Tag Archives: fifties tv

1957 Sylvania Halolight Blonde Tabletop Television

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Hepcats Haven

Please excuse those unsightly cords, I plan to remedy that soon enough.

A while back I came across this television in Sacramento. I thought it might be a good conversion project for our friend Justin of Stellar Electronics. Justin said he liked the tv, so I offered to pick it up. But, once I picked it up I fell in love with it! It was so clean and even had the original floor stand.

I asked Justin if he would be interested in a conversion trade for our 1960 GE conversion that he completed for us sometime back. Luckily, he agreed. The General Electric conversion was dynamite, but this style TV works better with our decor.

This television is now in our guest bedroom. I refinished the cabinet to match the Franklin Shockey bedroom set in the room. It all looks so fantastic together.

These are nondescript corner speakers. I plan to replace the fabric on both of them with something atomic. I’ll also refinish them in the champagne Heywood Wakefield toner sold by Jeff at Needful_Useful_Things on eBay.

These are the corner mount wall speakers that Mel and I picked up to complement the Sylvania. I plan to rewire them and get them hung in time for the up and coming Sacramento Mid-Century Modern Home Tour.

Justin also added more modern connectivity to the back of the set.

Of course, this is what these televisions are known for, the ring of light on the front. I am so glad we have a Halo in our collection now. This is such a unique television.

This television has a pleasing glow and has multiple setting for the brightness of the surround.

We had this fantastic asian television lamp that I knew would look great on this set. The whole idea of the Halo television was to make tv lamps obsolete, but I couldn’t help myself.

I plan to just have a DVD player hooked up to it so guests can watch any of the classic movie flicks we have in our collection.

This was the last piece of furniture to add to this room. I couldn’t be more pleased with the look of this room.

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Posted in Restorations, The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged 1950's television, 1950's tv, 50's television, 50's tv, atomic electronics, atomic television, atomic tv, fifties television, fifties tv, halo, halo television, halo tv, mid century electronics, mid century television, mid century tv, Midcentury electronics, midcentury television, midcentury tv, Philco Television, Philco TV, rare television, rare tv, retro electronics, retro television, retro tv, sylvania halo, sylvania television, vintage electronics, vintage television, vintage tv. Bookmark the permalink.

1952 Stewart Warner TV Restoration and Conversion Complete!!

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Hepcats Haven

Here she is all done! Of course, this was originally a table top model but I couldn’t resist putting a lazy suzan hair pin leg base on it.

When Mel and I were first dealers at Midway I looked into Justin’s shop (Stellar Electronics) and I saw this TV cabinet. I remember thinking I would love to get my hands on it. Over time as I got to know Justin and he knocked out a couple of conversions for us I asked him about this TV cabinet. Justin said he actually had plans to dispose of it, so I asked him if a conversion was an option and he said sure!

Here is where we started with. This restoration and conversion was a little bit of a Frankenstein, but I think it looks great.

As in my earlier post about this television, I took the cabinet home and restored the case and dressed it up. We had plans to place it in our kitchen so we could watch the boob tube as we enjoyed dinner.

Once I was done with the restoration, I dropped the cabinet back off to Justin and he worked his magic. He found a donor television and mounted it into the cabinet. Justin also installed an HDMI connection!

The front panel flips down for your component connections.

Justin hid the sensor in the right knob. You can see the small hole.

Justin always manages to mount the remote sensor in hard to find locations.

As usual, TCM is playing. I think that is Ingrid Bergman on screen, not sure what movie though.

We are very pleased with how it all turned out. It is great to know that new life has been breathed into this old cabinet. Once more it will entertain a new family that will enjoy it for many years to come.

Oh, you also might have noticed our Moss lamp with the Hedi Schoop

figure mounted on it. What makes this Moss lamp unique and rare is that it’s also an AM radio.

I think we have all the conversions we have room for. I recommend that if this seems cool and something you might be interested in, to check with Justin of Stellar Electronics to see if he can complete a conversion for you.

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Posted in Restorations, The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged 1950's T.V., 1950's television, 1950's tv, 50's T.V., 50's television, 50's tv, antique T.V., Antique Television, Antique TV, atomic T.V., atomic television, atomic tv, fifties t.v., fifties television, fifties tv, mid century T.V., mid century television, mid century tv, midcentury T.V., midcentury television, midcentury tv, rare T.V., rare television, rare tv, retro T.V., retro television, retro tv, vintage T.V., vintage television, vintage tv. Bookmark the permalink.

1959 Philco Safari H-2010

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Hepcats Haven

Presenting the Philco Safari Model H-2010, the World’s First Transistor Battery-Powered Television. Take it anywhere-enjoy it everywhere! It’s the all-transistor Philco Safari. 15lbs. of portable fun. Fine-screen picture, glare-proof hood, built-in antenna, long-life battery, rich leather case…a fabulous “first” from Philco! $250

Mel and I recently picked this little fella up and love it! It has such cool styling and real genuine top grade cow hide. This is the first truly portable transistor television!

They came in two colors, black and tan. The black seems to be more desirable but I like the tan.

Here is the black version.

Ours fired up just fine. The great thing is that since it is a transistor television you don’t have to be afraid to plug it in even if it has sat a while.

We are soo happy that all the knobs, hood and antenna are all there. Unfortunately, you find these without the hood pretty regularly. The leather on this unit is very clean without much wear.

The screen you see is a reflection of a smaller screen below the visible screen. I don’t have a converter hooked up right now so all you see is static.