It’s great having a new and modern Television but there is just something special and beautiful about TV’s of the past (Don’t you agree?) So you can imagine my excitement when I was recently able to pay a private visit to Toronto’s MZTV Museum of Television & Archive thanks to Zoomer Radio. It was an incredible visit with so much history under one roof that I need to go back to make sure I did not miss anything.

For today’s blog post I am going to give you a peek, just a peek into what the museum has to offer because if possible I want you to go and see it sometime yourself (so why ruin all the surprises in this post).

The MZTV Museum of Television & Archive

Museum Of Television Toronto Ontario Canada

Mission Statement & About the Museum:

The MZTV Museum and Archive seeks to protect, preserve and promote the Receiving Instruments of Television History. Whereas other North American Museums of Broadcasting feature Programs, ours is unique in its focus on the History of the Technology, as well as on the Sets Themselves.

Together with related original papers, discs, books, magazines, toys and other ephemera the collection offers some 10,000 objects to scholars and students as well as the general public.

The Museum’s mandate is to exhibit the world’s most comprehensive collection of North American Television Receivers for the formative fifty-year period from the 1920s to the 1970s. The MZTV Museum also aims to tell the story of the medium and to contribute to the understanding of the impact of television on the people who watch it

Inside the Museum…

Lets begin with the Pioneers of Television section. This was a great high level overview of all the important people who made Televisions possible. I enjoyed this intro because it really set a nice tone for the rest of the museum tour.

Don’t like reading? No worries the museum also has a wonderful FREE app you can download with audio of the content, extra images and videos to give a little more to what is featured in front of you. The app was a great addition to my tour.

The pioneers of Television vintage inn blog museum of television

Now before reading ahead, who of my readers knows what role ‘Felix the Cat’ played in the beginning of Television? If you know the answer, pat yourself on the back and then continue reading below.

Felix the Cat the original Museum of Television

The Answer: Pictured above is the original papier-mache figurine of Felix purchased at F.A.O. Shwartz in NYC. This figurine of Felix would become Televisions first star when RCA would first transmit his image from the Empire State Building in 1928 and then again in 1939 for the first commercial television broadcast. This was a lead up to the formal unveiling of Televisions at New York World’s Fair.

Once you leave Felix on his turntable, the museum has you move to various sections that explain how Televisions were formed, how they worked, what they looked like in different era’s plus various other tidbits. Here are some images of those displays.

1930’s-1940’s Televisions (just a sample of what they have).

1950’s-1960’s. LOVE these TV’s. They are just so cool!

It’s all about the details. Philco Radio.

Museum of Television 1950s 1960s TV -Philco

Sample from the the space age TV’s.

Space Age vintage televison at Musuem of Television

There were so many stunning Television’s but I think the one that stood out the most for me was this 1950’s West Germany, Komet. You would need nothing else in your room but this work of art (also housing a turntable).

vintage televison at Museum of Television

Beyond showing the timeline of Television sets, the museum also plays hosts to 3 special sets.

Up first this lucite beauty from RCA shown at the 1939 World’s Fair in NYC (The ONLY one in the world).

Vintage Television Lucite world fair television

The 1939 World’s Fair was the first time many people had their first look at television and the centerpiece was the Phantom TRK-12 shown above, whose cabinet was made of transparent Lucite. Having the transparent casing convinced skeptics that TV really worked and wasn’t all smoke-and-mirrors. The TRK-12 had the CRT facing straight up, and the screen was watched by looking into a mirror (Source).

1939 RCA Transparent TRK-12 Television at the World's Fair

The next special TV is Elvis Presley’s early 1970’s set that was situated on the counter in his kitchen (which was very uncommon at that time).

It was a tiny TV as you can see below in this photo from Graceland.

First Elvis, now a 1957 Magnavox Television from Marilyn Monroe (seen to the left in the tableau below).

The last part of my visit had a stop at the archives portion of the museum and it was jam-packed with advertising, books, photos and so much more. It was very cool to see (I adore anything archive related) and a great resource for anyone in the field or in need of historic information.

And that was my wonderful visit. Thank you to the fantastic staff for answering my questions and allowing me into the archives portion of the museum. I enjoyed myself immensely and I look forward to my next visit.

