The time has indeed come--
--to end the story of Zenith told by this weblog. This will be the last of the Posts, and from now on it will be excelsior! --on to finish the forthcoming book about Zenith. The title will be--
Zenith! The Rise and Fall of a Great American Company.
Also, let's now tell of the last of Zenith's engineering triumphs: the making of the finest Zenith computer color monitor ever created, one with a the flat tension mask and a flat face-plate!
But
before telling that happy/sad story, let's first pay tribute to another
of Zenith's "products,"--those employees those whose careers were
fostered and promoted by their employment by Zenith. In the prior Post,
we listed Eugene Cummings, Norman Kidder, and William Krucks. To those
names, let us now add to the list of another of the Zenith "alumni"--patent
attorney Raiford "Ray" Blackstone, Jr., who tells of his career with Zenith--
 |
| Raiford Blackstone, Jr. |
"Zenith was
very helpful and important for my career in patent law. I attended the
University of Cincinnati ("UC"), College of Engineering, in the early
1960's, receiving the BSEE degree
in 1965. I attended UC on a "Co-op" (work/study) basis.
One of my co-op employers was Motorola, and I worked in their consumer
electronics engineering department in Franklin Park. I was
impressed by their buying a Zenith color TV whenever a new model went on
the market. They would examine it very carefully, and take copious notes.
"During my senior year at UC, I received an offer for a full-time engineering position in Motorola's color TV department. I also received a much better one from Zenith! Not only was it from the leader in color TV at that time, but it also offered a 25% higher salary! So I accepted it.
"When I first started at Zenith, I learned that I was hired to fill the color TV engineering position vacated by Gene Cummings when he transferred to Zenith's Patent Law department. About a year later, Jerry Hosier left Zenith's Patent Law department to join a prominent patent law firm in the "Loop." With Gene's strong encouragement, I applied for the position vacated by Hosier. Fortunately, I was accepted and Zenith thereby changed my career for life. Eventually--with Hosier's strong encouragement--I joined a prominent patent law firm in the Loop, and enjoyed a very interesting and successful, career in patent law.
"Thus Zenith,
and two of its employees--Gene Cummings and Jerry Hosier-- were very positively
influential in my career.” -- Raiford Blackstone, Jr.
* * * * * * *
Now we go on to
the story of the revolutionary FTM--flat
tension mask television picture tube—
While
working in the Zenith Department, I (the author of this blog) had written some
of the patent applications for the FTM project, but had a view of only a small
part of the total. So (years later!) I queried Charles “Chuck” Prazak whom I
knew had been active in the project, to
tell more about it. Here is his email
response--
|
12:12 PM
|
|||
|
||||
“This [the FTM] was a major project started by Kaz Palac who
worked at the CRT Research department in Glenview.
Many of the original
engineers on the project have passed on to meet their creators.
Among the living who would remember the details and history are myself, Howard Lange, John Jarosz, and Norm Gioia. Konrad Schieke developed the monitor.
It was so long ago,
that I am having trouble remembering all of the names involved.
I could write a
book about the program myself, which would take quite a long time.
The goal of the project was to economically
produce a perfectly flat- faced, high-resolution color CRT display
monitor, with a non-glare screen. We succeeded with first, a 14- inch diagonal 640x480 pixel
display computer monitor and later, with
a 16- inch 1024x768 pixel monitor.
We also successfully developed a 20-
inch display produced with an interchangeable shadow mask process. Revolutionary
developments in CRT glass manufacture (e.g. the use of float glass for the
face-plate), and CRT processing were required, and most were patented.
I still have working 14- inch monitor at my summer home and a non-working 16-inch monitor in my home work
shop.
I have copied this reply to Howard and John. They
might have more to add.
Good Luck!
--Chuck Prazak
Prazak also
notes that the federal government was
interested in the FTM tube, and that Zenith received grants from DARPA—the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency for development of a monitor tube. As a
result, Zenith built a 20-inch monitor for DARPA.
(DARPA
was the agency created when the
Russian “Sputnik” took to the heavens, and the U.S. decided that we had better “get with it” in
developing advanced space projects. It is a fascinating organization now interested
especially in promoting robotics.)
SO!-- the goal was for Zenith to
develop a superior television picture tube, one with a perfectly flat distortion-free faceplate,
and of course, a greatly improved color picture. The development was at first intended for
computer monitors, but it was planned to make it 27-inch tube size for the best-selling
27- inch picture tube set, and in all of the larger sets.
