Visions4 Tribute

The above television belonged to Ed Reitan.

Sneek Preview

April 26, 2017

This site is under development and tells the story behind the restoration of “An Evening With Fred Astaire”. The above teaser video shows clips from the color special on our 1954/55 RCA 21CT55 color television. The color special was broadcast on October 17, 1958 and Ed’s RCA CTC-7 Worthington was indroduced to the public in Fall of the same year for purchase.

It is our goal to undertake full restoration of the Worthington, beginning May, 2017 and ultimately produce a video film showing the NBC special he worked on, displayed on his very own television, as a tribute to Ed. “An Evening With Fred Astaire” to this day, is still the most honored single television program, winning nine Emmy’s and thirty years later won it’s tenth for the restoration work performed by Ed and colleagues.

We became the custodian of his set in June, 2015 after he passed away. The Worthington was the first color set to use wireless remote control and the remote for this set is a seven function, fourteen pushbutton affair relying on a servo motor and solenoids to control the basic functions of the set. Unfortunately at this time, all the gears in the gear box are frozen and the user television controls are inoperable.

For those of you who do not know Ed Reitan, I would like to present a brief synopsis of his career. I first learned about Ed through the Early Television Foundation website. He was a regular contributor and supporter of ETF. He created his own website, about the early history of color television. This site is one of the most comprehensive of many sites on the subject. I never met Ed, but did have several telephone conversations with him regarding the Chromatron color system. It was with great sadness that I learned of his passing in early 2015.

The following two video tributes for Ed Reitan will give you more information about the man.