Motorola color?

[Doug]

My brother sent this picture to me .is this a real Motorola color or retro fit color set put in b&w set?
Only picture. Is in art museum in denver

[jr_tech]

Mid 50s Motorola b/w set...A mid 50s Motorola color set would have had a round CRT, such as this model:
http://www.tvhistory.tv/1954-55-Moto...9CK1-COLOR.jpg

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Doug

My brother sent this picture to me .is this a real Motorola color or retro fit color set put in b&w set?
Only picture. Is in art museum in denver

I'm not sure by any means, but yes, I think this is probably in fact a Motorola color TV. The only thing I would wonder about is the round CRT, as most Motorola color sets I've seen have had up to 23" rectangular tubes. One Motorola TV I remember in particular had an indicator lamp on the front panel, which illuminated when the TV station to which the set was tuned was telecasting in color. This feature went out of style by the end of the 1960s or perhaps the early 1970s, as by then most TV networks and local stations were telecasting in nearly 100 percent color.

NBC was the first American TV network to present all its programming in color, and they made quite a big deal of it from the '60s until 1975 when they would show a full-color peacock before every color program, with an announcer proclaiming "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC." The peacock, of course, appeared in black and white on b&w televisions; I think NBC may have planned it this way from the start, so as to promote color TV and to boost the sales of color sets.

BTW, NBC did not pioneer HDTV in the 1980s, but they did have an announcement they ran for a short time (perhaps a few months or so, when HDTV was new) before every HD show they telecast at the time. I don't recall how the announcement went, but I think it was something along the lines of "The following program is presented in high definition." I don't recall if the announcer identified the network or not during this announcement; however, I don't think so. I don't recall ever having heard ". . . on NBC" mentioned at any time when the announcement ran; for that matter, I don't recall ABC or CBS making such an announcement, with or without a network ID, before an HD program.

I just saw a photo in a post to this thread, in which was shown a 1954 Motorola color TV with, yes, you guessed it, a round color CRT. Color TVs in the 1950s must have been very (even prohibitively) expensive (perhaps around $1000 or more), and most American TV networks except NBC were not telecasting much color programming at that time. Another problem may have been that not every city had TV in the 1950s, so anyone with a color set at that time may have had to erect a very large antenna on a tall tower just to get color reception; the stations these folks watched were likely 50+ miles distant, as the nearest TV station may or may not have been telecasting in color.

Color TV did not "take off", so to speak, until at least the 1960s-'70s, when prices of color sets became reasonable; however, the price of a new color TV in the '70s was still in the neighborhood of $400-$500. The prices of color sets did not come down drastically until some years later.

[old_tv_nut]

It's a retrofitted 1950s Motorola black and white set.

This cabinet style was marketed as "Glare Down, Sound Up." It also was used to house an early color model (posted above), with a different bezel for the round tube.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223457947726

[init4fun]

[Tom9589]

They probably shoehorned in an LCD flatscreen in the old cabinet. That's what they did on several 1950s vintage color RCA cabinets in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. You can't afford to keep CRTs going everyday for museum displays.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by tom9589

they probably shoehorned in an lcd flatscreen in the old cabinet. That's what they did on several 1950s vintage color rca cabinets in the henry ford museum in dearborn, mi. You can't afford to keep crts going everyday for museum displays.

crime!!

[Electronic M]

There were Zenith and Philco prototype rectangular sets that year and in 1957 or 58 Westinghouse sold and recalled a rectangular set. It wouldn't be impossible for Motorola to have a 21" rectangular color prototype back then, but for one to survive (besides the production Westinghouse I'm not aware of any surviving 50s rectangular color sets), and be made opperational by a normal museum (without the ETF being aware) is a bridge to far for me to believe.

[reeferman]

Then or now a 23EGP22 would never have given that good a picture.

[Doug]

I thought it was a retro fit.
Not that I remember that paticular set.
I grew up with my dad having a tv repair shop in the basement.
So I was repairing sets maybe from 1968 on at age 14.

[ChrisW6ATV]

It is definitely a fake, but if it is an LCD, they did a good job getting it to look like a CRT (in that picture, at least). It even has the bluish "white" so common in color TV sets for decades.

[probnot]

Something about it just looks like an LCD to me. It has that feel of looking at a screen that is a few inches behind the glass, rather than the image being on (or immediately behind) the glass. Plus the line along the top is just too flat.

[Doug]

If I was there i would of went look in the back,took more pictures, looked for numbers.
I would of been very curious.
But it's the only thing he sent me.
Not the best picture.
Most likely on every day 8 hrs or so
newer set most likely
Appreciate all inputs.it just didn't look normal to me.

[Steve McVoy]

March Online Meeting of the Early Television Museum Community

March 28 at 8 PM EDT

Our March Meeting will feature four segments: first, Steve McVoy will update news of the Early Television Foundation, followed by a look at an item in the museum's collection. Bob Andersen will make a presentation about making YouTube videos of TV restorations. Then we will have an open topic discussion. Feel free to introduce any topic you are interested in.

https://earlytelevision.org/monthly_online_meeting.html