NOW it’s your turn! If you live in Toronto or are visiting Toronto soon (or someday), then make sure you make time to stop by the Museum you won’t regret it!

Location: 64 Jefferson Ave, Toronto, Ontario Canada
MZTV is open Tuesday-Friday: 2pm-5pm
Saturday-Monday: Closed
Pricing:
- Adults $10
- Seniors and Students $5
- Groups 10+ $5/person
- CARP Members FREE
- Children 12 and under FREE

Question Time: What style of vintage Television do you like? Share in the comments below.

FURTHER READING:

Liz

Saturday is Remembrance Day, so this week I would like to dedicate ‘Vintage Photo Tuesday‘ to the Canadian Women on the WW2 Home Front. This post is also part of a previous one I did last year, that you can view HERE.

Out of a Canadian wartime population of more than 11 million, 261,000 women worked in Canadian war industries, 400,000 in the civilian workforce, 760,000 on farms and countless others in the home and in the volunteer sector.

Women’s enthusiasm for helping out on the home front was anticipated by Alice Sorby of Winnipeg who recalled in 1940, “In September 1939 when the thunder of war first crashed about our ears, the immediate reaction was an almost hysterical desire to do something….” (Source).

1940’s Vintage Photos of WW2 Canadian Women on the Home Front

Here are those brave women in action….

Female loggers (‘lumberjills’) in the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC. April 1943.

Actress Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory, June 5, 1943.

FURTHER READING: The Bomb Girls Of Scarborough, Ontario Canada-As Seen Thru Vintage Photographs from the 1940s

1940s Vintage Photo of Actress Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory, June 5, 1943. — Source: Archives of Canada

Young woman working in the cabin of bomber being manufactured at the Fairchild plant in Montreal on May 19, 1941.

Three women in coveralls off to work in Edmonton in 1943.

1940s Vintage Photo Canadian Women arriving for work in Edmonton 1943 doing their part for WW2 Homefront effort in Canada. — Source: Legion Magazine

A welder works on a Bren gun at John Inglis Company Ltd., 1942.

FURTHER READING: The Canadian “Rosie the Riveter”-Veronica Foster -The Bren Gun Girl

Women volunteers from Canadian Red Cross assemble packages for prisoners of war in 1942.

Starting in 1942, Vancouver’s Burrard Drydock hired more than 1,000 women. Here we see the union’s shop stewards eating in the shipyard canteen, ca. 1942 (Source).

1940s Vintage Photo of Canadian Women taking a break from their shift from working at the Shipyard for the WW2 Canadian Home Front effort. 1942 Photo. — Source: Open Text BC

1940s photo of workers producing primers.

1940s canadian women on the homefront producing primers in a factory for the WW2 Canadian Home Front Effort. — Source: War Museum

“Start your Victory Garden today!” 1940s vintage propaganda sign from the ‘Health League of Canada’.

1942 photo of knitters working on the BC Telephone Co. War Effort Programme in Victoria. It was a group of ladies coming together to sit, talk, and knit scarves and socks for the men fighting overseas (Source).

1940s Vintage Photo in 1942 of knitters working on the BC Telephone Co. War Effort Programme in Victoria. It was a group of ladies coming together to sit, talk, and knit scarves and socks for the Canadian men fighting overseas — Source: Gulf of Georgia Cannery

“Come on Housewives SOCK HIM again!”. 1940s Canadian Fraser Valley Propaganda Poster for saving scrap from your home for the war effort.

While looking for photos to share, I came across a fantastic 10 min Canadian Documentary entitled ‘The Home Front‘ by Stanley Hawes (seen below).

This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series of morale-boosting wartime propaganda films. In Home Front, the various WWII-era social contributions of women are highlighted. From medicine to industrial labour to hospitality, education and domesticity, the service these women provided to their country is lauded. (Video Link)

Friends…If you are interested to read other posts I have created around the Canadian WW2 Home Front, the link is below.

FURTHER READNG: World War 2 Women’s Contributions & Homefront Posts

Liz

Month: November 2017

A Peek Inside The MZTV Museum of Television & Archive

The MZTV Museum of Television & Archive

Mission Statement & About the Museum:

Inside the Museum…

Vintage Photo Tuesday: WW2 Canadian Women on the Home Front (Part 2)

1940’s Vintage Photos of WW2 Canadian Women on the Home Front