Some old Photos for your enjoyment

Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I don't remember a TV repairman coming to the house all that often but I sure remember walking to the drug store with a bag of tubes to test in their free tube tester. Then of course the tube I needed was the only one they were out of stock on. I also remember lot's of trips up on the roof to adjust the antenna every time there was wind but hey, that was still better than standing on one foot holding the rabbit ears in different positions. :rolleyes:
 
Hawk

Hawk

Well-Known Member
I too was assigned the job of "tube tester".
Riding to the local 7-11 with a bag of tubes to test. Then, when you found the one that was out, the clerk would have to unlock the metal bottom storage container and try to find one that matched.
Good memories!
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Rick H said:
Fiddling with the fine tuning and horizontal hold....LOL. Then just before you gave up you gave the set a good whack on the top and it settled down until the next change of channels.....precision tuning via forceful application of right or left palm in the proper spot. Why not, worked on the kids?
Click to expand...
HAR!!!! They call that a "percussive adjustment" according to our radio guys on the job!
 
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
I was a TV/radio/stereo repairman, for 14-years.

Went an old CRT television was off, there was a 25,000 volt charge that remained where the 2nd anode lead attached to the picture tube. It didn't hurt, but whatever your hand smacked into, as you instinctively jerked it out of the way, did.
 
JWFilips

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Since TV's are the subject Let's Look into the Shorpy.com archives!

July 12, 1950. "Hilda Kassell, East 53rd Street, New York City. Father reading newspaper, two children viewing television." The test-pattern tone is especially hypnotic this morning. Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner.

SHORPY_5a19812u.jpg

I too have found those captivating as a young child!
 
P

popper

Well-Known Member
1582155286922.png
Something like the first one I saw, house down the street had it, later got one with a square screen. IIRC Dad got a Weastingouse in 54 (B&W) and a friend brought a tube caddy/tester around when it quit working.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
We used to have the one with the indian in a war bonnet, black and white of course. It was no use turning on the TV before 6AM, 7AM on Sunday, or after 1AM at night. All you got was the test screen or maybe just snow.

Someone mentioned "Kukla, Fran and Ollie". I think they were on in the early years of TV too, but for me they were on the "CBS Childrens Film Festival" that aired Saturday afternoons about noon or 1 o'clock. It was all foreign language, artsy-fartsy stuff. My grandmother used to try to get us to watch them because she loved Kukla, Fran and Ollie. They stunk. I'd go to the extreme of volunteering to take out the garbage or mow the lawn rather than subject myself to a French kids movie! Sunday mornings if the weather was right we'd get to see "Rocket Robin Hood" or "The Adventures of the Mighty Hercules" on one of the Canuck stations. That was high living boyo! I was real sick one winter and I actually got to watch a whole movie on TV on one of the rare days channel 12 out of Ottawa came in- "Flight of the Phoenix" with Jimmy Stewart. That was really something! A TV station that showed a movie in the middle of the day! Those CRAZY Canuks!!!

I wonder how many episodes of "Captain Kangaroo" I watched? I always half expected Mr Green Jeans to punch Dancing Bear in the kisser or to see Bunny Rabbit end up in the Captains lunch pail, but it never happened.

I don't remember the tiny round screens, but I do remember what a status symbol it was to have a console set instead of a portable, and if you had one with the radio and record player (the "Hi-Fi")...man you must have been raking in the bucks! We finally got a console TV after many years of having a portable sitting on a metal table. It was an "instant on" model that didn't need to warm up. It lastd about 3 weeks before my mother turned it on, sparks and fire shot out of it and IIRC it darn near lit the living room on fire. Mom stood all 5' 2" of herself up to my Dad and Grandfather and put her little size 4 foot down and that was the end of console tv's for us!
 
Last edited:
JWFilips

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
In the late 50's I was lucky.... Penn State had some college geology & chemistry programs on at 6:30 am ( I learned a lot about those two subjects at an early age and it stuck!) There was Bill Bennet Show I learned a lot about Agriculture! A young mind is easily shaped with good programing!

Loved Captain Kangaroo! Did Like KF&O and Howdy Doody And loved "Man In To Space" sponsored by Luck Strike ( LSMFT)
 
Last edited:
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
yeah, I too loved those cheistry programs. :rolleyes:

Taking lessons from Brad are we? :rofl:
 
Last edited:
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
LSMFT does not stand for Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.
It's loose straps mean floppy t-ts. Even grade school boys were fascinated by the female body.

I changed more than a few round picture tubes, well into the mid-'70. In those days repairs cost less than new TVs.
 
RicinYakima

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
JWFilips said:
Since TV's are the subject Let's Look into the Shorpy.com archives!

July 12, 1950. "Hilda Kassell, East 53rd Street, New York City. Father reading newspaper, two children viewing television." The test-pattern tone is especially hypnotic this morning. Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner.

View attachment 13275

I too have found those captivating as a young child!
Click to expand...
If you lived on East 53rd Street in NYC, the pot in the window is all the green you would see in your life. The "kids" were accidents, and you never wanted to look at them. In the middle of the morning, you had to have the lamp on to see the read a newspaper. Life was wonderful.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I was going to comment on the screen dad had up to protect himself from "tv waves" but yours is lots better.
 
Rick H

Rick H

Well-Known Member
Used to love the midnight sign off.....the sky with a F-86 Saber Jet flying against the background of clouds and a waving US Flag while the narrator recited "High Flight"
$_35.jpg
 
Last edited:
Missionary

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Did anyone else watch Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody ? My older sister would smack the snot out of me for talking during that program.

All our early programs came out of Chicago across Lake Michigan. I watched Cubs games and the White Sox only if they were playing Detroit..

My dad's one brother was in development at Heith Corp. For just the cost of materials Uncle Ed bought the first 3 experimental HeathKit color TV's. For three weekends the sets were assembled one by one starting Friday night and the goal was to get done in time to adjust the color during the Bonanza show at 6pm Sunday. The 3 sets were assembled "step by step" and reports made on procedures that were not well explained.
 
JWFilips

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I just have to post this for Brad! ....from shorpy.com

November 1939. "Privy. Dawes County, Nebraska." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.
SHORPY-8b19243a.jpg
 
Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
That is a good 7 hours solid driving from me. I can be in Arkansas visiting Rick and John just as fast.
Nebraska is a pretty wide state.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.