your antiquities. Here is a SCARY example - a government museum in another small town in the state of São Paulo. This museum is devoted to antique cars. As you can see, the people in charge of the museum are not doing their homework. What makes me even more angry is to know that PRIVATE collectors have made offers for the cars, but the stupidy government REFUSES to sell them!!!

I have been under such a situation before. Months ago, I was walking downtown here in my city, when I spotted a nice 1950's chair being used in one so called "cultural foundation" . This foundation is located in a building that was the customs warehouse in the 19th century. The floor of the building is paved in the same way it was a hundred years ago, with irregular stones. It's doing severe harm to the thin wooden legs of the chair. I have made several proposals to BUY that chair from them, but it was useless. They prefer to let it deteriorate until it is no more good than dumpster food.

Here is the link to pictures of old ( and some of them, rare ) cars being turned to rust:

http://www.carrosantigos2004.blogger...1_archive.html