Cracking Open the Set: Television Repair and Tinkering with Gender, 1949-1955

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2000 1: 257Television New MediaLisa Parks

Cracking Open the Set: Television Repair and Tinkering with Gender 1949-1955

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Tele vi sion & New Me dia / Au gust 2000Parks / Tele vi sion Re pair and Tin kering with Gen der

IN FO CUS

Cracking Open the SetTele vi sion Re pair and Tin keringwith Gen der 1949-1955

Lisa ParksUni ver sity of Cal i for nia at Santa Barbara

Searching for col lect ibles in a Mid west ern antique mall one day, I cameacross a 1955 TV ser vice man ual called Basic Tele vi sion. As I flipped throughthe book, I dis cov ered faint pen cilled notes and dia grams scrib bled acrossits pages—the fifty-year-old traces of the man behind the man ual (see Fig -ure 1). Sur prised to find signs of life in this dusty book I scru ti nized thenotes a lit tle more closely, think ing I could incor po rate them into myresearch. What became most strik ing about these traces, how ever, was thefeel ing of total incom pre hen sion they evoked in me. In my mind, there wasnoth ing “basic” about this book’s account of tele vi sion, and no mat ter howhard I tried, I could n’t under stand these high-tech doo dles because I lackedthe tech ni cal knowl edge to decode them.

I want to use this per sonal anec dote as a way to begin a dis cus sion aboutthe cir cu la tion of tech ni cal knowl edge about tele vi sion dur ing the period1949-1955. By tech ni cal knowl edge, I am refer ring to the mechan i cal andelec tri cal oper a tion as well as the instal la tion and main te nance of the tele vi -sion set. From 1949 to 1955, the con sump tion of tele vi sion sets sky rock eted.The num ber of tele vi sion sets in Amer i can homes grew from 910,000 in1948 to 37,590,000 by 1955 (Hansen 1956, 790). As con sumer demand fortele vi sion sets increased, so too did demand for tele vi sion repair. Knowingabout the tech ni cal oper a tion of this new “dream machine” also meant

257

Au thor’s Note: I would like to thank Mi chael Kackman, Michele Hilmes, JanetThurnim, and Lynn Spigel for their help ful com ments on ear lier ver sions of this es say.

TELE VI SION & NEW ME DIAVol. 1 No. 3, August 2000 257–278© 2000 Sage Pub li ca tions, Inc.

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hav ing the power to please a vast num ber of peo ple. Tele vi sion repair waschal leng ing dur ing this early period, how ever, because tech ni cal stan dardsin this rap idly grow ing indus try went largely unreg u lated. Ram pant fraudemerged in the man u fac tur ing and ser vice indus tries from 1949 to 1955 and was only com pounded by the fact that other pop u lar media char ac ter izedthe tele vi sion set as one of the most com pli cated machines ever invented.Early tele vi sion repair men thus faced many cus tom ers who had either pur -chased faulty sets or who were sim ply mys ti fied by this mod ern machine.

258 Tele vi sion & New Me dia / Au gust 2000

Fig ure 1 Draw ing found in Basic Tele vi sion, circa 1954



Tele vi sion repair men played a key role in the social cir cu la tion of tech ni -cal knowl edge about tele vi sion dur ing the early 1950s. While more thanthirty-seven mil lion tele vi sion sets were in use by 1955, there were only100,000 repairmen (Hansen 1956, 791). This meant that there was a des per -ate need to expand the pub lic’s knowl edge of tele vi sion’s basic tech ni caloper a tion. Not only did TV repair men dis trib ute infor ma tion about newtele vi sion tech nol ogy in how-to books, com mu nity work shops, pop u larmag a zines, and on local tele vi sion pro grams, they also brought theirknowl edge directly into the home. Often work ing as an inde pend ent, theTV repair man was sit u ated between the indus try and the home, rely ing onman u fac tur ers for infor ma tion about new tele vi sion mod els and on con -sum ers for a live li hood. The TV repair man’s con stant move ment betweenthe pub lic space of the TV shop and the pri vate space of the home pro videdwomen with some (albeit lim ited) tech ni cal knowl edge about tele vi sion ata time when social and cul tural dis courses dis cour aged them from acquir -ing any. As tele vi sion his to ri ans have shown, pop u lar mag a zines andadver tise ments encour aged women to inter act with the tele vi sion set asanother piece of fur ni ture or as part of a fam ily cir cle (Spigel 1992; Tichi1992). Few such dis courses ever coached women about adjust ing recep tion, replac ing tubes, and pull ing out the chas sis.

Draw ing on tele vi sion repair trade pub li ca tions, pop u lar press arti cles,TV parts adver tise ments, and other cul tural texts, this arti cle exam ines theprac tice of tele vi sion repair dur ing the early 1950s. The TV repair man’shouse call defined tech ni cal pro fi ciency as some thing that came from out -side the home rather than from within it. This brought with it a series ofanx i eties related to the con trol of new tele vi sion tech nol ogy. Since mostcon sum ers did not pos ses the knowl edge nec es sary to repair the TV set,there was a degree of bra vado surrounding those who did. Most TV ser -vice men had either worked in the radio field, trained as elec tronic engi -neers dur ing World War II, or dab bled in train ing and cer tif i ca tion pro -grams offered by man u fac tur ers dur ing the late 1940s and early 1950s.Thus, it was the tele vi sion repair man who ulti mately had the power tomake TV become a “win dow on the world.” In other words, unless hegrounded the elec tri cal wir ing of the TV set, installed the antenna on theroof, and elim i nated inter fer ence, there would have never been a pic ture.The labor of the 1950s TV repair man (and tech ni cal knowl edge of tele vi -sion, more gen er ally) was inte gral to tele vi sion’s medi a tion of the pub licand pri vate spheres, its merg ing of inside and out side worlds.

