Why on earth did Emerson even mention that this portable would operate on DC power? Were there some areas of the United States or Canada in the early 1950s that actually had DC house current? I am asking these questions because, until now, I had never seen the term "AC/DC" used in connection with tube-powered television sets, only AA5 tube radios. (DC power would, of course, destroy a power transformer and its associated rectifier tube in no time flat.) The DC power option almost always went unused in AA5 radios used in the US, although there are, of course, three-way (AC/DC and battery) portable sets.
I guess the use of the term AC/DC in connection with televisions using tubes just threw me for a loop. I had a 1955 Emerson 17" portable TV years ago, but there was no mention of AC/DC on the cabinet; the logotype below the CRT only showed the brand name "Emerson" in script lettering. Was the Emerson AC/DC set under discussion here a limited edition, or was it just a cheaply built portable not meant to last long, not unlike the cheapies that came off the lines from Japan in the '60s-'70s--not to mention today's flat screens?
I believe the Emerson "AC/DC" portables were designed to be used as second or third sets in bedrooms, guest rooms, etc., not as the main watcher, although I suppose a few of these sets were used as the primary TV in small apartments where space is limited.