August 30, 2012
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Remember your first TV?
YESTERDAY YEARI remember from my long decrepit life, all the great and spectacular events that help to shape our society and the world. The death of a president, the Moon landing, first Super Bowl, Royal weddings, terrorist attacks and Jersey Shore. Happenings that glorified the human race and too often shamed it. Events that made us laugh and often left us in tears. All of these transitions began for me in my parents living room in 1955 on a 21 inch, black and white RCA VICTOR television; model 24-5-512-Home Theater! It was our first television and the whole thing was wondrous and beautiful and scary.
It had a round screen, kind of, with two knobs along the bottom. The slick mahogany grained cabinet put the rest of Mom’s furniture to shame. I need to point out, that it was never referred to as the TV or television….it was the RCA , and that was that! Dad made the rules about the RCA and they were not to be broken. All these rules were aimed at me and lil bro, and they all took effect within five feet of the apparatus.
No running close to the RCA ……
Nothing placed on the RCA …….
Do not touch controls on the RCA …….
Do not watch during storms…….
Do not watch during snow falls…….
Only approved kids could come watch it…….
Keep cat away from the back of the RCA , as some have been reported fricasseed.Prior to us getting the RCA, the Gambles, who lived three houses down, would invite several families over every Tuesday night to watch Milton Berle on the Texaco Star Theatre that aired on the National Broadcasting Company network. His popularity is believed to have aided the sale of TV sets to working-class families, earning him the nickname, Mr. Television. To all the world, he was Uncle Miltie.
Uncle Miltie kept everybody laughing except for the kids, cause we thought he was a little weird, but the Gamble kids had neat toys and comics so we had a blast. After Weird Miltie was over, the network would sign off for the day. Mr. Gamble would get up, walk over to his TV, and with an air of reverence, turn the set off. The adults would then sit around and critique the evening’s broadcast while the Dads slugged down Mr. Gamble’s booze. All and all, it was always a nice evening and later at home, Dad would tell Mom, “Some day, we’ll have one of those, but bigger with extra knobs!” Dad’s proclamations always excited us, but Mom did her eye exercises anytime he declared anything. Well, we got the RCA , with a little help from granddad, cause it cost over $200!! That’s a boatload of today’s money.
TV transmissions were picked up via a ‘Galactic Reception Antenna.’ A seven foot, huge ugly thing that was stuck above the roof line of your house. It’s appendages had to be meticulously positioned inorder to receive the local stations because remember, satellites were only from Mars during the 50‘s. All directional adjustments were accomplished by Dad going up on the roof to manually turn the antenna while someone kept an eye on the TV and yelled out an open window, “No, too far, come back a little.” If I had the responsibility of calling out directions, it became a moment of ulcer birth. Without fail, as soon as Dad would come down the ladder cussing and sweating, the set would lose the signal! Later we added a weird configuration on top of the set called rabbit feet or ears or something, which helped to keep Dad off the roof, but this also required constant adjustment.
We got three stations. NBC….ABC….CBS. We were lucky and had a remote control….my little brother. “Lil bro, turn it to channel 2, no….back to 6….no, wait for the commercial to end.” Most all commercials, back then, were only15 to 30 seconds long. Only one station aired before 10 a.m. and all signed off before 10 p.m. Me and lil bro would get up early every Saturday morning to watch Howdy Doody. Fact was, we got up so early that we had to stare at a test pattern for almost an hour, but then all of a sudden, “HEY KIDS, WHAT TIME IS IT?” and we would shout “It’s Howdy Doody time!!!” ….totally brain-washed.
All TV’s were black and white until 1962 when they converted to optional color and as my family was not optional anything, we stuck with the black and white RCA . At the time, the picture quality of the very few color sets was similar to bad LSD trips….so I’ve heard. Most of the first evening shows were westerns with over two hundred cowboy series during the first ten years of television. Bonanza, the Virginian, The Lone Ranger, Lawman, Wagon Train and so many more. Cowboys set the standards for right and wrong and gave us heroes. But sad to say, by 1970, the Western had gone ‘that away.’
But, as Bob Dylan sang, “the times they are a changing,” and TV would reflect that for better or for worse. The pioneer shows like I Love Lucy, Playhouse 90, Carol Burnett, I Married Joan, My Little Margie, Ben Casey, Leave It To Beaver, Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission Impossible, I Spy, Ed Sullivan, The Honeymooners and on and on would finally come to their end and the simplistic empty headed sitcoms of today would take their place and thrive.
What is funny or passes as funny today, would have ended TV careers just a few years ago….but, we became progressive and th e word ’vulgar’ disappeared from our language, as did our good taste in entertainment. Enter the REALITY shows!! These young, snot for brains producers, have given us programming that endorses behavior, attitude and values that display people with the intellect of ground gophers and the sexual maturity of young baboons on meth! We not only lost our way in the value of entertainment, but are now passing it down to a generation of brain washed gamers that think the Lone Ranger is a pervert working in Yellow Stone Park….’sorry Kemo Sahbi.’
TV has been a friend to me from childhood and a window on a thousand worlds. Now, with DVD’s, I can once again go back and visit those wonderful days of yesterday year, when….with a fiery horse….with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo……“lil bro…..change the channel.”Charlie
Uncle Miltie
Comments (6)
I had one of those old RCA’s. The kind that use to last 25 years. Not these new overpriced disposables. Yes times are certainly changing. Politics are obnoxious.
I had a hallucination pop out of my first TV. It was a dead man, and he tried to touch me. The only thing that made him go away was when I put my glasses on, and then he would appear closer to me when I took them off. I was like 7 or 8.
i keep reading that is IV.
@LadyboyRevolution - You are so right about being disposable, just like cell phones and computers.
I remember having this tiny ass Tv when I was little that only had two channels. My grandpa’s sister that we lived with wouldn’t let us get cable but it was something and I loved it lol. Loved reading this!
The first thing that popped into my head was the line from the Steppenwolf song, staring at the TV, turnin up the big knob, tryin to find life in the wasteland. I so remember our 21 inch Montgomery Ward black and white set. Monday was boxing night, and Dad would have a half dozen or more fellows over to watch the fights! Great memories.