As Lynn Spigel (1992) has sug gested, tele vi sion’s merg ing of pub lic andpri vate spheres was espe cially mean ing ful to mid dle-class home mak ersdur ing an era of domes tic con tain ment. The TV repair man’s entrance intothe home inten si fied the lev els of desire directed toward the tele vi sion set.For install ing, alter ing, or fix ing the TV set car ried with it the abil ity to

Parks / Tele vi sion Re pair and Tin kering with Gen der 259



please and impress those who relied upon it. Mary Beth Haralovich (1992)has shown that net work tele vi sion exec u tives and the con sumer prod uctsindus try devised explicit strat e gies to tar get female con sum ers dur ing the1950s. The TV ser vice indus try was no excep tion. Since TV repair men usu -ally inter acted with home mak ers, their cus tomer ser vice prac tices aimed toappease women. Home makers’ encoun ters with tele vi sion repair men were rep re sented in pop u lar cul ture as much more than repair ses sions. Theywere often coded as erotic exchanges that occurred around or near the tele -vi sion set. Inter est ingly, the prac tice of TV repair became a site of sex ual fan -tasy for home mak ers and repair men alike. In a cli mate dur ing which tele vi -sion’s tech ni cal stan dards were still devel op ing and uncer tain, thetele vi sion repair man over val ued the tele vi sion set as an object of sex ualplea sure to dis place his anx i eties about being unable to fix it. As we shallsee, TV repair led to forms of sex ual fan tasy that could eas ily be rearticu -lated as the home maker’s plea sure of watch ing tele vi sion and/or therepair man’s tech no log i cal mas tery.

TV’s Tech ni cal ities

Though in ven tors be gan de sign ing tele vi sion com po nents at the turn ofthe cen tury, the Amer i can pub lic knew lit tle about the ma chine when it ap -peared in re tail out lets in 1948. Pop u lar sci ence mag a zines char ac ter izedthe TV set as one of the most elab o rate gad gets ever in vented, sec ond onlyto ra dar and the com puter. Sci en tific Di gest em pha sized the un ri valed“com plex ity” of this mod ern, home-bound ma chine, an nounc ing that

TV is eas ily the most com plex gad get ever to get in the front door. It has all thework ings of the ra dio, plus pic ture re ceiver, high-volt age am pli fier, spe cialpower sup ply, and an in tri cate syn chro niz ing hookup. . . . There are 800 to1,000 parts in one set. In the pic ture tube, an elec tron beam sweeps across thescreen 15,750 times a sec ond at 30,000 miles an hour. No won der things getout of whack! (Don’t Get Gypped 1952, 17-18)

In 1951, the Frank lin In sti tute in Phil a del phia boldly dis played “the verycom plex look ing in te rior of a TV re ceiver” in a trans par ent plas tic cab i net,in vit ing its pa trons to see for them selves the puz zling web in side the tele vi -sion set (TV Puz zles Children 1951, 29).

Since tele vi sion’s alleged com plex ity could jeop ar dize its mar ket abil ity,man u fac tur ers quickly devised ways to assure con sum ers that this newmachine would func tion once it arrived in the home. Dur ing the early1950s, tele vi sion deal er ships and ser vice shops sprouted up in met ro pol i -tan and sub ur ban neigh bor hoods across the coun try. By 1955, there were60,000 ser vice shops employ ing 100,000 tech ni cians (Hansen 1956, 791). In




gen eral, there were three types of ser vice shops: deal er ships oper ated byman u fac tur ers in big cit ies, small busi nesses in sub ur ban com mu ni ties thatheld cer tif i ca tions from TV set and parts man u fac tur ers, and neigh bor hood shops that oper ated inde pend ently. These tele vi sion ser vice shops becamethe cen ters of author ity and exper tise on tele vi sion tech nol ogy in localcom mu ni ties.

TV ser vice shop own ers used mod ern archi tec tural designs and cap ti -vat ing win dow dis plays to spot light their pres ence and attract cus tom ers.The store fronts of well-worn radio shops were rebuilt and made over with“ultra mod ern” dis play win dows that used glass and light to reflect thedesign of tele vi sion itself. In some cit ies one could locate a TV shop sim plyby glanc ing at the sky line and spot ting a thick line of anten nas on a roof top.Such sil ver sculp tures not only marked the loca tion of TV shops—theywere, accord ing to one ad exec u tive, gim micks designed to “arouse inter estin what has given us dis play mate rial here to fore undreamed of.” One arti -cle insisted that when a cus tomer walks by the store front win dow should“come to life,” and sug gested that a “fast flash ing lamp some where in thewin dow daz zles and can not be ignored; it is almost hyp notic” (Edelman1949, 49). Mar keting expert Vic tor Turner pro claimed, “A TV receiver is initself an unbeat able dis play—let it work for you!” (1949, 24). Many TV ser -vice shop own ers did just that: they set out to attract view ers just as tele vi -sion net works and adver tis ers did.

In addi tion to cre at ing flashy store fronts and roof tops, TV shopsshowcased their ser vice depart ments as well. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te -nance rec om mended keep ing a “brightly illu mi nated” and “mod ern, effi -cient repair depart ment” in full view of the cus tomer at all times, for “menwork ing on sets with arrays of impres sive test equip ment give the cus -tomer con fi dence in the repair work” (Turner 1949, 24). In one sense, then,TV shop design rep li cated the struc ture of tele vi sion itself with its eye-catch ing exte rior and its com plex mech a nisms at work inside. Once the cus -tom ers entered the store, Turner con tin ued, they should feel as if they haveentered a “tele vi sion the ater” with com fort able chairs and TV pro gramscon stantly run ning: “Cus tomers can come in and sit down when ever theywish, stay as long as they desire, and are not dis turbed by the sales staffwhile watch ing pro grams” (p. 24).

In these show room “liv ing rooms,” sales men per formed set dem on stra -tions, explain ing the TV’s basic oper a tion—how to turn the machine on and off and how to tune and adjust its vol ume. Rather than reveal ing com po -nents inside the TV set, the dem on stra tor focused on the but tons on thefront of the con sole, mak ing tele vi sion seem nonthreatening and easy tocon trol. An arti cle in Radio and Tele vi sion News advised, “In pre sent ing thetech ni cal fea tures of a receiver, be sure you stress what they mean in termsof enjoy ment and per for mance . . . do not give just a tech ni cal expla na tion of




how it works” (Christensen 1949, 40). TV deal ers espe cially tai lored theirin-store dem on stra tions to women, focus ing on the front of the con solerather than the mat ter inside it and repro duc ing the com forts of home in the show room. Knowl edge about tele vi sion tech nol ogy was con veyed towomen only when they were posi tioned as con sum ers. Even then, how -ever, the infor ma tion focused on the basic use of the set rather than its inter -nal mech a nisms. Such encoun ters encour aged female con sum ers to appre -ci ate the ease of watch ing tele vi sion, rather than learn about itstech ni cal i ties (Gray 1992). Still, some women remained curi ous about TV’stech ni cal i ties (see Fig ure 2).

