Some of my acquisitions of December, 2008
 

Here are some pictures - as I promised - of some of my acquisitions of December of the last year. The bakelite Admiral and the huge, big Emerson set are not on this thread, because I had already posted pictures of them here on a thread that I posted before.

Here we have, my FIRST roundie ( FINALLY!!! ):banana: a 1950 GE table model that most likely witnessed the birthday of TV broadcasting in Brazil in 1950... and, an ultra-mega-rare find, a 1952 21 inch Invictus console set with radio. THIS was the second model of television set ever produced in Brazil ( November of 1952, if I am not mistaken ) and, the FIRST 21 inch set ever made here. The first set was a 17 inch model made earlier that year by the same factory. A very important piece of equipment, from an Historical point of view. The sets Invictus produced in 1952 were not only the first made in Brazil, but on the whole Southern Hemisphere... most likely, even in the whole of Latin America as well ( I have no information regarding TV manufacturing in Mexico at that point in time ).

Now, I ask you guys to wish me a LOT OF LUCKY, because the seller of those sets is a woman who is not very mentally stable - I've had some VERY irritating conversations with her by phone already - so I hope her husband, who is the one really in charge of things, deliver these sets on the right time to the point where I am suposed to pick them up ( the deal is for him to deliver these TVs at the same antique shop where the Emerson and the Admiral are already - I've talked to the owner of the antique shop, and he agreed with this arrangement ). I will travel Sunday, and most likely arrive there Monday, to pick them up.

Now, the other TV on the pictures is the TV set from the early 60's that I was lucky enough ( an EXTRAORDINARY amount of luck ) to find just some blocks away from my house... there it was, sitting on the door of an antique shop. Those TVs were, 99% of them, long destroyed where I live, so that was a VERY happy finding. Also a pretty rare set, an "ABC" , another Brazilian brand like Invictus, also long extinct. I really LOVE the knobs of this TV, they are shaped like little space rockets, very cool!!!

As for the "ABC" set, it still has a tag on the back of when it was serviced in 1976.

There's NOTHING missing on this TV, it still have the original factory cord and plug, in very good condition. To a set this old, in this kind of town, it's a true miracle.

As for the GE roundie, some fool decided to paint it white at some point in the past. Nasty. Also, the protective glass on the front of the CRT is broken.

I am considering REMOVING that glass, since it is broken, for a safe transportation... it is a 700 kilometer trip, in not very good roads, so I am not happy with the idea of this damaged glass being there, while the TV is subject to the hazzards of road transportation on highways that are not of first class grade.

Spectacular!!!
 

That ABC set is gorgeous. Simple and elegant.

Wow, I don't think I have seen vintage TVs from Brazil
 

Wow!, I really haven't seen vintage TV sets from Brazil before-cool:thmbsp:
I wonder if they use NTSC in Brazil or PAL or SECAM? I am pretty cusrious and the amount of lines that are in their TV pictures-ie: 525 lines for NTSC here or 625 Lines for PAL in the UK. I haven't seen any broadcasts from Brazil and just curious:yes:

We have been using the American NTSC standard of 525 lines since 1950. That for black and white, of course. As for color broadcasts, we have a hybrid system in use since 1972: it's called PAL-M, which combines the German PAL color system with the American monochrome "M" of 525 lines. I am really not sure of why they did this and simply didn't adopted color NTSC from the start, as some experimental color NTSC broadcasts were actually made here in 1963 and 64 and even some 300 American color sets with roundie CRTs were sold at the time to the public. The official explanation is that they ( the government ) were not satisfied with color NTSC, they found it to be too... unstable. So they decided to create this hybrid system. They analysed some of the few color TV systems available in the world at that time ( late 1960's ) and decided that the German system was the better. So, again, that's the official version. But because since April, 1st, 1964, Brazil was under a military dictatorship, we cannot really trust this version to be true; we cannot say that they didn't had some OTHER types of interest in mind.

