Laurie Mustard / Winnipeg Free Press
Mustard placed his modern TV on this vintage unit, but he does hope to watch a few classics on the old tube.
Supplied
Baby Diane Paquin with the family General Electric TV back in the 1950s.
We can thank Diane Paquin, the cute baby in the photo, for today’s entertaining tale of her family television’s decades-long journey to my sunroom.
My involvement in this journey began about a year or so ago when Paquin, a fellow ’Pegger, messaged me to see if I’d be interested in adopting a family heirloom, a 1953-ish General Electric Ultra Vison television, which she had promised her father she would "never take to the dump."
Some of you may remember her dad, Paul Paquin, the very well-known owner of Paul Paquin Insurance who serviced St. Boniface, and the Lockport and St. Clements areas for many years.
He loved this TV, and when they switched to a new colour set in the mid-’60s, he stored it away. His intention was to someday make a liquor cabinet or something out of it, with the bottom line being, just never chuck it out.
Diane honoured his wish, so for fun, let’s do a quick review of the many residences it has graced over the years.
The photo with baby Diane, and the TV with doors closed in the background, was taken back about 1956, when Diane was one. She was a black and white baby then — these days she’s living in full colour.
The journey: its first home was the Cusson Block in St. Boniface. Then to the family’s duplex on Autumnwood Drive, then to an apartment on Langevin where, following the purchase of one of those fab new colour TVs, the old Ultra went into storage, then hopped over to storage at their place in Niakwa Park Plaza.
Next it was hauled to Diane and hubby’s first home, 1980, in All Seasons Estates on Regatta Road, then to Vandal Street, where it had sat unused and unmoved since 1985, until my strong son Lyle helped me hoist it out of the basement last weekend.
I brought it home from there, then got my grandson, Will Forrest — also a strong guy — to help unload it here, I gave it a dusting, and voila, it lives once again. And I mean it really does live. I plugged it in, turned it on (the big dial on the left, and the screen lights up and the sound of the static is perfect.
The plan is to investigate whether with some modifications the Ultra can show today’s programming somehow, or if not, modify it so I can play old ’50’s and ’60s television shows by DVD perhaps. Lyle is an electronic engineering technologist, so he’s checking out what it might take to get a picture back on this screen.
If no luck reviving it, I’ll just get a clear plastic print of the famous old test pattern to feature on it.
And hey, this was no regular TV, with no regular picture on it. I Googled the advertising for it from back in the day. We are talking cutting-edge here. "Why has the new General Electric Ultra-Vision TV created such a stir? Because there’s never been a picture like it in all of television history! Here’s eye-opening realism never possible on any TV until now — blacker blacks, whiter whites, the greatest range of picture tones ever achieved! Result: a new high in glare-free eye comfort under all lighting conditions!"
This has me so revved, if they were available now I’d go out and buy a new one today!
My thanks to Diane for thinking of me when choosing a new permanent home for the old Ultra, and Paul Paquin, I too promise you that as long as I’m alive, this classic will never go to the dump!
Comments and feedback welcome!
lmustard1948@gmail.com
