RCA was first to market a color TV  when it offered the now famous model CT-100 in 1954. It was promoted as having a 15" screen but in reality it had only a 12" viewing area. The CT-100 cost RCA nearly $1500.00  to build but they sold 'em for only $995.00.  The loss was only "pocket change" compared to the subsequent steadily increasing sales of color TV's over the following decade. Although all manufactures built a color TV in the 1954 - 55 period, few of were them sold and they suffered from poor performance and were prone to a multitude of electronic problems. The CT-100 performed extremely well with beautiful color and picture resolution.

Over the years I have restored and owned a number of these wonderful sets and a couple of photo's is all that remains of them with me today. The above image was cropped from a photo taken in my living room in the mid 1960's. It was the first of these that I owned and restored.

I won't go into any more details on just what a fantastic TV  the CT-100 truly was but link you to my friend Ed Reitan's wonderful site where he says all there is to say about the CT-100.

Below is an off the air image of that same TV that I photographed in 1966 of a morning talk show. If anyone knows who the lady in the image might be, please notify me.

click ^ to enlarge

Unfortunately, I did not have the forethought to take any additional photo's of any of the other CT-100's I restored over the years..