(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

First Television

O

olddog

Well-known Member

While we're on firsts,

When was the first TV you watched.
Mom marched us across the street, to watch Ike take over from Truman.In 1952??? Mebbe Jan 53.
We didn't have a TV of our own until late 50's.
Home from school and watch MIC.... KEY and Dick Clark. Long intervals without, till we'd get a spare dollar to buy a vacuum tube when it would burn out.
 
First one in our area was 50 or 51 in our home. Dad was a radio Ham so anything with tubes was his to work with. Lot of snow and fading out when an airplane went over. Living room was full for many years. Gramps first set had a white light all the way around the pic tube and the TV light that set on top of TV. Two and sometimes only three channels in the corn fields of Iowa.
 
Same here. My friend's cousin owned a TV store so we skipped classes (high school) and went over there to watch Ike's inauguration and parade. Took all afternoon. Supe was really POd. We had to do detention for a week. Problem was it was helping the janitor after school let out. School let out at 3:40 and we had to be on the bus at 4:00. So, we helped the janitor for about ten minutes. By the third day he said: "that's good, you can forget about the other two days". Pretty funny when I think of it. I will remember that inauguration and parade for the rest of my life. I forgot everything they tried to teach in that high school about 5 min afterward.
 
Had to be around the early fifties. Big ol' square Crosley. Weighed about 100 pounds I bet. We were thirty and fifty miles from Cincinnati and Dayton and our antenna was thirty feet up on a pole. Dad would make us take a pipe wrench out to fine tune it.
 
Dad bought a Marantz tv in 52. Junk. Then he got a
Capehart (mahgoney frame) it was very good, but needed lots of repairs. The Culligan Man was the fixer. Roy Rogers, cowboy movies, prime time comics. But we were too busy farming to watch much. Big crush on Dinah Shore.
 
Went to aunt's house and watched the Indianapolis 500. Mauri Rose was the winner as I recall.
 
First I saw would have been in the early 1950s. A neighbor of my grandmother had a set and she would take us to see it on rare occasions.

About all I remember of seeing on it were the Hamm's beer commercials---the song Hamm's--the beer refreshing. Tend to remember a canoe on a stream or river.

We bought our own set about 1952 because I remember seeing some of the presidentional nomination/convention procedures with Eisenhower. I remember Truman being replaced which dates me eh?

First show I remember seeing on our own set was Jalopy Derby. The racers drove a figure 8 course and had to avoid each other or suffer the consequences. Mr. Wizard was another as was Howdy Doody although I wasn't a fan.

We were able to get 1 station when the weather was decent and none if it wasn't. Snowy all of the time. The station was about 90 miles away. We were living well when a new station started broadcasting from just 65 miles away give a decent signal and a second programming option.

We didn't get grid power but a year or two before the set purchase. Prior to that we listened to radio via our 32 volt unit fed by glass encased batteries and charged by gasoline Delco light plant generator.
 
We didn't have a TV station close enough to pick up a signal until the mid 60's and even then the reception was bad. My uncle bought a TV in the early 60's and we tried to watch "Leave it to Beaver" from a Memphis station but shadows was all we saw. In the early 70's reception got a little better and in '75 we got our first color TV. I didn't get a satellite until 5 years ago, up until then there was only 1 station that we could watch. Sometimes I think about getting rid of the satellite and TV, I think I'm happier when I don't watch.
 
All those old TVs had the plastic dial and as kids we would switch between the couple-three channels we got that we had to use a pliers to change the channels, it was nice when we could upgrade, we go a pair of vise-grips.
 
My uncle Jack was supposedly the first guy with a TV in our town, around 1946. He was an electrical engineer for Bendix in New Jersey and we lived in a small rural town (Cresskill), just across the Hudson River from New York City.

He built it from an oscilloscope and would give "shows" to neighbors. They'd watch a show, while he had to stand behind the TV and fiddle with controls to keep it going.

Factory made TVs were available to the public in 1939 - but a TV cost almost the same as a new car. A good radio could cost $400, and a TV atttachement was another $200. There were many cheap new cars around for the same price, and a big Chrysler could be bought for $1000.

The first cathode ray tube made to work with images was invented by a Russian. A russian was also the first to coin the name "television" in 1900. Both of those guys left Russia and came to the USA. The guy that invented the first TV tube would not let his own children watch TV. Smart guy !
 
