What sparked your interest in vintage televisions?
 

Of course, we all love them! Sometimes I'll just get nice and cozy and sit among my collection, admiring each set. (I find this useful on my #DebbieDownerDays when I get sad for no reason.)

But I was wondering how you all became interested in this noble hobby of ours.

I'll start with my story, although it is a trifle sad. It began when I was a boy, perhaps ten years old, maybe a little older. My father had a VERY VALUABLE vintage television, though I cannot remember the model. A New Vista, I think? 'Twas so long ago I find it difficult to remember.

Father claimed the set was worth thousands. He was a very hardworking man, but dedicated to his family, which was why he'd often take short-term jobs that would lay him off, so that he could collect unemployment benefits and spend time with my mother and I.

Yet the stupid, libelous naysayers at the unemployment office claimed my father had committed fraud while trying to collect his benefits, which of course was a lie because he was a noble man. This made him VERY angry and my family had no money for some time.

My father decided to sell his vintage set. Whilst he was calling pawn shops to see what kind of price he could get, I took it upon myself to make some improvements to the set so we could get more money for it.

'Twas the worst decision I ever made, one that ruined my family.

The chief "improvement" I made was trying to make the vintage VCR-compatible. I thought I was so resourceful, so handy, using my father's tools to "improve" the vintage.

Before I knew it, the set was in pieces. My father grew enraged. He said he'd just been on the phone with two potential buyers, both of whom told him they'd pay thousands for the set. Now 'twas worthless, due to my stupid mistake.

My mother told him not to yell at me. He said it didn't matter, for he didn't want to see us anymore, anyway. (I know it wasn't my mother's fault. He was mad at me, for I'd ruined him financially.)

He stormed out of the house and didn't return. I didn't see my father for years after that, and even then, he was cold.

YET! This horrendous tail of the worst mistake in my life at least ends with my collection. Hopefully -- fingers crossed! -- if I ever see my father again, he'll approve of it. I'll even give him the best set in my collection to make up for the one I destroyed! That would be the least I could do for him.

Anyway, that's my story. (Wowzer, didn't plan to write so much!)

Anyone else want to regale me with your stories? Don't be shy! :banana:

No "Special" reason, just always thought TVs were/are "Kewl".....

I enjoyed the story, thanks for that.

Nothing special here either, but the trip home with the one that got me started was quite the challenge.

I saw a Sony Trinitron KV-1926R from 1987 in the free ads. It was posted a second time before I was motivated enough to go get it. I had a flat CRT 20-inch Sanyo from 2005 and thought the Sony would be a cool replacement as I was into older things to begin with. Well, I had to bring it home on the bus, and even lugging it to the nearest stop was hard. The bus just blew by me and someone pointed out a transit supervisor vehicle that was seconds behind the bus. I got a ride with the supervisor to the nearest terminal; she had contacted the bus and told the driver to wait there. Apparently he thought I was motioning him to go past me. Anyway, I took that bus as far as I could with the TV in my lap. Then I had to carry it half a block uphill to my transfer point. I brought it in through my building's side door, nearest to the street. My arms were so weak by that time I dropped one end of it a couple of inches onto the concrete step but fortunately didn't damage it. It worked fine except for a dark spot in one corner of the screen and slightly soft focus but it was good enough for me so I curbed the Sanyo. After that I got hooked on older sets, often bringing home crap before I got enough worth fixing up.

I enjoyed the story too. I guess I like vintage radios and TV's just because I do plus still using my 1982 Zenith to this day is a great help too. I have nothing against flat screens, they have their place and I have one in my bedroom (it was my mother's given to her by her sister before she passed away from cancer) that I inherited, but I like the old cnsole TV's. I like being retro.

I'm not sure exactly what started me on vintage TV. However, I have always liked Zenith TVs, and have had many such sets over the years, my pride and joy being a 1963 Zenith K2739 23" console, which unfortunately I had to get rid of in 1972. I retubed that set (it was missing every tube except the CRT and the 1J3 HV rectifier), and it worked very well until I got rid of it and a basement full of now-vintage sets.

I hated to junk that Zenith because of all the work I had put into it and because it worked so well (the sound was excellent, owing to a 6BN6 gated-beam sound detector and 6BQ5 output tube, not to mention a 6x9 oval speaker in the base of the cabinet, and the picture was great, owing to all new tubes in the tuner and three IF stages) but I moved in '72 and had absolutely no room for a console of that size in the house I was moving to (long story and OT).


I still have a 19" Zenith "Sentry 2" set in my bedroom, still working last time I tried it (it even has its original CRT which still makes an excellent picture, which is unusual for Zenith televisions of that era, late '90s), but now unused since I got a flat screen [not Zenith] in 2011.

I also had a Zenith 12" solid-state CRT set from 1978 to the year 2000, but I got rid of that set when I moved to an apartment in 1999. That set was still working very well, with a very strong CRT (surprising, since I used that set a lot from 1978 until I moved), at the time; the only reason I junked it was I had no room for it and the two color sets I had brought with me from my former home when I moved here. Also, for some reason I have never figured out, that little portable absolutely refused to bring in one local Cleveland TV station (WKYC-TV, channel 3, the NBC affiliate) on its built-in antenna after I came here (this was, of course, before DTV; all US television was NTSC analog at the time), but it received the other two network stations, although very weakly.

