Screw your flat screens, man. Here is a tube you can enjoy without even turning on what passes for news and entertainment today. NO wonder they call it part of the designer series. It has a record changer and a radio as well. Fake flowers and what seems to be a fake Buddah extra.
It appears Sparton was a Sparks Withingon manufacturer in Jackson, Michigan. Founded in 1926 as a radio company, they were one of those who spent more on the box than the guts. Like the reputation Magnavox used to have among audio purists (who, back then, were called "Hi-Fi Guys" and spent their time pouring over Lafayette parts catalogs. I think Lafayette was absorbed into Radio Shack, who is trying to rebrand as the hip "SHACK" but it won't work. They'll all close up too. Who wants to go to "The Shack" when you can sit on your increasingly wide rear and order online?
Anyway, This box rocks. They produced until around 1956, about when this beauty was made. It was so good it put them out of business.
Sparton Three-Way Imperial TV Chassis postcard Collection Jim Linderman.
DELUXE!
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CLICK TO ENLARGEHaving abandoned Manhattan for Michigan three years ago, and having been fortunate enough to purchase a 1963-built ranch house in beautiful condition, ATOMIC RANCH has become one of my favorite magazines. Which is why I sent them a few photographs and a question about the child-sized mid-century design chair I found in an antique mall. I thought it a most sculptural homemade piece with superb design...a tiny Calder in my living room! But it had no manufacturer listed, it is clearly a homemade or, hopefully, a prototype.
Two years went by and I never heard back from the magazine. Much to my surprise, here it is in the Summer 2011 issue with my photos, my chair, my question and my bananas! They seem as puzzled as I was, but the effort sure is appreciated.Now what Atomic Ranch doesn't know is that in the intervening two years, I FOUND THE ANSWER! I'm not printing it here, who wants to spoil the fun? I'm going to wait and see what kind of guesses come in and send them the answer after.It is a beautiful little chair...and since I now live less than a gallon of gas from Herman Miller, My eye is increasingly shifting from folk art to retro modern whatever. Plus, I have a house to fill!Thanks to Atomic Ranch. It is a superb magazine, I recommend it highly, and their website HERE provides a generous sample of what they do. I only wish it was a monthly instead of a quarterly.
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Ranch. The Greatest Generation, AKA "squares"...had one thing right. Low, sleek, not much adornment and cheap as can be. A style which looks best with virtually nothing expensive inside or out. In the 1950's, ranch accounted for 9 out of 10 houses being built. After the mid-1960's houses started getting taller, but not better. They also started having manufactured materials rather than organic, staples rather than nails, dry-wall rather than plaster and were being built to last as long as the rat-ass shag carpet. There are millions upon millions of small, cheap, solid, simple ranch houses out there waiting to be fixed up without "elevated rooflines" to heat. And since there are no jobs left and none coming, I'm afraid...they make good places to hunker through the sundown on the union. These images are from a 1956 National Plan Service brochure. NPS printed the catalogs and let individual builders and lumberyards stamp them with their imprint. Most are a modest 1,000 square feet. Two cool sources. Atomic Ranch Magazine and Mid Century Home Style.
Modern Ranch Homes Brochure 1956 34 Pages Collection Jim Linderman
