TruTone roundie found

[zenithfan1]

Very nice! I really like the style of the cabinet and controls. Really great find!!

[Whirled One]

Here's the cover of the 1965 Western Auto catalog that I picked up at a flea market a few months ago. What a great picture of mid-60's suburbia. I'm not sure why the 21" round-tube color TV, the refrigerator/freezer, the luggage, and the turquoise living room furniture is in the front yard, but, hey. ...Not to mention any of the other strange things about this picture. Sometimes it's best not to ask.

[Note: The strange little circular marks on and around the color TV and the man's head are dents that were in the cover]

[Tony V]

Thats a cool cover! Thanks for sharing.
-Tony

[AUdubon5425]

That guy on the lawn tractor looks overjoyed that he's about to run down that little girl and her telescope. I also would like to find one of those self-balancing outboard motors!

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by Tony V

<snip>
It has factory UHF so its at least a '63 model. \

<snip>
-Tony

While this is quite likely a 1963 or later model, be aware that there were sets made in the 1950's with factory UHF.
These sets were offered at a higher price than VHF-only models, and were usually hard to find, unless you were in a market where all TV was UHF (e.g. Fresno, South Bend, Youngstown) or there was only one VHF and more than one UHF (e.g. Austin).

[David Roper]

My collection isn't large, but it includes no fewer than three 50s sets with factory UHF: a Crosley from 1953, a Capehart from 1954 and a GE from 1957.

[Sandy G]

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

[batterymaker]

I doubt it was cheap--probably made of a now-rarely-used material called STEEL.... :-)

[Adam]

I've never found a pre-1964 set with uhf, but I did once have a 1969 Canadian RCA that was vhf only. I don't think I've ever seen a Truetone newer than the early 50s either. I have a 1935 Truetone AM radio that I think is great, it uses their own "Wizard" brand tubes. I can't tell from the photograph, but were they still using the Wizard tubes in their color televisions?

[Tony V]

Nice sets David!
-Tony

[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..?

[Tony V]

My set had been completely re-tubed including the crt so have no idea what brand tubes it might have had in it. Its has all Sylvania and GE tubes in it now.
-Tony

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by batterymaker

I doubt it was cheap--probably made of a now-rarely-used material called STEEL.... :-)

Yeah, I remeber how they made stuff back then...We had a 1964 IH "Cub" 10-hp riding lawn mower up at the farm-and there was NOTHING cheesy about it. It was SHAFT-DRIVE, had a rear-end that looked like it belonged under a car, & the mower deck was this bigazz heavy cast-iron affair..The front axle was cast iron as well, looked like it came from a 1947 truck. About everything I've used since seems rinkty-dink by comparison...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

While this is quite likely a 1963 or later model, be aware that there were sets made in the 1950's with factory UHF.
These sets were offered at a higher price than VHF-only models, and were usually hard to find, unless you were in a market where all TV was UHF (e.g. Fresno, South Bend, Youngstown) or there was only one VHF and more than one UHF (e.g. Austin).

And Erie, Pennsylvania. Their first TV station was channel 12, WICU/NBC. I don't know when their other two network affiliates and PBS (channels 24, 35 and 54, respectively) signed on, but when the first of those did begin operations, I'll bet the appliance stores around the area were selling all-channel TVs like crazy (not to mention UHF converters for older VHF-only sets).

I live near Cleveland and remember when the city's first UHF station (WVIZ, channel 25, NET--National Educational TV, now PBS) went on the air in 1965. I'm sure the local TV shops sold quite a few UHF converters after the station began regular operations, although the reception any further than, say, 10-15 miles from the transmitter was terrible. (The station's effectve radiated power output was a measly [by today's standards] one megawatt at that time.) I was living in a Cleveland suburb at the time and we couldn't get channel 25 worth a darn; that is, I could see a picture, but it was so weak (lots of snow) as to be unwatchable.

I don't think the station's reception problems (for most of their intended viewing area) were really solved until they put in a much more powerful transmitter years later, but far-suburban areas such as the suburb in which I grew up still had problems until cable arrived in Lake County, Ohio in the early 1980s. I remember a large antenna on the roof of the elementary school I attended as a kid; it was installed mainly to receive the educational channel. It fed an amplified distribution system (MATV) and downconverted channel 25 to VHF channel 4. Our school had all-channel RCA Victor 25-inch b&w table model TVs on carts from the time channel 25 arrived in Cleveland; in fact, when I got to junior high in the late sixties-early 1970s they also had metal-cased all-channel RCAs, but no MATV system that I remember--the sets operated on rabbit ears.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Yeah, I remeber how they made stuff back then...We had a 1964 IH "Cub" 10-hp riding lawn mower up at the farm-and there was NOTHING cheesy about it. It was SHAFT-DRIVE, had a rear-end that looked like it belonged under a car, & the mower deck was this bigazz heavy cast-iron affair..The front axle was cast iron as well, looked like it came from a 1947 truck. About everything I've used since seems rinkty-dink by comparison...

I love those tractors! I have a '72 Cub Cadet 12 HP 48" cut out in my yard now, had it since I was about 11 years old. Whirled One mentioned a low end model, I have a lawnmower that IS an oversized self propelled one in essence-just like he mentioned. The transmission is a little bigger, a small extension of frame in the front is added with steering, the seat mounts are bolted where the handle normally would. It uses a 3.5 Hp Clinton engine. The whole thing is factory made, not homebrew. It's all taken apart in the garage, I have to replicate some missing pieces. I'll be able to mow my foot off with it someday Sorry about the OT comment.