50s' Repair Shop Photo

I ran across this for sale on ebay and thought I'd post it here. The seller describes it as a Sylvania repair shop, but looks like different brands of sets there and pretty big for a repair shop. Maybe a trade school?

If anyone wants to bid on it, here's the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Phot..._qi=RTM1562572

[Eric H]

I saw that, very cool picture, I would guess tech school. ITT has a school in San Antonio so maybe them?

The Photographer was located here, and it's still called the Zwell building: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=2118+...=12,125.4,,0,0

[Tubejunke]

Did N.R.I. have a campus or were they strictly correspondence? I know they were big in the early days and generated many a "TV Repaiman." That picture makes me jealous! LOL

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by egrand

. . . . . The seller describes it as a Sylvania repair shop, but looks like different brands of sets there and pretty big for a repair shop. Maybe a trade school? . . . . . . . .

On the left, a homemade failure-demonstration set, almost surely indicates this is a school.

Other clues to this not being a school and not a working shop:

1) Electrical outlets on the floor for test running the sets, indicate a school, as this surface wiring on a concrete floor would quickly be damaged by moving the heavy cabinets.

2) Most repair shops of that era hung electrical drops from the ceiling for the required cold start test run after repairing.

3) Service benches were not used for most repairs, we simply threw a blanket on top of the set and repaired the chassis on top of the set. If the CRT remained in the cabinet, we used extension cables.

4) This "shop" also has test equipment rack-mounted. This was a carry over from pre-WWII radio repair. Most TV period shops that I've seen carried the test equipment to the TV set on wheeled carts.

5) There are too many repairmen for the number of sets in the shop.

6) The work benches have rabbit ears on top, while the sets in the testing line do not, which not only indicates not a working shop, but a posed-for-photograph picture.

The weirdest thing I see in this photograph is the three lamp florescent fixtures! All florescent ceiling lamps that I've ever seen operated the bulbs in pairs. These fixtures have three lamps and three, easy to get to, replaceable starters on the side.

Jas.

[Username1]

A lot of strange stuff in that picture.... For one thing it looks like none of the tv's have a picture on them.... The use of rabbit ears is normal... Our shop had good tv reception, as did the town, and we fielded lots of reception problems, and a lot, a lot of calls where people complained about the picture with cable. I even replaced 2 sets from Panasinic because the customer complained the picture had snow on cable, snow remained after replacement. We often had to show customers how their repaired set looked on a rabbit ears because they did not have cable, or roof antenna, and they were often suspiceous if the set looked "too good" when we were done with it at the shop. Other shops in the area did the same.....

It does have a school look, but the shop design was by the owners thoughts as to what was the best layout. One guy I knew and a lot of area shops just had one bench and other sets scattered all over the place. The shop I started in had a two sided 60 foot long bench and tech benches on both sides, a test tube for working on console chassies. If they brought the floor model in, it just sat on the floor next to the bench, test equipment sat on the bench, and reached the set on the floor. We also used florescent lights, even though they were noisy.... That thing in the air next to the pole was most likely a set standard, a known good tv, we had one too and if a customer had specific reception problems we could no reproduce, we showed them their set next to the control set, in some cases with one set of rabbit ears per set, right next to one another.... as close as possible...

That table to the left sure looks like a school quality table....

I can't say anything about those monster test things back in the back, I didn't have them in my school, and nothing in shops I have been in...

The first guy I worked for was pretty good to go to all that trouble to set stuff up to show customers how some of the reception issues were not their sets faults....

There was a lot of stuff he did and did not charge for, not something you see today..... He was the areas biggest shop, and certainly not the place I thought I would have had my first job out of school....

[Phil Nelson]

Like all (and I mean ALL) publicity photos, this one was obviously staged. You can just hear the photographer's voice:

"Okay, shove everything down to that end of the room. Nobody will wonder why there's a huge empty space in my end of the room that's used for nothing. No, leave everything turned off; nobody could see what's on the screen, anyway. Now, everybody crouch down in exactly the places I showed you and then pretend like you're doing something. Make sure we can see your face, but look at the equipment, not at me. That way, it looks like you're doing something, even though the equipment is all turned off. Okay, hold it . . . ."

