Baby Boomer Alert: 1st Color TV on Sale Today, 1953

On this day (Jan. 30) the first color TV in America went on sale.  Not one single person in my old neighborhood got a color TV in 1953, in fact many homes still didn't have a black and white TV.  Within three years everybody would have a color TV and we were all hooked!!

By the way, the first year of color TV saw four major manufacturers competing for the consumer audience.  But look at these 1953 prices!  They were the price of a car!!  Westinghouse had one for $1,295; RCA had theirs for sale for $1,150; Sylvania had a model for $1,100.

Emerson, another manufacturer, had no confidence in this high priced contraption.  So, they made a color TV set that you could rent for $200 for the first month and if you liked it, $75 for every month after!