Now it is 2017, and all those old Zeniths have long since been junked. All I have now as far as Zenith equipment goes are my Zenith SMS1917SG table set, several old Zenith radios, and the memories of the Zenith Radio Corporation and of my old sets of that brand.

It is too darn bad Zenith had to go out of business, as they were, IMHO, the best US TV manufacturer there was, except perhaps for Magnavox and Andrea; the last, a New York-based television receiver manufacturer of the 1950s, had a slogan, "The most expensive TVs in America--and darn well worth it!".

When I got my Porthole, I always heard that Zeniths were rather better built than either the Sarnoff Company, or anybody else, for that matter... I have 3-4 tooob T/Os, & they've had little done to 'em, other than the usual re-capping...

Zenith is the best of the US-made sets for sure. My Electrohome can hold its own though, it's been the most reliable of any of my sets. I just had to fix a cold joint on the convergence board to get it going. It's still running on its original el-cheapo caps, just not very well. I'm going to replace those ASAP.

I don't own a single vintage TV. But I am intensely interested in them and the stories about others restoring them and returning them to service.

Why? Because the 50's, 60's and 70's TV sets which I grew up watching - Sylvania HaloLights, 14" GE portables, RCA "New Vistas", Zenith hybrid Chromacolors and B&Ws - were "state of the art" when I was a kid and they are now "vintage" museum pieces.

Love it everyone. Keep on sharing! :yes:

At this point god only knows...

Here is what I can recall. My first memory of watching TV and one of my oldest memories was in the early 90's watching IIRC the show Dinosaurs on my parent's 1976 Motorola-Quasar WID console in the paneled room of my first home....I'd have been an infant then. I was always interested in electronics as a kid...I took apart so many things, from the time I could hold a screw driver on, that my folks started hiding stuff....When I was ~4-5 years old I killed that Quasar by toggling the power switch a bunch of times trying to figure out why the sound always came on first...I'd really like to find another one of those sets.

Around 10 years old I started recapping tube radios that I had been collecting for years (read as soon as my folks started taking me on vacations), and I bought a 1964 4" sony portable at a thrift....A set that is now rather desirable.

Back in those days I watched a LOT of 50's and 60's TV and cartoons and saw porthole TVs and thought a lot on why they were not still being made that way. I wondered if the square ones were chopping off the edges of the picture if the oldest sets I'd then seen were round screen (I know it is the opposite now :D ).

Around age 14 I had moved to FL, had a big radio collection, and was reappraising what I wanted. I started buying more FM sets since I was away from the good local AM of my first home. I wanted to use my sets so I got more of what I'd use. I also realized I watched more TV than listened to radio and started wanting a tube TV...I actually had wanted one for ~6 years by then but could never find one I was allowed to buy...Add to that Adult Swim's late night anime lineup was great back then and my folks and I had a feud going on my ability to watch it live VS tape it and see it next day...Having a console would be great as once I helped get one upstairs it would not be moving again without my help... My first set would be a $5 1958 14" aqua/white GE portable that I would not manage to fix until ~2 years ago. Then I bought a couple of Zeniths and tried to fix those. It would not be until junior year of high-school till my first restos were successful, and TV work clicked. Those first restos were hampered by a move that was drawn out for YEARS by dad's job having moved across the country at the same time the great housing recession started...We had two homes for years...The apartment was cramped and hard to work at, and the house had to be kept neat. When in the apartments (which flowed into my first college years) I grew my collection as much as my severe spatial limits allowed practiced resto work, and got into color, and I've not stopped since.

It is funny to think that ~100-150 sets have passed through my hands (I've probably got ~ 70 presently), and that when I started collecting at age 14 my original goal was to own one tube B&W and one tube color set...:D

Another tale I heard was that Cdr. McDonald didn't really wanna get into TV that much, as he felt it would be a passing fancy. Then when TVs became the biggest thing just about EVER, he changed his tune. But he got his engineering staff together, & told them he wanted a TV built to Zenith specifications, rather the lowest common denominator, as most of them were. Why do I think that the Commander & I would have prolly got along fine ?

Got a Zenith 16" Chromacolor TV with an SC-100 remote from a second hand shop when I was 15, and staying with my grandparents at their lake house during summer vacation. Someone has "adjusted" every knob, when I got it. I used trial and error to make it work properly. Since then, have never really liked new TVs, they lack the character and quality of the old ones.

Easy, Eugene cared more about sense than dollars, the polar opposite of Dictator Sarnoff.
Same sort of thing here. My older TVs are the only ones I ever liked at all. Before that I only cared about what was on the screen, not anything surrounding it.

Yep. the Commander made friends with, & took a personal interest in, Robert Davol Budlong, who worked for a design company that styled MANY of the products Zenith made. RCA barely survived Sarnoff, was nearly dead by the late '70s.