|
|
|
#16
05-08-2006, 06:26 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Hotel signs boasting the number of channels they had were actually common in rural areas around here up until the early 90s. Back then there were 5 channels in capital cities (3 commercial, 2 goverment) and there was no cable TV. In many rural areas there was only 1 commercial channel (which typically showed a mix of programs from the 3 commercial channels with some local content and reruns the other networks didn't bother showing) and 1 of the goverment stations. The second goverment station came later, a local affiliates of all 3 commerical stations later still. Some hotels close enough to a capital city installed high gain antennas on tall towers with an inline amplifer to receive city channels with varying amounts of success. So hotel signs would often proudly announce 4 channels, 5 channels, or Melbourne TV.
I spent about a year in a crappy little town 400kms out of Melbourne just before the 3 commercial affiliates came online. In order to escape the awfulness of Southern Cross TV I had 6ft VHF yagi on the tallest tower I find with an inline amplifier that got me watchable, but snowy reception of Melbourne channels. Of course now all channels are available everywhere via satellite if not via local affiliates and Pay TV offers even more channels via satellie, so Melbourne TV isn't anything to brag about anymore. 
|
|
#17
05-08-2006, 06:39 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I don't live too far from US 25-E, which goes from Detroit to Florida. I-75 has long since made it obsolete, but there are still several motels along the way that were put up in The Golden Age- 1940-1960...most are ruins now, or have been turned into "efficiency apartments" (read-flophouses),or worse. I remember most of 'em were still going on when I was a kid-Usually some old guy & his wife ran 'em,& the old guy would stay busy mowing, painting, etc....Then the old people would die, & the place would start a long, downhill slide....Very sad to see...
__________________
Benevolent Despot
|
|
#18
05-08-2006, 10:01 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Any of you who have an interest in Googie, take a look at this site:
http://www.spaceagecity.com/googie/ Lots of great pics.
|
|
#19
05-08-2006, 10:59 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
How about this GE T-V trailer, still sitting in the weeds in the southern tier of Western NY?
__________________
"Restoring a tube TV is like going to war. A color one is like a land war in Asia."
|
|
#21
05-08-2006, 12:58 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
|
|
#22
05-08-2006, 05:14 PM
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
I'd just hit town and my throat was dry...
__________________
MCD205 MR85 C46 MC402 a/d/s L-980's (Denon DP52F TT w/SignetTK10-ML)
|
|
#23
05-09-2006, 05:12 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I work for a city in Ventura County California called Fillmore. They have a pretty neat old sign that is for the city itself. They have lots of neon signed buildings there, I'll have to check out the local motels and see if there are any "color TV here" type signsl.
David
|
|
#24
05-09-2006, 12:00 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
Charles
|
|
#25
05-10-2006, 12:03 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
David
|
| Audiokarma |
|
#26
05-13-2006, 11:30 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Dumont neon
Sixty-three years in the same family. Eatontown TV stands near the main entrance of Fort Monmouth in NJ. This Dumont sign was taller than the building. Estimated at 30-feet tall, it had seven tubes of green neon illuminating the main letters. The sign was so large and bright it served as a nighttime beacon for Monmouth and Red Bank airports. It was there till the building was expanded in 1974. Some of the steel from the sign is in the concrete floor of the '74 addition. Spoke to the owner this morning. He speculated that Dumont paid the entire cost of the sign. I've often wondered if the unusual size of the sign was somehow related to Dumont's association with the Eatontown area during his work at the Fort.
|
|
#27
05-14-2006, 09:30 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I love old motel signs and other highway relics. As others have mentioned, there are a number of coffee-table books out there featuring photo-essays of such things.
Also, when I go on road trips I try to stay at old family-run motels like that just for fun. Ah, it's just part of the adventure, you know? Anyway, while I've never seen a 50's TV in a guest room at those places, I've encountered several where the furniture and fixtures seem to have gotten stuck in time somewhere in the 1950's or 60's. The old TV's always got changed out, but one room I stayed at once several years ago had the strangest late-50's-looking window air-conditioner I've ever seen. It was an RCA-Whirlpool, and you could tell RCA must have been trying to exert their influence on the product styling. It was (if I remember correctly) blue-grey in color, and the cabinet was styled like a small late-50's table radio-- if each dimension was magnified like 4 or 5 times over. The controls were on the top of the unit and hidden under a hinged panel; the fan and thermostat knobs looked like TV tuner knobs (and the thermostat at least had numbers that appeared like those on a TV tuner, though calibrated 1-10 instead of 2-13) and the controls were arranged in a way that looked reminicent of a TV control panel. I think it had pushbuttons for some functions though. Strangest thing... anyone here seen anything like this? I took a picture of it at the time; I'll have to root around and see if I can dig it up at some point.
|
|
#28
05-16-2006, 10:11 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
One night I will always remember: once when we were kids we all packed in the station wagon and set out to Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ. The adults had it all planned out-having driven all the way up, after leaving we would drive down to Cape May and take the ferry across to Delaware and home from there. The plan worked fine until they got to Cape May and realized the last ferry of the night was long gone. Nobody had checked the schedule. All the motels out on the highway were flashing no vacancy signs. Meanwhile, 4 adults and 4 kids are crammed in a 77 Buick Century Wagon, it is somewhere around 1 am and we are cruising the streets of Wildwood, NJ looking for someplace to stay. Dad & Mr. Tommy stop at this old place a few blocks from the beach and when they come back they are just laughing. They said, and I've never known for sure if they were serious or not, "the clerk said they didn't have enough girls for all of us!" Anyway, Dad also said that the TV set in the lobby looked like something I would have. I didn't even get to see it but I wanted that thing!
I should have had my camera with me Saturday. In the town I was in there is a small appliance store with a large GE sign advertising Major Appliances and Color TV.
__________________
Bryan
|
|
#29
05-27-2006, 02:11 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
|
|
#30
05-27-2006, 07:08 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
What a great photo! You mean somebody was selling the picture on eBay? I woulda bid!
If it's the same MEL'S TV. it's on Lincoln Blvd, on the west side of the street, near Ocean Park Bl. The phone number on the sign starts EXbrook, which would be correct for the Venice area. I remember that store, but by the 80s, the signage was different. Still said PACKARD-BELL though! Charles
|
| Audiokarma |
 |
|
|
Linear Mode
