THE BIG REVEAL! Why Norelco instead of Phillips?
THE BIG REVEAL! Why Norelco instead of Phillips?
Many have wondered and asked this question, so here is the answer. From some point in the early 1940s, Philco was legally able to prevent Philips from using the name “Philips” on any products marketed in the USA, because the two names were judged to sound similar and that it may cause litigation. As a result, Philips instead used the name Norelco, an acronym for “North American Philips [electrical] Company.”
When Philips bought Philco in 1981, Philips was able to freely use the Philips name for all of their US products, but they chose to retain the Norelco name for personal care appliances, and the Magnavox name for economy-priced consumer electronics.
One reason to keep the Norelco name was all the money the spent on Christmas advertising. Remember the old ‘Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer’ stop action special that still runs? They all were brought to you by Norelco. Below is on of the spots from the early 60s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVk6JKDa3zI
By the way, the camera is a PC 72.
The Norelco Ad in Broadcasting Magazine called the PC-70 “the Seventy Thousand Dollar Bargain”
I wasn’t privvy to the theft of the cameras, but when he stole the other equipment, 2 quad VTRs, some lighting equipment and some other misc stuff, he had most of the staff travel to a station that had gone off the air months before, in a stripped down Greyhound bus that we used as a remote unit. He told us he had bought the station, and we were going to use the equipment from the “new” station until he got FCC approval to put it back on the air. He had a key so we had no reason to doubt him. A few weeks later I was interviewed by the FBI, and that is when I found out the equipment had been stolen. Shortly after he was arrested along with the sales manager who had helped plan the thefts. Yeah, pretty weird stuff, I know.
ahh explains the Phillips DP70 name change in the USA, always wondered why that was.
TK-42s ( 1 BIG IO and 3 LITTLE vidicons) generated lots of noise to go with the video. But inquiring minds want to know, just how do you steal 2 PC-70’s, CCU’s, cable, etc? Weighed a ton!
The first time I saw Norelco’s was at a small station back in the early 70’s I worked for as a young director. The station was an independent with no money. We had 3 or 4 TK-42s, but unfortunately they had to pull parts from the other cameras to make one of them work properly. So, after much complaining to the GM, I was surprised and thrilled to come to work one day and see 2 Norelcos in the studio. Unfortunately, I found out later that the GM had stolen the cameras from another station in another state. He also stole other equipment from a different station. Shortly after that the station shut down after the GM was sent to prison. It was an interesting introduction to the TV industry.
Why of the DP-70 and the AA-2..
The PC-70 was what I cut my camera shader teeth on starting in the mid-70s. Definitely a classic.
PC-72 was not one of my favorites
Northern Electric was actually Canadian Western Electric. There is one product however that always bore the Phillips Emblem starting in 1954 and that was the famous Phillips DP-70 seventy millimeter film projector. The projector was designed and built to run Todd-AO movies and is the only film projector to ever win an Oscar. Hundreds of these built like a tank projectors survived until very recently when most were pulled out and replaced with D-Cinema. There are still a few in important theaters that will live on for ever…
I always thought Norelco was short for Northern Electric Company.
…what was the difference between the PC 60, the PC 70 ? ..updated electronics ? ..the way the top chassis handles are ? .. @ Bobby, did I ever send you my 1968 photos of our Battle Of Flowers parade where WOAI-TV borrowed two Norelcos from Austin, to televise the parades for the first time IN COLOR ? ? ..if you want them again, let me know !
The Norelco Christmas commercials had Santa riding their triple-head electric shaver, with the same stop-motion technology as on “Rudolph”. And you got to love how those commercials ended with “Noëlco–even our name says ‘Merry Christmas’.”