I visited a major retailer yesterday - they had stacks of "Philco" CD/DVD players, $39 each.

There are other modern reuses of vintage names: Crosley portable record players, for example. For some reason, this bothers me, but I can't explain exactly why. I assume that it's all legal - that perhaps the old trademarks were sold off or have expired.

But why would any manufacturer or retailer, with an ounce of pride, not want to put its own name on what it sells? Is the purpose to somehow convey the misleading notion that the CD/DVD player is designed and built by a modern descendent of the "real" Philco? And that there is a bona fide Philco organization standing behind the product?

:I visited a major retailer yesterday - they had stacks of "Philco" CD/DVD players, $39 each.
:
:There are other modern reuses of vintage names: Crosley portable record players, for example. For some reason, this bothers me, but I can't explain exactly why. I assume that it's all legal - that perhaps the old trademarks were sold off or have expired.
:
:But why would any manufacturer or retailer, with an ounce of pride, not want to put its own name on what it sells? Is the purpose to somehow convey the misleading notion that the CD/DVD player is designed and built by a modern descendent of the "real" Philco? And that there is a bona fide Philco organization standing behind the product?

In a word Doug, yes. It's the "nostalgia" cachet that these off-shore, pan-asian companies market and bank on to sell these very poor quality transistorized units that died very quickly. This is evidenced by the number of emails and website searched
s I get about "...my Philco(sic) CD/DVD/Recordplayer/Combo thing is dead..." etc, etc, etc....

Chuck

Zenith and RCA and Magnavox aren't the original companies, either.

About the only original companies are Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, AIWA, and some other Japanese brands that have been around for 50, 60, or more years. They are fairly good brands. It is a shame that there are no good American brands left.

Maybe Emerson is still the same company. Who knows. I doublt it.

Probably the only company that's still the same company (and still a big monopoly) is GE.

T.

:Zenith and RCA and Magnavox aren't the original companies, either.
:
:About the only original companies are Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, AIWA, and some other Japanese brands that have been around for 50, 60, or more years. They are fairly good brands. It is a shame that there are no good American brands left.
:
:Maybe Emerson is still the same company. Who knows. I doublt it.
:
:Probably the only company that's still the same company (and still a big monopoly) is GE.
:
:T.

Hi Tom,
When did Zenith bite the dust? Emerson went down when I was a kid.

All the Best,

Bill

Zenith got bought out by Goldstar in the 1980s. Their sets aren't the worst, but they aren't what they once were.

T.

I've ogt a horror story for you in regards to these cheapo sets that have the nostalgia factor.
I was working in the returns dept at CVN right out of tech school and we got a run of returns on a reissue "Philco" console radios-seems they all were infested with termites. What a shock to those folks who bought these things!