Art Margolis
 

I was doing some basement cleaning recently, and came across an Art Margolis book. I know a lot of younger, old-TV lovers like myself liked to read the Margolis books because they were definately written for do-it-yourselfers.

Here's my question: What ever became of ol' Art? :scratch2:

A quick Yahoo search tells me that he eventually wrote some books about trouble-shooting Commodore 128s, so he was alive at least until 1990.

One of the books mentions "Denny Margolis", and repeatedly shows a younger guy working on sets, so I'll go out on a limb and say his son followed him into the business. Who knows what city he was from?

If Art is still around in 2006, I'd think he would be on the internet... Perhaps he has a myspace page? Would be a kick if he joined AK...

Both Doug and I tried finding him to no avail last year. IIRC, Doug thought his shop used to be in NY. We tried different country wide searches, and even called a few people found on the list, but they said they were not related to him in any way.
I have been wanting to meet him since finding his book in the Macomb County Library in 1976! That book gave me the push needed to start repairing televisions, and eventually open my own shop.
Maybe someone could find one of his children and we could get more information.
Several things I admire about Art, he knew how to make a business successful (as well as publications!) and also his ability to create a good work environment for the employees.

I didn't know that anyone else had tried to find him, but I am surprised that nobody else chimed in? No love for Art and his easy-to-read style?

At the least I'll bet Art lived on a coast, because I noticed a screen shot with a "surf" temp reading. I'm sure there is probably a test-pattern in there someplace with some call-letters. From the styles of homes that appear in some of the antenna-installation pictures, I'm guessing east coast.

Okay, I'll chime in. :) Those Art Margolis books are/were great! When I was in high school, I found an old Margolis paperback at a book sale, and that was what first got me interested in finding/fixing old TVs. I still think Art's books are easily the best I've ever seen in the entry-level "how-to-fix-your-own-TV-set" category. If you're new to fixing old TV sets, you probably couldn't do much better than to find one of those old Art Margolis magazine-style "how-to" TV repair books from the 1960's and thereabouts.

Could this be him? The man is 88 years old! From www.peoplefinders.com

. MARGOLIS, ARTHUR I 88 Available Available(2) Available FAYETTEVILLE, NY
SYRACUSE, NY


polaraman

I'm always on the lookout for good TV repair books, but I had never heard of Art Margolis until I read this thread. He sure wrote alot of books, I did a quick search to see if any of his books were available on the internet and came up with:
The practical handbook of TV repairs
The Master Handbook of Electrical Wiring *
Make Your Own TV Repairs. *
The New TV Repairs You Can Do
TV Trouble Diagnosis Made Easy
Solid-State Circuit Troubleshooting Guide
Tv Schematics: How to Read Between the Lines *
199 electronic test & alignment techniques
TV Bench Servicing Techniques
TV Trouble Diagnosis Made Easy
TV Servicing Guidebook: Problems and Solutions
101 TV Troubles From Symptom To Repair
125 typical electronic circuits analyzed & repaired
Servicing SYNC Circuits.
Philco Monochrome TV Service Manual
Professional TV Repair Secrets
199 TV Tough-Dog Problems Solved
TV Repairs You Can Do
125 CIRCUITOS ELECTRÓNICOS TÍPICOS".
Modern radio repair techniques
(I left out the computer repair ones)
After christmas I'm going to order a massive amount of capacitors, I think I will pick up a few of these as well.

How about Denny Margolis? If anybody wanted to contact him, I'd feel better going through the son, so nobody thought we were trying to scam an old man.

I actually did call the fellow in NY last year during my search, he was real nice and we did talk for a little bit, but he was not the same Art that wrote the book.

Well, I just finished spending too much time scouring the net in search of our friend Art. Probably no connection here:

Milt Margolis Vintage Radio (703) 256-6688 (week-ends)
Milt has a booth at Antique Emporium
7120 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003 Antique radio repairs

though I guess somebody could check. There was an Arthur P. Margolis who passed away in Mass. on 1/10/02, but try as I might I cannot find an obituary. This Arthur had a wife named Natick & a son named Adam Scott Margolis (who got married shortly after his father passed away). Interesting-I can type my name in google and get pages on either myself or the other fellow with my name out in Wisconsin...but here we have someone semi-famous and there really isn't much out there.

