Enchanted evening by Zenith. (1950-1951)
The setting: You… your guests, 1951 Black Magic TV with reflection-proof screen.
Supreme moment! When Zenith Black Magic Television comes into your life (1950)
You’ve known great moments in your life. You’ve lived in an age of marvels. But there’s an experience coming your way—an experience so dramatic—so un-believably out of the world, as to make all others seem commonplace.
It’s not just television you’re seeing… it’s the miracle of Black Magic Television, made possible through Zenith’s amazing discovery of the Blaxide Tube. Its the thrill of seeing pictures so clear, so photographically life-like that you hardly believe your eyes. Pictures free from eye-straining glare or blur even in daylight or fully lighted rooms, as medical authorities recommend viewing.
And now for ’51 — wonder of wonders — the new Zenith reflection-proof feature added to make viewing even more perfect. Now you see pictures utterly free from window and room-light reflections at normal viewing position — truly, television’s newest miracle. Be sure — be very sure — that when you invest in television, you guard against after-regrets.
New Zenith “Super-Medallion.” Super-Sensitive FM plus Long-Distance AM. Big new Dial-Speaker permits larger speaker and dial. Smart Modern cabinet in maroon plastic.
New Zenith “Zephyr.” Long-Distance AM reception. New Giant DialSpeaker. Powerful built-in Zenith Wavemagnet. Convenient “Flexo-Grip” handle. In maroon or ebony plastic cabinet with “Roman Gold” trim.
Above—New Zenith” Wordsworth” TV-Radio-Phonograph. Now 165 sq. in. “Selecto-Screen” gives you both circular and rectangular type pictures. New “Cobra-Matic” record changer—only two simple controls to play any size or speed record. New FM-AM radio. Powerful new speaker. Smartly styled modern cabinet in genuine Gold Coast Afara veneers and hardwoods.
Be sure to examine these features combined only in Zenith: Your choice of Giant Circle or rectangular type picture. Built-in “Picturemagnet” aerial. One-knob automatic tuning. New Magic “Lazy Bones” remote control to switch channels from your easy chair. (Optional at slight extra cost on all new Zenith Television Receivers.) Connection for Phonevision* and built-in provision for tuner strips to receive the proposed new ultra-high frequencies on present standards. Be sure you buy with the knowledge that you pos-sess the most advanced television known to modern science.
* If and when this great Zenith development is approved as a commercial service and thereby is made available on present standards, unit may be attached to bring high-class, costly television programs right into your home.
GE Black-Daylite Television from 1950
Vintage Capehart-Farnsworth televisions from 1950
World’s most advanced TV and record playing (1951)
Zenith quality Black Magic TV plus Cobra-Matic record player with pitch and tempo control
Admiral TV: The clearest picture in television
GIANT STEP IN TV! NEW 1956 CBS with television’s 9 most wanted advances (1956)
From the vast resources of the Columbia Broadcasting System come sets so utterly new, so boldly, beautifully engineered, they set the pace for all TV to follow.
These are the fabulous CBS Television Sets for 1956 … importantly different, inside and out. For they are built by a Division of the Columbia Broadcasting System, and backed by the enormous fund of CBS broadcast experience and electronic research. As a result, they alone deliver the 9 most wanted advances in television.
In these new CBS TV Sets, for example, you will discover the most efficient, completely automatic tuning system ever invented: CBS Robot Tuning. You will find TV’s mightiest power plant … brightest pictures … truest sound … feature upon feature to insure TV’s most dependable performance. In short, more of the best than all the rest. These are indeed the finest television sets ever to bear the great name of CBS.
Emerson Portable TV-Phonoradio from 1956
Hotpoint Hi-Vi TV (1956)
Now… in portable models, too!
New high in vivid picture, new high in vivid sound, new high in vivid styling
Here are 3 of 7 portables in Hotpoint’s complete line of all-new TV sets:
- Amazing 13-lb portable
- New Hotpoint 14″ portable
- Portable with big screen!
Introducing a new concept in television pleasure
Trapped light beams and enriched sound waves bring new pleasure to television viewing — Hotpoint Hi-Vi TV
Portable television sets: Compact TVs by RCA Victor
Philco creates world’s first separate-screen TV set! (1958)
Keep the set beside your chair… put the picture anywhere!
Philco builds chassis and sound system into a table… makes picture tube separate and portable!
Philco brings you another spectacular advance in the science of television! Now the picture tube is completely freed from the chassis… can be placed anywhere in the room… even carried to another room!
