I was walking through a thrift store with a European today and saw an old, wood cabinet console television - the kind that were really popular in the US in the 50’s.
My friend laughed and said he had never seen one growing up in Europe and he wondered why anybody would have wanted to have a TV screen three inches above the floor.
Although my parents owned a couple back in those days, I thought that was a good point.
A Goggle search shows you can still buy new ones on the internet and probably in smaller mom and pop electronics stores, but I personally don’t know of anybody who has, or would want to have one.
Just wondering…anyone reading this still own one, or bought one recently? Is there a reason why you still like them?
My mother still has one and she’s not yet 70. Almost, but not yet.
New ones are all over the place, really. I’ve even seen them advertised recently.
The only reason I can think that someone would want one is looks I guess. The woodgrain of the cabnet goes with some interior designs . And the top of them work well as a shelf for cable boxes/vcrs or knick-knacks.
But really, they are a waste of space, aren’t they?
My mothers set is rather new. It’s nice looking, but man, it’s huge.
And while overall it’s much bigger than non-console sets, the screen is only 27inches. And when you sit on a chair you’re looking down at the screen, not directly at it, or up at it. Ridiculous if you ask me, but to each his own.
It’s more relaxing on your eyes to look slightly downward at a television screen than to look at the same level, or upward.
My parents had a Magnavox console television with a phonograph player (stackable, with an automatic tone arm of course) on the left, and an AM/FM radio tuner on the right, each recessed into its own well and covered by a sliding panel when not in use. The whole console was about six feet wide. And as pkbites said, the wood cabinet was attractive and went well with the rest of the wood furniture in the living room.
It went down to the basement about 1971 and has stayed there ever since. About that time, we bought an 8-track tape player and hooked it up to the stereo, so we could listen to tapes while we did our homework down there.
We’ve got one. No particular reason, other then the fact it still works fine and we really don’t see the need shell out the cash to buy a modern TV of the same size or larger.
I’ve never really seen the big deal about screen size. If I can see what’s going on, and it’s interesting enough to watch, then screen size (unless it’s really tiny) really doesn’t make a difference to me.
I’ve known folks well under 70 who have or had console TV’s. They’re still quite available new, with pretty much all the bells and whistles that their (non-console?) counterparts feature.
During the console’s heyday, furniture was a lot less expensive (relatively) than televisions were. So it didn’t cost all that much more to get your new set in a nice furniture-grade cabinet. And that way, you didn’t have to worry about where you would perch your (hideously ugly) non-console. Also, a nice console was something of a status symbol, something like wallpaper was a century ago. (Back then, if you painted your walls, it told others that you couldn’t afford wallpaper.)
During the 50’s and 60’s, the average American paid the equivalent of weeks or months of wages for a new TV. In terms of size of investment, it would be like buying a good used car today. I still remember the periodic visits from the TV Repairman (caps intended), who set up in the living room with his massive black fold-out case full of mysterious clinking glass tubes and curly-wired things and somehow got the box working again. It was worth paying a technician to come to your house to fix it back then; today, you pitch the bad one in the dumpster and motor down to Best Buy and snag a new one for a few hundo…
Anyway, I don’t see much difference between buying a nice console TV on the one hand, and buying a regular plastic one along with an “entertainment center” roughly the size of a travel trailer to set it on.
Wow! That good old TV Repairman!! I remember him! He visited our house a lot. I remember that my little brother (maybe around 8 or 9 years old at the time) used to attach himself to the guy whenever he arrived. The guy was tickled pink and allowed my brother to sit and watch. About 5 years later, the TV Repairman came to the door to ask why we hadn’t called him lately. My mom replied, “well, do you remember that little kid that used to follow you around?” My brother was our New TV Repairman.
OK, back to console TVs. Yes, they were “furniture.” They looked much nicer than the little steel carts you otherwise placed them on and the huge speakers that filled each side of the console sounded much nicer than the tiny sized speakers that could be fit into TVs at the time. Lots of folks who kept non-working consoles “for the furniture” simply removed the original TV and placed a new one inside the cabinet. Lots of entertainment centers, especially the wood ones, are reminiscent of console units, except that the TV is placed a little higher.
My Dad has been a TV repairman for many years. I remember him doing this exact same thing for a customer. They had a HUGE console TV with built in speakers, stereo, etc, in an overly elaborate cabinet. The TV was total junk, but they couldn’t bear to be without this thing in their living room. So we went to the local electronics store and bought a brand new TV, and tore it completely apart and fitted it all in the cabinet. The customer was pleased, even with the (IIRC) $1100 bill.
The best part was when we bought the “donor” TV at the store, the salesman kept trying to sell us the warranty. If only he knew what that TV was about to go through.
The thing I hated most about console TVs is that when my dad got one that couldn’t be fixed, he would keep the cabinet and use it for something else.
My first computer desk? A hacked up console TV.
Workbench in the shop? Console TV.
Kids want something to build a fort with? Console TV.
You wanna know what my parents are using right now for a stand for their table model TV?
