Harmon-Nielsen TV Ad - Feb. 24, 1954

Regular readers of this blog know that the early days of television interest me. Why? Because I was born at the end of the 1950s and thus able to witness the evolution of television over the years.

I've written before about Mom and Dad's first TV (here). It was a Philco 4109 – a huge, heavy cabinet-style model that had to warm up. I'm sure Mom selected it because it fit in with her French Provincial design theme in the house (which I teased her about in later years as being somewhat incongruous as the choice of a woman of German heritage living in Lorain, Ohio).

Here's a photo of Dad standing next to that first television.

Dad and the TV circa 1955

And here's my sister in front of it. By George, she was only about a year old, but already seemed to understand its entertainment potential.

"How do you turn this thing on?" she seems to be thinking.

How long did my parents have it? They bought it in the early 1950s and had it in their first house. It made the move to their second house (which they built in the late 1950s) but I don't remember it coming with us to the third house (on Skyline Drive) in December 1965. So they had it for about twelve years.

Now for those people who liked to trade in their television for the latest model, then the ad for Harmon-Nielsen Company, would have been of interest. It ran in the Lorain Journal back on Feb. 24, 1954.

It's kind of interesting in that it might seem early to be trading in a TV in 1954. But since some people may have run out and bought one in the late 1940s, their TV might have been ripe for replacement by then. TV design was evolving pretty quickly and of course, bigger is always better.

Note that RCA is the brand mentioned in the ad. Is the RCA brand still around today? It sure is, and it's still possible to buy an RCA television. Click here to visit the history page on the RCA corporate website. (Nipper, the dog mascot always shown memorably listening to "His Master's Voice," is still around too, on the home page.)

But the ad is amusing in some ways. The gimmick of showing only half of the man and woman's face is unusual and probably due to limitations of layout space. And I like the image on the TV screen of what's probably supposed to represent some Shakespearean actor.

I think they should have shown a wrestling match instead. Or a cowboy.