Got A Quarter? Then Settle Into Your “TV Chair!”
Sometimes I miss the “good old days”, when you could pass your “waiting” time at an airport, train or bus station by watching a coin-operated TV!
Talk about an invention “of its time!”
Most airports had a section of “TV chairs” that featured coin-operated televisions which would provide 30 minutes of local programming for 25 cents.
That’s right, imagine settling in to enjoy this!
Wow! A simpler time to be sure…but in a time before cable, video games, iPhones and iPads, this was a way to kill time when traveling!
It reminds me of an earlier era – like when I was growing up and this guy was selling clams:
Ivar Haglund made a fortune in Seattle, Washington by “owning” the clam business – and that meant doing some wacky stunts like this:
That’s right – this was real!
Click here to find out about some of his most outrageous stunts!
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Categories: Art, Books / Media, Funny Pictures, Memoirs, Pop Culture, Technology, Travel, Travel Adventures, TV Show
johnrieber 
They had several PAYG TV chairs in the departure lounge at Glasgow Airport in the mid 1970s.
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When I was a young kid I flew one time and saw them…hilarious!
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I recall seeing these at Speke Airport (Liverpool UK) in the late 60s or early 70s. In those days, the cheaper holidays to Europe had flights taking off late at night. On one such trip, on a Saturday night just prior to departure, I managed to watch some of Match of the Day!
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when I was a kid in 1977 I used to go to jfk with my parents to see my brother arriving here by plane.
I used to muse that tv chair to watch LOST IN SPACE. this tv chair was seen on MEN OD HONOR
and BATTLE OF THE SEXES.
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Thanks for sharing that! I have memories of seeing these when I was a little a kid…of their time to be sure!
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Add me to the list who have never seen these.
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I never saw these. What a great idea and innovation at the time. Today, I would be a bigger fan of reading a book.
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Never saw these!
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John, we had ‘coin-operated’ televisions at home! They were so expensive to buy in the late 1950s, the retailers supplied them with a coin box that took sixpences. It was like a clock-timer, and the sixpence lasted about an hour. Someone from the shop would come around weekly, to collect the cash from the box. Before settling down to a night of TV, my parents would pump half a dozen sixpences into the box at the back, and turn the key to buy that time. We didn’t have a ‘non-pay’ TV until 1960! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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WOW! Thanks for sharing that Pete! Have a great weekend!
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I don’t believe we ever had these TV chairs here in South Africa, John. They are rather a clever idea.
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They were certainly “of their time” Robbie! Thanks for reading!
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I had no idea!
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A “simpler time” to be sure!
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Wow! Never heard of these!
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