Here are a couple of views of the television nook. A couple of these sets are functioning, displaying some re-runs played from a VCR.
To the right, some large floor models in handsome cabinets meant to be the center-piece of a 1950s living room — they had quality in their sound systems that somehow disappeared until the more recent interest in “home-theatre”!
Take special note of the large floor-model at the lower left of the photo — it is one of RCA’s first production colour television sets (model CT-100, The “Merrill”). At $1000 in 1954, not many were sold – the screen was smaller than black and white sets of the time, and there were few hours of colour programming. Only 90 of these sets are known to exist world-wide.
Some early round-screen sets, and a “newish” TV for a contrast. Even though the picture that is transmitted is rectangular, manufacturers in the late 40s were not yet producing rectangular picture tubes, so the image was presented either with the corners missing, or with black areas surrounding the complete scene. With the appearance of DVDs and HDTV, we’re now facing similar issues 60 years later!
A Philco Predicta, missing the bezel; and some early remote controls – Zenith “Space Command”.