First viewing: Went to a neighbor"s house to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Think it was 1953. Finally got an RCA b+w 21" console in the late 50"s. A few of the same shows we heard on radio made the switch to TV. Dragnet, Gunsmoke, Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, Arthur Godfrey, Art Linkletter, etc. Fun to think back on all that. Repaired the stupid things for nearly 4 decades, not sure if I was doing the customers or their children any favors. They have probably been edged out of the competition for "biggest time burning device" by our new favorite, the PC. Life goes on....
 
our first was a Hoffman in '55 i think...that thing spent more time in the shop than sitting in the corner...my dad finally splurged for a RCA color set in '64 and we got to see what color Lil Joe's coat was lol
we had pretty strict rules on tv tho...only time it was on during the day was saturday morning for cartoons and friday nite Houston Wrestling with Paul Bosch sp? was manadatory.
 
Bart's Clubhouse, a local mid afternoon cartoon show with Bart hosting & reading birthdays, Popeye & Bugs Bunny is the first thing I remember on the Zenith - eh, maybe 19 inch??? black & white. That channel was reliable; got up to 5 others at least 50% of the time.

Now with digital, I get 8 channels most of the time, showing 16 different channels from the same mast & replaced but same model antennea.

--->Paul
 
I am 41, so I remember that you only got 5 channels total. Then came cable TV and you got 35 total. That was in 1981 or 82.

First TV my parents bought when they got married in 1964 was a large 25" color TV it cost them $600.
 
With nine kids there was no way that my parents could afford a TV. In the early sixties after I got out of high school I got a job at an apple orchard and was able to save enough to buy a used TV for at home.
In about 1953 my dad won an award for soil conservation and we went to one of our well to do neighbors to watch him receive the award on TV.
 
The first TV broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 was in 1949. I watched it on my uncle's TV. Bill Holland was the winner. I was broadcast again in 1950 with Johnnie Parsons winning. It was not broadcast again until 1965 on ABC's Wide World of Sports, and I think that was a tape delay.
 
Came home from school I was 7 and there it set
had a fuzzy B&W screen Howdy Doody was on been hooked ever since.

we got a total of 2 stations then depending on the weather .
 
Yep, those old tube testers. Our first tv in the 50's had a round picture tube. When I was 7 years old and the man of the family, I remember pulling all the tubes and going to the dime store to test them. Seems like there was this big 504 tube that went out a lot. Learned to read a schematic as well because I pulled the tubes without writing down where they came from. Never again though. Before ten years old, the first books I ever bought was a 5 book set of Radio TV repair books by mail. After that I could ID the symptoms and only needed to take a few tubes for testing. Hated it when a tube would test low but not bad. Later we had 2 stores across the street from each other with tube testers. I checked them at both places and got varying results and prices. We couldn't afford a tv repairman.
 
I was six in 86 I think thats when mom and dad got a t.v.,but I never watched it much.I don't get t.v. now unless the weathers just right.
 
I was six in 86 I think thats when mom and dad got a t.v.,but I never watched it much.I don't get t.v. now unless the weathers just right.
 
My Grandfather bought a tv around 1954, and I was around six years old. They were afraid to take it in the house until it had been tested because they were afraid it would give off radiation and might blow up. So they hooked it up next to the barn and let it play for two days. Never forget that they were thrashing oats and everyone would stop once in a while to look at it. After a couple weeks they never worried about it anymore. We would walk down the holler and watch Gunsmoke every Sat. night.
 
My folks bought a new TV just in time for the whole Country school to come watch Ike get sworn in. All 29 of us.That was in 53. The first Tv I seen was in the window on a Montgomery Wards store and it was the Lone Ranger show in 50
 
My folks bought a new TV just in time for the whole Country school to come watch Ike get sworn in. All 29 of us.That was in 53. The first Tv I seen was in the window on a Montgomery Wards store and it was the Lone Ranger show in 50
 
About 1953 our neighbor got a TV.We would go to their house and there would be about 15 to 20 adults and that many kids. Us kids weren't allowed to watch if we didn't hold still and keep quiet,If not we were banned from the house. I remember Ed would stick his arm out the window turning the tower, a 2 inch pipe, with a pipe wrench to get a better picture. they got 2 channels. We wanted a TV also but Mom wanted a bathroom. We voted and she won even though I know she lost the vote. We got a TV in 56 a Admiral, It was always quitting. Before we got a TV I rode my horse to the neighbor's and watched Sky King, It was over at 6:00 pm and I was supposed to be home before dark and have my chores done. Well needless to say that horse wasn't allowed to let any grass grow under his feet going home.
 
