Zuper cool Zenith TV
 

Hey folks, check out what I found in a vintage car museum in Rolla Missouri. Sean, this is in your neighborhood. They were nice to let me photograph it. The story is this monster 16" Zenith with dual band FM Armsrong radio and record player was bought for display in a radio (and tv?) station housed in the same building the museum's antique store now occupys. I gather it is 1948 or maybe even '47 which would make it pretty special for a 16" set. I did not feel comfortable about pulling it away from the wall to get a model number. Anywho, it is in the lower level of the Memoryville museum, right next door to the Rolla Steak n Shake, right at the I-44 Rolla exit.


http://www.studio4-17.com/16zrolla.JPG

Did you meet Donna Douglas (Elly Mae Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies). Her and Her Husband owned MemoryVille in Rolla last time I checked???

<Homer Simpson voice with drooling sounds>
"MMmmmm, Elly May....."

For 43,000 Quatloos, what was the make of their truck? It may suprise y'all. Below is a recent pic of her.....not too shabby for a gal older than my Maw.

Anthony

Well, I remember that at least once in the series it was referred to as a "Detroit Iron". But if I remember correctly, the truck was an Oldsmobile - the '21 model I think.

-Ian

Ah so, velly good glasshoppel......it was/is an Olds, was rigged up by none other than George Barris.

Anthony (naught and 3 is 3.....)

how many of us had/made the kit ? Wished I still had mine...Unfortunately, it succumbed to a firecracker...-Sandy G.

The museum founder was George Carney, and after his death his son Steven took over. The property had been in their family for many years before the museum was started. They do have the limo from the B/H series there. Here is the link to their web site: http://www.memoryvilleusa.com/. No mention of who George was married to. The truck is at the College of the Ozarks museum. Now If I may drag this thread back to the subject of old tv's, does anybody know the model and date of the Zenith I posted the photo of?

Here's a similar model on ePay, the seller describes it as a 1951 Thackery
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6166229064

Sorry, but aside from the nameplate the above combo doesn't look at all similar IMHO.

Would that be William Makepeace Thackery? <grin>-Sandy G.

Me see round toob, dark color cabinet. My head hurtz. Tralfaz, is that you?

Nice old cosnole!

I might have to go check it out. Was it for sale or just on display? I never have stopped in that antique shop in all the years I've been down here.

About a month ago someone had posted a 1950 porthole combo for sale on the online classifieds in Rolla. They wanted an offer made. I don't have the room for it anyway so I didn't make an offer. I don't know if it is still available or not.

I have one of the Zenith console radios with the tilting drawer and the 41 Mhz fm band and it is from '46 so the TV combo with that feature is likely from late 40's.

Sean, It was on display in the museum and not for sale. I offered to do a restoration and they were not interested in that either.
Chad, them's my thoughts also. Those low FM bands dissapeared in about '48 so we know it is at least that old. The museum did accept my offer to supply info for the display so I will get the chance to pull it out and check for a model number.

Marlin:

I don't know the exact model number but it is from 1949. As far as I can determine, Zenith released their first production TVs in 1948 for the 1949 model year. This is one of those. I think it was a great marketing ploy to capitalize on the round CRT's drawback and market it as a "Giant Circle Screen". I beleieve they produced "Giant Circle Screen" models until 1951. One was even named the Stratosphere. If you find the model number, usually lightly rubber stamped on the top rear, I can cross it to the set's marketing name.

I'm curios. Why at those early models they didn't put a mask so the image to be recatngular?

There are some that did...I have a Westinghouse with round tube and a rectangular mask.

Tele, the idea was that you got a bigger picture this way. Sure, its big, but its round! Not many manufacturers did it that way but a few did. It was kind of a gamble, I guess. Who knows, it might have caught on and today we would be watching HDTV with fully round screens! I think the problem was that people were already used to watching movies where the screen was rectangular & round just didn't seem natural. My understanding is that some Westinghouse sets were "convertible" meaning you could have a round screen, or twist a knob and have a rectangular screen. And some Zeniths had a button you could press that electronically reduced the height so the picture was about the same as the early rectangular sets.

Marlin:

Coincidentally, there is an ebay auction for the Sams for it going on now.

It is covered in Sams 74-13 and is model 42T999RLP. Marketed in 1949 as the "Marlborough". 16AP4 CRT.

In reference to Bryan's post, here are photos of the Westinghouse he mentioned.

Tim, I searched for maybe 20 minutes and I guess I did not use the right search phrase 'cause I did not find it. Would you mind posting the auction # or the ebay store link?
Thanks!
Marlin

Yea, I shouda done that. Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

That helps, thanks! I looked the file up. That set has the odd combination of dual band FM radio and a tv tuner that runs 2 - 13. TV stopped being built with ch 1 around mid 1948 (except maybe RCA projectors and a few others) and the lower FM band was dropped at about the same time. They musta had bunches of them old Armstrong radio chassis's around the warehouse.

Zenith in Rolla Museum update.
 

Sean recently told me that the aforementioned museum is gone, building and all. I never heard what became of the Zenith. When I tried to get friendly with those folks a couple of years ago I got the cold shoulder. It would be nice to find it was saved from a land fill.....

Hate to hear that...

Found another one!
 

Wow, no sooner do we loose track of that cool TV than I find another one! Was at a social event yesterday, catching up with a friend I had not seen for maybe 5 years, when he made one of "THOSE" statements: "I have an old TV in my basement, you want it?" Four doors down the street, down the basement steps, and there it sat, the same Zenith model! Cabinet near perfect. I did not check details as was running late, but will pick it up in the next couple of weeks. More anon.

Cool Find... Same one perhaps?:thmbsp:

Which changer does it have?... The picture in your first post shows a changer with one arm... mine has 2 arms, one for 78 (maroon) and one for 33 (green), but I don't know I have a legitimate variation or not. :scratch2:

Update: attached changer photo... Note: I have removed the doors from the TV section for display.

The layout of the TV looks a lot like the Mayflower. Channel selector on the left volume on the right. The '49's where the other way around. That would put in about 1948. Did Zenith make TV's before '48 ?
Terry

My Marlborough is here
 

Last weekend I brought home my newly found Marlborough. The date on the cabinet under the TV chassis says May 23, 1949. The turntable is a single tone arm 3 speed. The TV has tuner left, volume right. No channel 1. Oddly for that year the FM radio is dual band. This puppy is heavy! Separate 4-6V6's, parallel push pull audio amp in the bottom next to the usual 20 pound power supply. The 16" steel CRT has a lot of rubber gasket filling the gap between the porthole bezel and the screen, almost like it could have used the 19".

My Marlborough is here
 

Addendum: This thing has 43 tubes on 5 chassis! 2 are on the magnetic cartridge preamp chassis stuffed behind the turntable. I asked my friend where he got it, and it is not the same set as was in Rolla. Still not sure if it was called Mayflower or Marlborough. No mention in the papers that were with it.

Zenith FM Cartridge
 

One thing about that phonograph. It uses a "Weathers " FM type cartridge. Not magnetic per se. A vane attached to the stylus alters the Q of a coil which is coupled to the external oscillator chassis. The demodulated output of the oscillator is what supplies an audio signal to the amplifier.
You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to test those cartridges in any device that doesn't use that oscillator!
I know as I did until the lights came on about how the thing worked!!
Rebuild the oscillator chassis,and if the styli are still good, it will work pretty well.

Enjoy!!

Pallophoptophone

Cool! Thanks for the info, "P".