[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

An amazing discovery I made yesterday: reading the commentaries on an YouTube video, posted by a friend of mine, there was this guy claiming that he has a CT-100. Skeptically, I wrote a message to him, asking if it was REALLY an RCA CT-100, the world's first color TV set.

Here's a translation of his reply:

"My grandfather ( who is still alive ) was in the USA in 1954, and saw the Rose Parade in a CT-100 in a hotel. He was so impressed that he decided that he would buy one and bring it to Brazil. When he arrived he even had a party at his home, to celebrate the "inauguration" of color TV. He was very disappointed, however, for the TV would only show colored snow and regular black and white pictures. He thought that the set was somehow damaged during the long trip. It was only after he talked to an american friend that he discovered that there were no color transmissions in Brazil. The only color picture he ever saw on this set was in 1963, during an experimental color broadcast of "Bonanza". By 1970 the CT-100 was already retired, due to a vertical failure. By this time, he had an RCA 2000 ( bought in another trip to the USA ), and was able to watch the World Cup of 1970 in color* . Now I have both the CT-100 and the RCA 2000, and I am restoring both."

He says that when the restoration of the CT-100 is complete, he will put a video of it working on YouTube.

* In 1970 experimental color broadcasts were done on a regular basis in Brazil, and the height of those experiments was during the World Cup - they alterned broadcasts in NTSC and PAL-M ( the system that would win and be adopted in 1972 ). Very few brazilians saw the World Cup in color, most of those lucky few were officers of the military dictatorship that was ruling the country at that time.

JUST A HISTORICAL NOTE ON THIS BRAZILIAN CT-100. The grandfather could not have viewed the 1954 Rose Parade on a CT-100. The only RCA color receiver used for that telecast was the prototype "Model 5." However, if the grandfather was still in the USA in April of 1954, he could have purchased a CT-100 when they went on sale to the public. If the gentleman has his dates confused even by a year, the 1955 Rose Parade was not telecast nationally in color. Only local Los Angeles station KTLA broadcast the '55 Rose Parade in color. It could also be that he managed to buy a "Model 5" in Jan. 1954 and shipped it to Brazil, which would really be an amazing find! Pinning down the purchase date and having the serial # are very important.

-Steve D.