Classic Hifi Care

With all the discussion about Patsy Cline recently, here's a photo that was taken at the Patsy Cline Museum of her den/girl cave circa 1958. I don't know if the museum is at her actual house or if this is a recreation, but it seems the TV, Hi-Fi, and other pieces are original. I can't ID that cool blonde B&W TV, anyone care to make a guess on the Hi-Fi? (frankly I don't know myself lol!).

She had good taste in music. She had a couple Patsy Cline records there on the coffee table. "Showcase" was from 1961. "Sentimentally Yours" was later, 1963, I think. Quite the mish mash of furniture colors and styles. My guess on the hi-fi would be Stromberg-Carlson. My guess on the tape recorder would be Webcor. The TV I won't even hazard a guess.

It could be this 1957 Fisher 61, but details and controls seem to differ, and not much to go on, can't see the "works"!

The console hi-fi has a round dial. I looked thru a bizillion Stromberg-Carlson pictures and didn't see one. I know I've seen that cabinet design somewhere recently........

Round dial, lots of knobs, and the changer record level mechanism looks to be Garrard. It's definitely not your standard HIFI. I would agree on the tape player. I did a Google search and found a TV in a French Provincial cabinet that looked similar. It was DuMont.

Bill

Yeah, that had more knobs than a Fisher 61 and a metal faceplate where the Fisher's was wood. I've also seen others in that style, could have been Pilot or something.

The TV appears to have a round emblem on the lower right hand corner. GE or Westinghouse, perhaps?

I saw a Westinghouse as I looked around on Mr. Google. It too looked similar, but figured Miss Cline would have gone for a DuMont.

Bill

Was DuMont considered a sort of "Upscale" brand of TV? I know that Allen DuMont was considered an innovator in his day.
That is a handsome set, I'm a fan of "blonde" cabinetry which is typically limed oak.

Roger, from what I have read, heard on this forum, I think DuMont (never sure if it's Dumont or DuMont, I have seen it both ways) was the creme de la creme of black and white TV's. We had one when I was a kid. What I can remember, it was a table top unit that may Dad built a cool stand for and I could watch my Saturday morning cartoons on it. I do know from a little research they built a model called the DuMont Royal Sovergien. State of the art for it's time. DuMont was also a pioneer in TV broadcasting. Here's an interesting 20 page read about DuMont and early TV in general. The first couple of paragraphs talk about talk about the beginnings of DuMont.

https://tupress.temple.edu/uploads/book ... 75_ch1.pdf

Bill

I just took another look at the photo of Patsy's girl cave. It's interesting how the reel to reel looks so much older than the HIFI and the TV. I would still like to know what the HIFI is?

Bill

Patsy Cline was fairly "country", she like calling people "Hoss". And Jimmy Dean called her a "bawdy girl". She and Dottie West cut a wide swath in the middle 1950's. But, I can't imagine even a bawdy girl having that kind of mis-matched furniture, especially after she got established and was making good money. I'd say somebody acquired a bunch of period furnishings, then called it Patsy Cline's stuff. That hi-fi might be some kind of a Frankeconsole that was put together for display.

From what I gathered this was the actual stuff. Her house was sorta ok but nothing special. If you saw the bio-pic on PBS America Experience (really well done btw) last year her life was pretty chaotic for the 5 or 6 years preceding her death.

The knob layout of the radio part is what I don't recognize.

Bill

From some research I think it's a Pilot C-1076 console, the knobs look like Pilot as does what I can see of the faceplate, and Pilot usually used Garrards.They were pricey, $600 in '57 and had a top notch 6bq5 PP amp, the kind of Hi-Fi I'd expect her to have, a really good one. It was available with a matching companion speaker in '58/9, as in the pic, but don't see one at her place. So a TOL TV and Hi-Fi, is just what I'd expect. While a really TOL Berlant Concertone or Magencord R to R would have been probably TOO much to expect, they're really rare and were commercial stuff, any R to R in '56/7 was fairly unusual in itself, but I'm sure she'd have one.

Roger, I actually found a photo of the console you have pictured, and it actually had the hood up. The one I found did not look anything like the one in Patsy's girl room.

Bill

Here's a pic of the Pilot C-1076 from radiomuseum, I'd say it verifies it pretty well: the Garrard 88, the faceplate with knobs at either end of the dial, and 6 along the side, even the black rectangle in the back of the rp compartment...I'd say it's a pretty much a slam dunk, eh? Am I good or what? ... lol These were expensive, she did have good taste indeed.

Dave MM our resident TV expert says he thinks the TV is a 23" Admiral, a 23 incher was somewhat unusual at the time. deluxe!

It seems a bit incongruous for someone to spend the money for a Pilot hi-fi, then own a relatively cheap Admiral TV set, 23" notwithstanding. Why not an upper line Zenith or RCA or even Magnavox? Admiral made some good TV sets, don't get me wrong, but they were not considered a premium brand.

PC's Pilot console as on an e-pay listing:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MoIAAOSw ... -l1600.jpg

That's pretty much it except the radio dial. Good work you too both for solving the HIFI mystery. As far as the TV goes, maybe Patsy liked the cabinet.

Bill