Glenn Waters:  

I worked for Curtis Mathes in 1986. I started with the company doing work in Console Design. At the time I was working for them they were not manufacturing some of their own products but rather were assembling purchased components into television and stereo consoles (i.e.,¿ large¿) entertainment centers. The picture tubes were from RCA, the chassis from NEC. We did design and manufacture our own cabinets; and installing the components in them was done at out plant in Athens, Texas. Some of the smaller sets were purchased form other manufacturers and relabeled. So to claim that the Curtis Mathes sets were made in the U.S. was somewhat tenuous, as they were merely assembled here in Texas. I think the company¿s profitability pretty much followed the ups and the downs of the Texas oil industry, and they spun into decline when the oil industry fell apart in the 1980¿s. They eventually closed most of the assembly plant; around 1991 at which time we could no longer make the claim about the sets being ¿made¿ in the U.S. At that point the company could no longer compete. Another of ...Expand for more