Fisher Stereo/TV combo tread on VK

egrand

New Member
I'm a member on VK too and there has been a thread going about an interesting Stereo/TV combo that was for sale on Craigslist that a VK member bought. I thought maybe it was a Fisher Living Theater, but apparently not. The buyer said the seller told him it was a custom made outfit with a Fisher 500B, Garrard A turntable, a Zenith tv, and Jensen drivers.

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=258949

Anybody here have anymore info or seen anything like it before?
 

Attachments

  • 01414_4PzVvHD8um6_600x450.jpg
    01414_4PzVvHD8um6_600x450.jpg
    28.1 KB · Views: 24
  • 00u0u_bncOQQmeltH_600x450.jpg
    00u0u_bncOQQmeltH_600x450.jpg
    26 KB · Views: 38
oh good, someone bought it. I hope they bought it to keep it for what it is, not just gut it for the Fisher reciever inside. I'd have gotten it myself but I don't have the room and there is a vague possibility I'll have to move at some point in the next few months. Don't need to haul one more thing with me than I have to.
 
Yeah that was the one in the Philly area. Tempting, but I've got too many consoles as it is.
 
He pulled the tv chassis, but keeping everything else intact.

Does anybody know who made the tv sections for Fisher in the Living Theater sets?
 
I don't know who made Fisher's TV chassis in the 1960s. Perhaps a clue lies in Fisher's acquisition of the Gotham Television Corp. in the late 50s. I was doing some Google searches on the subject earlier this evening and stumbled onto a few interesting pieces of the puzzle.

1st - The Gotham Television Corp. was also known by its president's name, Harold Shevers. Rider's lists them together. So who was Harold Shevers? I eventually ran across Harold Shevers name associated with the founding of Espey Manufacturing Co. in 1928 in this strange "privacy enhanced" SEC document (search for "Shevers" within the document):

http://ftp.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/33533/0000914317-04-003536.txt

Right below Harold Shevers' name is that of Nathan Pinsley ('Pinsky' is a typo.). I recognized Mr. Pinsley from my research into Avery Fisher's first company: Philharmonic Radio. He was its president while under American Type Founders control after Avery Fisher was leveraged out. He and other members of the Pinsley family continued as corporate officers long after Shevers' name disappears. Hmmmm - not sure what to make of that. But the question remains: who was Harold Shevers?

2nd - Prior to its acquisition by Fisher in the late 50s there was some sort of irregularity involving Gotham that was investigated by the SEC and sent to the courts for sorting out. I haven't had the patience to sit down with that mess to see if it had any bearing on Fisher's acquisition yet. Any corporate lawyers in the house?

3rd - Thanks to your VideoKarma link, I had the thought to do a search for "Fisher" over there. I came up with this:

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=258125&highlight=fisher

That's a late 40s Fisher TV. In this case I'm pretty sure Fisher built these in-house. When Avery Fisher rebooted his pre-war company - Philharmonic Radio - as Fisher Radio in 1945, he managed to take most of the engineering staff with him. Among the many wartime contracts Philharmonic was engaged in were some for MIT's Rad-Lab involving radar. No doubt some of Philharmonic's engineers became familiar with CRT technology and were able to hit the ground running as television took off after the war.

I have PM'ed tvdude1 to ask what has become of his project. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.

Avery Fisher was not a fan of television. When his company began producing them in the late 40s it was an act of desperation. Once the LP hit the shelves and high fidelity began to make a comeback, the Fisher TV was jettisoned very quickly. Why it returned in the 60s, I do not know. Perhaps he was just responding to public demand.
 
Thanks for the info Red. Very interesting. I appreciate all the info you've posted on here. It's great to see their history compiled together they way you have. Fisher made some beautiful consoles. I have a feeling one will be in collection someday.
 
Back
Top Bottom