They decided to adopt PAL for color. That still left them with the problem of what to do with the 4 million monochrome TV sets in use in the country at that time, all of them using the American standard. They could not allienate all those TV viewers. So they couldn't use "pure PAL" , that's why the hybrid PAL-M system was created.

Research on the PAL-M system began in 1968. By 1970 the system was already operational, but would only be available to the public in 1972; even in 1972 the TV stations were not happy with the idea of investing tons of money on expensive color equipment for just a few thousand viewers, but the dictatorship forced - that's the truth - it upon the TV stations. I believe the stations wanted to wait until 1974, if my information is correct, but the generals in charge of the country wanted color TV like desperates; it was a part of their public relations strategy of giving to the public the message that they were "modernizing" the country.

Here are some parts, some recordings, of the first color TV broadcast in Brazil, in 1972:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCreFw0320

And, the very begining - from 1950:
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdrTprs7KuA

That little musical number was specially filmed for television, and went on the air just a few days after the inauguration of television in Brazil. It probably is the ONLY intact attraction that went on the air on Brazilian television in it's first year - 1950 - that still exists.

Other musical numbers were filmed specially for TV, but this is the only known survivor. Not even the innaugural ceremonies were recorded in it's entirety ( I don't understand how and why they could have been so stupidy ). The only moving images of the innaugural transmition are very short and are a part of a newsreel... luckily there was a newsreel crew there shooting pictures of the innauguration of television in Brazil... if they were not there, not even those few seconds of History would be available to be watched today.

Good luck with getting your sets and thanks for the links!

John

Thanks!!!:thmbsp:

Kewl...Are you gonna try & refinish the GE ?

That's my intention, on the long run. I simply can't let it stay that way, with that horrible paint job that some looney did on it.

The Youtube clips were pretty interesting
 

Hello, those Youtube clips were pretty interesting to watch:yes:
I am wondering if Spanish is the official language in Brazil, just curious.
I really never knew that Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 onwards. I am wondering when Brazil became a democratic country like Canada and the United States and what the military dictatorship was like.
I am sure a lot poeple tried to flee to Mexico or some other countries from Brazil whil it was under that military dictatorship. I have studied what Gemany was like from 1933 to 1945 and my grandparents on my mom's side were in Nazi Germany for much of WW II while my grandfather was a German POW.
I am wondering if the military dictatorship was almost as bad as the Nazis or not as bad in Brazil, just curious. This, I can see why a lot of pre-1970 TV sets did not survive in Brazil and are highly sought after there. It would be really interesting if any Brazil color roundies survived from 1963-64 there.

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.

Actually, the dictatorship has very little, or nothing at all to do, to the fact that older sets, sets from the 50's and 60's are so hard to find here. It happens because the country is VERY big, and the economic development of the different regions had then, and still have now, a lot of inequalities. The richer, industrialized parts got TV first, very early, in 1950, 1951. The poorer the region, the later it got television. In some parts of Brazil there was no TV at all even in the late 1970's and early 1980's. And in the most remote locations of the country - like in some very isolated spots in the middle of the Amazon jungle, inhabited mostly by a few scattered indian tribes - the first TV sets appeared only in 1998, AND need a sattelite dish to receive programs AND can only be turn on a few ours a day, because those places got no electricity, so the equipment must run on generators.

As for the military dicatorship... well, from the perspective of repression, it was not all that terrible, really. They can't be compared to the Nazis, and even to the other Latin-American dictatorships of that period. The military dicatatorship of Argentina, for instance, killed 30.000 people. The dictatorship of general Pinochet, in Chile, killed some 3.000. The dictatorship of mister Castro, in Cuba, killed some 40.000 according to the statistics. The Brazilian dicatorship of the 1960's and 70's killed 200 people. Obviuosly they tortured some 400 people, and censored the press, and extinguished political parties, but they were not really the most bloodthirsty of dictators. Hundreds of people fled Brazil and sought for political asylum in Chile ( before Pinochet ), in France, in Portugal. Those who were communists sought asylum in the coutries behind the Iron Curtain.

