Roundies (top & bottom of screen covered)

[bgadow]

Westinghouse in the late 40s or so had a "convertible" model that could be a porthole or you could make an adjustment & the top/bottom would be masked off. I'm sure there are some pics on this site of one. Some of the Zenith bw portholes, I think, had a button where the picture would be reduced in height so that it had a flat top/bottom. I think folks were so used to going to the movies when tv came out that they expected a rectangular picture and a round one was just odd; some companies, Zenith most notably, gambled that people would prefer the round (and larger) screen. By the time color roundies came out bw sets were all pretty rectangular so it really would have taken some getting used to.