Color roundies in motels

[old_tv_nut]

browsing old postcards at the antique market today, I was surprised to find three that showed motels with color roundies installed. After all, they were expensive, and required isntallation and service at a rate not reduced until the advent of the ubiquitous 19-inch rectangular table model.

Some folks here might help by exercising their knowledge of cabinet designs and control placements to identify these models.

[zenithfan1]

The one in the lobby is obviously an RCA, but the others don't look to familiar from what I can see. Thanks for sharing, it's neat to see stuff like those postcards.

[electroking]

In case anyone wonders, it looks like this motel is now replaced by a commercial
building housing a medical clinic among other things:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...ungstown&meta=

[old_tv_nut]

Heres's the street view on Google Earth

[Eric H]

If you look directly across the street from the old Motel building you'll find Docs TV repair.

Maybe those sets are in there!

[old_tv_nut]

The one in Munster, IN is gone - repalced by a Boston Market. The phone of the one in Greenville TX goes to an Economy Inn that's in about the right location, but it doesn't look the same to me.

[old_tv_nut]

I found remains of the old roof line in Greensville, and it appears that the L-shaped building in the post card is still there, but now the central area is not another motel building and pool, but a gas station.

[bgadow]

I'd hate to think that I owned a motel and had to keep 40 roundies running right! That was a significant investment at the time.

I will only tell part of this long story: when I was a kid we ended up in a strange town after midnight desperately trying to find a motel. We never did...it got so desperate that Dad stopped at a flophouse on a dark street. When he came back he said 1) that the desk clerk said sorry, they didn't have enough "girls" for all of us (!) and 2) they had a TV in the lobby that I would love to have. It long bothered me that I didn't get to go in and see it!

One summer in high school I went to a program held at a former college, converted into a church retreat. In the lobby of the largest building was a Magnavox bw combo which I'm sure had been out of service for years. Too big to get rid of, I guess!

[Charlie]

Wow... look at that GROOVY wall paper!!!

I would think a hotel probably had an account with a local shop that kept sets in tune at a slightly lower price compared to everyday customers.

Being that I stay in hotels often for work, I find it very rare that I turn on the TV in a room. Even if I do, it's not for very long. Perhaps those sets in hotels see lower hours than sets in a person's home.

I wonder how many of those sets had a coin box connected to them to see "specialty" tv programming???

[electroking]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Heres's the street view on Google Earth

Interesting! The motel lobby/office as shown on the postcard is
still standing, almost unchanged.

[kx250rider]

I don't remember even seeing any roundies in a hotel or motel, but then again, we never stayed in any high-end places. Usually Howard Johnson's, or sometimes a Best Western-type place. Lower priced motels had coin-op black & white sets (Zeniths & Admirals in painted beige metal cabinets), if I recall. One Motel 6 in Lompoc, CA, had Packard-Bell 21" B&W sets, whereas most were 19". The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave. That was in the summer of '78. Later, I remember seeing mostly all RCA mural TVs in motels and hotels through the 80s, and by the 90s, they had switched to newer solid state RCAs at most places.

Now let's not forget the Zenith 43M20 15" color prototype in '53 at the Biltmore Hotel in Oakland, CA. Since it was stolen, it is one of the very few still existing after Zenith was forced to destroy those prototypes after the RCA suit.

Charles

[Eric H]

According to that brochure the roundie was only in the Lobby, the "Bridal Suite" has a B&W set, I'm guessing all the regular rooms had B&W too.

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave.
Charles

...and you lived to tell the story!!! Not the safest place to sleep in PA!!

[Greg B.]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

The first color TV I saw in any hotel was a Magnavox 17" tube set in the Chester, PA Howard Johnson's on Edgemont Ave. That was in the summer of '78.

That's pretty late. I told this story here previously, but it bears repeating. When I was a kid our family took an annual driving vacation for a week or two every summer, usually to Maine and New England. The first color TV I remember seeing in a motel room was a Motorola console at the Farmington Motel in Farmington, Maine, in the summer of either '67 or '68. I remember sitting on the floor in front of it for much of the evening just fascinated by it.

The Farmington Motel was part of the "Superior" group, which always seemed somewhat loose at best. They were usually not bad places. However, I just did a search and to my surprise it is not only still in business, it still looks almost exactly the same and is still a part of that Superior group! Amazing.

http://www.farmingtonmotel.com/

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by cbenham

...and you lived to tell the story!!! Not the safest place to sleep in PA!!

I remember being told not to go south of the PA Turnpike. They grew up in Chester and Parkside, and we were there to visit their old friends. My family didn't always have the best choice in neighborhoods. Until I was 5 (1972) , we lived on 43rd Place near Western Ave in South Central Los Angeles .

Charles