Philco head-scratcher--UHF stations without converter on VHF-only TV?

[Jeffhs]

While reading the thread "'63 Philco" in this forum, I happened to remember something I had read in the old Electronics Illustrated magazine, I think it was late '60s-early '70s. This magazine had a column written by Tom Kneitel, K2AES--a smart-aleck question-and-answer man if I ever saw one, and I read his column in EI for years. Sometimes he'd give a straight answer to readers' questions; however, much of the time he answered questions with remarks he thought were funny, but seldom addressed the issue at hand. Anyway, I remember one question to him from a fellow in Revere, Massachusetts, near Boston, who said his 1963 VHF-only Philco color TV was receiving two Boston UHF stations, using rabbit ears. The local TV serviceman, and apparently the technicians at several other local TV shops, couldn't tell him why; wouldn't even guess. Kneitel answered: "Probably because they don't know."

I got a good laugh from that and never forgot it; should have kept the magazine for old times' sake. However, I'm wondering about the 1963 Philco mentioned above. Is it actually possible, seriously, for a VHF-only television set not using a converter to receive UHF stations, say by extremely strong-signal overload or some other unusual condition?