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 Post subject: Zenith wired remote in "The Apartment"
PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 4:38 pm 
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I don't remember seeing a wired TV remote in a movie before. Here's Jack Lemmon in "The Apartment," which we happened to watch last night.

Phil

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PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 5:51 pm 
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I've often wondered if that remote was real or a prop - its function within the movie is to make it possible for Lemmon to change channels without a lot of visually distracting movement, hopping up and down. Do you know if it's real?

BTW, he also has a great late-'50s Fedders air conditioner in his living-room window.

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PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 6:33 pm 
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Could be a prop. Seems like it would need to be motorized. I don't remember hearing about that in mid-1950s sets, but there are plenty of things I don't know. Fun to see, anyhow.

Phil


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PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 6:45 pm 
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Phil:

A cabled remote was certainly within the realm of possibility by that time; I remember RCA's my dad worked on having ultrasonic remotes that activated servo motors which physically moved controls by means of a chain drive.

And Zenith had Flash-Matic on its upper-series TVs by '55 - a year earlier than the set seen here, so a wired control for lesser models sounds like it could have been real. Flash-Matic was a photo-electric system that was problematic (any light could activate almost any function), so Zenith went to ultrasonic by '56.

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PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 10:57 pm 
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I don't know about Zenith sets of that era, but Philco had a wired remote as early as 1951 models. The back of the set had a caddy to hold the remote unit. The cord pulled out from a reel inside the cabinet. It operated like many vacuum cleaner cords. Pull out the length you need and a pawl would catch and stop the reel. Pull additional cord out and the pawl would release. The remote control used a motor and electrically operated clutches to engage the different control functions. The actual remote used spring-centered slide switches to control "Off/On-Volume," "Contrast," "Brightness," "Channel Up/Down" and "Fine Tuning." Pretty advanced for the period.

Bill


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PostPosted: May Sat 22, 2010 11:54 pm 
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Believe it or not, that is also the Sam's for my 'Top Tuning' Zenith console. While many Zenith TVs going back to the porthole days had a channel-changer remote optional, there just wouldn't be any room for one or method of attachment on this model. There certainly isn't any plug-in accommodation for remote speaker or remote control of whatever those smaller knobs might be imagined to do. If it is a TV remote, it's for a different TV.

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PostPosted: May Sun 23, 2010 1:25 am 
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Could be that famous Zenith "LAZY BONES" wired remote, with the wire carefully hidden.


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 Post subject: My 1958'RCA CTC7AH,Grenoble has a wireless one
PostPosted: May Thu 27, 2010 5:45 pm 
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Yes mine has a wireless remote on it!
47'Plymouth864


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