Such was the intention, and let’s see how it
all came out. If it came out well, it just might save Zenith, for Zenith was
struggling, and needed a major breakthrough in the technology. And if it succeeded, sales of Zenith
television sets would be far ahead of the competition
Here is the
result--
--the 14Vflat tension mask (FTM)
high-resolution color
computer picture tube--
Features of the 14V Flat Tension Mask FTM
High-Resolution Color Monitor Tube
·
Brightest Color CRT in its category
·
Up to 40 percent higher performance efficiency
·
More than three times the power-handling
capacity
·
Anti-glare coating of glass enables low specular reflectivity and low
diffused reflectivity
·
Planar (“flat”) screen geometry assures optimum
convergence
A flat tube face eliminates spherical mirror
effect, which reduces quantity and intensity of unwanted reflective images.
In summary, CRT offers up to 80 percent greater brightness
and 70 percent greater contrast , and picture images that are sharper and with
greater detail. A bonus is a reduction
of reflections.
The components of the faceplate assembly are positioned very close together, as
indicated above, and the mask is pulled to a
very high tension to eliminate
movement of the mask under beam bombardment. The result?--registration of the mask holes
with the respective color phosphors is maintained, ensuring color purity.
A completely flat faceplate
and one without any aberrations was required. This goal
was accomplished by utilizing float glass, which
is made by floating molten glass on a
bath of molten tin. To resist the pressure of the atmosphere, the panel has to be relatively thick. The glass is also infused with lead to
shield the viewer from the x-rays produced by the electron beams. Further, because the additional brightness of
the image achieved, an extra-dark screen glass can be used, which absorbs
ambient light, and increases image contrast.
Now
let’s see the results--
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the
performance of two television displays, with the greatly improved FTM image
display on the left, and on the right, the display of a standard television. The image on the left display is undistorted
and brighter, the blacks are denser, and there is no “glare” from reflections
of ambient light. The picture on the right displays all the faults corrected in
the left display: a distorted image obscured by ambient light
reflections, and in general, a “washed out” image with little detail.
As noted previously, Zenith
planned to “scale up” the FTM tube for use in the best-selling 27-inch
television set—
--and to adapt the
FTM tube to Zenith’s complete line of
monitors and television sets. Zenith
pinned all of its hopes on such an adaptation, for it was in sore need of a
product that was far better than that offered by the competition! And here it was!
* * * * * * *
Now let’s pause in the story of
the FTM tube to pay a brief tribute to the Zenith engineers
who created this remarkable color monitor. (Such tributes have been customary
throughout this weblog!)
Chuck Prazak was one of the engineers, of course, and Kaz
Palac for the initial concept; Wayne Chiodi and Norm Gioia for project management; Konrad
Schieke for developing the monitor; and Howard Lange, and John Jarosz.
Those who created the FTM tube were members of the
engineering staff of the Rauland Picture Tube
Plant in Melrose Park, Illinois. When the Plant was closed, they and
other employees of Rauland, formed a
club known as The Raulanders. The Raulanders meet monthly. Here is a photo of those who attended the
October meeting:
Those in attendance were (starting at the left, and around to the
right)— Ed Dvorsky, Tom Remec, Lowell Cordingly, Jerry
Mclean, Tom Holmes, Ray Capek, Lou Jean Simmons , Chuck
Prazak, and Arlyne Dvorsky.
The next meeting of The Raulanders will be held at Russell’s Barbecue in Elmwood Park on December 3. Why not drop by! The Raulanders meet at one o’clock. You will meet some fascinating people, and enjoy the best barbecue ever!
Zenith’s Rauland picture tube plant in Melrose Park that made the FTM was an engineering and mass-production wonder. In addition to its superlative engineering staff, thousands of American workers operated in four shifts during a 24-hour period manufacturing three-and-a half million picture tubes a year. I recall walking down the main corridor in the factory they called “Broadway.” On one side you could see the pick-and-place machine operating around the clock, depositing on and removing faceplates on funnels, and all over the plant, those thousands of workers processing picture tubes. It was a very busy place.
* * * * * * * *
As noted previously, Zenith planned to “scale up”
its superior television tube for use in all of its consumer product sets such
as in the best-selling 27-inch model.
It would have been a winner as it would have far outperformed the
competition. But fate intervened in that a long-sought technological advance
popularly called the
“picture-on-the-wall television” appeared in the market place. It is the
“television panel display” often termed “flat panel television,”--a misnomer,
because a panel is by definition, flat.