While shop dem on stra tions helped to allay cus tom ers’ anx i eties abouttele vi sion’s com plex ity, there were a num ber of oppor tu ni ties for men tolearn more about tele vi sion’s oper a tion, espe cially since the ser vice indus -try des per ately needed employ ees. Major man u fac tur ers spon sored com -mu nity work shops to edu cate set own ers about minor adjust ments andrepairs and to try to inter est them in the TV ser vice pro fes sion. Gen eralElec tric, for exam ple, designed a Tele vi sion Dynamic Dem on stra tor thatinstantly dupli cated thirty of the most com mon tele vi sion trou bles


Fig ure 2 TV sales men were encour aged to down play the tech ni cal aspectsof the TV set dur ing their sales pitches, Radio Tele vi sion News, Decem ber1949



includ ing dimmed, shrunk, rip pled, and com pressed images and dis tor -tion com mon to spe cific local i ties. The com pany pro duced thirty of these“Boxes of TV Head aches” and assigned field engi neers to travel around thecoun try and work with local TV repair men to coor di nate pub lic work shops about com mon tele vi sion trou bles (”G-E Starts `TV Trou bles’” 1951, 95).DuMont’s Teleset Ser vice Con trol Depart ment orga nized 450 tele vi sionser vice clin ics with local ser vice orga ni za tions across the coun try. The clin -ics included lec tures and dis cus sions of gen eral ser vic ing tech niques andspe cific main te nance pro grams (”450 Clinics 1951,” 5). These work shopsthem selves were tele vised in Cleve land, where Rob ert Vreeland explainedthe oper a tion of the Brach Man u fac turing Com pany’s two-set TV cou pleron an early morn ing tele vi sion pro gram. The com pany decided to buy thetime because many morn ing view ers in Cleve land were ser vice men adjust -ing and install ing TV sets, or deal ers dem on strat ing how to use them (”TVPro gram Used 1951,” 78).

In ad di tion to com mu nity work shops, re pair men pub lished reg u lar col -umns in pop u lar sci ence mag a zines with tips on TV re pair. Sci ence Di gest,Pop u lar Me chanics, Sci ence and Me chanics, and Pop u lar Elec tron ics, for in -stance, all hired TV re pair men to write ar ti cles like “What’s In side a TVDog house?” “What You Should Know About An tennas,” “How to HushYour TV Set,” and “Why Call a TV Ser vice man?” Many of these col umnsad dressed the “fam ily man” and en cour aged him to tin ker with his set. Forin stance, one re pair man wrote, “One no tion kick ing around is that any onewho is n’t an elec tronic ex pert should never go near the ‘dog house’—thatlit tle steel box on the chas sis where the high volt age lives. Don’t be lieve it.The dog house need not be dan ger ous” (Hertzberg 1951, 218). In his bookHandy Man’s TV Re pair and Main te nance, Hertzberg pro vided gen eralguide lines for the man bold enough to crack open the set:

Be sat is fied one eve ning just to un screw the back and to snoop in side as wellas you can with out un mount ing or even touch ing any thing. Use a ta ble lampor a flash light and throw in lots of light, be cause there’s a lot to see. Then re -place the cover and wait for some eve ning when you’re alone to make the next step of pull ing the chas sis. The fewer fam ily “help ers” around, the less ner -vous you’ll be. (1955, 17)

Such sug ges tions, which ac knowl edged the em bar rass ing risk of mas cu -line tech ni cal in com pe tence, au tho rized the fam ily man to crack open andex plore in side the TV set, ex tend ing the tech ni cal knowl edge of tele vi sionfrom man u fac tur ers and re pair men to male con sum ers as well. Pop u lar sci -ence col umns rarely ad dressed fe male read ers when dis cuss ing the in sideof the TV set, and con se quently po si tioned it as a hid den do main un suit -able for women’s eyes. Cracking open the set, then, was coded as a mas cu -line ac tiv ity that in volved nav i gat ing the in ner work ings of this new ma chine.




Since man u fac tur ing was largely unreg u lated dur ing the early phases oftele vi sion’s dis sem i na tion, con sum ers pur chased a num ber of trou ble some sets. In 1951, a Better Busi ness Bureau sur vey reported that “of the approx i -mately 12,000,000 tele vi sion sets . . . in use, at least 4,000,000 were defec tivewhen received by the deal ers” (”Dealers Hit” 1951, 5). Most of these setswere sold any way. Dur ing this early period, TV repair men were extremelybusy. Less than 100,000 repair men faced the task of fix ing more than fourmil lion defec tive sets. In addi tion, TV sets that were not defec tive broughttheir own chal lenges. Not only were they heavy and cum ber some, theyrequired elec tri cal ground ing and antenna instal la tion to func tion prop erly. One repair man high lighted the haz ards of his trade, warn ing that “TVinstal la tion and repair are not jobs for the lay man. . . . A man and his wifewere killed recently try ing to install an antenna” (Loud speaker Col umn1950, 27). Because of the chal lenges and risks asso ci ated with the prac tice oftele vi sion repair, there emerged a cer tain heroism in being able to get a clear pic ture on the screen.

Dur ing the early 1950s, the TV repair man became some what of a pub licfigure, appear ing on mag a zine cov ers, neigh bor hood bill boards, and tele -vi sion shows. This her o ism only esca lated as viewer inter est in TV pro -gram ming inten si fied. Images in the pop u lar press fea tured TV repair mendan gling from roof tops and tow ers while install ing anten nae, work ing inwebs of elec tri cal wir ing, and safely remov ing tele vi sion sets from floodedhomes in Kan sas City (”In the Flood’s Wake” 1951, 74). Time placed therepair man on its cover, insist ing that he occu pies a “spe cial niche in Amer i -can folk lore” some where between “the river-boat cardsharp and the vil lage idiot, part free-boot ing buc ca neer and part plain boob” (”Mod ern Liv ing”1957, 102). Raytheon ran a high-pro file ad cam paign in Life mag a zine, fea -tur ing a TV repair man–cow boy rid ing a buck ing TV set with the cap tion,“It takes a heap of Know-How to ride herd on 36,000,000 TV Sets.” TVrepair men also made cameo appear ances in the Hol ly wood film All thatHeaven Allows and in the TV anthol ogy drama The Grass is Greener.

