TruTone roundie found

[Sandy G]

The riding lawn mower from 1965 looks like a rather cheap toy...

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

The riding lawn mower from 1965 looks like a rather cheap toy...

Well, keep in mind that this was Western Auto, not one of those "fancy-pants" stores for the high-class crowd, like, say... *Sears*.

Actually, it turns out that that was Western Auto's top-of-the-line riding mower, priced at $352.95 "at your favorite W.A. Store". [Well, there's a full-fledged garden tractor that's more expensive (and much less toy-like); it's $569.95, but that doesn't include a mower deck.]

...And if you think that mower looks kinda cheezy, you should see their *low-end* riding mower model. It's priced at a blistering $119.95, and essentially looks like an oversized self-propelled push mower with a seat bolted on top of it. Looks pretty darn dangerous just to ride on, much less *mow grass* with.

By the way, WA must have really been big on lawn mowers... I count no fewer than 12 different Wizard (WA's house-brand) gas-powered rotary push/walk-behind mowers (in prices from $37.95 to $139.95), plus 1 electric rotary mower, plus 2 gas-powered reel mowers, plus 2 manual (unpowered) reel mowers, *plus* 6 different riding mower models. That's 23 lawn mowers under one store's house-brand, and there are actually significant differences between most of them.

Getting back on-topic, the color TV that appears on the catalog cover is their not-quite top-of-the-line model. It's $569.95, and has such exciting features as "3-stage I.F. amplifier," "Powerful 24,000 volt power transformer," "big 5 in. speaker for top sound reproduction," and "Maple print cabinet."

They also offer a more expensive color set at $634.95, which has a wider cabinet (and two speakers), nicer trim, and a lighted channel number indicator window. The low-end model has your typical black-painted "tin-can" cabinet and is priced at $469.95. [It looks like you even get screw-in legs for the cabinet included at that price]

Oh, and if you didn't think the "3-stage I.F. amplifier" feature was very exciting, at least that was better than their B&W line-up. Even their most expensive "Imperial"-line 23" B&W console -- costing $239.95 -- with "hand-rubbed finish," "20,000 volts of power," "'Memory' tuner," and "Keyed Automatic Gain Control" -- and comes in your choice of three finishes -- also has but a "super sensitive 2 stage I.F." ...

[They *do* have two B&W TV/radio/phono combo consoles with 3 IF stages, but those start at $429.95... There are also two high-end B&W 19" portables with 3 IFs]

Oh, and that little B&W portable shown on the catalog cover? It's the "Riviera 13" and it was $109.95.

As for the name used on the tubes? I'm not sure if Western Auto was still using the "Wizard" name on tubes at that time. The house-brand batteries are still shown as "Wizard", but replacement tubes aren't shown in the catalog. My guess is that they stopped bothering to have specially-marked house-branded tubes by that time-- perhaps the original poster can tell us what brand is marked on the tubes in that Truetone color set..?