Aura of the Era - Page 5

Coolest of the cool television sets from the mid-century eye a cozy comeback stage inside today’s modern homes
By Jack Levitan
Aura of the Era
Two vintage models that played off of America's Space Age race of the 1960s: JVC's 'Videosphere' (right) and Panasonic's 'Orbitel' (left).
Aura of the Era
The 1959 Sylvania Dualette with its bold MCM lines and colors.

The sets that Yahro prefers are not the Philco Predictas, which were known even in the 1950s for breaking down. "Philco was all about style," he says. "[But] the guts were junk."

 "My favorites are the late-1960s Zenith and RCA color sets," Yahro says. "That was kind of the peak of quality and craftsmanship and materials, when the technology was starting to modernize and become tolerable.

"After color was out [on the market] several years, color was becoming perfected. And there were still wooden cabinets and handmade metal chassis. It wasn't all plastic and particleboard. There were still tubes."

And Yahro loves the solid-wood cabinetry, mid-century modern or not. "They were made in a sawmill by skilled people, out of hardwoods, natural materials—not oil products," he says.

"I enjoy working on them," Yahro says, "and the challenge of working on them. I also enjoy it when they're done. They'll produce a surprisingly good picture, if they're working right."

 

Photography: Charles Schridde, Scout Paget, James Vaughan, Robert Holm, Ken Accomando, Andreas Fuhrimann; and courtesy Stellar Vintage Electronics, 50sPredicta.com, GoogieTime, La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Early Television Foundation and Museum, Motorola Solutions, Rico Tee Archives

 

STORY RESOURCES

Early Television Foundation and Museum
Earlytelevision.org

GoogieTime
Googietime.com

50sPredicta
50sPredicta.com

Keep in touch with the Eichler Network. SUBSCRIBE to our free e-newsletter