Elvis had a roundie
 

Elvis had a roundie RCA color TV. Excerpts from the book "Elvis by the Presleys". Next to this picture of the RCA roundie is a Zenith remote control "Space Command Four Hundred" from Elvis's bedroom in 1957. So the RCA must have been in the living room? Looks like a '57 model.

In the dining room is a portable TV set. Can't really make out what model though. Presumidly an RCA. As Elvis worked for RCA Records.

"That's not the remote, Elvis!" Someone shot this RCA New Vista Color set. Was in Elvis's Palm Springs house.

Wonder if he came in one night feeling peckish, & blew it away w/a gun? I've heard THAT story a time or 2...-Sandy G.

Elvis bought the Blond RCA Roundie when he bought his first house and moved it
when he bought Graceland. An early photo session in his first house shows
it.

Looks like a ctc-31 with remote control was the victim of the gun shot.

Yep, that -31 must have given the King as much trouble as mine gave me! All I have is a worn out pellet gun, though. Hmmm...Capt.Moody is getting that set, is he armed???

As for that first color set, he could have sprung for the Deluxe chassis! Maybe blame it on some cheapskate at RCA...

I think he bought his Mama a color set as well as the famous Cadillac-Seems like I remember seeing a pic of her sitting beside her new color TV. She died in '58 at 42-kinda tragic.-Sandy G.

is that a faux marble finish on the roundie?

Elvis' old color set has the "Supra" label on it. Would this not be from the '56 line up? Was "Supra" used more than one year? Wouldn't that be one of the top model color sets from RCA as opposed to another's claim that it was not the "Deluxe chassis"? I thought all the color sets that year used the same chassis.

In 1959 Elvis owned 3 color tvs! :banana:

We watched the "Elvis by the Presleys" special last week and his roundie was featured early on, behind Priscilla as she introduced the program, and then the camera zoomed in on the set, providing a nice image, if only briefly. Later, a photo of the room at Christmastime clearly showed the set.

It sure looks like our CTC-5 Westcott, same "limed oak grain" finish and everything! I had heard that his was a gift from RCA.

As for the tv he shot, the legend goes that Robert Goulet was on it at the time, and Elvis expressed his distaste for Goulet's talent in that very tangible way.

500-
From my understanding there were up to 3 series used by RCA. This was not always the case with color sets, I don't think. The bw sets were similiar: 'Special' was the cheapest series, followed by 'Super' and then the top line was 'Deluxe'. The cheaper lines of color sets left out some circuits & did not produce as nice a color picture as the Deluxe. Of course, some folks might think Super sounds better than Deluxe (or maybe they would prefer to have an extra Special TV!) so maybe that sold some folks on the cheaper models.

Elvis probably selected his roundie by the looks of the cabinet. "Oh, this one will look good next to the orange drapes in the living room". He probably didn't look that closely at the picture it made. Or maybe he just selected it from a catalog someone from RCA records had.

Seems Elvis was a bit reckless with shooting the TV set. Here I'd be more worried about someone getting shot by mistake than the loss of a TV set. Similar to what happened at that basketball star's house a year or two ago. He
may have needed to take a firearms safety class...

I saw an episode of THE SIMPSONS where they spoofed that incident. It was on Itchy and Scratchy.

Some time back, someone had posted a photo here in which someone from RCA was giving Elvis a nice looking entertainment center... but it had a b&w set... maybe 24 or 27 inch. Seems to me they were kinda cheaping out. Elvis was a big name in the mid-late 50's. I'm surprised they didn't give him a color set at that time. Think about how much money he was making RCA/NBC! They could have done better than that b&w. Not to say Elvis couldn't afford his own color set... just surprised me they only gave him a monochrome set.

Here is the post with the b&w around 1960

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthr...vis#post118400

He shot the New Vista set cuz it wasn't a roundie ; )

Looks more like absolutely genuine worn-out faux lime oak finish ; )

i seen the roundie in the living room. it didnt appear to be faux finished to me. but i was 30 feet away. he has a rca console in the dining room and a 19" in the kitchen 3 25" rca ctc31 in the game room which now run contuniously i am sure they are retrofitted with modern sets as the pictures were terrific on them. they are showing johnny carson and other programs. he had 3 because he wanted to watch all 3 news brodcasts at the same time. abc cbs nbc. as we were told by the tour guide. the set that he shot is also on display . his mom bought him a philco safari to use outside that is also on display. steve

the rca in the dining room is ctc 68 vintage. xl100 solid state with a glass top

The King's "5"
 

I recall the Elvis CTC-5 was discussed sometime back on this forum. I also remember a photo of Elvis' Graceland living room, from a TV Guide article, and the CTC-5 sitting next to the piano was the "Whitby" deluxe model upright console with a blonde tropical hardwood cabinet. The entire CTC-5 lineup brochure can be viewed on my site listed below.

-Steve D.

Then how come the first pic in this thread looks like a 'Super' model, that ain't no Whitby, looks just like my Super chassis-ed Wescott, with the tuner knob on the side, etc. Did he have TWO of these CTC-5s or ? Maybe the Westcott burned up and they replaced it with something close, the Whitby? Something isn't jiving here, it's a...a...mystery!

Mark "Elvis's Wescott" French ; )

Elvis mystery CTC-5
 

Frenchy,

I can't tell you if Elvis owned that tattered CTC-5 Wescott. I do know that I have seen several pictures of the Graceland living room and in it to this day sits a pristine CTC-5 Whitby. I can't post pictures to this forum with my webtv, but if you send me a pm with your e-mail address I'll forward you a pix of the Graceland living room taken from the entryway, which shows the Whitby next to the piano. You can also find my e-mail address in the opening text of my web page.

-Steve D.

[QUOTE=Steve D.]Frenchy,
I can't tell you if Elvis owned that tattered CTC-5 Wescott.>>>

Since this is a new book from Lisa herself, and just the fact that the set IS tattered and in front of horrid orange drapes and the goofy sculpture on top, tells me it is probably authentic as far as him owning it. I can't imagine them featuring this same ratty set on the CBS tv special if it wasn't authentic, it's in worse cosmetic shape than mine is : () This set was proably the one he moved from his house to Graceland (someone shoulda sued the movers ; )

<<I do know that I have seen several pictures of the Graceland living room and in it to this day sits a pristine CTC-5 Whitby. >>

Ok I don't doubt it in the least, after poking around at his financial bio, I would venture to guess he almost certainly had more than one color set in '57. By then he was making millions, and they were still selling all the CTC-5s new till mid-57. And in later years he upgraded to newer models, but for some reason held on to these old roundies... thank god!