In some pop u lar rep re sen ta tions, the TV repair man is fig ured as agallant knight com ing to the res cue of a house wife in dis tress. One arti cle,enti tled “For mula for TV Suc cess,” fea tures a car toon knight in shin ingarmor, com plete with repair kit and hel met-mounted aerial antenna. But asthe house wife eagerly awaits his help, he clutches his shield, pro tect inghim self from her gaze and the equip ment in her home. We learn from theTV repair man, “Frankly, I was scared of the pic ture tubes!” (Burke 1951,42-43). This car toon image encap su lates the grow ing anx i ety sur round ingthe prac tice of TV repair. TV repair man not only had to fix faulty sets, theyhad to do so in the lime light of pub lic scru tiny.




Just as pub lic dis courses began to rec og nize the TV repair man as a heroof the post war era, the tele vi sion ser vice indus try grew ram pant withfraud. In 1951, the pres i dent of the Better Busi ness Bureau announced,“Because of its bewil der ing com pli ca tions, tele vi sion has become one of the lush est fields for rack e teers” (Nyborg 1951, 42). By 1951, thou sands of setown ers had com plained to Better Busi ness Bureaus around the coun tryabout con trac tors who failed to ful fill obli ga tions and had either gonebank rupt, given inad e quate ser vice, or mali ciously left town with col lectedfees (”TV Racket” 1951, 4). Accord ing to Con sumer Reports, the St. LouisBetter Busi ness Bureau “received a steady stream of vis its, tele phone calls,and let ters from peo ple whose expe ri ences made them sus pi cious of someof the rap idly expand ing tele vi sion ser vice com pa nies in St. Louis” (”TVSer vice Fraud” 1952, 82). San Fran cisco’s Bureau received over one hun -dred com plaints per month from con sum ers who com plained that deal ershad sold sec ond hand tele vi sion sets as new, adver tised low-priced sets thatactu ally did not exist, and failed to ful fill ser vice con tracts and pro vide con -test win ners with prizes (”TV Racket” 1951, 4). Such reports threat ened tounder mine the cred i bil ity of the TV repair man and rup tured the pub lic’strust in his trade, espe cially since it often involved activ ity inside the home.Amer i can Home warned its read ers to “inves ti gate your ser vice man,” claim -ing that “hun dreds of unscru pu lous ser vice men have set up busi nesses,charg ing exor bi tant fees by exploit ing the aver age per son’s igno ranceabout tele vi sion” (Springer 1953, 87-88).

Dur ing the early 1950s, then, the TV re pair man was fig ured on one handas a tech ni cal ex pert who cir cu lated knowl edge of new tele vi sion tech nol -ogy and on the other hand as a “gyp” who ex ploited con sum ers’ un fa mil -iar ity with TV to make a quick buck. Many com pe tent and hon est re pair -men were em bar rassed and dis gusted by the wave of ser vice fraud. Theyfelt trapped be tween ir re spon si ble man u fac tur ers and an un in formed pub -lic. An ed i to rial in Ra dio and Tele vi sion Main te nance com plained that “de -fault ing ser vice con trac tors have given the ser vice in dus try a black eye with its cus tom ers” (”Guar an tee Your TV” 1951, 22). To soothe this black eye, re -pair men or ga nized trade un ions and filed griev ances against man u fac tur -ers, charg ing that sets were “poorly made, falsely ad ver tised, care lesslyshipped, re mod eled too fre quently, and in ad e quately guar an teed.” Tryingto re deem the pro fes sion, one ser vice man di rectly ad dressed the con sumer,stat ing that

re gard less of the im pres sion you may have gained from read ing the news pa -pers, all ser vice men are not gyps. Ad mit tedly, a lot of sharp and shady char -ac ters were at tracted to the busi ness . . . but they were al ways in the mi nor ityand are now dis ap pear ing rap idly. . . . Your best bet is a neigh bor hood man,




be cause he has to be fair and hon est with his cus tom ers to keep the neigh bor -hood busi ness. (Hertzberg 1955, 11)

Be ing a “neigh bor hood man” in volved mak ing fre quent house calls andbuild ing a rep u ta tion based on suc cess ful re pairs in cli ents’ homes.

Thus, while TV repair men were cel e brated for their abil ity to wres tleTV’s com plex ity, they were also sub ject to increas ing pub lic scru tiny.Gravely con cerned about the impact of TV ser vice fraud on their live li -hoods, repair men worked to cul ti vate stron ger cus tomer rela tions, par tic u -larly with home mak ers. TV ser vice trade pub li ca tions, repair man u als, andadver tis ing cam paigns began to focus more and more on encoun ters withfemale cli ents. Trade dis courses coached repair men about such issues asproper dress and behav ior, polite lan guage, and legit i mate bill ing prac -tices. In short, repair men became increas ingly aware of the scru ti niz ing and some times inquis i tive gaze of their female cli ents.

Tele vi sion Mon i toring

Both TV repair men and parts man u fac tur ers had a vested inter est inrestor ing and main tain ing the integ rity of the TV ser vice pro fes sion. Tele vi -sion ser vice man u als, trade pub li ca tions, and TV parts adver tise mentsrevealed a grow ing empha sis on repair men’s interactions with home mak -ers (see Fig ure 3). By 1953, TV repair men estab lished an infor mal code ofcon duct for con tact with female cli ents. Chi cago’s Cen tral Tele vi sion Ser -vice pub lished the TV Tech ni cians Hand book on Cus tomer Rela tions and soldfif teen thou sand cop ies at $1 each. Accord ing to a Time review, the book“assumes that repair men nor mally meet house wives on their vis its, andurges them to dress neatly, be cheer ful and cour te ous, avoid body odor,wipe their shoes, show friendly inter est in the cus tomer (e.g., ‘This is abeau ti ful rug.’) and always give the appear ance of know ing what you’redoing” (”Honor Bright” 1953, 85). The book also pro vided repair men witha num ber of solu tions for hypo thet i cal house call sce nar ios. For exam ple,“Prob lem: You call at the house and find the cus tomer in neg li gee. Solu -tion: . . . do not enter the house.” Or, “Cus tomer is drink ing and invites youto have one with her. Solu tion: Under no cir cum stances should you acceptsuch an invi ta tion. . . . If you are in a house where the cus tomer has beendrink ing, size her up and see how much she has had. If you think she hashad too much, take a quick glance at the set and then get out of there in ahurry” (”Honor Bright” 1953, 85). Such sug ges tions antic i pated the sex ualadvances that might unfold around a dis as sem bled set. Inter est ingly, theyalso imag ine the home maker as more inter ested in the repair man than intele vi sion’s tech ni cal i ties.




