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Don, always good to get your take on things & learn about Philco history. Much of the non-radio/tv side gets forgotten. My own Predicta is one of the motel models, very basic. It works okay, but with a weak crt. Overall I haven't noticed other Philco tubes being any better/worse than the industry average. I have a couple of the Seventeener series sets & I'd rather tinker with them than the Predicta. I don't think many realize that the name was used on some rather ordinary looking consoles as well. Some probably figure that all Philcos in 59/60 were this style of Predicta. Remember that in the late 50s sales of typical bw consoles or table models had really taken a hit. The market was saturated (everyone who was going to buy a tv had done so already) and there was a lot of competition for replacement sets. The industry needed something NEW. Color was still half-baked; portables helped. If a spage-age cabinet might sell some additional sets, why not try it? Philco had long been an innovator in cabinet design-a real trendsetter in the thirties-but I always thought their postwar offererings were rather boring.
One note: mention was made of Ford selling the major appliance line to White in the late 60s; I have seen print ads for Philco refrigerators from around '77 (after GTE bought the consumer electronics division) and they give an address of Aeroneutronic Ford Corporation in PA. So maybe it was the late 70s that they sold out? And while I'm pondering, did GTE operate any former Philco plants or did it just basically buy the name?
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Bryan
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