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A black and white
sensation
Tiny screens
a big attraction in early years of television
By DENNIS NARTKER
The News-Sun
KENDALLVILLE - Darol Stroman, owner of Stroman Electronics,
109 S. Main St., remembers when 10 to 20 people huddled up close
to watch his 1949 RCA Victor 10-inch black and white TV.
When the store received its first color TV set in 1955, blankets
were placed over the windows to darken the surroundings.
The store would set up chairs during special TV events like the
Tournament of Roses Parade telecast. Many people from the community
would come in and watch.
"I once had Lions Club members in here to see it,"
he said.
Introduced shortly after World War II, television has had a profound
effect on people's lives.
The baby-boomer generation can also be called the TV generation.
Today, on average, a TV set is in use in each American household
seven hours a day.
About 98 percent of U.S. homes have at least one TV set.
Television came to Noble County around 1946, but pinpointing
who acquired the first TV set in the county is difficult.
Stroman's had a black and white RCA Victor set in 1948, but didn't
immediately put it up for sale.
Russell Carteaux, owner of Carteaux TV & Appliance in Avilla,
recalls a family in the LaOtto area acquiring a 1949 Philco,
and putting up outdoor antennas so they could receive a Kalamazoo
TV station's signal before Fort Wayne's first TV station, WKJG
Channel 33, began broadcasting in 1953.
On June 30, 1950, Barker's Firestone Store in Kendallville advertised
Motorola TV sets with 8 1/2- to 19 1/2-inch screen sizes in The
News-Sun.
"Enjoy variety entertainment at home tonight with Motorola
Television," stated the ad, which depicted scenes of sports,
historic events, music, variety, educational features and drama.
TV as we know it was not developed until the 1920s, and it had
little importance to communication until the late 1940s.
TV became possible in the 1800s when people learned how to send
communication signals through the air as electromagnetic waves.
In 1922 Fort Wayne's Philo T. Farnsworth developed an electronic
scanning system for turning pictures into electrical impulses.
The next year a Russian-born American scientist named Vladimir
K. Zworykusja invented the iconoscope, the first TV camera for
broadcasting, and the kinescope, the picture tube used in TV
receivers.
In 1936 Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which owned the National
Broadcasting Network (NBC), installed TVs in 150 homes in the
New York City area for the first American telecast of anything
on a regular basis.
The cartoon Felix the Cat was the first program.
TV broadcasting was suspended until after World War II.
When television resumed broadcasting after the war, TV sets were
primitive with 7- to 10-inch screens showing black and white
programs.
Stroman brought from his basement the first TV set his store
sold, the 1949 RCA Victor.
"We sold it to Harold Westphal for about $239 and got it
back in 1970 for $30," he said. The set came with an optional
table and operated with an outside antenna.
Stroman Electronics was started in 1945 at 103 E. Mitchell St.
by Darol's father, Doyne Stroman.
After a brief stint at 208 S. Main St., the business moved to
its present location at 109 S. Main St. In 1959, the business
expanded into the store next door.
Doyne Stroman started the business as a ham radio operator, specializing
in radio repair and sales.
He then ventured into record sales.
When television arrived, the business became an RCA franchise.
Barker's had the Motorola franchise, Westphal's TV sold Philco
and Sylvania TVs, Moore's TV & Appliance had General Electric
TVs, and Kendall Specialty Co., 214-216 Iddings St. sold Crosley
TV sets.
The early black and white TV sets had a tuning dial for VHF reception
only and a round picture tube in a box-like wood cabinet.
The RCA Victor 12 1/2-inch "Tel-Ensemble" had a phone-jack
for plugging in an RCA Victor 45 automatic record changer to
play records.
In 1946 came the first regular nationally broadcast TV series,
a variety show called "Hour Glass."
The first soap opera followed, called "Faraway Hill."
In 1947 NBC introduced "Kraft Television Theater,"
"Howdy Doody," "Meet the Press" and "Kukla,
Fran and Ollie." "Meet the Press" is still on
NBC on Sundays.
On April 23, 1946, Kendallville Rotary Club heard Harry Gurelle,
an Indiana Bell Telephone Co. representative, describe what TV
would mean to the county.
Before color TV was introduced around 1955, TV manufacturers
brought out attachments and gimmicks to turn black and white
sets into color sets.
Tinted glass plates could be attached to the screen to add color
to the images.
Stroman remembers a wheel apparatus that could be attached to
add color to the screen.
Stroman Electronics was the first Kendallville retailer to offer
color TV on May 7, 1955.
That first color TV, an RCA Victor Deluxe console floor model
with a 21-inch screen, is still in Stroman's store. He never
sold it.
"The Perry Como Show," "The Dinah Shore Show,
"Bonanza" and the "Wonderful World of Disney"
were popular color shows at the time.
Early model color TV sets had the 13-channel VHF system and a
UHF dial.
TV news broadcasts were only 15 minutes long in the late 1950s
and early 1960s.
WKJG-TV 33 in Fort Wayne, an NBC affiliate, was the first TV
station close to Noble County to begin broadcasting in 1953.
WANE-TV 15, a Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) affiliate in
Fort Wayne, followed. WANE was licensed originally to broadcast
from Waterloo before moving its transmitter to Fort Wayne. Later,
WPTA-TV 21, an American Broadcasting Company (ABC) affiliate
in Fort Wayne, went on the air.
With improved antenna reception, local TV watchers could pick
up South Bend stations.
Movie theater owners were hit the hardest by TV's popularity.
Small-town theaters closed because people stayed home to watch
TV.
Movie theater managers like Cleon Point, who managed the Strand
Theatre in Kendallville for 27 years beginning in 1946, offered
discount admission, contests, giveaways, candy, popcorn and refreshments
to attract customers and counter television's impact.
Portable TV sets with 12- to 21-inch screens became popular.
Video cassette recorders (VCRs) were introduced in the 1970s,
allowing consumers to record and playback TV shows at their leisure,
and purchase videotaped shows and movies.
Remote control, stereo surround sound and DVD have been innovations
in the past 20 years.
Today with cable TV and satellite TV consumers can receive hundreds
of different TV channels.
TVs are as small as 4-inch hand-held models and as large as the
80-inch projection TV sets often referred to as home theaters.
Designing and installing home theaters has become a specialized
business.
According to Stroman, HDTV (high definition television) with
its liquid crystal 4-inch deep high definition screens is the
next major TV innovation in the U.S. HDTV is already offered
in Europe and Japan.
"Its picture quality is twice as good, but the problem has
been replacing the channel system set up over 50 years ago,"
he said.
Europe and Japan decided on a satellite-based system and quickly
made the technical changes needed for HDTV.
The U.S. has taken longer because the government has insisted
on a ground-based system so consumers would not have to purchase
satellite dishes to pick up HDTV signals.
He sees a time in the near future when TV screens will be flat
as a movie screen and hang on a wall or pull down from a ceiling.
Stroman placed the 1949 black and white set on the top of the
1955 RCA Deluxe in his showroom. Behind the "antique"
TVs was RCA's newest 36-inch color TV table model and RCA's 60-inch
projection TV.
Television's evolution in Noble County is there in his store's
showroom.
(Sources: World Book Encyclopedia, The News-Sun, "Zap!
A Brief History of Television" by Marian Calabre.)
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