First TV I watched was Nov. 52 at Ft. Sheridan. Ill. Uncle Sam had just invited me to a 2 yr vacation. We watched Jersey Joe Walcott and Sugar Ray Robinson boxing match.
 
My first TV experience was at a relatives house in 1953. His TV looked like an old Edison phonograph cabinet. A box about 2 ft square and 4 ft tall. The picture tube was mounted facing upright and the picture was reflected from a mirror, mounted in the underside of the lid. The lid was proped up at a 45 degree angle for viewing. Maybe an 8- 12 inch screen.

As a kid, (1955) we made many a sat morning trip to grandpa's house by pony and bycycle to watch sat morning westerns on the big Hoffman console TV. (first TV in the area).
We got our first set in 1958, a used metal case RCA table top model of about 19 inch size.
 
Our first was a Sparton that my older sister bought in 1950 soon after she graduated from high school in 1949 and went to work. It wasn't a very good TV that required a lot of repairs. My wife and I were discussing TV's the other day about the old TV's with tubes. We had an old one when I was in the Army in 1953. I had to pull several tubes and have them checked when the set quit. The old turret tuners were always getting dirty and had to be cleaned. I had one service call on the Zenith we had and I watched him when he cleaned it and I did them there after. Now your TV's seem to last forever. Hal
 
Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Audtry, Fury, Sky King (& Penny), Captain Midnight (by Ovaltine), and of course the Friday night fights from Madison Garden & brought to you by Gilette razor. Don't forget the Honeymooners with Ralph & Alice Kramden and Ed & Trixie Norton with Art Carnney and Jackie gleason. You bet your life with Groucho and his big cigar.
 
We still have my mother's 2 piece Westinghouse tv from the 1950's. It has a metal cabinet and bottom stand. It was still working when we put it in the living room corner 30 years ago .
 
ALICE!!! One of these days!!!! Kerpowie!!!
And Twilight Zone, Ron Reagan's show, 20 mule team Borax, Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Cronkite's show, You Are There, Life of Riley, Etc.
 
Our neighbor had the first tv, about a 10' round screen. At night a bunch of us went to watch it. All the lights were turned off and we watched "rasslin", a big ugly dude named Hard Boiled Haggerty hammered the other guy. About 1949
 
Was Nine yrs Old when We got Our first TV, a Philco from a Furniture Store, and the first One I ever Remember was in 1953 went to a Neighbors to watch The Lone Ranger... man was that a treat, and it is Amazing with the technology these days !!! Larry KF4LKU
 
We had 16 inch GE. Mahogany cabinet(no doors)cost 412 bucks in I am thinking 1951. Second one in the neighborhood. Bought with money from Ford motor. Think dad made 80 or 90 bucks a week. Only 4 channels and antennna on roof looked like 2 letter X's. Programming was only on 8 or 10 hours a day. Then test pattern with the Indian. Same time I had crystal radio in basement with wire strung all over ceiling for antenna. Earphones only. Free(no electric or batt)
 
We had 16 inch GE. Mahogany cabinet(no doors)cost 412 bucks in I am thinking 1951. Second one in the neighborhood. Bought with money from Ford motor. Think dad made 80 or 90 bucks a week. Only 4 channels and antennna on roof looked like 2 letter X's. Programming was only on 8 or 10 hours a day. Then test pattern with the Indian. Same time I had crystal radio in basement with wire strung all over ceiling for antenna. Earphones only. Free(no electric or batt)
 
We watched I've Got a Secret and Arthur Godfrey,My Mothers favorete shows. Before that on Radio we listened to Spook Theatre and Amos and Andy
 
We watched I've Got a Secret and Arthur Godfrey,My Mothers favorete shows. Before that on Radio we listened to Spook Theatre and Amos and Andy
 
Nov of 57, watched a Leafs game on a B/W Emerson, antenna was on a short tripod tower on a flat section of roof on top of our 3 storey farm house in S W Ontario, took 3 of my sisters and I to relay messages to Dad up on the roof, turning the Antenna, 3 stations available, but once you had one working, thats what you watched for the night.
 
My neighbor bought a kit and built a 12 inch TV when I was 12 years old in the early 50's. We never had a TV in our home when I was growing up because of religious beliefs. I was married in 1960 and that was the first thing I bought.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top