My subjects for columns are frequently decided upon by pure gut feeling. If it feels right, write about it!
I'm a subscriber to Charles Phoenix's Slide of the Week, and I recommend you do so too. Last week, I received a slide that featured a TV that I'd known about, but didn't know too much about. It's called the Philco Predicta, and it had the picture tube on a yoke in a wonderful expression of modern design. Charles had located a slide that featured a Predicta "in real life," as he excitedly put it.
The next thing you know, I'm watching Revenge of the Nerds on TNT, and lo and behold: a Predicta! It was being used to play 80's Atari games.
OK, two Predicta sightings in one week. Time to write a column!
Philco began in in 1892 as the Helios Electric Company. They manufactured batteries at first, but as electricity caught on, they diversified. In 1927, they began manufacturing radios, and soon became one of the Big Three in the business, along with RCA and Zenith. When televisions began appearing after WWII, Philco jumped on board.
By 1957, Philco's sales were flat. That year, the Russians electrified the world by launching Sputnik. Suddenly, the modern look was red-hot.
Philco looked at redesigning the traditional cabinet-mounted picture tube in TV's to something radically different and uber-modern. The first Predicta, with a yoke-mounted shortened picture tube, thus appeared in 1958.
One of Philco' biggest customers for the futuristic TV was none other than Holiday Inn. They bought thousands of the sadly unreliable television sets, probably to their regret.
You see, the Predicta was more gorgeous than gorgeous. But Philco never created a color Predicta, and there was a growing demand for color by the dawn of the 60's. More significantly, it wasn't well-engineered. The shortened picture tube ran very hot, bad for electronics. The circuit board for the tube was also extremely difficult to access, and the combination of the two made certain that Predictas were in the shop on a sadly regular basis, perhaps three or four times a year.
I think we Boomers remember how depressing it was to have the TV off at the shop in the 60's.
Thus, ultimately, the Predicta was a failure. Many sat unsold in TV dealerships. Customers preferred reliability over drop-dead coolness. And Philco went under in 1961. It survived as a purchased product of the Ford Motor Company until the 70's. Nowadays, what remains of it is in South America.
But you have to admit that it was absolutely the coolest TV ever built. And guess what! You Boomers with a little money to burn can get Predictas from the Telstar Company, which now owns the name and produces new models faithful to the original design!
Comments (8)
Hey Ron, Want sighting #3? Check out the cover for the album "The Fox" by Elton John.
Posted by O2BIrish | July 28, 2010 5:07 PM
Posted on July 28, 2010 17:07
Well, I'll be derned! I'm an EJ fan, but was not familiar with that album or cover!
Posted by Bald Guy | July 28, 2010 5:20 PM
Posted on July 28, 2010 17:20
How interesting that Philco should turn up here. The is a most fascinating story behind Philco, sort of. Philo T Farnsworth, for what its worth, invented the TV, every last circuit in it. Others had been trying, most notably RCA headed by Sarnoff, who also went on to start the first programming network. Maybe you have heard of them! NBC? RCA alone was pouring 10 times the money into trying to make a TV but without success. Farnsworth was naturally brilliant and figured it all out all by his lonesome and poorly financed self and some dedicated workers.
Farnsworth succeeded and got the patents. NBC than stone-walled the production by making it nearly impossible for Farnsworth to get financing for his own company. RCA/NBC wanted all the patents and rights and exclusive monopolistic control, as corps. Were used to having back then. Farnsworth would not consent. He thought he lived in a free country with decency, law, and rights. Like many others in pioneering sciences, he soon found out otherwise.
So TV was denied to the public for many years before Sarnoff let Philo start his own company to produce TVs. Philo joined up with Philco, of all companies. All Philo had to do was sign over his patents as collateral for the loans. Philco managed the company into the ground and bankruptcy and the patents were obtained for payment. Of course, none of this was done deliberately. Let he who has ears listen. So now the industry could be bought and sold, to the advantage of RCA and NBC. Imagine that. Work hard with diligence and integrity and you shall be justly rewarded they say. I am not sure if Philo would agree with that, nor many others.
So the TV age really, arrived in 1953, when NBC began programming. Providing programming was really where the true money was. Sarnoff was quick to recognize that. He may or may not have been ruthless to the core, but he was smart. So it was the boomers who got to welcome in the TV and it soon changed life in the modern world, for both better and worse. And innovation continues to be hindered so that only a few may profit from any of it.
My personal feeling is that TV was for the better, overall. It allows those who apply themselves to enrich themselves, despite the often mediocre programming with little to no thoughtful stimulation. It certainly also helps to pull the wool over our eyes, I suppose, but those who think can not be harmed for long. They swim against the current. Only those who drift get carried away. Boomers during the 60s were doing pretty good at waking up, but a lack of sincerity in the movement led to its withering.
The irony is that while TV was American made, the Japs took it all out from under us in the 80s while our reps in government looked the other way and fought “the evil empire” to save us from who knows what. Japan took over the electronics consumer Industry and soon there were no more TVs made in the USA and now no more jobs of any kind. And then they wonder why we boomers look back with longing at what we briefly had for so short a time, it we had all that much at all. You can learn a lot from the history of TV. There are many other stories like it. Try “The Empire of the Air” by Tom Lewis, once featured on PBS as a documentary. It’s a sad commentary on how industry plunders the innovators of so much that went into making and changing our world.
I guess what I am saying is that the fast and drastic changes we boomers experienced came at a price that perhaps we dare no ignore. Ignorance is never bliss.
Posted by Scott I | July 28, 2010 10:17 PM
Posted on July 28, 2010 22:17
You stated, "You Boomers with a little money to burn can get Predictas from the Telstar Company, which now owns the name and produces new models faithful to the original design!"
So are Telstar's Predictas also faithful to the original's problems?
Posted by NCeddie | July 28, 2010 11:18 PM
Posted on July 28, 2010 23:18
The issues have been worked out, according to Telstar. Modern-day electronics being much more miniaturized and running cooler, all that.
Posted by Bald Guy | July 29, 2010 3:23 AM
Posted on July 29, 2010 03:23
Good to know Predicta won't be in the shop all the time-- makes the investment more attractive! Ideal addition to decor of any retro-themed house.
Posted by NCeddie | July 29, 2010 3:41 AM
Posted on July 29, 2010 03:41
My favorite TV, a Zenith round screen, with me posing as a living "remote."
http://thefeebleartichoke.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/wed-zenith.jpg?w=346&h=480
Posted by NCeddie | July 29, 2010 5:14 AM
Posted on July 29, 2010 05:14
Great pic, NCeddie! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by Bald Guy | July 29, 2010 4:19 PM
Posted on July 29, 2010 16:19