Elvis had an 8" RCA Portable

[Eric H]

Or at least his family did.
I was watching a Documentary on "The King" and it had this photograph of what I think was the house he bought for his parents.

There's one of the Personal Portables with the stand in the background, looks like it was a red one, this was in 1956. I suspect the Phonograph is RCA too since he recorded for them.

Edit: found this site with a clear version of the picture plus some other photos, including Presley with his CTC5.
http://www.elvisechoesofthepast.com/...audubon-drive/
I notice the modern picture of the red RCA is from my site!

[kvflyer]

I have a few of those little 8" RCA televisions in queue for restoration. They all are in pretty poor condition. Hope that I can get one going eventually.

Thanks for the link and the pictures.

[decojoe67]

Very cool pics! With those sets, that décor, Elvis, and a polka-dot dressed woman - it don't get more '50's!
I have one of those "personal portables" in black. When they're properly restored they plan fantastic and are quite reliable.

[Captain Video]

Yeah, at least I have something that The King had too!!!! My RCA portable TV is also in red!

[Jon A.]

I guess those sets survived until he saw Robert Goulet or Mel Torme on them.

[jr_tech]

I have noticed 2 distinctly different bezel colors on these sets. The black set I know is original since it was my childhood set. I always assumed that the gold colored bezel was standard on the white and red sets, but the Elvis article shows these sets with the lighter colored bezel. Perhaps the sets with gold bezels are from different years or taken from different models? The bezels do not appear to have been repainted, but I guess that is a possibility. Anybody else have one of these with a gold bezel?





jr

[Sandy G]

The assistant dean of students had a black one in his office, when I was at McCallie School in Chattanooga in the early Seventies...It was just an older TV then, nothing really special.. But I fell in love w/it, anyhow. I have 2 black ones, & the grey/tannish version... All work, but the CRT in the tan one is about shot...Naturally, its the best condition one, otherwise... RCA must have sold a blue million of these little guys...

[StellarTV]

I've got one of those in the junker pile... I recapped it when I first got into this hobby and found out it had a bad vertical output transformer. It's pretty rough.

[Captain Video]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I have noticed 2 distinctly different bezel colors on these sets. The black set I know is original since it was my childhood set. I always assumed that the gold colored bezel was standard on the white and red sets, but the Elvis article shows these sets with the lighter colored bezel. Perhaps the sets with gold bezels are from different years or taken from different models? The bezels do not appear to have been repainted, but I guess that is a possibility. Anybody else have one of these with a gold bezel?





jr

Mine is red and the bezel is not of gold color.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

I guess those sets survived until he saw Robert Goulet or Mel Torme on them.

Did he do that more than once?

[Eric H]

[QUOTE=jr_tech;3084132]I have noticed 2 distinctly different bezel colors on these sets. The black set I know is original since it was my childhood set. I always assumed that the gold colored bezel was standard on the white and red sets, but the Elvis article shows these sets with the lighter colored bezel. Perhaps the sets with gold bezels are from different years or taken from different models? The bezels do not appear to have been repainted, but I guess that is a possibility. Anybody else have one of these with a gold bezel?


There are some differences between the models with the stand and the models without, perhaps the bezel depends on which model it is? or maybe the color of the cabinet determines the bezel color.

I just looked at a red one without the stand and it has a gold bezel, I have 12 of these sets some with stands some without, I'll have to dig some out and take a look.

Gold bezels seem to have been the big thing for RCA in 57 so maybe it depends on what year it was made?

Edit: The bezels are all gold but the masks are not.

Red with a stand and a whiteish gray bezel:


White with a stand and also a whiteish gray bezel:

[tvtimeisfun]

When I was at the ETF convention this year somebody walked into the museum and gave me one of those rcas for nothing and I sold it 10 minutes later wish I would have kept itbut money talks by the way those are nice sets you have...