Color roundies in motels

[kx250rider]

I don't remember even seeing any roundies in a hotel or motel, but then again, we never stayed in any high-end places. Usually Howard Johnson's, or sometimes a Best Western-type place. Lower priced motels had coin-op black & white sets (Zeniths & Admirals in painted beige metal cabinets), if I recall. One Motel 6 in Lompoc, CA, had Packard-Bell 21" B&W sets, whereas most were 19". The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave. That was in the summer of '78. Later, I remember seeing mostly all RCA mural TVs in motels and hotels through the 80s, and by the 90s, they had switched to newer solid state RCAs at most places.

Now let's not forget the Zenith 43M20 15" color prototype in '53 at the Biltmore Hotel in Oakland, CA. Since it was stolen, it is one of the very few still existing after Zenith was forced to destroy those prototypes after the RCA suit.

Charles

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave.
Charles

...and you lived to tell the story!!! Not the safest place to sleep in PA!!

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by cbenham

...and you lived to tell the story!!! Not the safest place to sleep in PA!!

I remember being told not to go south of the PA Turnpike. They grew up in Chester and Parkside, and we were there to visit their old friends. My family didn't always have the best choice in neighborhoods. Until I was 5 (1972) , we lived on 43rd Place near Western Ave in South Central Los Angeles .

Charles

[Steve D.]

An RCA Victor magazine ad from 1957 0r '58 shows a testimonial from the General Manager of the Hotel Tuscany in N.Y.C. The tag line: "Two years ago I bought my first color TV - now I have 200 of them!" That was quite a feather in RCA's cap. I can imagine they had an RCA service tech on staff. The Hotel Tuscany is still there. I'm pretty sure the RCA's are not.

-Steve D.

[Greg B.]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave. That was in the summer of '78.

That's pretty late. I told this story here previously, but it bears repeating. When I was a kid our family took an annual driving vacation for a week or two every summer, usually to Maine and New England. The first color TV I remember seeing in a motel room was a Motorola console at the Farmington Motel in Farmington, Maine, in the summer of either '67 or '68. I remember sitting on the floor in front of it for much of the evening just fascinated by it.

The Farmington Motel was part of the "Superior" group, which always seemed somewhat loose at best. They were usually not bad places. However, I just did a search and to my surprise it is not only still in business, it still looks almost exactly the same and is still a part of that Superior group! Amazing.

http://www.farmingtonmotel.com/