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Originally Posted by decojoe67
This 1959 17" Philco Predicta "Debutante" and matching stand was recently unearthed from years of storage. It needed lots of cleaning, polishing, and detailing to get it to where it is now. It also needed and antenna and replacement back panel. Upon it's chassis restoration it was discovered that it needed a new CRT. I was almost going to pass on it, but now I'm glad I didn't. It works great and who doesn't love the modern "space-age" look of these classics?!
I particular like the "Debutante" with it's simplicity and the gold sparkle grill cloth. It was the cheapest of all the Predicta's (around $200) and was often sold as fleet sets for motel chains. You can tell if you have one by the instruction sheet applied to the top of the cabinet. These 17 inchers (Siesta, Princess, and Debutante) were superior to the 21 inchers, but the word was out by then that they were sets to be avoided.
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Nice find! I have to agree, the Debutantes in Charcoal like yours is my favorite of the 3 types of 17" sets, although a Mahogany Princess comes very close too!
The true motel sets are easily distinguished by being Debutantes in biege (which wasn't sold to the public, as the consumer Debutantes came in only Charcoal like yours) and have the antenna and hole missing. They also had unique model and chassis numbers (model # 3406, chassis 11L43) and the chassis lacked a local-distance AGC switch like the other 17" Predictas. I beleive they were made in 1961 and possibly longer....maybe Don can fill in more here!