This revolutionary new Philco Predicta Tandem was made possible by Philco scientists who developed the new “S-F” (Semi-Flat) picture tube. Ordinary tubes would have been far too bulky and cumbersome. A flexible 25-ft. cord connects the powerful chassis with the big, bright picture tube.
The set itself, with all its controls and the speaker system, is built into an elegant modern end table. Philco’s full, rich sound is right at your elbow, always conversation-clear. You can put the picture on a wall shelf, where a roomful of people can enjoy it, or place it up close to your chair for personal viewing.
This tomorrow-new television is at your Philco dealer’s now. You can own Predicta Tandem in blond wood, as shown, for $339.95, and in mahogany finish for only $329.95.
Vintage Philco TV sets from 1958
High Fidelity TV Chassis with Aluminized Filter-Face 21″ Picture Tube: It’s the television chassis acclaimed everywhere for picture reproduction . . . for reception in difficult or distant locations … for automatic operation in multiple reception areas. Nothing less approaches it for freedom from interference, or equals it for picture stability, contrast and definition.
Exclusive Finger Tip Tuning System: Newest advance in television design. Only two controls are in view yet all controls are at your fingertips. No groping behind the set! No grappling with trap door panels! No guessing with blind side tuning! For the first time, combines breathtaking beauty with complete operating efficiency and places the world’s finest picture at your fingertips.
Electronic UHF-VHF Built-in Aerial: In many locations, no other aerial needed — just plug in and play!
Illuminated Station Selector: Softly illuminated to make station-selecting easy, even in a dimly-lighted room.
New Built-in Range Finder: Three-way control adjusts the set for peak performance on weak, strong, and in-between stations — even for stations varying up to 50,000 times in signal strength. Better than ever before, solves the problem of overload, picture flop-over and “snow” in multiple station areas. It’s on the front of the set — not hidden or hard-to-reach. Click — and it’s set for one of its three positions, depending upon the signal strength of the station.
Available with the World’s Finest All-Channel UHF Tuner: Philco’s UHF Tuner is recognized everywhere as the leader of the industry. Its record for distance, for noise-free reception, and for sensitivity has never been equaled. Even more, it offers the easiest, fastest tuning with a two-speed dial that at any point it stops automatically gives the user a fine tuning adjustment. Unmatched for convenience, speed and accuracy!
Philco 24″ Aluminized Filter-Face Picture Tube: Giant picture . . . twice as bright . . . unmatched for contrast, sharpness and depth of detail in the picture! Filter is built into the face of the tube itself, while developments in the circuit as well as in the cathode ray tube result in the highest standard of viewing enjoyment in the industry today.
General Electric portable TV from 1956
4 Responses
I am looking for a 1957 Hotpoint table stop tv non working. I only need the body, handle, knobs and antenna. NO tube or guts.
thanks
It’s funny how the people in these ads are all dressed in their finest formal wear. I guess the message was that watching and owning a television was a sophisticated, glamorous thing to do! It reminds me of the old joke about the guy who would dress up to watch TV because he thought the people on the TV could see him! :D
I saw my first TV set in 1946… in a display window at a radio dealership in Dallas, Texas. I was 8 years old. It was 2 blocks from my house. My brother and I watched the Tuesday night wrestling matches through the display window. The store closed everyday (it was not open on Sundays) at 6:00. O
f course, this was black and white tv. Color tv was still 14 years or so on down the road. My dad bought our first tv in 1951. It was a Capeheart TV… about a 15 incher as I recall.
Television has come a long way. Now, 75 years after I first saw this thing call tv, I can turn on anyone of my SIX tvs and see myself on reruns of the 52 movies, 175 tv shows and over 200 commercials. That’s my resume of 49 years as an actor. Thank you, TELEVISION. And thank you, MEL BROOKS.
If not for television I would be a long-ago retired firefighter, living down somewhere in East Texas. And I’d probably have a couple of cows. But because of television, I’ve had a life that 99% of folks can only dream of. What a wonderful run it’s been. And at 83 years young, there is still more to come. Keep smilin’! It sure has worked for me.
BURTON GILLIAM SAG/AFTRA, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (I’m one of only 1500 actors (worldwide) who vote on the Academy Awards. And it all started by watching a thing called a television set through a display window. Oh, there was no sound. Or if there was, we could not hear it through the thick glass.
Our Uncle Charles was a technical writer for Philco for at least 20 years. Our first set was a ’52 Philco table set, replaced in 1963 by a much more modern Philco console, in a contemporary walnut cabinet. I collect small TV sets.