John Frye (1949), a re pair man who wrote a reg u lar col umn for Ra dio andTele vi sion Main te nance, em pha sized the im por tance of clean li ness, claim ingthat

tele vi sion ser vice re quires that you meet the cus tomer on his own stomp ingground, his home; and there you will be un der the crit i cal sur veil lance of hisLit tle Woman. For some rea son or other, women, whose per cep tive fac ul tiesand re nowned in tu ition give them such a dis turb ing pen e trat ing in sight intomany mat ters, are ab so lutely no good at rec og niz ing a di a mond in therough. . . . Yes, it is al most as hard for a woman to re al ize that a care -lessly-dressed man can be a good tech ni cian as it is for a man to grasp that ahomely girl can have a charm ing per son al ity. (P. 26)

Af ter Frye em pha sized the im por tance of the re pair man’s ap pear ance, hewent on to sug gest that ser vice bills would be more le git i mate in the eyes ofthe “lady of the house” if the ser vice man’s over alls and tools were dirty atthe end of the job. Frye in sisted, “The lady of the house is usu ally very laun -dry-bill con scious, and when she sees how soiled your over alls be comewhile in stall ing her TV an tenna or mak ing ad just ments on it she will re -


Fig ure 3 Cover of Radio and Tele vi sion News fea tur ing repair man andhome maker, Jan u ary 1951



ceive your bill in a much more sym pa thetic frame of mind” (p. 26). Many re -pair men were self-con scious in the home mak ers’ presence. This ob ses sionwith her scrutiny was manifest not only in man u als and trade press but inTV set and parts ad ver tise ments as well.

I want to describe these encoun ters between tele vi sion repair men andfemale con sum ers as the prac tice of tele vi sion mon i tor ing—an exchange oflooks ric o chet ing around the TV set dur ing the act of TV repair. Tele vi sionmon i tor ing is defined both by the gaze of the TV repair man who strives topro duce clear recep tion on the screen and by the gaze of the female con -sumer who scru ti nizes his labor in her home. These looks not only reflect agendered divi sion of labor, they are part of tele vi sion’s social and eco nomichis tory. The prac tice of tele vi sion mon i tor ing—that is, the impulse to scru -ti nize the act of TV repair—is also directly related to defec tive TV set man u -fac tur ing and exten sive ser vice fraud dur ing the early 1950s. The repair -man’s strug gle to con trol TV tech nol ogy went on as curi ous home mak ersover saw his labor on behalf of a con cerned pub lic at large. As trade andadver tis ing dis courses of the period sug gest, the TV mon i tor was definednot as an inert box, but rather as a set of gendered, social, and eco nomic rela -tions that unfolded around it.

Many TV parts man u fac tur ers devel oped ad cam paigns to assuagerepair men’s con cerns about the overly inquisitive home maker. A Raytheon ad cam paign for TV replace ment tubes high lights the ques tion able cred i -bil ity of repair men in light of tele vi sion ser vice fraud. The ad repub lishedan edi to rial from the women’s mag a zine Pag eant enti tled “Beware the TVGyps,” which warned its read ers about the antics of shady repair men. Inreprint ing this edi to rial, the ad forces the repair man to rec og nize the pow -er ful gaze of the female con sumer, but at the same time it rep re sents her asan object of visual plea sure. She appears in a strap less eve ning gown look -ing in direct address at an implied TV repair man reader. Thus, while thead’s print priv i leges the power of female con sumer, its visu als work to con -tain her, posi tioning her as an object of sex ual desire. The only way for therepair man to increase her con fi dence in his work, the ad insists, is to acquire a bond endorse ment from Raytheon’s elec tronic tech ni cian’s pro gram(Raytheon 1951, 6).

Other man u fac tur ers also used en dorse ments from women’s mag a zinesto guar an tee parts and ser vice. A CBS tube ad ad dressed to re pair men, forin stance, fea tures a home maker kneel ing on the floor look ing in awe at abow-tied re pair man han dling a CBS pic ture tube. The copy be gins with ahy po thet i cal con ver sa tion be tween the two:

She: But, how do I know this is a good tube?You: Because, this is a CBS alu mi nized Mir ror-Back pic ture tube. There

aren’t any better.




She: And I see it has the Good House keep ing Guar anty Seal, too. That’sproof enough for me.

The copy then pro claims, “Cus tomer con fi dence re ally counts when it co -mes to the big tube. . . . For CBS tubes have the Good House keep ing Guar -anty Seal and are na tion ally ad ver tised to 76.9% of your cus tom ers . . . thewomen of Amer ica. And 53% of these women are in flu enced in their pur -chases by that seal of ap proval” (CBS 1955, 13). An ad for RCA tubes sim i -larly cap i tal izes on the re pair man’s grow ing need for his fe male cli ent’scon fi dence. Copy which reads, “A ser vice man’s ‘best friend’ is an RCATube,” ap pears next to an apron-wear ing home maker who smilesadoringly at a ser vice man as he leans into his tool box to pull out an RCA re -place ment tube. The ad’s fine print en cour ages re pair men to “un lock thedoor to big ger prof its” by be com ing reg is tered RCA deal ers (see Fig ure 4).These ads sug gested it was the plea sure of the home maker that was ul ti -mately at stake in re pair ing the tele vi sion set.