There are two basic types
of panel television : liquid crystal and
fluorescent (and many others!) , but let’s not go into that except to state
that Zenith Bob Adler’s group had an active research program in fluorescent
panels, but it was one of the “babies
thrown out with the bath water” when the Zenith research department was
dumped. So Zenith nothing to offer in
panel displays.
It was no contest! Panel TV is so far
superior to the television picture tube that panel screens captured the market
very quickly. Within four years, the CRT
picture tube had virtually disappeared. So Zenith’s new flat panel picture tube
had no chance to succeed.
Let us count the ways for
the total acceptance of the panel television
display by the consumer:
1. A CRT
television set requires that a box be built around that big, fragile tube
to protect it (and the customer) from the high voltage of the tube, and to
contain the tube and its circuit in case of fire. Panels don’t need a box.
2. The cost were lower because
it was not necessary to pay for the expensive furniture that comprised the
“box.”
3. Panels are not subject to
the nemesis of the picture tube—atmospheric pressure. Since there are no electron beams, there is
no need for a high vacuum.
4. The CRT picture tube was
limited as to the width of the image that could show. The panel television provides for
a wide landscape view.
5. The panel television
display was just that –a panel that
could be hung on a wall, or be free-standing on a small pedestal, as most of them are. And it can be placed on a low table at eye
level, unlike the standard television
set in its box that sits on the floor.
6. The much lighter weight and shape of the panel
made it much less expensive to ship to the
marketplace, and from there to the customer.
7. The panel operates at relatively low voltage, unlike the picture
tube which required dangerous voltages in the 30,000 volt range and above to
operate.
8. A low operating voltage made it far less vulnerable to catching
fire and much safer for technicians to repair.
9.
Simplification of circuitry because of a low voltage,
and most of all-
10. Women loved panel
television!--no big clumsy cabinet to clutter up the living room, and the panel could be fitted into
almost any décor!
This last feature was probably
the coupe d’grace to the old picture
tube and its humungous box!
In comparison to the CRT picture tube image, here is a 49-inch television panel (diagonal measure) made by LG Electronics. Its width is 65 inches.
When the cathode ray television tube picture image is compared to this beauty, there is simply no contest.
And of course, there are the computer monitor panels—
--and many other type such as the touch-screen monitor used in cash registers, surveillance panels , Ipads, Galazy tablets, Amazon’s Fire tablets, and not the least, the billions of touch pad monitors used in the cell phones. The CRT television tube with its big back end could not have been used for any of these.
The disappearance from the market place of television sets with the cathode ray picture tube was so complete that it is impossible to find one today, except perhaps in a museum.
So Zenith's FTM cathode ray tube
for which there were such bright hopes became a non-starter, and Zenith was
left with “no skin in the game”--that is,
no panel television to offer its
customers.
And worse, Zenith no longer
had the money to “buy into” the technology, as it had done with the purchase of
a Heath computer system. For Zenith was going
bankrupt.
Let us not go into the sad
details of Zenith’s bankruptcy, and its attempts to reorganize.
And so we come to the end of Zenith as we knew it—knew it as Zenith Radio Corporation, and later, as Zenith Electronics Corporation.
Even the name “Zenith” has no special significance now other than its
dictionary definition as the ultimate (which our Zenith was!).
The Millennials
have appeared—a new generation. They do not know the name Zenith, except
perhaps for a dim memory that their grandparents had a Zenith.
Let’s not dwell on the
sad facts of Zenith bankruptcy and its attempts to reorganize. Let’s say the Zenith that we all knew puts us in mind of King Arthur’s Camelot—the shining city on
the hill.
Do not forget
That once there as a spot,
For one brief, shining
moment,
That was known as
Camelot.*
Zenith had its brief shining moment but, Alas--for such short a time!
And with that, it is time
to bid farewell to my readers and say for one last time
MIZPAH!
Ralph Clarke
*The verse is from the
musical Camelot, by Lerner and Lowe. Quoted from Wikipedia.
But wait! Don’t go
away yet! Don’t forget that this Weblog will be recreated in the form of a book with the title—
Zenith! The
Rise and Fall of a Great American Company
You, faithful readers,
will be sure to know of its publication, and where and how to get a copy!
Now, Farewell again! (For a time . . .)