The worse they did to Brazil was not in killing, or repressing. Was on the economics of the country. They messed everything pretty good. Incomes got lower than ever, the rich became richer and the poorer became poorer. They made a HUGE foreign debt, that wrecked the national situation for DECADES, and when they left power ( in 1985 ) the country was nearing hyperinflation. And they ruined the public education system, that was the second best in Latin America before their coup in 1964.

All this is kind of tragicomic, really. Because they tried many times in the years before 1964 to took power by force, and all this on the argument that THEY were the "champions of Democracy" , and wanted to "save it" from what they called the "corrupt, populist and authoritarian civil politicians." Many people actually believed all this nonsense. But those "corrupt, populist and authoritarian civil politians" - namely President Vargas and his political heirs - were the ones that really modernized Brazil. Before the Revolution of 1930, when President Vargas rose to power, Brazil was nothing more than a giant coffee farm, with slave labor and fraudulent elections. President Vargas indeed ruled as a dictator from 1930 to 1945, but he did many necessary reforms and had STRONG popular support. US President Franklin Roosevelt was a good friend of President Vargas. When those military ousted President Vargas from power in 1945 they did so against the will of the vast majority of the people. So much that was true, that 5 years later Vargas returned to power in what were truly recognized the world over as completely free and democratic elections. Vargas policies were very much like those of the "New Deal." He faced a strong and violent opposition against him, they spent the next years trying to make a coup again, like in 1945. On August of 1954 the military were ready again, and the country was near civil war. President Vargas took a dramatic measure: took his own life. Committed suicide on the morning of August, 24, 1954, and left a very emotional farewel letter to the Brazilian people. This prevented the coup from happening at that time. The people was SO ANGRY, the ordinary working man from whom Vargas was a hero made so many violent demonstrations against the enemies of the President that they could not even try to seize power on that day. The political heirs of President Vargas, all chosen on free and democratic elections, ruled Brazil for the next ten years, but in many occasions during this period ( in 1955, 1956, 1959 and 1961 ) the military did tried to overthrown them. Those man the military called "corrupt, authoritarian and populist" instituted labor lagislation rights, forged the first Industrial Revolution in Latin America, prevented Brazil to actually fall into communism and created a good quality public education system. They left a legacy of solid national development. That's why almost everybody here seems nostalgic of the years prior to 1964. Only right-wing extremists are actually crazy enough to praise the years the military were in control.

To be fair, not all military were in favor of the coup, and even among those that actually took part on it, many didn't wanted the military to remain in power for so long. Also, the decision of President Goulart ( the President that was deposed in 64 ) of refusing to order the resistence against the coup made it easier for the pro-coup faction of the military to seize control of the country. President Goulart reasoning was that he didn't want to shed the blood of his fellow countrymen, and also, he didn't believed that the military were actually capable of remaining in power for very long. He was not alone on this thinking, as many other politicians also believed that the military take-over was going to be a short-term situation. Unfortunately, they were all wrong.

Do not think that I hate the Brazilian military because I am writting this. Those are only Historical facts, the truth. My father is a military man, he is a retired sargeant of the Brazilian Navy, and he was never sympathetic to the military dictatorship. Also, many high-ranking officers of the three Forces, even generals and a Marshall, were victims of persecutions after 1964 because they were against the coup.

The Brazilian dictatorship was more like a macarthism policial state than a bloodthirsty killing terror regime like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.

I make apologies to the moderators of this forum for writting so much about political facts - which I know is forbidden here - but since I got asked about those facts, the only thing I could do was to make my best to explain them in the most precise manner. Also is a subject that really fascinates me, the subject of political History.

I know of some 4 of the 300 color roundies imported to Brazil in the early 60's that are in the hands of private collectors. I have seem two of them in person.

Before that, there was a guy who actually bought a CT-100 in the USA in 1954 and brought it to Brazil. That CT-100 still exists, it is with the grandson of the original owner. I tried to make him let me take pictures of it, but he doesn't seemed enthusiastic about letting a complete stranger - me - go into his house.

Thanks Captain for this most useful account of modern history. And congratulations
for the new sets, it's always a pleasure to read about your fine collection.