1951 TV Ads Part 1

Here's some more ads from a vintage Radio & Television Retailing magazine. This time from September 1950, which is a huge issue. That was when set makers were introducing their 1951 models.

Again, these were geared toward potential retailers, so the ads talk about things like profit margins and important selling features.

There's too much stuff to put it all in one post, so there'll be more coming, including a beautiful 16 page color ad for Raytheon. Stay tuned....

[Captain Video]

September 1950... when our first TV station went on the air. I think the huge 24 inch GE set seen on the last ad was sold here too.

[electronjohn]

LOVE that Westy 624T16!

Has anybody seen one of those GE 24" sets? I just got a bunch of GE service guides from the 50's and there's a schematic for it. I just wondered how many they made or if they really made them. It looks huge!

[David Roper]

There was an Craig's ad posted recently for an empty cabinet which turned out to be one of those. I'd love to find a restorable one.

[Tubejunke]

Hey thanks for posting this cool stuff. I have always liked looking through my old Life, Look and The Saturday Evening Post mags at the TV and radio ads. Frankly, I like most all of the merchandising graphic design of, well,, just about anytime before the 70s. There was a "feel" if you will to what they did that makes you (like so many other things back then) happy, or at least interested. Seems like we lost that as the 60s turned to the 70s (the latter I think was the end of a lot of cool stuff, LIKE MUSIC). Pardon me; don't want to go on a rant.

Again, thanks and if interested, a lot of this type of thing is out there on the WWW (or course). I am thinking Early Television Foundation might have part of their Website dedicated to TV ads listed by year and brand. I may be wrong on that site, but look around if I am. It's not too hard to find.