Thursday, May 15, 2008

William Saroyan

Appearing amid the junk at the place mentioned yesterday, was a 1948 Sentinel Model 400 7" television...... and it turns out William Saroyan had one? At least he had the owner's manual. Stanford University Library has an extensive collection of William Saroyan's papers, including the manual for this television! Since our garage used to be a TV repair shop, I wonder if any of these came through our place? This model was evidently very popular as TVs began to be mass produced around 1948 as materials for producing consumer goods became avaliable after WWII. This "suitcase" version was marketed as a portable television. A bit bigger than an iPod! Our first TV was delivered sometime in the early 1950's. I remember my immense joy as the first show that came on was the Sealtest Big Top! Click here to see a short clip!

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