Saw this today, nearly drowned in drool...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Yes- Belmont Radio Corp. was the original company in Chicago, they were literally across the street from Zenith at 5921 W. Dickens Ave. They were working on their own television design right after the war like a lot of other companies. Belmont was customer of Raytheon for tubes for their radios which is how that relationship got started. With Raytheon's interest in television, they looked to Belmont and the two companies merged in 1945. Raytheon televisions were made in Chicago at the Dickens Ave Plant. This was known as the "Belmont Division of Raytheon".

In 1954, Raytheon built a second TV plant which was primarily a metal fabrication plant for cabinets and chassis' in Chicago at 8311 W. North Ave.

Raytheon actually didn't shut down the TV plants when they wanted to pull out of the business. Admiral stepped in purchased the division from Raytheon on May 28, 1956 and utilized those plants for manufacturing their own products. Admiral also maintained the same naming concept and called it the "Belmont Division of Admiral" and that all lasted until Rockwell International bought out Admiral in April of '74.

So that old Raytheon TV has a lot of neat history behind it.

There was really a lot of activity in the TV business in 1974.
Motorola sold their TV division to Matsushita, Admiral sold to Rockwell and Warwick sold to Sanyo.