Mystery TV in cigarette commercial
 

While surfing youtube, ran across a cigarette commercial featuring a vintage TV. Obvious image pasted in the TV set. But the set does look a unusual, what brand and model might it be? The image is not real clear, though.

That's a Du Mont, no question whatsoever. Somebody else can likely provide the model number or name...hell, one of us probably has one.

David's right... NO question. I'd start with a guess of RA-119?

Charles

Yup. A DuMont.

I don't think it's an RA-119. I have one, doesn't look like that.

Looks like a 19" Model, circa 1951-52.

LJB:smoke:

That is a RA-109

The screen size, to me, looks bigger than that of a RA-109, which was 19". My old set just seemed to be more wood and less glass beside that unmistakable control panel.

I have the RA-109 Sherbrooke, which has the additional AM tuner dial on the right side of the escutcheon and the VHF-FM down the right. It's a 19-incher, spare 19AP4 anyone? Both have the maddening dummy plate for the unreleased UHF option.

Here's mine:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1951-Vintage-Ad-...3286.m20.l1116

I think I meant 109; not 119... I had one too, with the door pulls with rings through lions' heads.

Charles

[QUOTE=Einar72;2838423]I have the RA-109 Sherbrooke, which has the additional AM tuner dial on the right side of the escutcheon and the VHF-FM down the right. Both have the maddening dummy plate for the unreleased UHF option.

What is so maddening about the dummy plate? These were on a lot of VHF-only TVs made in the '50s-'60s. It's interesting (to me anyway) why the UHF tuner was not available for the RA-109; if there was a hole for such a tuner (likely with a bracket behind it), the optional UHF conversion kit should have been available as well. There may also have been an all-channel version of the RA-109, which would have been available in UHF only areas such as Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fresno, California, Youngstown, Ohio, et al. The nice thing about those early all-channel sets was they were ready for the future, and could also be used in VHF-only areas when those cities/towns eventually got their first UHF station. Evansville, Indiana comes to my mind. They have mostly VHF stations, but their NBC affiliate, WFIE-TV (which was likely the first TV station in the city; WFIE may have stood for First In Evansville) was on channel 14. Scranton, Pennsylvania is another UHF-only market in which an all-channel version of the RA-109 would have sold well, and the list goes on.

I hate to think it, but I wonder if DuMont was so snooty that they only wanted to market their sets to affluent areas, such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and not to middle-America? Kind of like Caphart's Hi-Fi ad stating "If you have to ask the price, please don't write our sales office". Maybe DuMont was saying "If you live outside of uptown, you can't afford a DuMont".

Charles

Not '51-'52... screen's too large for that era... '54 or later more likely.

RJ

I believe it is an RA-109 but they matted the picture into the entire mask area not just the area of the CRT.

The 30" Du Mont Royal Sovereign was released in 1951. If you didn't want to go that large, makers such as GE and Stromberg-Carlson made big screen sets that year up to 24" along with the many 19" round and 20" rectangular sets that were on the market.

By 1952 there were 27" and 24" rectangular sets along with the 21" size which at that time became the standard.

Ah. Thank You for the clarification.

I was just shining up my Royal Sovereign. I still can't believe how BIG this thing is. It has a date written on the cabinet of "5/11/51." It's an early production model.

Speaking of 30" CRT's, I need one for this Teleset. So, if you hear anything...

LJB:smoke:

"Join the club"... I know of about 5 of those with tubes of lost vacuum.



The 19" and 24" tubes were available as early as late '49 or and early '50 in some exotic sets, including the DuMont. Commonplace by '51. In fact, they were being dumped in cheapie sets like Muntz and Pacific Mercury by '52.

Charles