1955 Stratarama
 

I picked up this 1955 Hallicrafter Stratarama at the dump this week. I am missing one knob and the crt is weak. I think it's a 21alp4. The chassis looks fairly clean. the finish is gone on it tho. My first blond and it's messed up. Oh, well. It will give me a chance to try making my own blond finish.

What a great name for a TV!

The Blond's always seem to be in bad shape, maybe because they had more fun.

Yep, and a lot of them were rode hard and put away wet. :smsex:

Another emoticon I never expected to see :lmao:

That was ........very funny!:thmbsp:

I think Hallicrafters thru in the towel on the TV business around '55 or so. They couldn't compete against the Muntzes of the world, & I think RCA stuck 'em pretty hard on royalty payments, too.

The Hallicrafters collector book shows a surprising number of TVs from the early to mid-1950s. Twenty-three models are listed for 1955-1956. There were few 1957 models, and one dated 1958. Hallicrafters didn't succeed with TVs, but they gave it a good shot.

They produced a single color set using the RCA CTC-4 chassis. I wonder if one of those is hiding in someone's basement?

Phil Nelson

I have a HAM operator friend who is a big Hallicrafters collector. He has just about every Hallicrafters product made, including TVs... I'll ask if he's aware of the color set. He even has a 1990s Hallicrafters-branded CD player, just for laughs. (I guess the Chinese got hold of the Hallicrafters name too).

Charles

"They produced a single color set using the RCA CTC-4 chassis. I wonder if one of those is hiding in someone's basement?"

There is one listed in the ETF's color database. That set is literally in a basement!

Anybody now how wide Hallicrafters and some of the others like Crosley were distributed? were they nationwide, or regional?

[edit - NICE SET]

Very cool find and yes,, a great name.

That would make a good thread - a compilation of the general distribution of some of the smaller brands.

I think Hallicrafters sets were distributed nationally. I've seen them everywhere, and the Model 100 console I have came from a condemned house about 40 mi. from me.