Just saw this thread a few minutes ago. Back in the latter ‘70s I had business with Art. He was under contract with TAB BOOKS when I was editor there. I’d have to dig deeply to find which book contracts I signed with him, but a quick search in an old briefcase located the following data.

Back then, Art Margolis lived at the:

Watergate Apartments
Apt. 367
Maple Shade, NJ 08502
His home phone was 609 235 1271


Then on September 6, 1977 his address changed to:

Art Margolis
3745 N.E. 171 St.
Apt. 4
N. Miami Beach, FL 33160
305 944 1016

Hope this helps your quest.

Pete, that is so interesting! To finally find someone that had contact with Art at one time (for me) is unbelievable. I have only known the man through words and pictures, Can you share any stories?

I still have a couple of his books that I bought back in the early 70s. I learned a lot from him, and also from Jack Darrs' "Service Clinic" column in Radio Electronics magazine.

Art Margolis is clearly the best writer for the TV hobbyist. I have 6 or 7 of his books. Most of my earliest TV repair hobby knowledge is from his books.

I thought about looking him up too, but decided he would be too old, if he's still with us. He looks about 55 in his "Professional TV Repair Secrets," which was published in the late 50s.

Another famous TV repair author I'd like to mention is John R. Meagher of RCA Servce. His works include the Pict-O-Guide series, and many many RCA publications as well as commentary in other TV repair books. He is most likely no longer with us, but I consider him the Godfather of TV repair.

Charles

I first found out about art margois in 3rd grade. A friend invited me over and we looked through his dads 1973 popular mechanix encyclopedia. Being into TV's then, Under "TV" was one of Art's books (published for the encyclopedia). Thats were I learned all the basic fundamentals of TV troubleshooting and learned what tubes do what. I always enjoyed looking at the pictures in those books. That made me want to find those types of sets even more. I remember having a 12" 1965 magnavox portable b/w with the dials on the side (japanese set) and it had a blank raster, no sound. At that time, I only had a eico 555 tube tester, which didnt do a thing for me as it was pre compactron tester. Later on, I found a knight 400A at the resale shop and then everything took off! Too late, already took that set apart but kept the chassis and tested the tubes. Sure enough, the sync AGC tube was bad. I wish I still had that set. Anyway,
I still have that volume of the encyclopedia he gave me. Dad didnt care, he never used them. Since being on ebay, I think I have every volume he made for TV repair, starting in 1959. "Professional TV repair secrets". Most books were the same layout, similar pictures, but all were slightly different.
As for Art Margolis today, he may still be around. There are two "Art Margolis" living in Florida as of today.

One is in Pompano Beach, FL and is 85 years old, the other is in Sarasota and is 80 years old. Either one may very well be him. You can find out by searching the name on whitepages.com for phone number etc.

Seems like most of us started out in TV hobby by having his books. He gets alot of the credit as far as I'm concerned.

Found a Scott Margolis who works for what seems to be a computer training company-that sure sounded likely but an email proved otherwise...no relation.

Bryan, maybe one of the two people Doug found in Florida is the person we are looking for?

Checking the map, Pompano Beach isn't far from the old address of N. Miami. So, who is going to call? No sense several of us calling, worrying someone to death. I looked the number up, it is easy with a google of "Arthur Margolis Pompano Beach FL". I didn't really want to post it on here.

I say go for it Bryan, you already have his number. Let us know what you find out!

Captain' I've been scratching my butt for four days now trying to recall something to share re my association with Art, to no avail. So late this morning I dug down deep and found a bag of stuff from that time and hit paydirt in some handwritten correspondence between me and Mal Parks, the TAB BOOKS publisher then. It's not what I expected, but it explains my lack of specific recall.

Someone before my tenure at TAB BOOKS signed Art to book contracts that had by my era fallen behind schedule. Nothing so unusual about a late book manuscript in the book business. I had those addresses and numbers for Art to follow up on those late manuscripts.

I had penciled in 'due' in one schedule showing that Art indicated his manuscript was on its way and in fact I found a book by him on an internal publishing schedule, which as far as I know, was ultimately published (don't ask me the title though, it was an early schedule and so subject to much change).

Other Writer Recollections:

Interestingly, I also found a note I had written to myself to review the material in the vault by Jack Darr. another service writer mentioned in this thread.

Anyone recall Homer L. Davidson? He was another servicer who was a prolific writer; he wrote stuff for me in both my magazine and book days.

