Last of the Roundies?
 

Aside from the fascinating Westinghouse whose resto was documented earlier this month, I am curious as to the chronology of when roundie sets began to be phased out by manufacturers and when the last ones were produced. Part of this is an attempt at trying to clear up a hazy recollection I have from when I was a kid.

What I remember is reading an issue of one of the small-format magazines I liked back in the late 1960s -- Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and the like. There was a small piece in their news section noting that one TV manufacturer -- Philco, perhaps? -- was reintroducing a roundie set because it could be sold at a lower price point than the then-common rectangular tube sets. I'm thinking this would be from around 1968 or so.

Anyone remember this? I presume these would be the last roundies made but I could be wrong. Any info would be most appreciated.

Magnavox and Muntz models from as late as 1970 have been noted. Those would certainly be the last.

It's my understanding that Philco continued making roundies later than Zenith/RCA. I wouldn't be surprised to see a budget Philco from '68 or so if that was the case.

edit: This guy has a '68 Philco roundie on his page:

http://www.ct-tv.50megs.com/photo3.html

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I forget who first posted this ad a few years back, but I'm glad I saved it. I'm sure this is what you're looking for.

Leadlike: Yeah that's my philco on that page. It's basically the same as the one in the above ad, but a little better cabinet (not much better since it's got the fake finish). Mine also has the green tuning eye (or in this case a tuning bar), which is likely not included in the set for 299.95.

I have read somewhere that by the mid-60s, the color CRT plants were really hitting their stride...Likely that this was an attempt to burn up some of the excess production of the then "old-fashioned" round CRTs. Oh, to go back & squirrel a few of 'em away...(Sigh...)

I think it's a cheap Magnavox from '70. There was also an RCA with a modified CTC-38 to drive a 21" round tube, but that would be a year or 2 before the Magnavox, I think. I'm not sure what year the JVC (Delmonico-Nivico) roundies were, but likely 1967-70. Commercial and industrial applications kept the 21" round color tube in daily use all the way to at least the early 2000s, such as a few tri-color radar scopes at airports, and other military uses. Last I heard, the HR21GVUP22 (or close to that number); the mil-spec roundie, is still in the Navy catalog.

Charles

There's a military-spec roundie, too??? Wow... I bet that would be cool to get your hands on!!!

The man in that picture does not appear to be very comfortable carrying that TV set. This is another example of big companies ripping off the little guy. I'm never going to buy a Ford.

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He's thinking, "Oh!! I should have used Pepto!" :lmao:

I think you're right Charlie. Amazing that I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, but I could be pretty sure that was a Philco from 40 years ago!

Thanks for the visual.

I posted that ad back probably around 2003(!). jstout66 gave me that ad back when I picked up a ctc-31 table set from him.

Yeah, I kinda figured it was either you are Rich that put this up... that's been quite a while back! :yes:

It looks like Philco (whose sales had been falling across the board and did not have long to live as far as TV manufacturing is concerned) had a bunch of roundie sets they had to clear out of inventory.

Some of the oldest ads for rectangular color TVs I've seen were from Philco. Sadly, I lost an issue of Life magazine I had a many years ago. The ad was from late 1964 or early 1965, IIRC, and there were ads for many other color TV sets - all roundies.

The ad went: "so you tole your barber you weren't getting color TV until the made the picture bigger. Better get a new excuse, or a new Philco".

I believe Philco may have had the first bonded-tube "25 inch" (later 23V) rectangular color CRT (with only the 22EP22 and 23EGP22 [21V] before it).

The interesting thing to me is that this tube has the greenish face of all-sulfide phosphors. This would say the tubes really were being taken out of old overstock, since everyone had gone to rare-earth red (giving a more neutral-color screen when off), even for roundies, by 1968 [or was someone still running a round tube line with sulfide phosphors?]. So, this set may have had a 26kV chassis, but it did not have as bright a picture as the "$800" set.

Anybody remember when Ford threw in the towel & sold Philco ?

Sandy, I think it was '75 that Ford sold the consumer electronics line to GTE. They kept the car radio/industrial line and renamed it Aeroneutronics-Ford; they sold the major appliance line later in the 70s.

Philco-Ford started making their own color crts later in the 60s. Maybe they built too many round tubes? Or just found that they could offer them real cheap? I have a used Philco 21" tube in the attic (is either gassy or has a short-I need to hook it up to a better crt tester) and it is rare earth. Zenith later bought the Philco crt plant. Philco Don Lindsley can likely offer further insight.

The Philco ad is great-whimsical, poking fun at the high cost of color tv and how they could sell you a full-size set for the price of most small ones. Plays off those ads GE ran with a little kid carrying a Portacolor. (off topic, Philco sold a badge-engineered Portacolor. I've only seen them in Sams)

The last roundie covered in Sams is a Magnavox in 1970. Has a series string chassis, IIRC. You wouldn't think of Magnavox as being at the cheap end of the market. I think the other late roundies were all store brands (Airline, Truetone, etc) as I think Philco had already stopped roundie production by then.

I have a Truetone roundie... the Sams folder for it is dated 1968. The chassis is nothing more than a CTC15 clone.

Yes, I know this topic was last updated in October 2009, but I found a Sams Photofact manual while cleaning my garage today, and there is a Wards Airline round-CRT color TV right on the cover. The TV is model GMW-17249A, and the Sams is from October 1969, number 1061. The TV chassis looks like a CTC-16 or CTC-16X clone, all tubes except for the UHF tuner's oscillator.

Interesting, I'll have to try ordering a few... I'll check FEDLOG, and see if it's still around.