Television History - The First 75 Years
 
 

What Things Cost in 1959:
Car: $2,200
Gasoline: 30 cents/gal
House: $18,500
Bread: 20 cents/loaf
Milk: $1.01/gal
Postage Stamp: 4 cents
Stock Market: 679
Average Annual Salary: $5,500
Minimum Wage: $1.00 per hour

(44K)
1959 Ford Skyliner

(22K)
                       1959 Philco Predicta Princess

(20K)
1959 DuMont Chatham-II
Courtesy Giovanni Capozzi (on TV)
 

•  42,000,000 American homes have television, some have 2 sets already
   

•  JANUARY 9th: Rawhide starts it's seven year run
   

•  SEPTEMBER 12th:  Bonanza becomes the first Western in color
   

•  OCTOBER 2nd:  The Twilight Zone is introduced by CBS
  
  

•  RCA SELLS 90,000 COLOR TV SETS -- Model CT-9.  In 1960, after spending more than $130 Million in research and advertising, color television finally records its first profit for RCA.  From a production standpoint,  the one million units per year barrier is not broken until 1964.

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