Indiana Jones's TV set

[Eric H]

Looks like a European set, that would make sense since Indy was well traveled.
Wonder if he had to have it converted to work with NTSC

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Looks like a European set, that would make sense since Indy was well traveled.
Wonder if he had to have it converted to work with NTSC

Well, set decorators are notorious for being ignorant of such details.

Years ago, I attended a props auction after they closed the TV show "Northern Exposure." Most of the interiors for the show were shot in a giant warehouse 2 miles from where we lived at the time.

I snagged several radios that were used in the show. A couple of them had been "Decoed up" with green or maroon paint, no doubt because the decorator considered brown Bakelite boring.

Can't say that I blame them, really. It makes no difference if the radio or TV works, or even has anything inside the cabinet. Most are seen for a fraction of a second in the background.

It was truly amazing to see the amount of stuff that they had accumulated for the show. About a dozen rooms in the warehouse, with shelves wall to ceiling. In the front room, they had choice items like Maurice's Caddy convertible and a stuffed polar bear.

To get those few radios, I had to buy several lots of "stuff" in giant boxes, including a couple of dozen cheap plastic wall clocks, two non-working pay phones, an ancient hotplate, etc. Much of it probably never appeared in the show. I guess they just sent buyers around the countryside, loading up vans with every kind of thing that people might use.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[Captain Video]

European set. Yes, that was also the first impression I had when a looked at it for the first time, but, thinking with the mind of a collector, and not with the mind of a "set decorator" I thought that it was odd, and that probably it was some sort of an American TV that I didn't know.

It's somewhat amazing that with tons of 50's American TV sets still out there they would use an European TV set, much more difficult to find ( I think ). Maybe a Canadian TV? Or a German set that some GI brought with him in the 50's?

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

with tons of 50's American TV sets still out there they would use an European TV set

Like I said, set decorators are not electronic geniuses. They may have been wandering through an enormous props warehouse with a shopping list, and said "Take that cool-looking old TV," having no idea (and probably not caring) where it came from.

Films are full of boo-boos like this. My favorite is "Some Like It Hot," which shows Joe E. Brown's character using a Hallicrafters S-20R as a ship-to-shore telephone.

The S-20R is a receiver; it can't transmit anything. His handset is plugged into the radio's headphone jack.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[peverett]

Quite a few years back, the Clint Eastwood film "A Perfect World" was filmed near here. After the film was complete, the cars used in the film(it was set in the early 1960s) were for sale. I took a look. The ones used for the close up scenes were restored very well, while the others just had sloppy paint jobs put on them. To make this film, a "Fake" building was even built in a small town near here. I guess the director did not think the town looked built up enough. The "fake" building was some power line type poles with a compsite (similar to compsite shingles) that had a brick pattern hung over them. At the front of this building, a plywood frame was built and a thin layer of concrete poured over it to simulate the entrance steps. Needless to say, this building did not last long after the movie was finished.

Another film about the Newton boys(small time robbers in the 1920s) was also filmed here. The interesting thing about that one was that a winter scene was filmed in July(in Texas) with fake snow, etc. My wife heard some of the extras complaining at a local burger place about having to wear overcoats in the July heat.

Second Hand Lions was also filmed near hear with a regular house being re-made to be the house the old men lived in. There was a very interesting article about the conversion in the local paper.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Films are full of boo-boos like this.

That's a big booboo, if the movie is supposed to take place in North America and they are trying to use a European TV set: it won't work!

[Captain Video]

I am a HUGE Indiana Jones fan, but the "property masters" in this movie haven't done their homework correctly; the movie is set in 1957, but take a look at this video of the shooting - there's a Ford Edsel there!!!

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=e0wB6cI9RoY