A lesser known writer was a guy who wrote a robotics book for me but also wrote some servicing stuff, Edward L. Safford (think the spelling is right). Safford is significant in my mind because he claimed to have found a CRT rebuilder somewhere around Washington DC who would rebuild my full-of-air 15GP22. Never got around to doing it though; kinda recall my expectations were not too high to take a chance with my only 15G.

All this history happened in the middle of 1978.

Pete

I just tried the number Bryan gave me in Florida (figured I could ask him some questions about re-capping my Zenith, lol :D )...

No luck.

He was old, he was retired, he has never written any books on TV repair.

He has no other relatives with that name. :no:

Oh well, I guess I can say that I spoke to Art Margolis, just not "the" Art Margolis.

I still say that "Denny Margolis" is the way to go. He's probably still alive, and would put us in touch with his dad if he was around.

Try this one......?

In the PeopleFinders search this is the only guy in the nation that is listed as "Art" Margolis, not "Arthur"....may be worth a shot.

Here is his info:
Margolis, Art
46200 Golden Rod Ln
Palm Desert, CA 92260
760-346-1846

Hope it helps!

Art Margolis Facebook page
 

There is a Art Margolis tribute page on FB. 1925-1992.

Art Margolis 1925-1992
 

There is a Art Margolis tribute page on Facebook. He was credited with writing 57 books. He passed away in 1992.

No doubt his entertaining, yet informative, writing style inspired more than few to pursue careers in science and technology.

Art's books were my introduction to TV repair. Must have checked them out of the library a dozen times as a kid...

This is an old post that was never updated.. Doug Harland found out about Art's passing a few years ago, and he made the tribute page on FB.

We had a similar situation in the R-390A community. Our guy's name was Nolan Lee, he lived in Florida, IIRC, & he was the was enuf of a comedian to keep you in stitches while he took one of those complicated machines apart.... He definitely one of the "Sages" of the R-390 series, but he was also very quick to help a Noob along. He was there when I first found the internet. But several years' later, he just dropped off the map, which was unnerving, as he also wa one of the more frequent posters. A couple guys did some checking, & found out he'd had a massive, debilitating stroke. He barely even knew who HE was, & all the wealth of Boatanchor knowledge went by the wayside. I THINK I remember reading that his health deteriorated even further, & he passed on. Don't know how old he was, but a snapshot of him made him look like he coulds been anywhere from late twenties to his sixties. Helluva note.

A tube caddy I bought at an antique mall in 1977 had two copies of Art's book "the Practical handbook of TV repairs". On the front cover Art is shown degaussing a 1967 Philco 19" color set in a metal cabinet. I found one in a trash pile the next year and still have the set. Its heavier than a 19" Zenith CCII

Throughout that book, Art has screenshots of what I deduced were Philadelphia broadcasts. I had an idea he lived in the area. Then I got a tab book "Philco Monochrome service manual" written by Art which had an introduction and foreword signed Art Margolis - and a city in Florida, 1971. He probably got sick of doing emergency antenna work in the winter in South Jersey - LOL

BTW- Homer L Davidson wrote the Admiral color TV manual for tab books.

Lots of Art's writings available in the magazine archives at:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...=1&zoom_sort=0

Uh, anybody noticed that TomB bumped a 10 year old thread?

I cant tell you how much his books helped this beginner.

Yup.
A bit of a faux paw, but he is a newb/infrequent poster so may as well let it slide.

That's news to me that we're not suppose to reply to an old thread. So is there an actual cutoff date that makes it an offense? I for one was enjoying the read because I wasn't around here back when it started. :confused:

Tom B. did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact he did what he should have. He supplied new information to an old thread rather than starting a second thread on the same subject.

Thanks, Tom B.!

.

And besides faux paw is an animated cat, so probably he meant faux pas ;)

Art Margolis is the de-facto Guru of our group and needs periodic re-introduction:thmbsp:

His 1958 magazine art-icle "antenna antics" made me laugh and shudder at the same time, having been on many a roof on mid-winter service calls in the 80s, replacing those damned CM and Winegard cartridge-mounted circuit board amps.:sigh:

One of Art's books, "Professional TV Secrets" helped me get started 50 years ago. The library at my junior high school had the Fawcett Homeowners book series, which included a reprint of the book in one of the volumes. Eventually, I did come up with a copy of the book. Another of my favorite authors was Jack Darr, who had a long running column in Radio-Electronics. I understand that he also has passed on.