philco's mystery control

Back to the future: 1939 wireless remote control!

If you're under 40, you might think TVs always had remotes. The early ones were called "clickers," "channel changers," or "selectors."

Sure, there were TV remotes as early as 1956, notably the Zenith Space Command, but remote-controlled TVs didn't really enter the mainstream until the 1970s.

It's true that there weren't many channels from which to choose at that time, but changing channels or volume without a remote was a matter of getting up from the sofa, walking over to the set, and turning big, clunky knobs on the TV.… Read more