Article about General Electric 15CL100

[benman94]

Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald

Seventy would not have been too many.

Especially when you consider that many of those seventy manufacturers produced maybe a single prototype set, or extremely limited pilot run of sets (à la Zenith and Admiral), and then bailed on color TV before it even got off the ground.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by benman94

Especially when you consider that many of those seventy manufacturers produced maybe a single prototype set, or extremely limited pilot run of sets (à la Zenith and Admiral), and then bailed on color TV before it even got off the ground.

IIRC, RCA continued to build color sets after the others bailed, selling chassis to other set makers.
Mainly because of the NBC network, which seemed to be the only color programming on the air.

[benman94]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

IIRC, RCA continued to build color sets after the others bailed, selling chassis to other set makers.
Mainly because of the NBC network, which seemed to be the only color programming on the air.

They did sell complete chassis to other manufacturers. They also licensed the LB-962 circuit to other manufacturers. They'd attach their own tuner, maybe modify the audio circuit a bit, stick it in their own cabinet and then call it their own. Hoffman did this with their '55-'56 Colorcasters, the two Gilfillan prototypes use this circuit, the '56 Sentinel uses it, Emerson and Raytheon used it, etc.

[etype2]

Originally Posted by benman94

Especially when you consider that many of those seventy manufacturers produced maybe a single prototype set, or extremely limited pilot run of sets (à la Zenith and Admiral), and then bailed on color TV before it even got off the ground.

Admiral didn't bail. I can't speak for other manufactures. They stopped production of their 15 inch color set about June, 1954, about the same time RCA stopped production of the CT 100. Then RCA had limited quanties of the 21CT55 in time for Christmas delivery, 1954 and Admiral had their equivalent 21 color set in dealers showrooms by January 5, 1955, again with an RCA 21APX engineered CRT.

[benman94]

I stand corrected. I had forgotten about the ugly 21 inch Admirals. Regardless, by 1958 RCA was left standing alone for the most part. Zenith wouldn't start manufacturing a color set until 1962, and GE and Motorola, while continuing to offer sets, were selling next to nothing.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by benman94

I stand corrected. I had forgotten about the ugly 21 inch Admirals. Regardless, by 1958 RCA was left standing alone for the most part. Zenith wouldn't start manufacturing a color set until 1962, and GE and Motorola, while continuing to offer sets, were selling next to nothing.

I happen to really like the looks of the 21" admirals...A green face with a mahogany cabinet or black face with blond cabinet and two simple top controls like Zenith monochrome sets of the time...It just looks really clean and nice to me.

[benman94]

Not my cup of tea... but then I like the looks of the GE 15CL100, the Westinghouse H840CK15, and the late 40s UST projection sets, all of which have an unconventional (some might say ugly) design.