In the after math of TV ser vice fraud, tele vi sion repair men were posi -tioned as a class of inde pend ent labor ers deemed inef fec tive unless theyaffil i ated with estab lished insti tu tions. In these ads, the tele vi sion repair -man’s effec tive ness is con tin gent upon his endorse ment by women’s


Fig ure 4 Adver tise ment for RCA Pic ture Tube, Novem ber 1953



mag a zines and/or cer ti fied parts man u fac tur ers. Many TV parts ads rep re -sented the TV repair man as enmeshed with the tele vi sion set, frag mentedand absorbed by the appa ra tus. In other words, the TV repair man wasincom plete with out the proper parts, alien ated from his own labor andforced to assume a brand name to become a via ble com mod ity him self. Inan effort to recover con trol over his own labor and main tain author ity overTV tech nol ogy, the repair man often imag ined the act of TV repair as a sex -ual act. This con fla tion of TV repair with sex ual con quest allowed him tosup press the emas cu lat ing pos si bil ity that he might fail to repair the set,shift ing his atten tion away from TV’s inner workings and toward an imag -ined woman for whom he was per form ing.

In some cases, the TV repair man’s desire for his female cli ent’s stamp ofapproval is made sex u ally explicit. An ad for Walsco anten nas, for instance,shows a tele vi sion repair man whose face has been cov ered in lip printsafter he has prop erly installed his female cli ent’s antenna. The repair manappears upside down as his sexy cus tomer moves to plant another kiss onhis cheek. The copy pro claims, “and all I did was install a Walsco antenna”(Walsco 1954, 33) (see Fig ure 5). Here, female sex ual aggres sion is fig ured as the end result of suc cess ful antenna instal la tion and the use of Walscobrand prod ucts. This ad not only reveals that man u fac tur ers drew on


Fig ure 5 Adver tise ment for Walsco antenna, May 1954



female sex u al ity to sell parts to repair men, it also sug gests that the work ofTV repair was laced with sex ual fan tasy.

While the ads dis cussed thus far reveal the tele vi sion repair man’saware ness of, and in some cases desire for, the mon i tor ing female gaze, oth -ers use the fem i nine body to pro mote tele vi sion parts. In doing to, theyblend the prac tice of fix ing the set with het ero sex ual gaz ing. Ads often fea -tured tele vi sion repair men work ing on sets and mag i cally gen er at ing TVpic tures of attrac tive women. Gen eral Elec tric tube deal ers ran full-pageadver tise ments in Life and Sat ur day Eve ning Post pre sent ing “eye-open ingproof” of the GE tube’s func tion: a close-up of a pretty woman’s faceappears in the mon i tor as a repair man tunes the set in front of a young boy(Gen eral Elec tric 1951, 20-21). Raytheon’s ad for the Corona inhib i tor—theall-weather tube that worked in rain or shine—shows a young woman’ssmil ing face in a tele vi sion mon i tor with its back side cracked open. Thephrase “right for sight” implies that only the repair man’s magic touchcould make such a pretty face appear (Raytheon Corona 1951, 17) (see Fig -ure 6). Finally, an arti cle about a radio ham oper a tor who built a tele vi sionsta tion with $500 worth of war sur plus parts fea tures TV tin kerer Clar enceWolfe as he peers at what is described as his “TV trade mark”—an image of


Fig ure 6 Adver tise ment for Raytheon’s Corona Inhib i tor Pic ture Tube,Decem ber 1951



a “beau ti ful bru nette” named Gwendolyn. This image was the very firstthat Wolfe broad cast with his home made trans mit ter, and it served as“proof that $500 and inge nu ity can put TV on the air” (Boone 1949, 215-18).

Such rep re sen ta tions linked the labor of tele vi sion repair directly to theprac tice of het ero sex ual gaz ing. A prop erly installed tube, use of a cer tainbrand name, or an ambi tious exper i ment prom ised to gen er ate images ofattrac tive women. These rep re sen ta tions sug gested that tele vi sion repairwas as much about sex ual fan tasy as it was about clear recep tion. This oddblend ing of work and desire was most clearly elab o rated in a comic strippub lished in the trade mag a zine Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance enti tled“The Main te nance Mill.” These com ics often rep re sented the female con -sumer as a fetishized sex object in por tray als of her body. One comic fea -tured the out line of a buxom female body emerg ing from a home’s roof topantenna with two repair men gaz ing up at her and say ing, “It’s not cut towave length, but it sure picks up the sig nals!” (1951a, 21) (see Fig ure 7).Another shows a repair man in a bar, pre sum ably after work, gaz ing at apor trait of a naked woman on the wall and blurt ing, “Wow—whattascreen!” (1951b, 81) (see Fig ure 8). Finally, another fea tures a TV ser vice man dem on strat ing a spe cial func tion for a male viewer. As he explains, “press


Fig ure 7 Comic from Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, 1951



this for close-ups,” a woman’s face bursts through the screen and plants akiss on the viewer’s lips (1949, 82; see Fig ure 9).

To com pen sate for the repair man’s poten tial loss of power in thefeminized space of the home, where he was under the scru tiny of the female con sumer on her own turf, such come dic dis courses fetishized her body,over valu ing and rearticu lat ing her power as purely sex ual. This dis cur sivetrans for ma tion is a means of obvi at ing the threat en ing pos si bil ity thatwomen in a poten tially pow er ful posi tion as con sumer (and sex ual agent)might wit ness a fail ure of mas cu line tech ni cal knowl edge. Like the man ofthe house, who was warned not to attempt any repairs while under the gaze of curi ous fem i nine eyes, the repair man was faced with the emas cu lat ingpos si bil ity of tech ni cal and sex ual fail ure. These come dic rep re sen ta tions,then, reas sert the repair man’s tech ni cal prow ess by artic u lat ing it astransgressive sex ual potency.

