1950s Television Footage of Sylvania TV-Set with "Halolight"

[inkey2]

@davejoshmom1 oh yeah, the zenith and RCA's of the time were superior to this piece of junk

[inkey2]

when I was a kid we had a "table top" Halolight Sylvania TV. What a wierdo! Back then there was some medical theory that you should have some light on in a room to watch TV or your eyes could get screwed up. Thats why those small TV lamps were so popular.....the ones that sat on the top of the TV, usually some design like a planter, a panther, a pirate ship, chinese dancers etc. The Sylvania was the worst TV we ever owned, was dead w/in 2 years...total crap

[MattTheSaiyan]

@inkey2 Your family should have bought a DuMont TV set instead! Though they were very expensive......

[inkey2]

@MattTheSaiyan .....loL,,,,,A Dumont, yeah.......my dad was an assistant college professor with holes in all his cloths and 3 idiot kids to support......we were lucky to have any TV

[MattTheSaiyan]

@inkey2 You were lucky to live in a country that even had TV. My grandparents, being Australian, had to wait until 1956 for TV to be available to them at all (TV was, it is said, was introduced in Australia in 1956 so it could be in time for the Olympics....if another country had held them that year it may have taken longer!)...and even then they could barely afford a set and instead would eventually rent a TV set.

[inkey2]

@MattTheSaiyan well the USA may have had TV but we could not afford one till about 1958. My dad was an assistant college professor with holes in all his cloths raising 3 stupid brats......and he was a disabled war vet at that............so yeah.....if you were lucky enough to be able to afford a TV, the usa was the place to be

[868hbl5]

I love the gasps when the curtain pulls back... :-)

[texasghost]

@868hbl5

Well...back in those days...if you owned a TV set...you were part of the rich crowd. TV sets..at least the ones tthat were considered...consoles...in those days were upward of $700 to over $1000. And the average household only had an income of about $20,000 a year in the 50's.

So..to have that kind of technology in your home was about as important as having a yacht today.

[MattTheSaiyan]

@texasghost That's probably why a lot of people rented a TV set back then instead of buying one.

[lrd9999]

@texasghost It didn't reach $20,000 until the late 1970s; $7,500 was considered respectable in the '50s. The idea of paying rent on something like a TV seems a bit depressing, but even in the last 10 years I've seen fliers for RentAcenter, showing a whole wall full of TV, giant speakers, lots of shelves, etc. for some hard-to-decipher monthly rate. I believe that sort of thing still sells (ehh ... rents) in immigrant neighborhoods.

[fromthesidelines]

Every "jackpot" prize was always the same- a Sylvania TV set. That is, until Sylvania ended their sponsorship of "BEAT THE CLOCK" in 1956....

[chompo7]

i miss beat the clock on the game show network,one of the few shows worth

watching on that channel