Home Theater in 1951

[kelsci]

http://kelsci3.blogspot.com/2011/03/...ater-1951.html

The above link shows me as a widdle bubbameintzer getting his start in home theater by watching a 10 inch RCA television. According to my father, he paid $400 for this set in 1950s dollars. That would equate today to around $2000 or more dollars. Look at any advertisment on televisions today and see what one gets from $400 to $2000. It also shows how electronics IMHO has and still is the best bargain going for the dollar bill

[pixelthis]

MY FIRST was a MAGNAVOX (a real MAGNAVOX) early eighties, no remote, 19", 400 bucks, considered a good size.
I BOUGHT my first vcr for 850 a year later, the wired remote let me actually ff and reverse.
My first "serious" set was an SONY xbr, 20", around 750(about 2200 today). THE guy I sold it to called the other day, had a
question about it! still works!!! NEVER called back.

[Worf101]

Holy Time Warp Batman!!! Man, we HAVE come a long way haven't we. I'm not nostalgic for the past however. I don't need rabbit ears, tin foil, constant machinations to improve reception, changing channels by HAND! Turning off everything in a thunderstorm... pheh... I'm not interested personally. You can have the good old days BUT, I love seeing catlogues and pictures from that time.

Thanks Kelsci

Worf

[kelsci]

My pleasure, Worf.

[Poultrygeist]

My late great uncle bought a TV for the Joe Lewis fight back in 1939 when he was living in NJ. There were no TV stations at the time and this sporting event was one of the first telecasts. My great aunt still had this 8 inch port hole Dumont as late as the early 1980's when they held a contest in Raleigh for the oldest TV still in use. My aunt won the contest and her Dumont was 10 year older than the runner up!

[pixelthis]

ONE thing I don't miss is the CRT. When I bought my last
monitor I JUST THREW the 42" panel in the back seat, I think we
had to move the seat a bit. THE LAST CRT in our family was
a Sony wega, weighted 250 front end loaded pounds for a
32"! GAVE it away to get rid of it.

[kelsci]

Hi Poultry; I remember Dumont tvs back in the 50s. Dumont also owned a tv station in NYC, channel 5 and I think it was called WABD. The station was sold to some other firm and its call letters were changed(perhaps to WNEW). I think today it is a Fox affiliate.

I think my friend in the 50s had a Dumont console consisting of a 16 or 19 inch television in a cabinet with a very powerful mono amplifier and a 12 inch speaker. The sound was terrific and it could play so loud that one could hear it a few hundred feet from his home.

Dumont came out with a line of color televisions during the 60s. I knew of one only one television store that sold it off of some street that my family would ride to get to the Green Acres shopping center in Valley Stream,L.I. This tv store left a few of the sets play in their window. They did look quite good for a 1960s color tv.

[Poultrygeist]

My great aunt died in 1987 and that old 1939 Dumont port hole TV was the only TV she ever owned. Last I heard it was still working.

[Woochifer]

Nice! Our first TV was also an RCA -- one of those deluxe models that had an oversized console to accommodate an AM/FM radio tuner, and a droptop lid that revealed a turntable up top. It looked similar to the one pictured below, except that it was an even earlier vintage.

[Woochifer]

Holy Time Warp Batman!!! Man, we HAVE come a long way haven't we. I'm not nostalgic for the past however. I don't need rabbit ears, tin foil, constant machinations to improve reception, changing channels by HAND! Turning off everything in a thunderstorm... pheh... I'm not interested personally. You can have the good old days BUT, I love seeing catlogues and pictures from that time.

Thanks Kelsci

Worf

And don't forget having to tinker with the vertical and horizontal controls to keep the picture stable. In later years though, it came in handy for "unscrambling" cable TV signals.

[Poultrygeist]

I'm probably the only person on here who ever watched test patterns waiting for the station to sign on the air. Not unlike like watching paint dry.

I recall wedging bookmatches under the old Philco tuner to get the stations to come in better. Back then TV repairmen and doctors still made house calls.

[Woochifer]

I'm probably the only person on here who ever watched test patterns waiting for the station to sign on the air. Not unlike like watching paint dry.

Well, you're not the only one. I remember as a kid waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons, and the test pattern would still be on right before 7am.

Of course, in my college years, staying up late was more the norm and occasionally I would catch this gem of a sign off on KABC in L.A. The amazing poem is called "High Flight" and it goes right before the national anthem. Great stuff ... then the test pattern starts.

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.



With the advent of infomercials, all-night/early AM news programming, and automation, TV stations in most major markets don't sign off the air anymore. As recently as the mid-90s, I volunteered at the local PBS station during their pledge drive, and the station signed off well before midnight. Now, they go all night.

[Poultrygeist]

The jet featured in the video is the T-38 supersonic trainer. My son flies one to train new pilots at Sheppard AFB, Texas.