The Official Vintage Curtis Mathes site by Glenn Waters
The Official Vintage Curtis Mathes site by Glenn Waters
Curtis Mathes, Vintage Electronics, Televisions, Stereos, Radios, VCRs, Camcorders, Mathes Coolers and Fans, Made in the USA. Design
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The fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin, and the missing Prototypes and Designs.
In the link below is the news footage featuring the aftermath of a major fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin.
The fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin, and the missing Prototypes and Designs.
In the link below is the news footage featuring the aftermath of a major fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin.
http://www.texasarchive.org/library/index.php?title=Mathes_Fire
Above is News footage featuring the aftermath of a major fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin. Flames continue to burn in gutted building while water sits in- and outside.
Exterior shot illustrates the Mathes company logo. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the Curtis Mathes Corporation manufactured televisions and had offices in multiple cities across Texas, Arkansas, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Up to one hundred designs and prototypes were destroyed in this fire. Some CM old timers think it was act of industrial sabotage by a Japanese electronics company trying to force Curtis Mathes into buying all their components from the Asian market, and stop Curtis Mathes from manufacturing their own components for their radios, stereos and televisions....
Only a few of these missing designs and prototypes had been shipped to the Curtis Mathes showrooms across the country before the fire. They are very rare and valuable these days.
No more beautiful CM stereos will be coming out of this door, or Mathes Cooler fans. All the records of the Mathes Cooler Fan Company were in this building. What a wealth of information went up in flames.
The monstrous amount of information and company records that were lost in this fire are unbelievable. The complete records of the Mathes Fan and Cooler company went up in flames.
Plus the new design records of countless stereos, radios, and televisions were lost in this historic fire that was swept under the pages of history. Was this the act of saboteur’s from Asia? We probably will never know the truth.
Flames continue to burn in gutted building while water sits in- and outside. The factory fire destroyed several new prototypes of the Curtis Mathes Company. Exterior shot in the above video illustrates the Mathes company logo.
Below is a photo of all that was left of the huge plant at the Austin Texas site of the Curtis Mathes Company.
Gordon Wilkison had the only remaining footage of the major fire at a Curtis Mathes Corporation factory in Austin. It looks like a huge cover-up to me since the media did not cover this fire and no investigation was ever made.
The four photos below are of Terry Anderson’s Missing Prototype #1712C … Burke Mathes said this design is what they call a pocket battleship console stereo, because of its smaller size, but huge and amazing sound.
Tragically only a very few made it out of the Austin Texas Research and Development Plant to the MATHES Showrooms before the strange and tragic fire that destroyed years of research and work.
These are almost priceless today, with hand wired chassis, and hand made in Texas speakers.
The all vacuum tube state of the art electronics are the best made in the world. It has the beautiful Danish Modern design and in in hand rubbed Walnut.Even the hand wired and made in the USA turntable is a masterpiece.
The two phots below are of Keith's beautiful Curtis Mathes Stereo, Missing Curtis Mathes prototypes from Austin TX fire.
Missing Curtis Mathes prototypes from Austin TX fire.
Below is Roberta's Beautiful Curtis Mathes, one of the missing designs from the Austin Texas fire.
The two photos below are of one of the very well made missing designs, she is an all made in Texas turntable made at the Austin, Texas, Curtis Mathes Plant before the fire.
After the fire the company no longer had the wonderful state of the art facilities to make wonderful vacuum tubes like the tubes below. 6 New Old Stock CM - 6LQ6 RADIO TUBES TYPE 6JE6C CURTIS MATHES
These photo below are of one of my favorite missing prototypes that made it to the showrooms before the fire; she is a 1961 beauty. She was found in 2010 at a thrift store.
This is just one of many models that are showing up from the Mathes fire in Austin Texas.
Below are TWO CURTIS MATHES "6AU6" made at the Austin Curtis Mathes Plant before the tragic fire destroyed the Labs and equipment. After this fire most of the vacuum tubes for Curtis Mathes products had to be imported from Japan.
Neil Hornick Father in Law passed away, and Neal and his wife found an old Curtis Mathes Hi Fi stereo with a radio and phonograph only in his house.
The only markings on it are on the front left where it says "Mathes", it also says Hi Fi (but the Hi Fi is in cursive).
The radio dials are on the right side and the phonograph is on the top left. This is one of the wonderful missing prototypes that are being found all across the nation.
A wonderful very rare model and it is kind of like finding a Pablo Picasso in an old attic.. Congregations.
The markings and turntable design are definitely a sign that this model was a product of the research and design plant at Austin before the tragic fire.
The photo above is of a Curtis Mathes TV Sweep Generator Model 100. This CM sweep generator was built at the old Austin Plant before the fire. The outputs are R.F. Sweep and Horizon Sweep, with adjustment knobs for the R.F Level and Center Freq. There is a switch for output amplitudes of 0, 6, and 24 db.