FN 32B
rough
Location: desktop
POST 32B
The time has indeed come--
--to end the story of Zenith told by this weblog. This will be the last of the Posts, and from now on it will be excelsior! --on to finish the forthcoming Zenith book. The title will be--
Zenith:
The Rise and Fall of a Great American Company.
Also, let's now tell of the last of Zenith's engineering triumphs: the making of the finest Zenith computer color monitor ever created, one with a the flat tension mask and a flat face-plate!
But
before telling that happy/sad story, let's first pay tribute to another
of Zenith's "products,"--those employees those whose careers were
fostered and promoted by their employment by Zenith. In the prior Post,
we listed Eugene Cummings, Norman Kidder, and William Krucks. To those
names, let us now add to the list of another of the Zenith "alumni"--patent
attorney Raiford "Ray" Blackstone, Jr., who tells of his career with Zenith--
"Zenith was
very helpful and important for my career in patent law. I attended the
University of Cincinnati ("UC"), College of Engineering, in the early
1960's -- receiving the BSEE degree
in 1965. I attended UC on a "Co-op" (work/study) basis.
One of my co-op employers was Motorola, and I worked in their consumer
electronics engineering department in Franklin Park. I was
impressed by their buying a Zenith color TV whenever a new model went on
the market. They would examine it very carefully, and take copious notes.
"During my
senior year at UC, I received an offer for a full-time engineering position in
Motorola's color TV department. I also received a much better one from
Zenith! Not only was it from the leader in color TV at that time,
but it also offered a 25% higher salary! So I accepted it.
"When I first started at Zenith, I learned that I was hired to fill the color TV engineering position vacated by Gene Cummings when he transferred to Zenith's Patent Law department. About a year later, Jerry Hosier left Zenith's Patent Law department to join a prominent patent law firm in the "Loop". With Gene's strong encouragement, I applied for the position vacated by Hosier. Fortunately, I was accepted and Zenith thereby changed my career for life. Eventually--with Hosier's strong encouragement--I joined a prominent patent law firm in the Loop, and enjoyed a very interesting, and successful, career in patent law.
"Thus Zenith,
and two of its employees--Gene Cummings and Jerry Hosier-- were very positively
influential in my career.” -- Raiford Blackstone, Jr.
* * * * * * *
Now we go on to
the story of the revolutionary FTM--flat
tension mask television picture tube—
While
working in the Zenith Department, I (the author of this blog) had written some
of the patent applications for the FTM project, but had a view of only a small
part of the total. So (years later!) I queried Charles “Chuck” Prazak whom I
knew had been active in the project, to
tell more about it. Here is his email
response--
|
12:12 PM (22 hours ago)
|
|||
|
||||
“This [the FTM] was a major project started by Kaz Palac who
worked at the CRT Research department in Glenview.
Many of the original
engineers on the project have passed on to meet their creators.
Among the living
who would remember the details and history are myself, Howard Lange, John
Jarosz, and Norm Gioia. Konrad Schieke developed the
monitor. There should be plenty of documentation in the patents.
It was so long ago,
that I am having trouble remembering all of the names involved.
I could write a
book about the program myself, which would take quite a long time.
The goal of the project was to economically
produce a perfectly flat- faced, high-resolution color CRT display
monitor, with a non-glare screen. We succeeded with first, a 14- inch diagonal 640x480 pixel
display computer monitor and later, with
a 16- inch 1024x768 pixel monitor.
We also successfully developed a 20-
inch display produced with an interchangeable shadow mask process. Revolutionary
developments in CRT glass manufacture (e.g. the use of float glass for the
face-plate), and CRT processing were required, and most were patented.
I still have working 14- inch monitor at my summer home and a non-working 16-inch monitor in my home work
shop.
I have copied this reply to Howard and John. They
might have more to add.
Good Luck!
--Chuck Prazak
Prazak also
notes that the federal government was
interested in the FTM tube, and that Zenith received grants from DARPA—the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency for development of a monitor tube. As a
result, Zenith built a 20-inch monitor for DARPA.
(DARPA
was the agency created when the
Russian “Sputnik” took to the heavens, and the U.S. decided that we had better “get with it” in
developing advanced space projects. It is a fascinating organization now interested
especially in promoting robotics.)
SO!-- the goal was for Zenith to
develop a superior television picture tube, one with a perfectly flat distortion-free faceplate,
and of course, a greatly improved color picture. The development was at first intended for
computer monitors, but it was planned to make it 27-inch tube size for the best-selling
27- inch picture tube set, and in all of the larger sets.
