How did people watch 7" sets?

[Kamakiri]

Absolutely true, but in the case of tablets and phones, they sit on their laps.....

I'd just like to see more pics of living room setups around a 7" set, which must have been common in the house of 1948. Of course, RCA (I'm guessing) took the market for 1949 with their "anniversary" model (9T246) priced at 199.95, only $10 or $20 more than the Admiral and Motorola 7" offerings.....not to mention the other companies in the fray at that time.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I'd just like to see more pics of living room setups around a 7" set, which must have been common in the house of 1948.

As soon as I saw egrand's photo of the 13 people watching the TV set, I suspected this TV was either a 7 or 8 inch Motorola, by the vertical label on the right side of the back, plus the shape of the top vents and a rabbit ears of Motorola design.

To verify this, I pulled up the scans directly from the original photographs that were used to print the pictures on the bottom of page 106 and verified that this is a 1948 7 inch VT71 Motorola in red mahogany (or a slight possibility that this is the similar 1947 set.) There is an unused photograph of the father carrying the set home, that clearly shows the front of the set.

Kamakiri, I don't think you will find a picture of more than 13 people watching a 7 inch set!

With that said, I think the 16 empty beer bottles might have helped many of them see the image more clearly . . . .

[init4fun]

Let's not forget a couple of things here ;

First , is that we had magnifiers that stood on the table right in front of the picture tube that made the image quite a bit larger and thus viewable from somewhat further away .

Second , we were not expecting 1080DPI HDMI quality , we were just darned happy to have moving pictures to go along with the radio . In some cases , this lack of clarity was actually a good thing in that every Zit , Mole , or Wart wasn't there in scarily clear well rendered colors ......

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Let's not forget a couple of things here ;

First , is that we had magnifiers that stood on the table right in front of the picture tube that made the image quite a bit larger and thus viewable from somewhat further away .

Second , we were not expecting 1080DPI HDMI quality , we were just darned happy to have moving pictures to go along with the radio . In some cases , this lack of clarity was actually a good thing in that every Zit , Mole , or Wart wasn't there in scarily clear well rendered colors ......

My oldest uncle bought the first TV in the family, a 7" Tele-tone. He put on one of those oil-filled magnifiers on it.
My mother remarked: "We'll wait a little while to buy a set. It has to be better than that. The picture's blurry and dark."

[ohohyodafarted]

Being born in 1947 I have vivid memories of my first television viewing experiences.

I was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old. Our family didn't have a set until 1951 when they purchased the Halicrafter 820 you see in my avitar.

A good friend of my father, Sam Sapaznick, already had a small screen tv set. It was a 7 incher but I can't recall exactly what brand it was.

SO......Every Friday night we would all go over to Sam's home for a gathering of several families to watch boxing on "The Friday Night Fights" which was sponsored by "Gillette Blue Blades"

The set up of the room was as follows: Dining room table was removed from the dining room. The tv set sat on top of an old fashioned china sideboard that was about 6" higher than a kitchen counter. IN front of the sideboard were 2 rows of kitchen and dining room chairs placed in curved rows, one behind the other and stagered like theater seats would be. Front row was probably no more than 6 feet away from the sideboard. All the kids sat on the floor in front of the sideboard looking up at about a 45 degree angle at the little tv screen several feet above our heads.

Watching tv was a big time social event in the early days of television, when the vast majority of homes still did not have a set. The host would prepare snacks for everyone and there would of course be plenty of Milwaukee's finest for the adults and soda for the kids. When the show came on, the lights in the room were turn off and we sat in the dark watching this tiny little screen. It was exciting! Live boxing from Madison Square Garden, every Friday night.

Certain things in life make an impression on you that sticks in your mind all your life. Watching The Friday Night Fights at the Sapaznick home in the early days of television, was just one of those things that made an indelible impression on my mind when I was just a little kid. I also remember the first "Color tv" I ever saw in 1956 in the home of one of my fathers freinds. I guess I was born in the vangard of the television revolution and probably has something to do with being a collector/restorer today.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

Being born in 1947 I have vivid memories of my first television viewing experiences.

I was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old. Our family didn't have a set until 1951 when they purchased the Halicrafter 820 you see in my avitar.

A good friend of my father, Sam Sapaznick, already had a small screen tv set. It was a 7 incher but I can't recall exactly what brand it was.

SO......Every Friday night we would all go over to Sam's home for a gathering of several families to watch boxing on "The Friday Night Fights" which was sponsored by "Gillette Blue Blades"

The set up of the room was as follows: Dining room table was removed from the dining room. The tv set sat on top of an old fashioned china sideboard that was about 6" higher than a kitchen counter. IN front of the sideboard were 2 rows of kitchen and dining room chairs placed in curved rows, one behind the other and stagered like theater seats would be. Front row was probably no more than 6 feet away from the sideboard. All the kids sat on the floor in front of the sideboard looking up at about a 45 degree angle at the little tv screen several feet above our heads.

Watching tv was a big time social event in the early days of television, when the vast majority of homes still did not have a set. The host would prepare snacks for everyone and there would of course be plenty of Milwaukee's finest for the adults and soda for the kids. When the show came on, the lights in the room were turn off and we sat in the dark watching this tiny little screen. It was exciting! Live boxing from Madison Square Garden, every Friday night.

Certain things in life make an impression on you that sticks in your mind all your life. Watching The Friday Night Fights at the Sapaznick home in the early days of television, was just one of those things that made an indelible impression on my mind when I was just a little kid. I also remember the first "Color tv" I ever saw in 1956 in the home of one of my fathers freinds. I guess I was born in the vangard of the television revolution and probably has something to do with being a collector/restorer today.

Bob, do you remember if they put on their "Sunday-Go-To-Meetin'" duds when they all met up at Sam's place ?

[ohohyodafarted]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Bob, do you remember if they put on their "Sunday-Go-To-Meetin'" duds when they all met up at Sam's place ?

Yes Sandy everyone including us little kids, wore nice clothes. People did that sort of thing back in the day. I didn't like getting dressed as a toddler, and I still don't lit to dress up to this day.

[vts1134]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

Watching tv was a big time social event in the early days of television, when the vast majority of homes still did not have a set. The host would prepare snacks for everyone and there would of course be plenty of Milwaukee's finest for the adults and soda for the kids. When the show came on, the lights in the room were turn off and we sat in the dark watching this tiny little screen. It was exciting! Live boxing from Madison Square Garden, every Friday night.

Although I am too young to have witnessed this first hand it is one of the stories I tell people when showing them my collection. Bob- I may print quotes like this out someday to display for people to get an idea of how television used to bring people together instead of driving people apart as it does today.