Art Margolis
 

I was doing some basement cleaning recently, and came across an Art Margolis book. I know a lot of younger, old-TV lovers like myself liked to read the Margolis books because they were definately written for do-it-yourselfers.

Here's my question: What ever became of ol' Art? :scratch2:

A quick Yahoo search tells me that he eventually wrote some books about trouble-shooting Commodore 128s, so he was alive at least until 1990.

One of the books mentions "Denny Margolis", and repeatedly shows a younger guy working on sets, so I'll go out on a limb and say his son followed him into the business. Who knows what city he was from?

If Art is still around in 2006, I'd think he would be on the internet... Perhaps he has a myspace page? Would be a kick if he joined AK...

Both Doug and I tried finding him to no avail last year. IIRC, Doug thought his shop used to be in NY. We tried different country wide searches, and even called a few people found on the list, but they said they were not related to him in any way.
I have been wanting to meet him since finding his book in the Macomb County Library in 1976! That book gave me the push needed to start repairing televisions, and eventually open my own shop.
Maybe someone could find one of his children and we could get more information.
Several things I admire about Art, he knew how to make a business successful (as well as publications!) and also his ability to create a good work environment for the employees.

I didn't know that anyone else had tried to find him, but I am surprised that nobody else chimed in? No love for Art and his easy-to-read style?

At the least I'll bet Art lived on a coast, because I noticed a screen shot with a "surf" temp reading. I'm sure there is probably a test-pattern in there someplace with some call-letters. From the styles of homes that appear in some of the antenna-installation pictures, I'm guessing east coast.

Okay, I'll chime in. :) Those Art Margolis books are/were great! When I was in high school, I found an old Margolis paperback at a book sale, and that was what first got me interested in finding/fixing old TVs. I still think Art's books are easily the best I've ever seen in the entry-level "how-to-fix-your-own-TV-set" category. If you're new to fixing old TV sets, you probably couldn't do much better than to find one of those old Art Margolis magazine-style "how-to" TV repair books from the 1960's and thereabouts.

Could this be him? The man is 88 years old! From www.peoplefinders.com

. MARGOLIS, ARTHUR I 88 Available Available(2) Available FAYETTEVILLE, NY
SYRACUSE, NY


polaraman

I'm always on the lookout for good TV repair books, but I had never heard of Art Margolis until I read this thread. He sure wrote alot of books, I did a quick search to see if any of his books were available on the internet and came up with:
The practical handbook of TV repairs
The Master Handbook of Electrical Wiring *
Make Your Own TV Repairs. *
The New TV Repairs You Can Do
TV Trouble Diagnosis Made Easy
Solid-State Circuit Troubleshooting Guide
Tv Schematics: How to Read Between the Lines *
199 electronic test & alignment techniques
TV Bench Servicing Techniques
TV Trouble Diagnosis Made Easy
TV Servicing Guidebook: Problems and Solutions
101 TV Troubles From Symptom To Repair
125 typical electronic circuits analyzed & repaired
Servicing SYNC Circuits.
Philco Monochrome TV Service Manual
Professional TV Repair Secrets
199 TV Tough-Dog Problems Solved
TV Repairs You Can Do
125 CIRCUITOS ELECTRÓNICOS TÍPICOS".
Modern radio repair techniques
(I left out the computer repair ones)
After christmas I'm going to order a massive amount of capacitors, I think I will pick up a few of these as well.

How about Denny Margolis? If anybody wanted to contact him, I'd feel better going through the son, so nobody thought we were trying to scam an old man.

I actually did call the fellow in NY last year during my search, he was real nice and we did talk for a little bit, but he was not the same Art that wrote the book.

Well, I just finished spending too much time scouring the net in search of our friend Art. Probably no connection here:

Milt Margolis Vintage Radio (703) 256-6688 (week-ends)
Milt has a booth at Antique Emporium
7120 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003 Antique radio repairs

though I guess somebody could check. There was an Arthur P. Margolis who passed away in Mass. on 1/10/02, but try as I might I cannot find an obituary. This Arthur had a wife named Natick & a son named Adam Scott Margolis (who got married shortly after his father passed away). Interesting-I can type my name in google and get pages on either myself or the other fellow with my name out in Wisconsin...but here we have someone semi-famous and there really isn't much out there.

Just saw this thread a few minutes ago. Back in the latter ‘70s I had business with Art. He was under contract with TAB BOOKS when I was editor there. I’d have to dig deeply to find which book contracts I signed with him, but a quick search in an old briefcase located the following data.

Back then, Art Margolis lived at the:

Watergate Apartments
Apt. 367
Maple Shade, NJ 08502
His home phone was 609 235 1271


Then on September 6, 1977 his address changed to:

Art Margolis
3745 N.E. 171 St.
Apt. 4
N. Miami Beach, FL 33160
305 944 1016

Hope this helps your quest.

Pete, that is so interesting! To finally find someone that had contact with Art at one time (for me) is unbelievable. I have only known the man through words and pictures, Can you share any stories?

I still have a couple of his books that I bought back in the early 70s. I learned a lot from him, and also from Jack Darrs' "Service Clinic" column in Radio Electronics magazine.

Art Margolis is clearly the best writer for the TV hobbyist. I have 6 or 7 of his books. Most of my earliest TV repair hobby knowledge is from his books.

I thought about looking him up too, but decided he would be too old, if he's still with us. He looks about 55 in his "Professional TV Repair Secrets," which was published in the late 50s.

Another famous TV repair author I'd like to mention is John R. Meagher of RCA Servce. His works include the Pict-O-Guide series, and many many RCA publications as well as commentary in other TV repair books. He is most likely no longer with us, but I consider him the Godfather of TV repair.

Charles

I first found out about art margois in 3rd grade. A friend invited me over and we looked through his dads 1973 popular mechanix encyclopedia. Being into TV's then, Under "TV" was one of Art's books (published for the encyclopedia). Thats were I learned all the basic fundamentals of TV troubleshooting and learned what tubes do what. I always enjoyed looking at the pictures in those books. That made me want to find those types of sets even more. I remember having a 12" 1965 magnavox portable b/w with the dials on the side (japanese set) and it had a blank raster, no sound. At that time, I only had a eico 555 tube tester, which didnt do a thing for me as it was pre compactron tester. Later on, I found a knight 400A at the resale shop and then everything took off! Too late, already took that set apart but kept the chassis and tested the tubes. Sure enough, the sync AGC tube was bad. I wish I still had that set. Anyway,
I still have that volume of the encyclopedia he gave me. Dad didnt care, he never used them. Since being on ebay, I think I have every volume he made for TV repair, starting in 1959. "Professional TV repair secrets". Most books were the same layout, similar pictures, but all were slightly different.
As for Art Margolis today, he may still be around. There are two "Art Margolis" living in Florida as of today.

One is in Pompano Beach, FL and is 85 years old, the other is in Sarasota and is 80 years old. Either one may very well be him. You can find out by searching the name on whitepages.com for phone number etc.

Seems like most of us started out in TV hobby by having his books. He gets alot of the credit as far as I'm concerned.

Found a Scott Margolis who works for what seems to be a computer training company-that sure sounded likely but an email proved otherwise...no relation.