One thing I've learned about reading these boards over time is that success or failure at finding great sets seems to have very little to do with any kind of "obsessive" behavior, and a great deal to do with, as the real estate agents say, location, location, location. I go to estate sales here in Chicago, too, and see all kinds of sets (very few of them have really caught my eye; I don't have a serious collecting bug, apparently.) Chicagoland is just really fertile territory and I can say from experience it would be possible to have the aforementioned "life" and still build a serious collection. Now one of these days, I might just stumble on the roundie for me...but in the meantime I'm going to go listen to some records (estate sale records--there's a great OT thread...)

I see that this is a New Vista set. Incidentally that name was coined from the Nuvistor tube on the VHF tuner (6DS4). I have a tabletop hybrid version of this set.

I also see some cataract in that CRT, although it don't look too bad. Nice find!

You hit the nail on the head, I couldn't have said it better myself. Whats interesting about many of the Chicago area suburbs are the fact that they were built up heavily in the 1950's-60's and many of the seniors living here are still in those houses they bought brand new 50 years ago. There seems to be a more conservative mindset here that "you keep what you buy and you take care of it" You don't experience as high of a turn over rate in a good number of the near suburbs, so your chances for finding a clean original house is very high. You've seen my estate sale photos, most of those houses never saw redecorating since 1960 yet the people took good care of their things. This "time warp" in communites and homes seems to be more of a phenomenon in Chicago vs anywhere else in the states. You wonder how long it will last? However, consider how highly populated this area is, that has huge impact too for increasing the probability of finding nice vintage items.

Besides being a CTC-15, The CRT Bezel could almost pass for a CTC-12 version. There are some slight differences to the now trained eye! The black accents must be exclusive to that model too. That is just really a beautiful set.

I once had a CTC-12 that was in a black metal cabinet with black screw in legs that I really liked but I had to part/thin out my sets in the late seventies when I moved from Michigan to Texas...kinda' reminds me of it...:tears:

Doug, One other thing the Greater Chicagoland area has besides what you mentioned is lots of houses with basements! If the folks ever did any upgrades then the downstairs aquired the old stuff.

I remember the sixties style existing but the basement was stuck in the fifties with the old but still working blonde black and white and maybe a pooltable and a homebuilt bar!!

Another very good point. Almost all the homes in Chicago have basements and they are indeed the greatest catch all ever. Your typical chicagland basement:

Green 9x9 asbestos vinal floor tile, wood paneled walls, brass cone lights mounted to the walls, acoustic celing tiles with the little holes and the built in bar and sometimes a light up mural. Then the Zenith TV in the corner with books on top of it.

I can't tell you how many estate sales I've hit in which the 1968 Zenith TV was still upstairs, wired up to the outdoor antenna and plugged in.

I had depression era/WWII generation grandparents. They are gone now, but I remember very well how their house was back in the early 90's when I was a kid. They kept everything, the same 1950's furniture, the same avocado green carpeting, Ray Conniff and Ferrante and Teicher albums etc. Not to mention a basement full of just about everything you could imagine. They were your typical chicago area residents. People around here didn't feel the need to change for some reason. They must have liked what they had and life went on. And boom, 50 years later and its still the same thing just another day. Many parts of chicago and a good number of the suburbs still look like 1955, the old brick two flats many with the original businesses and the flashing neon signs. All you need are some 50's cars and you'd have a perfect 1950's movie set.

TV's and vintage things aside, I love the Chicago area and the architecutre and the history that goes along with it. Part of my enthusiasm for estate sales is just visting the homes and reflecting on the past. So much happened here once. It was a huge manufacturing hub, both for the electronics industry and for machines, tools, etc. Detroit built the cars, Chicago did just about everything else. Boths sides of my family were part of it, dating back to when they imigrated to Chicago from Germany. I have no plans to leave here.

Sounds a lot like the suburbs in New Jersey. And I have a young-ish friend who is doing his new house in that style, only more "Disneyland perfect" than it ever was in real life. Complete with CTC-5. I just gave him my mom's old Mixmaster from the fifties which will look just right on his kitchen counter.

i sold basement waterproofing here in columbus for some time.tile floors,paneling in the post war neighborhoods.saw lots of built in b/w sets.all were gutted with just the masking still mounted in the wall.when i got into the business years ago,i thought i would find lots of treasures.not one gem was found!seems all the children got the homes and got rid of those old ugly round screen tvs and bulky console radios.we gave them to the salvation army,etc.
what a disappointment this was.i did get a plasma from a customer who had good credit but no down payment.i took the set for the money down.sold it about a year later.other than that,no luck at all.could have got more than a few pianos.why would they take them downstairs?

Yes, like old hwy 41 NE Chi, some amazing 50's originality/signage.
And then 5000 N Broadway for some 1920's immersion.
Must go there again for another Fix soon.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Awsome set. You lucky fellow!
This tv was an luxury model?

piano lessons?

:)

That's most true in the inner-ring suburbs; Niles, Skokie, Berwyn, Cicero--the places where people were the first in their family to move out of the city. They found their dream home (the classic "raised ranch") and never changed. Up on the North Shore, they redecorated every few years, and had maids and cleaning women to give their old stuff to.

That is true, here in the Lake Forest area it's pretty hard to find vintage things as they always have to have new. I was lucky when I got my CTC 5 Wingate from Wilmette Il for $22.50. That was a fluke because the people that lived there were there for generations and kept everything like in the other suburbs. The rest of the neighborhood and area was pretty updated.

I remember that house. It did have a "Grey Gardens" vibe about it. Every once in a while you find a house where something clearly went very wrong at some point. Not that they kept things the same because they like them but because they were mentally or financially incapable of change.

Geez, this is really straying off topic. Sorry; will ramble no more.