Overpriced? Zenith in Michigan
 

Here'a a Zenith Royal. Seems expensive to me. I like the radio dial though.

http://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/ele/1147983572.html

John

Hate to tell him, but I'm 99.9% sure that ain't no color set...

Oops! I should have noticed that before posting it in the color forum.

John

He should pay you to haul it away.

This is the first time I've ever seen that combo design, except for Curtis Mathes. A stretch to call it attractive. I don't like to beat up on sellers....I will say, he will be lucky to find someone who will give any cash at all for this beast.

It would be cheaper if it didn't have that original Monkees album on the phonograph, LOL!

Like everyone else has said, this seller would be lucky if someone offered any cash for it. And, no, it ain't color!

I'd call the design incongruous. It looks like they designed the TV and then tried to figure out how to add the radio and phonograph later.

As much as I hate dismembering consoles, if the set were given to me I'd probably try to design a cabinet for just the radio and phonograph and get rid of the rest of it.

John

I would almost say that the radio on top was a custom add-on - I don't remember Zenith marketing anything looking this "cobbled together."

Plus, wasn't the Royal name brought out with the transistorized sets?

Folks, I think that's a 1955 Stratosphere--or very close. If you look in "The Zenith Story", you'll find one on page 27.

http://radiosyd.se/pictures/The_Zeni...from_1919.djvu

"Been in old barn for years." ... In Michigan!

Can you imagine all the critters that have been fornicating & defecating in there for the 40 years since the Monkees were popular?

UGH!

Mahogany?

By gosh you're right! It looks a lot nicer in the promo photo. The little standoffs help. Probably made it difficult to dust though.

Odd that they would call it the Stratosphere since one of their most interesting radios went by the same name.

John

Doug had a real nice one, '56 model though, with the flashmatic remote:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...ighlight=flash

Interesting! There is a huge difference in the opinions in the 2007 thread and this one. Is that because I mentioned what I saw as overpricing or the fact that it sat in a Michigan barn?

I'm not willing to rescue it for the price asked. They'd have to come down quite a bit. Guess I'll wait and see.

Doug's does look a lot more attractive.

John

I think I remember reading-Prolly here- that Zenith was a relative latecomer to the color game, not making their 1st sets til '62 or so.There was, as we say down here in the country, "Bad blood" between Gen. David Sarnoff, the meglomaniac who ran RCA, & Commander Eugene McDonald, Jr, the meglomaniac who ran Zenith. McDonald was gone by '62, but old habits die hard...Perhaps they were trying to develop a color set that used as little of RCA's designs as possible...

Zenith didn't introduce a production Color TV until 1962. Partly because RCA designs weren't up to the reliability standards of E.F. McDonald. He elected to do his own Color TV designs which met his reliability criteria and performance needs. Nothing against RCA roundies, I love them. The Commander didn't like making anything which didn't live up to the famous "The Quality Goes In Before The Zenith Name Goes On". The best corporate motto there was.