Such was the intention, and let’s see how it
all came out. If it came out well, it just might save Zenith, for Zenith was
struggling, and needed a major breakthrough in the technology. And if it succeeded, sales of Zenith
television sets would be far ahead of the competition
Here is the
result--
--the 14Vflat tension mask (FTM)
high-resolution color
computer picture tube--
Features of the 14V Flat Tension Mask FTM
High-Resolution Color Monitor Tube
·
Brightest Color CRT in its category
·
Up to 40 percent higher performance efficiency
·
More than three times the power-handling
capacity
·
Anti-glare coating of glass enables low specular reflectivity and low
diffused reflectivity
·
Planar (“flat”) screen geometry assures optimum
convergence
·
A flat tube face eliminates spherical mirror
effect, which reduces quantity and intensity of unwanted reflective images.
In summary, CRT offers up to 80 percent greater brightness
and 70 percent greater contrast , and picture images that are sharper and with
greater detail. A bonus is a reduction
of reflections.
The components of the faceplate assembly are positioned very close together, as
indicated above, and the mask is pulled to a
very high tension to eliminate
movement of the mask under beam bombardment. The result?--registration of the mask holes
with the respective color phosphors is maintained, ensuring color purity.
A completely flat faceplate
and one without any aberrations was required. This goal
was accomplished by utilizing float glass, which
is made by floating molten glass on a
bath of molten tin. To resist the pressure of the atmosphere, the panel has to be relatively thick. The glass is also infused with lead to
shield the viewer from the x-rays produced by the electron beams. Further, because the additional brightness of
the image achieved, an extra-dark screen glass can be used, which absorbs
ambient light, and increases image contrast.
Now
let’s see the results--
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the
performance of two television displays, with the greatly improved FTM image
display on the left, and on the right, a display of a standard television. The image on the left display is undistorted
and brighter, the blacks are denser, and there is no “glare” from reflections
of ambient light. The picture on the right displays all the faults corrected in
the left display: a distorted image obscured by ambient light
reflections, and in general, a “washed out” image with little detail.
As noted previously, Zenith
planned to “scale up” the FTM tube for use in the best-selling 27-inch
television set—
--and to adapt the
FTM tube to Zenith’s complete line of
monitors and television sets. Zenith
pinned all of its hopes on such an adaptation, for it was in sore need of a
product that was far better than that offered by the competition!
* * * * * * *
Now let’s pause in the story of
the FTM tube to pay a brief tribute to the Zenith engineers
who created this remarkable color monitor. (Such tributes have been customary
throughout this weblog!)
Chuck Prazak was one of the engineers, of course, and Kaz
Palac for the initial concept; Wayne Chiodi for project management; Konrad
Schieke for developing the monitor; and Howard Lange, John Jarosz, and Normal
Gioia,
Those who created the FTM tube were members of the
engineering staff of the Rauland Picture Tube
Plant in Melrose Park, Illinois. When the Plant was closed, they and
other employees of Rauland, formed a
club known as The Raulanders. The Raulanders meet monthly. Here is a photo of those who attended the
October meeting:
Those in attendance were (starting at the left, and around to the
right)— Ed Dvorsky, Tom Remec, Lowell Cordingly, Jerry
Mclean, Tom Holmes, Ray Capek, Lou Jean Simmons , Chuck
Prazak, and Arlyne Dvorsky. (Chuck Prazak is seen
at the upper right corner of the photo!)
The next meeting of The Raulanders will
be held at Russell’s Barbecue in Elmwood
Park on December 3. Why not drop by! The Raulanders meet at one o’clock. You will
meet some fascinating people, and enjoy the best barbecue ever!
Zenith’s Rauland picture tube plant in
Melrose Park that made the FTM was a
wonder. In addition to its superlative
engineering staff, thousands of American workers operated in four shifts during
a 24-hour period manufacturing
three-and-a half million picture tubes a year. I recall walking down the
main corridor in the factory they called “Broadway.” On one side you could see the pick-and-place
machine operating around the clock, depositing on and removing faceplates on
funnels, and all over the plant side, those
thousands of workers processing picture tubes.
It was a very busy place.
* * * * * * * *
As noted previously, Zenith planned to “scale up”
its superior television tube for use in all of its consumer product sets such
as in the best-selling 27-inch model.
