Sandy G,
Thanks for the compliment... But I am afraid I no longer have that one. The Royal Sovereign does still work, but I sold it to another collector here in LA about 12 years ago. The finish was pretty badly burned in my fire in '88, but is restorable. The fellow who bought it from me has it displayed with the doors open so it doesn't show the damage. He also has a second one. I found both of those in local newspaper ads. The burned one (working) is a weird late-model one with a one-piece chassis with turret tuner. The second one is the original model with Mallory Inputuner and dual chassis.
G.B.,
Good to hear from you! My eMail address is
[email protected]. It is very ironic that you mentioned about taking those photos... In July of '88, that house on DuPont St exploded and burned while we were in the process of moving. Nobody seriously hurt, and thankfully I had already moved the bulk of the TVs. What I lost was a restored working CT-100, that Sonny Clutter had recapped. Also the Royal Sovereign was charred up, but the doors were shut so it is fine inside. It is refinishable. There were a couple of 7" sets lost, and a CBS Colortron 19" (CRT only). One Kaye-Halbert was also damaged but can be refinished.
At this point, I live in a much smaller place and I have limited my collection to Kaye-Halberts, and a few small early Sony and Panasonic color sets. I still occasionally buy or "rescue" a TV from a garage sale or even eBay.
I posted a few photos... (This is my first upload at this site, so pardon me if I get it all bolixed up)... The interior house photo is showing the corner where the Royal Sovereign was, and of the damage to the set. The other photo shows the front of the house, and the sad remains of the CT-100 from the bedroom upstairs. Again, although no insurance on the TVs, the TV loss was a minimum thanks to the LA Fire Dept saving my back room, and thanks to the fact that I had already moved most out of the main house.
Charles