Tin kering and Trans for ma tion

In an era of domes tic con tain ment and in the con text of highly pub li cized TV ser vice fraud, the repair man’s foray into the home was fraught with aseries of ten sions that threat ened to under mine gendered power dynam ics





in the house hold (Tyler-May 1999). First, when the repair man brought histech ni cal exper tise into the home, he chal lenged the author ity of the fam ilypatri arch by expos ing his lim ited con trol over tele vi sion tech nol ogy. Sec -ond, the repair man often per formed repairs while hus bands were away,cre at ing oppor tu ni ties for unseen inter ac tions between mar ried womenand TV repair men. Finally, by bring ing tech ni cal knowl edge into thedomes tic sphere, the TV repair man gen er ated the poten tial for female con -sum ers to engage with the more com plex aspects of tele vi sion on their ownterms. Whereas the cir cu la tion of tech ni cal knowl edge about tele vi sion inthe pub lic sphere largely excluded women, the repair man’s “house call”was one inter ac tion that gave women at least par tial access to this oth er -wise care fully guarded, masculinized knowl edge.

Although 1950s cul ture dis cour aged women from acquir ing tech ni calknowl edge of tele vi sion, women did, of course, tin ker with their sets. Someof this tin ker ing likely led to pro duc tive moments of self-dis cov ery andempow er ment for women. Con sider, for instance, an epi sode of I Love Lucyenti tled “Lucy Does a TV Com mer cial.” In a scheme to con vince Ricky ofher dynamic TV per son al ity, Lucy dis em bow els her TV set only to place her own body inside. Fred, play ing along with her joke, sits on the couch with





Ricky to watch a sport ing event on tele vi sion. When they turn on the set,Lucy pops up inside the tele vi sion set, lit er ally becom ing the mon i tor.Nota bly, it is Lucy’s deci sion to crack open the set and yank out the chas sisthat enables her trans for ma tion from home maker to enter tainer. Dur ingher canned per for mance, she bursts through the screen, remind ing Fredand Ricky that not only is she the object of their gaze, she is watch ing themtoo. By “break ing frame,” Lucy moves her self beyond the domes tic sphereand into the social space of tele vi sion itself. But her clever manip u la tion ofTV tech nol ogy car ries with it cer tain reper cus sions. Each time Lucy insistson her place inside the set, she is jolted by its elec tri cal cur rent. The setfinally explodes in a big blast and Lucy is forced to return to her liv ing roomwhere she embar rass ingly dis plays the man gled TV parts she extracted.Ulti mately, the scene sug gests that women have no place inside tele vi sion,whether on a stu dio stage or inside the set.

A leap in time to the 1990s reveals a more recent fic tional rep re sen ta tionof TV tin ker ing that leads to the trans for ma tion of the home maker. InPleasantville, Don Knotts plays a shifty TV repair man in a mod ern-day sub -ur ban neigh bor hood. One night when he arrives at the home of sib lingsDavid and Jennifer to fix a dam aged remote con trol, he mag i cally blasts theteens from their 1990s dys func tional fam ily into the black-and-white worldof the 1950s sit com Pleasantville, a drab but comfy world of warm break -fasts, smil ing par ents, and giddy teen ag ers. David and Jennifer are dis -mayed to dis cover that beneath the glossy veneer of sub ur ban bliss, bookshave only cov ers, par ents know not a thing about sex, and the town’s peo -ple have never seen color or rain. The TV repair man in Pleasantville uses histech ni cal inge nu ity to orches trate a tricky trans mis sion, and he is ulti -mately respon si ble for rat tling the com pla cency of 1950s sub ur bia. Thispro cess is coded through the grad ual colorization of Pleasantville’s mise-en-scène, the ongo ing clash between 1950s and 1990s youth cul tures, andthe self-real iza tion of the mid dle-class home maker. Indeed, the TV repair -man’s tech ni cal mas tery—that is, his abil ity to plop a pair of 1990s teens inthe world of the 1950s sit com—allows him to inter vene in the world in themost pow er ful way. In medi at ing past and pres ent, the TV repair man ini ti -ates a local cul tural rev o lu tion, lib er at ing the curi ous and adven ture somefrom con ser va tive tra di tions.

One of the most sig nif i cant trans for ma tions brought on by the repair -man’s magic occurs in Betty, Pleasantville’s home maker. In an ironic turn ofevents, the 1950s house wife learns about mas tur ba tion and sex u al ity in acon ver sa tion with her teen age daugh ter Mary Sue, who is a 1990s teen cam -ou flaged in a 1950s poo dle skirt. After lis ten ing to her daugh ter’s dis cus -sion of sex ual plea sure, Betty—instead of slip ping into the twin bed next toher hus band, George—plunges into a hot bath and expe ri ences waves of




autoerotic plea sure. Through out the film, the facade of the 1950s home -maker cracks and we see her bloom in full technicolor. Betty devel opsdesires and curi os i ties she had never known before, and she even tu allyflees sub ur ban monot ony for a more impas sioned life with a diner ownerturned abstract painter. Inter est ingly, it is the tech ni cal inge nu ity of the TVrepair man, his abil ity to merge two worlds (past and pres ent, the televisualand the real), that facil i tates the self-real iza tion of the 1950s home maker.

Both of these fic tional rep re sen ta tions sug gest that the recon fig u ra tionof the tele vi sion set can also lead to the recon fig u ra tion of women’s lives.Per haps this brings me back, then, to my ini tial con cern about my inabil ityto dis cern the dusty dia gram in that old TV repair man ual. If women weredis cour aged from con trol ling tele vi sion’s tech ni cal i ties, we can assumethat their power to trans form, recon fig ure, tin ker, adjust, or mod ify hasbeen lim ited as well. These are pow er ful modes of act ing in the world, andthey extend beyond the con fines of the tele vi sion set. Dur ing the early 1950s female con sum ers mon i tored repair men work ing in their homes, but theirgaze care fully averted tele vi sion’s elec tronic guts. Instead, womenwatched from a fringe area as men manip u lated tele vi sion’s inte rior, await -ing spec tac u lar changes on the screen. Comic strips went so far as to sug -gest that these TV adjust ments could be reg is tered on the fem i nine body asa set of spe cial effects for the know ing eyes of TV prac ti tio ners. To be sure,med dling inside the tele vi sion set also involved inter ven ing in genderedpower rela tions and gen er at ing social trans for ma tion.