It would have been a winner as it would have far outperformed the
competition. But fate intervened in that a long-sought technological advance
popularly called the
“picture-on-the-wall television” appeared in the market place. It was the
“television panel display” often termed “flat panel television,”--a misnomer,
because a panel is by definition, flat.
There are two basic types
of panel television : liquid crystal and
fluorescent (and many others!) , but let’s not go into that except to state
that Zenith Bob Adler’s group had an active research program in fluorescent
panels, but it was one of the “babies
thrown out with the bath water” when the Zenith research department was
dumped. So Zenith nothing to offer in
panel displays.
It was no contest! Panel TV is so far
superior to the television picture tube that panel screens captured the market
very quickly. Within four years, the CRT
picture tube had virtually disappeared. So Zenith’s new flat panel picture tube
had no chance to succeed.
Let us count the way for
the total acceptance of the panel television
display by the consumer:
1. A CRT
television set requires that a box be built around that big, fragile tube
to protect it (and the customer) from the high voltage of the tube, and to
contain the tube and its circuit in case of fire. Panels don’t need a box.
2. The cost were lower because
it was not necessary to pay for the expensive furniture that comprised the
“box.”
3. Panels are not subject to
the nemesis of the picture tube—atmospheric pressure. Since there are no electron beams, there is
no need for a high vacuum.
4. The CRT picture tube was
limited as to the width of the image that could show. The panel television provides for
a landscape view.
5. The panel television
display was just that –a panel that
could be hung on a wall, or be free-standing on a small pedestal, as most of them are. And it can be located at eye
level, unlike the standard television
set in its box that sits on the floor.
6. The much lighter weight and shape of the panel
made it much less expensive to ship to the
marketplace, and from there to the customer.
7. The panel operates at relatively low voltage, unlike the picture
tube which required dangerous voltages in the 30,000 volt range and above to
operate.
8. A low operating voltage made it far less vulnerable to catching
fire and much safer for technicians to repair.
9.
Simplification of circuitry because of a low voltage,
and most of all-
10. Women loved panel
television!--no big clumsy cabinet to clutter up the living room, and it could be fitted into
almost any décor!
This last feature was probably
the coupe d’grace to the old picture
tube and its humungous box!
In comparison to the CRT
picture tube image, here is a 49-inch
television panel (diagonal measure) made by LG Electronics. Its width is 65 inches.
When the cathode ray television tube picture image is compared to this beauty, there I simply no contest.
And of course, there are the computer monitor panels—
--and many other type such as the touch-screen
monitor used in cash registers, surveillance panels , Ipads, Galazy tablets,
Amazon’s Fire tablets, and not the least, the billions of touch pad monitors
used in the cell phones. The CRT television
tube with its big back end could not have been used for any of these.
The disappearance
from the market place of television sets with the cathode ray picture
tube was so complete that it is impossible to find one today, except perhaps in a museum.
So the FTM cathode ray tube
for which there were such bright hopes became a non-starter, and Zenith was
left with “no skin in the game”--that is,
no panel television to offer its
customers.
And worse, Zenith no longer
had the money to “buy into” the technology, as it had done with the purchase of
a Heath computer system. For Zenith was going
bankrupt.
Let us not go into the sad
details of Zenith’s bankruptcy, and its attempts to reorganize.
And so we come to the end of Zenith as we knew it—knew it as Zenith Radio Corporation, and later, as Zenith Electronics Corporation.
Even the name “Zenith” has no special significance now other than its
dictionary definition as the ultimate (which it was!).
The Millennia’s
have appeared—a new generation. They do not know the name Zenith, except
perhaps for a dim memory that their grandparents had a Zenith.
So let’s not dwell on the
sad facts of Zenith bankruptcy and its attempts to reorganize. Let’s say the Zenith that we all knew was like King Arthur’s Camelot—the shining city on
the hill.
Do not forget
That once there as a spot,
For one brief, shining
moment,
That was known as
Camelot.*
And with that, it is time
to bid farewell to my readers and say for one last time—
MIZPAH!
Ralph Clarke
*The verse is from the
musical Camelot, by Lerner and Lowe. Quoted from Wikipedia.
But wait! Don’t go
away yet! Don’t forget that this Weblog will be recreated in the form of a book with the title—
Zenith! The
Rise and Fall of a Great American Company
You, faithful readers,
will be sure to know of its publication, and where and how to get a copy!
Now, Farewell again! (For a time . . .)
