The first ever TV in Dickson? See the ‘porthole’ for yourself
A decade after Zenith created the first all-electric television, one of the company’s “porthole” televisions was in Dickson County, the result of local businessman’s curiosity and foresight.
It was the first TV in Dickson.
That 1949 Zenith television is on display at the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum as part of an exhibit: Sound & Vision: An Evolutionary History of Home Entertainment Technology.
Now’s the time to compare your wall-anchored, 70-inch flat screen TV to a one-foot diameter screen — and learn the history of electronics that shape our daily lives. The exhibit covers the evolution of audio and visual tech from live music and board games to cell phones and television.
Four working phonographs, a historic pump organ, a presidential music box from the White House, a rare Stella branded reginaphone are also among the exhibits.
What about the TV’s Dickson history?
The Zenith "Porthole" television was purchased from Braid Electric of Nashville by Charlie Dady of Dickson County in 1949.
Dady operated a radio repair shop on North Main Street in the City of Dickson. Dady knew that televisions were growing in popularity and TV repair would soon be necessary in his business, said Museum Director Zach Kinslow.
“As there were no television broadcasts in this area of Tennessee at the time, Dady bought the TV. for the sole purpose of taking it apart and putting it back together to understand how it worked,” Kinslow said.
Exhibit, museum info
The Sound & Vision: An Evolutionary History of Home Entertainment Technology will be at the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum through Monday, March 6. Admittance to the exhibit is covered with the cost of general museum admission. The Clement Railroad Hotel Museum is at 100 Frank Clement Place in downtown Dickson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The first ever TV in Dickson? See the ‘porthole’ for yourself