Phil Nelson

[CaryLee]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Like all (and I mean ALL) publicity photos, this one was obviously staged. You can just hear the photographer's voice:

"Okay, shove everything down to that end of the room. Nobody will wonder why there's a huge empty space in my end of the room that's used for nothing. No, leave everything turned off; nobody could see what's on the screen, anyway. Now, everybody crouch down in exactly the places I showed you and then pretend like you're doing something. Make sure we can see your face, but look at the equipment, not at me. That way, it looks like you're doing something, even though the equipment is all turned off. Okay, hold it . . . ."

Phil Nelson

Exactly along the lines of what I was thinking. I really get a kick out of the fellow that has his head stuck underneath the one set on the far right. Makes me wonder if his "day job" was at an auto repair shop. And everyone turning knobs on shut off equipment gets me grinning. I wouldn't be surprised if that photo appeared in a sales brochure or magazine ad somewhere. It is a great photo, though. A very nice shop.

[CaryLee]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

On the left, a homemade failure-demonstration set, almost surely indicates this is a school.

Other clues to this not being a school and not a working shop:

1) Electrical outlets on the floor for test running the sets, indicate a school, as this surface wiring on a concrete floor would quickly be damaged by moving the heavy cabinets.

2) Most repair shops of that era hung electrical drops from the ceiling for the required cold start test run after repairing.

3) Service benches were not used for most repairs, we simply threw a blanket on top of the set and repaired the chassis on top of the set. If the CRT remained in the cabinet, we used extension cables.

4) This "shop" also has test equipment rack-mounted. This was a carry over from pre-WWII radio repair. Most TV period shops that I've seen carried the test equipment to the TV set on wheeled carts.

5) There are too many repairmen for the number of sets in the shop.

6) The work benches have rabbit ears on top, while the sets in the testing line do not, which not only indicates not a working shop, but a posed-for-photograph picture.

The weirdest thing I see in this photograph is the three lamp florescent fixtures! All florescent ceiling lamps that I've ever seen operated the bulbs in pairs. These fixtures have three lamps and three, easy to get to, replaceable starters on the side.

Jas.

I kind of dig those three tube fluorescents. I worked as a residential and light commercial electrician in the mid to late 80's and early 90's, in some pretty old commercial buildings, but I don't recall ever seeing one of those.

[peter scott]

Do you think the roundy on the left is a demo colour set with all the convergence controls conveniently on the front?

Peter

[Kevin Kuehn]

Maybe an employee training area at some manufacture.

[old_tv_nut]

If i get it, I'll see if any more details can be read - the slanted panels in the back look like school demos, but I can't read the labels at the top.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

If i get it, I'll see if any more details can be read - the slanted panels in the back look like school demos, but I can't read the labels at the top.

sylvania

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by peter scott

Do you think the roundy on the left is a demo colour set with all the convergence controls conveniently on the front?

Peter

Tube is much too small to be color, looks like a 12" B&W to me.

All the sets I can see in the photo predate color and there aren't even any 21" B&W sets that became the standard around 1953, so I would place this around 1950-52

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

If i get it, I'll see if any more details can be read - the slanted panels in the back look like school demos, but I can't read the labels at the top.

If you get it maybe you can ask the seller if they have others. If it was a professional or publicity photo they probably had several pictures made around the building.

I noticed all the guys (except one) have their shirts tucked in and hair combed, so they prepared for this photo. Also, even back then I'm not sure how many guys would wear a white shirt to a job like that.

[Reece]

Up on a shelf over the roundie on the left it looks like a refrigeration compressor and condenser? all connected by tubing with a mysterious box on the other side of the partition. Wonder what that was for.