Other Telecruisers

The DuMont Telecruiser

Other Telecruisers:

As CNN Says, "Breaking News!"

Another Telecruiser has been found! This one is in Bogata, Colombia

Looking very similar to ours, this DuMont Telecruiser is evidently a 1954 model. There are some subtitle differences in the Flxible bus chassis, but you can certainly see the family resemblance!

As it was delivered in 1954

As it appears in Bogata, Colombia January 26, 2015

In plain view for all to see!

Parked outside the Channel 8 studios in Bogata, it serves as a monument to Television's past in Colombia. I'm told that there is no equipment or engine in the bus, but none-the-less, this is an important part of broadcasting history.

My thanks to Sandro Sanchez for the pictures!

Since our Telecruiser is "Model B, Serial Number 101," we'd always wondered how many of these things were made, and how early is this example. Was there a "Model A?" Did they start the serial numbers at #1?" Was there a number 102" If you have any information, we'd love to find out.

After visiting with Allen DuMont's daughter, we're pretty sure this was the first one built on a Flxible bus chassis. She related a story of, as a little girl, playing in an earlier version which was parked next to her father's lab. To the best of her recollection, it looked more like a school bus. There is some other evidence that corroborates that story.

Not too long ago, a friend sent us a copy of a 1949 DuMont Broadcast Television catalog. In it is a picture of a Telecruiser. It's not just any Telecruiser. The picture can be found on the Telecruiser Home Page. It is definitely the one we have, since it says "KBTV " on it, and the lettering is identical to what we have excavated as we removed many layers of paint. . I suspect that it is the first one produced.

DuMont did make several others though. Many were for use with their own stations. Some examples are shown below.