Since tech ni cal knowl edge about tele vi sion cir cu lated in masculinizedspaces, it became the prop erty of men. Women were dis cour aged fromlearn ing about the tech ni cal oper a tion of the set, which was ironic giventhat, as Spigel and oth ers have sug gested, women largely con trolled TVwithin the con fines of the home. But while women’s mag a zines told read -ers about where and how to place the TV within the home, rarely, if ever, did they instruct women how to unscrew the back of the set and pull out thechas sis. Women were denied access to tech ni cal knowl edge about tele vi -sion in the pub lic sphere, in part because that masculinized knowl edge wasitself still frail and poten tially con tested. But it is impor tant to point out thatthese strat e gies could not con clu sively pre serve that ten u ous site of mas cu -line power. Today, man u fac tur ers no lon ger rely on neigh bor hood ser viceshops or ser vice men’s house calls to sup port their equip ment. Instead, tele -vi sion sets are, more than ever, black boxes whose tech ni cal oper a tions areunknown to every one in the home. Per haps this clo sure of the machine—this struc tural sup pres sion of tin ker ing—is related to the pleth ora of socialdis courses that see tele vi sion as a mon strous beast that dom i nates our lives.

Now, in case you’re won der ing about those doo dles dis cussed in theintro duc tion, I man aged to decode them. They’re Paul Reis’s Elec tron ics IIIfinal exam on which he squeaked by with an A. Paul for got to include a key




capac i tor on his ver ti cal-hold cir cuit and reversed the polar ity of a soundampli fi ca tion resis tor. This arti fact has allowed me, like the home mak ers ofthe 1950s who watched repair men attempt to mas ter the most com plexmachine ever to enter the front door, to peer inside the set not just to mar velat its archi tec ture but to under stand its place in social his tory and to imag -ine the future recon fig u ra tion of women’s lives.

Ref er ences

Boone, Andrew R. 1949. Radio “Ham” Builds TV Sta tion. Pop u lar Sci ence, August,215-18.

Burke, John D. 1951. For mula for TV Suc cess. Radio Elec tron ics, Decem ber, 42-43.CBS. 1955. Adver tise ment. Radio and Tele vi sion News, Novem ber, 13.Christensen, Carle. 1949. Don’t Sell “Nuts and Bolts.” Radio and Tele vi sion News,

Decem ber, 40.Dealers Hit Man u fac turers at Con fer ence. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance,

July, 5.Don’t Get Gypped on TV Repairs. 1952. Sci ence Digest, Decem ber, 17-18.Edelman, A. 1949. The Elec tric Eye in Adver tis ing. Radio and Tele vi sion News, May,

49.450 Clinics Listed by DuMont Ser vice. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, April,

5.Frye, John T. 1949. Over the Bench. Radio Main te nance, June, 26.G-E Starts “TV Trou bles” Dem on stra tions Nation wide. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion

Main te nance, Decem ber, 95.Gen eral Elec tric. 1951. Adver tise ment. Radio and Tele vi sion News, Decem ber, 20-21.Gray, Anne. 1992. Video Play time: The Gendering of a Lei sure Tech nol ogy. Lon don:

Routledge.Guar an tee Your TV Ser vice Con tracts! 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, Jan u -

ary, 22.Hansen, Harry, ed. 1956. The World Alma nac Book of Facts for 1956. New York: New

York World Tele gram Cor po ra tion.Haralovich, Mary Beth. 1992. From Sit coms to Sub urbs. In Pri vate Screen ings, edited

by Lynn Spigel and Denise Mann. Min ne ap o lis: Uni ver sity of Min ne sota Press.Hertzberg, Rob ert. 1951. Why Call a TV Ser vice man? Pop u lar Sci ence, Octo ber, 218.. 1955. Handy Man’s TV Repair and Main te nance. New York: Fawcett.Honor Bright. 1953. Time, 5 Octo ber, 85.In the Flood’s Wake. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, Sep tem ber, 74.Loud speaker Col umn. 1950. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, July, 27.Main te nance Mill. 1949. Radio and Tele vi sion Maintenance, March, 82.. 1951a. Radio and Tele vi sion Maintenance, Jan u ary, 21.. 1951b. Radio and Tele vi sion Maintenance, August, 81.Mod ern Liv ing: Out of Order. 1957. Time, 14 Octo ber, 102.Nyborg, Vic tor H. 1951. Quacks of the Elec tronic Age. Amer i can Mag a zine, March,

42.




Raytheon. 1951. Adver tise ment. Radio Elec tron ics, March, 6.Raytheon Corona Inhib i tor. 1951. Adver tise ment. Radio and Tele vi sion News, Decem -

ber, 17.RCA. 1953. Adver tise ment. Radio and Tele vi sion News, Novem ber, back cover.Spigel, Lynn. 1992. Make Room For TV: Tele vi sion and the Fam ily Ideal in Post war Amer -

ica. Chi cago: Uni ver sity of Chi cago Press.Springer, John L. 1953. How to Care for Your TV Set. Amer i can Home, June, 87-88.Tichi, Cecilia. 1992. Elec tronic Hearth: Cre ating an Amer i can Tele vi sion Cul ture. Oxford,

UK: Oxford Uni ver sity Press.Turner, Vic tor. 1949. How to Dis play Prod ucts More Effec tively. Radio Main te nance,

July, 24.TV Pro gram Used for Tech ni cal Talk. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, Novem -

ber, 78.TV Puz zles Children—and Experts Too Some times. 1951. Radio Elec tron ics, Octo ber,

29.TV Racket in San Fran cisco Hit. 1951. Radio and Tele vi sion Main te nance, Sep tem ber, 4.TV Ser vice Fraud. 1952. Con sumer Reports, Feb ru ary, 82.Tyler-May, Elaine. 1999. Home ward Bound: Amer i can Fam ilies in the Cold War Era.

Repr. ed. New York: Basic Books.Walsco. 1954. Adver tise ment. Radio and Tele vi sion News, June, 33.

Lisa Parks is Assis tant Pro fes sor of Film Studies at the Uni ver sity of Cal i for -nia–Santa Barbara. She has pub lished sev eral arti cles on tele vi sion and gen der, andshe is cur rently writ ing a book titled Cul tures in Orbit: Sat el lite Tech nol ogies andVisual Media (Duke Uni ver sity Press). She is also coediting Planet TV: A GlobalTele vi sion Studies Reader (NYU Press).




Cracking Open the Set: Television Repair and Tinkering with Gender, 1949-1955

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Transcript of Cracking Open the Set: Television Repair and Tinkering with Gender, 1949-1955